how I went from minimum wage to $10M in 8 years

Today I'm going to talk about how I went from making minimum wage selling insurance and credit card processing to now owning a business called Augusta Lawn care that has 80 plus locations and a net worth well over $10 million. So first and foremost, let me kind of set the stage. I was working while I was going through school and I had mowing. I was mowing lawns on the side, and that's how I paint my way through college. But I didn't think I was going to actually be become a landscaper and build a big business around mowing. So what I was also doing is trying to learn and grow. And so I was also learning sales. So to do that, I sold insurance, and I also sold credit card processing. Now, the caveat to that is the fact that I started college when I was 13, and I would mow lawns with my brother on the weekend to make money. But then I would also work doing these other jobs, these side jobs. And I worked part time, 20, 30 hours a week, usually doing that because I also had to go to school. And I was doing pre med. And during this time, I learned a lot. I learned how to sell. I learned. I was here I was 14, 15, 16 years old, trying to sell people life insurance. Like, it was crazy. And there's actually certain financial products I could not sell. And I have to give it to the agent that was above me because I could not sell the product. Like, legally, I was not old enough. And so even up until the time I was 18 years old, I was kind of right. In between that stage of getting my MBA and really scaling up Augusta, I actually was still selling insurance. And so I still remember getting my first paycheck, though. And that was. I was getting paid $10 an hour. But then I worked like 78 hours that week. And I remember thinking, okay, I'm gonna make like 700, $800 plus some commissions. So I was gonna get like $900, $950. Now, it was my first time ever making a real paycheck because prior to that, I had always just mowed lawns and made money that way. And I'd make several thousand dollars a year. So this is my first paycheck. And. And I was expecting 8, $900, and I get my paycheck. It's like $550 or $600. And I was just. My mind was blown. Like, how did that happen? And I actually went to the agent I was working for. I was like, hey, what's wrong here? And they said, well, all these Deductions, you got federal tax and you got Medicare and Medicaid and all these other things. And I was like, no, I just lost a third of my paycheck to all these other deductions. I spent two weeks of my life, I made 500 bucks. And that's in addition, like working, going to school and mowing lawns and all this other stuff. And I was like, my goodness, I can make more mowing lawns in a day than I just spent for two weeks working selling insurance. And so maybe you're in that stage of your career now, working a minimum wage job, entry level position, and you're like, man, I want to get out of this. So I'm gonna go over the four steps that I had to go through to go from selling life insurance, auto insurance and home insurance and also selling credit card processing, which by the way is the worst sales job because you don't have anything different than anyone else beside price. It's literally the only differentiator because MasterCard, Visa, all the rest of it, you have to have a middleman called a credit card processor. And I'm going into restaurants, all these retail places and trying to sell them on processing when the only difference differentiator I have is price. And so I learned a lot. Like, I'm not going to lie, I learned a lot having to sell insurance and credit card processing, both of which are absolute commodities and very hard to differentiate yourself on. But what I learned in that stage is that it was not for me. I was not going to be able to be a employee for very long. I knew that I was too discontent because I had a taste of what being an entrepreneur or a small business owner was by having this lawn care business thing. That's what I decided at 18 years old. Because I decided, hey, I'm not going to medical school, I'm going to go with my MBA at night. I'm going to scale up this lawn care thing and make it big. And so what are the four stages I had to go through to come to the realization that I was not going to be able to be a frontline, entry level, minimum wage job for very long? Here's the four things. The first thing is, if you're going to, if you're in that stage, you've got to hate that stage. You've got to hate that stage that you are at financially, personally and professionally, you've got to hate it. And if you don't hate the job, if you don't hate the kind of wages that you're Making. If you don't hate the way that you can't communicate effectively, if you don't hate how unprofessional you are, you're never going to be able to get past stage one. If you enjoy it, if you're comfortable in that stage, if you're okay with that wage, if you're okay with not making more money, not becoming a better, more professional person, developing your career, developing your skills, you're never gonna get past stage one. And I mean, you have to hate it. I truly believe no progress happens in life without first hating the current position that you're in. So the step two, the stage two, is that you have to really completely decimate any dead space in your time, in your schedule, in your day, and completely dedicate it to learning and educating yourself in those areas of weakness. So whether it's learning about personal finances, whether it's learning about investing, whether it's about learning how to communicate effectively in public speaking, whether it is how to be professional and how to hire and manage people, whatever stage, whatever part of your business career you