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From Prison to Penthouse, The Explosive Rise of Wes Watson

La comitiva de coches que Wes Watson lleva a la entrega de su Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport de 4 millones

Motor16.com. (2023). Wes Watson with his Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://motor16.com

The end seemed imminent for Wes Watson. Busted, arrested, and incarcerated, this California man’s life could have been defined by one word: doomed. The story of Wes Watson is one of incredible transformation, the epitome of reinventing oneself. He took his life of crime and ten years of incarceration, reshaped his direction, and nearly instantaneously forged a multi-million-dollar business empire. A few years ago, he was an inmate; now, he lives atop the world in a Miami penthouse. This is the story of Wes Watson, a man who overcame all odds, turned imminent defeat into victory, and is now thriving at a level comparable to Fortune 500 CEOs.

A millionaire within 18 months, but his story doesn’t start there. Wes Watson was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he embodied the coastal California lifestyle of surfing and skateboarding. At 12 years old, Watson began his journey down what would eventually become disaster, experimenting with marijuana. By the time he turned 14, Wes transitioned from merely using marijuana to dealing drugs, which eventually inclined him towards other illegal activities. Throughout the years, Watson’s involvement in crime escalated, with him frequently partaking in violence. In the end, his lifestyle caught up with him. After a dispute with a customer, Watson was arrested and imprisoned for assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious injury, among other charges, resulting in a 10-year sentence in California prison.

It could have all ended there. Instead, immediately upon entering jail, Watson resolved to reinvent himself. Confinement was the crucible for his self-transformation. Instead of sleeping in, Watson began waking up at 3 AM, a practice he continues to this day. He focused on generating a meticulous daily routine involving physical fitness, discipline, and mindset development. Programming was also huge for Wes Watson. A topic he talks about frequently in his content, programming the mind is one of his keys to producing meaningful results in life. Watson’s strict adherence to programming while in prison earned him the admiration of fellow inmates.

Ten years later, in 2018, Watson was released and was miles away from financial freedom; he had hardly $200 to his name. However, he had something much more valuable: a deeply ingrained sense of discipline and an entrepreneurial plan for domination. In an age when people are pursuing fitness more than ever before, the former Californian prisoner launched Watson Fit, an online coaching business geared beyond just fitness but also to the entirety of life. The market differentiation of Watson Fit was this: it revolved around mindset, rather than a by-the-book workout plan. His philosophy is simple yet powerful: “Do the things you hate like you love them.” This saying of his is basically a proverb when applied to entrepreneurship. Much of his advice resembles the teachings of David Goggins, the American ultramarathoner whose bestseller Can’t Hurt Me is a commonly recommended book for modern entrepreneurs. Watson Fit takes individuals to the next level when implemented. His mission is to make clients the best version of themselves by making self-development a lifestyle. When one reaches the highest levels of self-development, Watson believes that money will automatically flow to them. The company quickly became a hit, attracting clients who not only sought gains in the gym but a complete overhaul of their lives.

One successful entrepreneurial endeavor was insufficient for the high ambitions of Wes Watson. His next income stream was personal branding, in the launch of his YouTube channel, GP Penitentiary Life, where he diffuses raw, unfiltered stories from his time in the prison system, in addition to motivational and gym content. His channel, which caters to the fitness and self-development communities, is a massive hit, with over a half-million subscribers. This led to a surge on Instagram as well, with him boasting nearly one million followers at the time of this article. Having such a large presence on social media allows Watson to monetize not only his posts but also serves as free marketing for his coaching program. What sets Watson apart from influencers in the way he markets his personal brand is his street-level intensity and raw advice on how to better oneself. Sugarcoating life is not something Watson specializes in, and this rawness appeals to his target demographic.

