Something truly amazing about 2020 is the many ways for anyone to build a business or lifestyle around a passion. It doesn’t matter if you enjoy writing, playing video games, or designing things with your hands or a computer; there is no shortage of opportunity.
Recently we got the opportunity to sit down with Adam Guild who happens to be a top Minecraft player that created a business empire out of his passion; playing video games.
Guild is only 20 years old but when he was 12 he found himself playing the uber addictive and popular game among Gen Z, Minecraft (acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014). He was putting hours and hours into playing the game, which if you aren’t familiar allows you as a player to basically create your own world within the game. Allowing players to use their imaginations and be creative.
Guild ended up building a private server community within Minecraft that had over 7 million users. This massive community however did not happen overnight. Nor did he just get lucky building it. He was smart to talk to his peers and other kids to see what they wanted.
They told him the type of experience they wanted to play within Minecraft so it was up to Guild to build it. After all, this was the passion in his life that consumed a lot of his attention.
It started off as a hobby where it was a free server for anyone to join. Then all of a sudden there were players offering Guild money to play within his private server. This led him to see that maybe somehow this could turn into a business. He started focusing on the community full-time and ended up dropping out of high school in grade 10.
The team he was able to assemble was mostly teenagers who would volunteer their time helping write code, practice their javascript skills, and ultimately just help build a community and business that was fun.
This is what a lot of businesses or entrepreneurs fail to do in the early stages of building a business. Actually building something that people are already asking or looking for.
BUSINESS TIP: You must go out there and ask your target market what they want, or find out what problems they are having that you could build a solution around.
Where Guild is Focusing His Energy These Days After Minecraft
Ever since Guild had early entrepreneurial success within the Minecraft and e-gaming world, he’s had a craving to continue to build and innovate which has led him to his latest company, ProfitBoss.
It goes without saying that since COVID-19 has hit the world, businesses and industries everywhere have been hit hard forcing a lot of businesses to adapt and pivot or go out of business. A sign of an intelligent entrepreneur or business operator is to pivot and change to go to where the market is heading, or creating change.
ProfitBoss has enabled independent restaurant owners to offer their customers a way to order food online. Similar to how most of us are used to ordering today from apps like DoorDash, UberEats, or Postmates. ProfitBoss however is offering a different solution.
Most of the big online food-ordering apps charge a hefty 40% fee, and that amount for a lot of the smaller restaurant chains and independent ones eats away at their margins. The restaurant industry as itself is already known for its low-profit margin, so taking even more of what they make is a massive problem.
What ProfitBoss does for independent restaurants and small chains is to keep more money in their pockets because their app is actually free for them to use. ProfitBoss only charges a small $1.50 fee to all customers who are ordering from the app.
They have taken the fee away from the restaurant and put it on the customer. This is a pretty smart decision considering if you are a customer that is already ordering food from one of your favorite restaurants, you are probably more than happy to pay an extra $1.50 to get your food ordered online vs eating in person.
When the pandemic hit the world, restaurants had to shift to an online ordering system almost overnight which presented an amazing opportunity for ProfitBoss, which has skyrocketed their growth over the last 6 months.
After listening to Guild and his story of experiencing early success in his teenage years, it’s without a doubt only a matter of time before ProfitBoss becomes his next slam dunk.
The main message you should get from Guild and his story is that success doesn’t happen overnight. You can be successful going after a passion project and build a life or business around something you love. Playing video games isn’t a bad thing for all kids or adults, it can be a creative outlet for someone that actually makes them smarter and challenges them.
There are millions of problems that still need to be solved and you can be that person. Open your eyes and take a chance, the world is full of opportunity, you just have to seize it.
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