see as a weakness, you have to educate and learn in those areas. That does not mean you go to go get a business degree. I Learned more in 20 Audible books and a couple online courses that I've purchased than all of my MBA combined. And so what you gotta do is become a student of the things you want to learn. And what I mean by a student is not going to college. It means I'm going to diligently seek out the books, the Audible programs, the courses that I can learn from on my own time. When I'm driving in the bus, when I'm driving to school, when I'm driving to work, all the dead space that right now you aren't listening to anything, or worse yet, you're just listening to, like, the radio or some music. You've got to dedicate your time. That used to be dead space, decimate that dead space and replace it with learning and education. In those areas of weakness. The third stage is, this is the part people don't usually get to because they become impatient, is you gotta close your eyes for at least five years. What do I mean by that? Like, don't literally close your eyes. What I mean by that is don't get impatient, don't get distracted. Because a lot of people, because they get to stage two and they're trying to learn and grow, they're hearing all these ideas and they're learning about different ways to market and different ways, different business ideas and different Proposals and they're getting opportunities and they're seeing different industries and ways to do things and they get distracted away from the one thing they got started on. And for me, mowing lawns, I had to get focused on that and be patient with the fact that it was gonna take me years to build a million dollar business. It was gonna take years for me to achieve my goals and my dreams. And that was five years of just head down. I'm not gonna let other industries and other books I read influence. I'm gonna go, oh, do this business. I'm going to do online e commerce. Oh, I'm going to do crypto trading. I'm going to do day trading. Like, you've got to stay focused and you've got to close your eyes for at least five years. These steps are in sequence. First you're going to hate it, Hate the stage that you're at, hate the wages you're making, hate your skill level. Then you've got to decimate dead space and dedicate that to learning. And then you've got to close your eyes for five years and be patient and focused, laser like. Focus on the one thing you're doing, not all the other opportunities that come up, not all the other business plans that you have rolling around in your head. Stay focused, laser focused and don't get caught up in the shiny object syndrome. Leading me to the fourth stage of getting out of minimum wage. The thing that allowed me to go from minimum wage $10 an hour selling life insurance and auto insurance and rental insurance and credit card processing to now owning a very large business is figure out who you don't want to be like and then do the opposite of that. Now a lot of times people say, well, you should find mentors and you should find people that you look up to. I didn't really come from an entrepreneurial background. My family was not that way. I didn't have business leaders or entrepreneurs around me that I could look up to. And yes, you can look them up online and find people that you learn from. But what I actually found was really helpful is it's really easy for all of us to find people around us that we don't want to be like. A boss that you don't want to be like, another co worker that you don't want to be like someone else in your family, a family member you don't want to be like. Find those people and then just do the opposite of them. If your boss that you do not want to be like treated you a certain way do the opposite of that. This is easier to do than telling you to go find a mentor. Go find a millionaire or billionaire that wants to like go out to lunch with you. I don't have that. I do not have a mentor. I don't have anyone that looks over out for what I do or I meet up quarterly, nothing like that. I still don't to this day because I'm still in that stage of laser like focus and stage four, which is figuring out who I don't want to be like and then doing the opposite. This is an easier step than finding some millionaires willing to set their time aside. They're so valuable. Anyone that's worth having being a mentor is worth so much money you're not going to afford them at this stage. And guess what? There'll be a stage five down the road. But I'm still in stage number four, which is I don't have a mentor. I don't someone have, I'm looking at, hey, this is who I don't want to be like. I don't want to be like that business person. I don't want to be like that personality. I don't want to do that. I'm going to do the complete opposite. And that is how you go from minimum wage to multi millionaire in a matter of five to 10 years. But take laser light focus. Being sick and tired of being where you're at financially and in your current state of skillset, and then taking that hatred and putting it toward decimating dead space in your time and learning and educating, listening to audiobooks, listening to programs and being willing to learn and break the old habits you've had and the mentalities and the frameworks that you've been dealing with and perhaps been handed down through family generations and actually start to grow and develop yourself and then stay laser like focused on building that one thing, that one business. Don't give up and don't be attracted by 100 other different opportunities that will come your way. I'm Mike Andes, I'm the founder of Augusta Lawn Care. We have over 80 locations around North America. If you want more information to grow your business, check out mikeandies. Com.