Ultimately, his core philosophy is extreme discipline in the face of competition. He is a strong defender of the belief that in order to achieve a high level of success, one must do what they hate, stepping outside their comfort zone. Suffering is not an option; it is mandatory for people to arrive at the destinations they desire since it yields mental resilience and opens the mind to higher levels of wisdom. In an age when the majority of people take the path of least resistance, his message stands out as bold. His daily routine is a testament to his beliefs; waking up at 3 AM consistently is something most Americans do not want to do. He understands getting up early as gaining a foothold on the competition. But waking earlier than others alone will not get high-aspiration individuals across the finish line. Suffering ought to be encountered in every area of life, according to his philosophy. Rigorous physical fitness, such as performing hundreds of burpees before other prisoners woke up, earned him respect in the penitentiary then and as an entrepreneur now. Lastly, Watson believes that self-love is essential, and that self-investment—in all forms, physical, mental, and spiritual—will forge a foundation of self-respect necessary to accomplishing a flourishing life.

Today, the entrepreneur Wes Watson expands his empire further. He owns mansions in Rancho Santa Fe, California, and Miami, Florida, living an extravagant bi-coastal lifestyle fueled by his profits. The other day he moved into a penthouse in Miami, his third luxury residence. He wears a half-million-dollar watch to the gym, and his supercar collection is highlighted by a bright-orange Bugatti Chiron. His net worth is estimated to be around $30 million. Fortune 500 CEOs get paid as much as the value he has personally created through his mindset. Despite his outward success, he remains committed to his core principles. He still wakes up at 3 AM, constantly seeks self-improvement, and posts loads of daily social media content. To maximize self-development, Watson now brings together groups of like-minded individuals and entrepreneurs who are dedicated to making money and achieving freedom. His success story is not merely one of entrepreneurial triumph but one characterized by breaking free from limitations and creating a lifestyle that incorporates growth in all spheres.

Wes Watson got out of jail just six years ago. Instead of letting his ten-year incarceration define him, Watson is the epitome of an entrepreneur. He creates value and impact through an innovative mindset. His net worth was $200 upon release from California prison, but now he lives a wealthy lifestyle in the beautiful towns of Rancho Santa Fe and Miami, pulling up to the gym in a Bugatti Chiron. He went from prison to helping millions break out of their own prisons by teaching people to do the things they hate. The story of Wes Watson shows that no matter where you start, you can achieve greatness in entrepreneurship if you’re willing to embrace discipline and work relentlessly.

 

Written by Carson Batzel, 9/23/2024

Age Is Just a Number

Ava Yuergens (@avayuergens) on Threads

Ava Yuergens

Young entrepreneur Ava Yuergens demonstrates that age is just a number. Ava and her soon to be fiancé acquired 900,000 dollars and residential real estate before she even graduated high school. She is currently 19 years old, married, and has started another business where she helps businesses and entrepreneurs grow and sell on social media. How did she become this successful? The answer is within her daily routine, discipline, and determination. Waking up early in the morning is no problem for her, so she wakes up at 2 am and starts her day. A day in the life of Ava Yuergens is the definition of productivity. You can watch her daily routine here. She works for an average of 15 hours a day and uses the nights to relax and do something fun with her fiancé. Her habits in high school were similar. Before school started, Ava would awake from her slumber at 4 am and read before school started! Ava has a thirst for knowledge, and she lets it consume her. When Ava was in high school, she would read books constantly. She would read about business, marketing, investing, and sales. At age 15 she started a real estate investing company with her boyfriend. The two of them got engaged when they were 16. Ava Yuergens is a fantastic example of where ambition can lead you. Ava’s Instagram profile is packed with business strategies, self-improvement hacks, and hundreds of ideas to help build your business. You can check out her Instagram profile here.  The best part is that Ava isn’t done. She wants to become more successful and read more books. Ava is a model for what young entrepreneurs could be. All you need is discipline, ambition, and determination to prove that anyone of any age can do anything.

Scents to Cents – Hart Main

Hart Main

At the age of 13, Hart Main embarked on a unique entrepreneurial journey by founding ManCans, a candle company with a distinctive twist – crafting “manly” scents and packaging them in recycled soup cans. What started as a playful comment about the “girly” scents of candles his sister was selling for a school fundraiser turned into a thriving business venture that went far beyond his initial goal.

Hart’s initial motivation was to purchase a high-quality racing bike priced at $1,200. His parents encouraged him to fund the purchase himself, setting the stage for the creation of ManCans. The idea of masculine-scented candles was resurrected by Hart’s mother, Amy, and he used his $100 in savings to acquire supplies and a starter kit for candle making. The Main family’s kitchen became the candle-making laboratory, and from November 2010 to spring 2011, they produced their first 20,000 candles in-house.

“My goal was to buy the bike, then be done with it.”

But Hart had stumbled upon something that was bigger than the $1,200 bike. The early stage of the business was undoubtedly challenging. The kitchen was filled with piles of cans and candles, and the family’s living space transformed into a makeshift production facility. To source their containers, they began eating canned soup. As the candle production grew, they recruited friends and neighbors to help empty the cans, and soon they had the idea to donate the surplus soup to food banks. This act of giving was the birth of ManCans’ philanthropic mission.

In 2011, the Main family donated 200 cans of soup to a local soup kitchen, expecting the empty cans to last around five months. Their story garnered the attention of a Columbus news station, and soon, the Associated Press picked it up. This unexpected media coverage resulted in an overwhelming surge of orders for 4,800 candles from 1,600 customers. The family’s kitchen was no longer sufficient for their growing business, and they rented warehouse space and hired about five employees to help meet the demand. In January 2014, ManCans partnered with Beaver Creek Candle Co. in Lisbon, Ohio, for manufacturing and distribution, a partnership that continues to this day.

Not content with only catering to the male market, Hart expanded his business by launching SheCans, a candle line with scents targeting women. Both ManCans and SheCans candles are manufactured by Beaver Creek Candle Co. However, instead of donating soup, ManCans now contributes 75 cents from every candle sale to support soup kitchens in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan, recognizing that cash donations are often more valuable than food.

The Main family is directly involved in the creation of many of their candle scents, although some are suggested by customers. Notable scents include Fresh Cut Grass, Campfire, Bacon, Sawdust, Grandpa’s Pipe, and even Two-Stroke Engine. Perfumists in New Jersey work on scent development, mixing chemicals and sending samples to Hart until the aroma is perfected.

ManCans candles are now available in numerous locations across the United States, including McDonald Niklaus Framing in Dover and Kames Sports in North Canton. They can also be purchased online through the ManCans website. The success of ManCans not only supports the business but also helps feed the hungry and encourages young people to explore entrepreneurship at an early age.

To further his mission of promoting entrepreneurship among young people, Hart and his father, Craig, co-authored the book “One Candle, One Meal.” Each chapter of the book incorporates valuable business lessons Hart learned throughout his journey. Their aim is to inspire and educate the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Hart Main’s achievements are not limited to the candle business. Despite his early success, he has aspirations beyond the world of candles. Hart plans to attend Kent State University to major in economics with the goal of becoming a sports agent. His story exemplifies how a casual idea can evolve into a thriving business with a philanthropic mission, all while inspiring young entrepreneurs and giving back to the community. It’s a testament to the power of determination, innovation, and the willingness to seize unexpected opportunities.

No photo description available.

Andrew Mason: Groupon

Andrew Mason launched Groupon in November of 2008.  Groupon is a global e-commerce marketplace that connects subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods, and services.  Mason’s idea to create Groupon came from his belief that there has to be some way to leverage a large number of people’s collective bargaining power to accomplish a goal.  Mason created what would later become Groupon with a $1 million dollar loan he got from his boss Eric Lefkofsky after Mason shared his business idea with him.  It didn’t take long for Groupon to gain popularity and become, with it only taking a year for Groupon to go from a dozen staff members to over 300 hundred.  Also, it only took 16 months for Groupon to become the fastest company in history to reach a company value of 1 billion.  Sadly, it seems like the company made some mistakes and had to pay out around 940 million to shareholders and investors, losing the company around 86% of its total value.  This payout combined with Mason’s way of managing the company caused him to be dismissed as company CEO in 2013.

Even though he was fired from his own business over its sudden financial collapse, I still think Andrew Mason is an exemplary entrepreneur because he decided to continue to found more companies instead of giving up.

Johnny Cupcakes

Johnny Cupcakes, an odd name for a bakery. A nickname from co-workers, Johnny Earl has been serving “fresh-baked” T-Shirts across multiple locations for several years now. An entrepreneur from a young age, he started 16 businesses before the age of 16. He has been featured in FORBES, NPR, BusinessWeek, INC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, WIRED, New York Times, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times; and seen on MTV, Bloomberg TV, MAKER, Attack Of The Show, The Food Network, and WWD!

Johnny Cupcakes: A T-Shirt Startup That Gained a Cult Following Through  Unique Marketing and Word of Mouth

The idea came when he was creating new designs for the rock band he played for. He came up with the first Johnny Cupcakes design, featuring a skull and crossbones with a cupcake replacing the head. After wearing it in the office, everyone seemed to want one! Johnny began selling t-shirts out of his truck, and focused on customer experience instead of marketing. A known prankster, he loved the idea of “tricking” people into thinking he was running a real bakery!

50 Johnny Cupcakes ideas | johnny cupcakes, johnny, cupcakes

“Our bakery aesthetic is so convincing, that customers are usually convinced they are walking into a bakery expecting to get a cupcake. My inner-jokester still gets a kick out of fooling hungry shoppers. Cupcake or not, customers usually leave with a t-shirt or a great story. However, one April Fool’s Day we sold real cupcakes and hid all of our t-shirts!”

Johnny Cupcakes® Dragon Ball Z on Behance

As he began to assume a cult-like following, he added new and exclusive designs. some would only be available for certain hours! The T-Shirts, which make fun of pop culture and replace known figures with cupcakes, are becoming increasingly popular on social media where they garner the attention of masses.

OFFF16] In Conversation with Johnny Cupcakes • Inkygoodness

For Johnny, customer experience is everything, he hides vanilla scented air fresheners in store locations to mimic the smell of frosting. T-Shirts are placed in vintage refrigerator cases and packaged in pastry containers when purchased. He is known as “The top Innovator in Retail” because of his personal connection to customers. He has been known to show up randomly, and post his location for people to find him. Johnny Cupcakes has hosted movie nights, bowling, roller-skating and more simply for the connection and brand loyalty. Prankster or not, Johnny knows the importance of a strong customer base and uses the connection to his advantage by dialing in to what fans want to see next.

 

Want to learn more? Check out this YouTube Video

Visit Johnny Cupcakes website here

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The man behind Navio Group and the new form of Managing

Carlos Castelan added a new approach to the management process when he started The Navio Group. Castelan was the previous founder of organizations and consulting firms such as Conlego, and Noma Consulting partners. His experience in the field gave him a first hand view at the different problems that many companies have with internal hierarchical management. When he saw these problems he quickly took action and found a solution to this. He opened The Navio Group consulting firm to help companies address the internal management issues that they were having. This is a true example of entrepreneurship in a way that is not normally seen out right as entrepreneurship as most innovations will be seen as products. Castelan created a service to help many companies, in a relatively open market. While many consulting firms have employees who are doing their role as their first job and don’t have much experience in the problems that these companies are facing.

I think Castelan’s work is a true inspiration, he saw a problem and took action to solve that problem not only for himself but for many companies. His vision was to create a company that helped clients navigate change and chart a new course from what was seen as traditional. He wants clients to explore the unknown and expand their companies in new ways that no one has really expanded to or tried before. I really like Castelan’s story and how inspiring his innovation was to this market. He is a firm believer in jumping right in when trying to bring new ideas to life which is a true explanation of being innovative and an entrepreneur. He believes that being good at only one thing (something that was seen as important in the old days) is becoming increasingly less important and instead being diversified is becoming more and more important.

 

Overall, I think Castelan’s idea of consulting companies to navigate in new ideas and areas will continue to be extremely successful. Read more here

Sprout and Lentil: The business which expanded during the pandemic  

        Sprout and Lentil is the only mom-and-pop vegan cafe on Aquidneck Island. Founded in 2019 by the husband and wife team of Carmen Foy and Matt Sole, Sprout and Lentil has grown from being a booth at a farmers’ market to having its own independent retail business located in the center of Middletown, RI. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Foy – who was born in Spain – trained at the Cordon Bleu in France and then worked for twelve years as a chef aboard yachts. 

     Foy and Sole have stayed true to their business mantra of “Food with a Mission” by serving only plant-based foods. For instance, Foy ordered granola and then returned it to the producer it contained honey. She and her husband are dedicated to a purely vegan business. Additionally, the owners have created a special niche serving their community for people who are vegan, vegetarians, and kosher. