Lazy Money Issue 23

Happy Sunday!

I finally figured out why my ex was obsessed with watching stupid people make stupid decisions on TV.

The Story

She was addicted to this show where strangers marry each other. Married at First Sight Australia. Most of them are divorced by episode five.

"Why do you watch this garbage?” I asked her once.

‘’Well at least I’m not Olivia who just threw her wedding dress in the pool because her TV husband yelled out his ex's name during sex’’, she said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

Aaaaaand there it was.

She made all the wrong decisions. I made one - dating her. But even I could see what she was doing.

Nobody watches reality TV for the reality. They watch it for the comparison. Think about it - millions of people tune in every week, relationships barely surviving on shared Netflix passwords and mutual exhaustion, but they feel like relationship experts compared to someone sobbing into a microphone about their husband's secret OnlyFans account.

Reality TV generates over $20 billion annually because people love feeling superior to strangers’ mistakes.

Once I saw it I couldn’t unsee it. 

Every gym has that one person everyone watches struggle on the treadmill. Every office has that coworker whose existence makes you feel like CEO material. Every friend group has that one guy whose dating life makes yours look stable.

They're not in our lives by accident.

They're billboards on the side of the road, designed to remind us that whatever it is you’re doing…it’s ok...you’re ok…

The entire self-help industry sells you the winners. But the truth is, people learn better from losers.

And now, there’s a way to make money off of them too…

How To Profit

Rent-A-Wreck (Human Edition)

Grifters, hacks and cringe weirdos. The motivation industrial complex makes me sick. 

Why not build a platform connecting high-achieving, anxious professionals with lovable disasters for "perspective sessions’’ ?

Think of it as reverse mentorship. Instead of learning from success, clients gain perspective from spectacular failures. Your "anti-mentors" get paid $50/hour to simply exist and share their stories.

That friend who's been "working on their screenplay" for 15 years? Premium anti-mentor material for procrastinators. Your delusional uncle who has been day trading for decades but has never made a profit? Gold tier for fear of failure people.

It's the only business where your hiring criteria is "must be a complete disaster." The worse they are, the more they're worth.

• The Loser Podcast Empire

The market for success is saturated. The market for strategic failure? Wide freakin open. 

Start a weekly podcast interviewing fascinatingly unsuccessful people.

Each guest shares their epic failures, questionable life choices, and bizarre misadventures. It’s reverse motivational content, strangely comforting and wildly entertaining, helping listeners regain appreciation for their own circumstances.

Scale it into a full fledged media company around this concept of underachievers and mediocrity, sell merch with fun slogans and anti motivational quotes ("Live. Laugh. Lower your expectations."), organize annual awards ceremony recognizing people for achieving new heights (or depths) in mediocrity.

• The Mediocrity Social Network

Remember when your mom said "don't compare yourself to others"? She was wrong.

Create an app where users anonymously share their most embarrassing and relatable failures, matched specifically to your personal anxieties. Worried about debt? Here's someone who remortgaged their house to invest in “FartCoin.” Anxious about public speaking? Meet 20 people who projectile vomited during their presentations.

Premium users receive personalized "disaster of the day" notifications and category-specific failures on demand. Call it FacePlant or Fumble.

Create a corporate version of this too, like a bizarro LinkedIn. Companies can subscribe to boost employee morale by regularly showing them worse workplaces. You monetize misery, they get reassurance.

The Ace Toolkit

Ace says: "Study the man in the gutter. He shows you exactly where not to step."

"Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton - Breaks down why we're obsessed with comparing ourselves to others. Spoiler: it's evolutionary and profitable.

Museum of Failure – A fascinating and hilarious archive of the world’s most notorious product flops.

Until next time,

Alex

Founder //LZY MNY CLB