What's the STUPIDEST BUSINESS IDEA that actually ended up working? #reddit #storytime #sidehustle — Transcript

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1. 0:00What's the stupidest business idea that
2. 0:01actually ended up working? That was me
3. 0:03the summer I turned 16. I wanted money,
4. 0:05but nobody would hire a kid with no
5. 0:06experience and no car. So, I spent most
6. 0:08of June sitting on a bench outside the
7. 0:09bagel place on Main Street doing
8. 0:11nothing. And every Saturday, the same
9. 0:12thing happened. The line wrapped around
10. 0:14the corner, and the same people stood in
11. 0:15it for 40 minutes checking their phones,
12. 0:17looking miserable. One woman actually
13. 0:19said out loud, "I would pay someone
14. 0:20anything to not be doing this." So, that
15. 0:21night I told my mom, "What if I charge
16. 0:23people to wait in line for them?" She
17. 0:24laughed. My brother laughed harder. He
18. 0:26said, "Congratulations, you invented
19. 0:27standing." But, I was broke, so I
20. 0:29figured, "Why not?" a flyer that said,
21. 0:31"I'll wait in your line. $10 an hour,
22. 0:32minimum 1 hour." I taped it to the light
23. 0:34pole by the bagel place and posted it in
24. 0:36the neighborhood Facebook group. I fully
25. 0:37expected nobody to call. The next
26. 0:39morning I had four messages. My first
27. 0:40job was 8:00 a.m. Saturday. A guy named
28. 0:42Aaron texted me his order. I stood in
29. 0:44line for 35 minutes. He walked up at the
30. 0:46front, took his bagels, and handed me
31. 0:47$10 plus a $5 tip. It was the easiest
32. 0:50money I had ever made. I didn't even
33. 0:51have to talk to anybody. Then, he
34. 0:52mentioned me to a co-worker. That
35. 0:54co-worker had a wife who hated lines
36. 0:55even more than he did. She mentioned me
37. 0:57to two friends. Within 2 weeks, I had
38. 0:58nine people texting me every Saturday
39. 1:00morning. And then, I accidentally found
40. 1:02the real money. People started asking me
41. 1:03to do things while I was already
42. 1:04standing there. Can you just order for
43. 1:06me and drop it at my house? Can you hold
44. 1:07two spots? Can you grab my prescription
45. 1:09across the street while you're on that
46. 1:10side of town? So, I started offering a
47. 1:12flat $20 for wait and deliver. Almost
48. 1:14everybody took it. That was when things
49. 1:15got ridiculous. I stopped waiting on the
50. 1:17bagel place and started reading the
51. 1:18whole town like a map. The DMV opened at
52. 1:209:00, and the line started at 7:15. The
53. 1:22passport office had a 2-hour wait every
54. 1:24Monday. There was a taco truck that sold
55. 1:26out by noon, a shoe store that did drops
56. 1:28on the first of the month, and a clinic
57. 1:29that took the first 20 walk-ins of the
58. 1:30day and turned everyone else away. I
59. 1:32kept a notebook. Names, times, orders,
60. 1:34spot numbers, and how long each line
61. 1:35actually ran versus how long people
62. 1:37thought it ran. By July, I was making
63. 1:38$200 to $300 a week, almost all of it
64. 1:41before lunch. Then, the shoe store taped
65. 1:43a sign on the door. One customer per
66. 1:44spot, no line sitters. The manager
67. 1:46recognized me and told me that if he
68. 1:47caught me again, he would pull me out of
69. 1:48the line himself. I almost quit that
70. 1:50day. Instead, I called two friends,
71. 1:51handed them the same flyer, and had them
72. 1:53stand for my customers while I ran the
73. 1:54schedule and took a cut. He couldn't ban
74. 1:56a face he had never seen. Then, one
75. 1:57afternoon, a woman texted me from a
76. 1:59number I didn't know. She said, "Someone
77. 2:00gave me your number. How much do you
78. 2:02charge to hold a place for me?" I
79. 2:03assumed she meant bagels. She didn't.
80. 2:05Her mother had been on a waitlist for a
81. 2:06specialist for 7 months, and the only
82. 2:08other way in was a clinic that handed
83. 2:09out 15 same-day slots at 6:00 a.m. She
84. 2:12worked nights. She couldn't get her
85. 2:13mother there at dawn and make her stand
86. 2:14outside for 3 hours. She asked if I
87. 2:16could get in line at 3:00 a.m., hold the
88. 2:17spot, and hand it off when they arrived
89. 2:19at 5:45. I said yes before I understood
90. 2:21what 3:00 a.m. actually feels like. I
91. 2:23sat in a folding chair in a dark parking
92. 2:25lot with a blanket and a phone at 6%. I
93. 2:26was first. At 5:45, her mother walked
94. 2:29up, saw a teenager holding a chair with
95. 2:30her name on a sticky note, and started
96. 2:31crying. The daughter tried to hand me
97. 2:33$150. I told her the rate was $60. She
98. 2:36paid the $150 anyway, and then she told
99. 2:38everyone she knew. By August, I had 11
100. 2:39regulars, two friends working under me,
101. 2:41and a waiting list for Saturday
102. 2:42mornings. I finished the summer with
103. 2:44$2,040 in a savings account my mother
104. 2:46had to open for me because I was too
105. 2:47young to open one myself. And the
106. 2:48funniest part, my brother still calls it
107. 2:50my fake little standing job. Except last
108. 2:52month, he texted me from college asking
109. 2:54what I'd charge to hold his spot for
110. 2:55class registration. I quoted him $40. He
111. 2:57paid it.