My First $1,000 Profit Day! My Story and What I've Learned (47)
Hey STMers, can’t believe it’s been almost 8 months since I joined last May, feels like time has just flown by. These have been some of the most stressful but most rewarding months of my life and I can definitely say I would be nowhere near where I am without the help of the STM community. Advice and conversations I’ve had with people like drock, nyc, and machete have seriously paid for my membership 10x over. I love you guys.
I wanted to make this post to talk about a few things that really helped me get to this point and motivate others to get there too. It’s a long journey, but it’s definitely all worth it in the end, trust me.
Sorry if it’s a little long but there was a lot of stuff I wanted to touch on 
How I Got Here:
A little over a year ago now, I was forced to take a medical leave from dental school due to a herniated disc in my back. Little did I know at the time, that was only the beginning of my health troubles.
I spent the next 6 months laying in my bed, popping pain killers for most of the day depressed out of my mind. After seeing about 10 different doctors and having 4 different steroid injections I really started to lose hope. I hit rock bottom and it got the point where I thought I’d never have the opportunities I once had.
It was weird though, at that point I actually had this weird clarity about things. All the bullshit and parental influence went out the window and I knew for certain what I had to do with my life if I got better. I knew had to give my best shot at IM even if it took months or years to reach success. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't.
Then a few weeks later, by some miracle, I started to recover. And a few months after that I was almost back to 100%. So I started bootstrapping hard and saving all I could while working some crappy valet job downtown. I lived off Ramen and Mac N Cheese for a good few months and tried my best to only live off two meals a day.
It got pretty stressful at times, but the idea of making a living off something you’re passionate about adds a certain amount of contentedness to life and makes everything seem OK.
I think drock said it best in his success story when he mentioned you need a delusional amount of confidence to succeed in this game. Failure in the first few months is inevitable and you have to just keep on pushing forward to see improvement.
It doesn’t matter how much you think you know, or how fast you think you’re going to kill it, you’re going to hit some massive roadblocks in the beginning, that’s just life. The people who succeed in this industry aren’t the ones who are the smartest, or the ones who have the most money, but the ones that can just barrel through those roadblocks and learn from them along the way. No amount of money lost in IM is ever a loss as long as you learned something from it. You have to remember that.
Here are a few of the biggest gems that I learned along the way:
1. Goals are for losers, systems are for winners.
This was a quote from a book I saw mentioned on Charles Ngo’s blog that really stuck with me. It doesn’t literally mean that goals suck, but that goals are nothing if you don’t understand the system you used to get there. This is especially true in IM. Anybody can get lucky with their first $100 day, but you won’t really reach success long term until you have the system down that allows you to recreate it.
2. Comfort is the enemy of achievement.
In the beginning it’s very easy to get paralyzed by fear. After failing so many times in a row, your emotions will be telling you not to launch that new campaign or test that new placement. You’ll want to stick to spending and losing the same amount of money everyday because that’s “comfortable” for you. When that happens you have to give yourself a gut check and just keep pushing forward. If you look back on the end of a week and realized you haven’t really learned much or pushed yourself, something has to change.
3. Find what drives you and cling to it.
I think this is a common denominator for a lot of the success stories. You have to find that something that really motivates you, that something that makes you get up in the morning and keep going, and cling to it with everything you got it. If it’s not always in the back of your mind you’ll get swallowed up by doubt and fear so quickly and you might as well kiss any future success you thought you might have goodbye.
And that’s pretty much it. It turned out to be a lot longer than I thought but I hope some of you guys got something of value from it. To anyone still struggling out there in the adult world, keep on grinding and those big days are a lot closer than you think, I promise!
See you all at the meetup tomorrow, can’t wait!
-Rob K
Screenshot of the network I did the biggest revenue with -
Nice! Thanks for sharing...
Very motivating for 2014.
Keep going hard
Awesome man....scale that shit now 
Congrats man! And to think we were discussing POF tactics a few months ago haha. Killing it!
That's what's up dude. Cya tonight!
Congratulations on your success, man! I always happy to read stories like this, it keeps me on the path. Btw you do desktop adult or mobile adult?
congrats and keep up the good work!
Congrats bro welcome to the club 
Very inspiring mon. Its only the beginning Rob. Catch ya in Vegas!
Awesome progress man!! Those lessons definitely hit a personal level for us as well! You can just tell that you won't be a one-hit-wonder!
Definitely looking forward to the first 10k day post!
Very inspiring man, thank you for sharing!
Congratulations man! You deserved it.
Now let's hit those 2k and 5k days!!
Originally Posted by erikgyepes
Rob you're a boss. Congrats on the success man, keep killing it!
WOW Damn nice one bro!
Keep smashing, this is awesome you're a boss mate
This is really amazing and inspiring mate!! Congrats on your success!!
fuck yeah man! seen your progress from those old POF days haha.. didn't realise you were doing so well nowadays
keep it up
Congrats bro! Love seeing these posts.
awesomeee.... Love success stories.... keep it coming brotha..
Congrats man. That's exactly what I need to hear in my first couple months. Stop being scared/comfortable and keep jumping! Looking forward towards that next level. Keep plowing through!
Im late to the party but congrats bro.
Fuck yea man, your crushing it! Sucks I didn't get to catch up with you in Vegas. Oh well maybe in BKK. Sounds like I'm gonna be hitting you up for tips soon
Originally Posted by waltermitty
Originally Posted by clubdrock
Sucks I didn't get to catch up with you in Vegas. Oh well maybe in BKK. Sounds like I'm gonna be hitting you up for tips soon
Dude nice meeting you man! You were buzzing!!! Strike the iron while it's hot and use that motivation to crush it even more.
See you in Bangkok for your next big update !
Originally Posted by Mr Green
See you in Bangkok for your next big update
!See you in March!
This is gold here is man. Congrats to your success and I hope 2014 gets even better for you!
Originally Posted by egan
Congrats! Thank you for sharing your success story with us.
Awesome story man.. thanks for the motivation!
After joining STM today this is the first post which I have read and has been truly inspiring
Congratulations, mate! You're a real inspiration for people who haven't seen any profit yet. What would you say was the biggest factor that helped you to become successful?
I too
1. Was on medical career to I realize how much I hate hospitals so I quit that path... Early, thank god
2. Have back problems. We should start medically challenged mastermind XD
Congrats
Egans a true STM success story, living in the mountains of Chiang Mai Thailand digital nomad life acquired
I'm close with this guy, and he has the attributes for success. Positive, Work ethic strong, very friendly and open, networked/masterminded & puts steps forward everyday. HUNGER&DRIVE
Originally Posted by taewoo
Originally Posted by cmdeal
Probably bad computer posture. That and working out (i.e. squats) w/o proper education. *doh*
I also have discus hernia (L5-S1 7mm) and it sucks balls. Hard back pain isn't the only bad thing of that disease, but also the depression that comes with it. Laying in bed and not be able to do anything (even sit) can be a real mind fuck. For example, I can't sit for long b/c my back starts to hurt and I have those "tingling" in my foots that are 'telling' me that my nerve is being pressured so I have to go stretch etc.
I know this is off topic, but wanted to hear more how you guys deal with back pain and especially with discus hernia (of you who have it). I'm honestly thinking about buying a treadmill desk. Heard really good things about it and it's definitely better walking slowly for 6-10 hours a day than sitting. Or even 1h walking, 1 hour sitting combination is better than just sitting. This comes from a guy with health problems, so I suggest to all of you to sit less in front of computer and go for a short walk from time to time, stretch, go swim 2-3 times a week etc. No money can buy health back.
Anyway, congrats on your success OP!
I saw this treadmill desk on youtube i thought it was a joke. But your correct, i am 30 now..and i starting to feel my 10 years online ...taking on the back for sure. But i have a good chair thought
Yah. Better take actions sooner than later.
My life changed already when I started going to a city pool 2-3 times a week. Swimming is great once you pass that stage of the first 2-3 weeks. Same thing with the gym. At the beginning it sucks, but later you become addicted to it .
Sit lesser and grow a good habit of good sitting posture is the only way for the victims and those who wanna prevent a hernia injury.
It's the most painful thing I've experience in my whole life.. I started swimming, regular massages and occasional sitting in the hot tub really helps a lot.
Prevention is better than Cure!
http://lifehacker.com/5879536/how-si...-counteract-it
Awesome man.. Really inspiring. I am starting over again now. Just two months old to STM but I am lacking to take action. Lets see all these case studies help me to take actions
Hey Rob,
Great read! So nice to see peoples hard work pay off! I deal with so many affiliates every day who hit these " roadblocks" and the ones who can push through are the ones who end up doing well in the long run because as you mentioned its all a learning curve. This industry can teach you so many things and patience is one of them and every day you learn something new. Keep up the good work and looking forward to reading your 5k a day post!
congrats egan! definitely keep hitting the iron while its hot, and youve got a burst of confidence. Remember, campaigns are fleeting, and can die at any time, or be ripped, or an offer taken down, or an ad network policy changed, etc......so you really want to maximize your profits on a campaign while your swimming hard in it. Whether that means broadening your angles to capture more traffic, or new ad nets, or more placements, or more geographies, or whatever, dont get cozy on a 1k/'day campaign, when theres a very solid possibility you can scale it to 10k/day or more.
That's amazing, man! Keep on rocking!
You are so huge!
Grandeeeee
Great to see success stories like this. How are things now? I'd love to hear how you've progressed since!
Congratulations man. Really empowering to read about your success.
Originally Posted by Slash
This is the very first post I have read on STM...I'm really glad I stopped by here first.
This is a very inspiring!
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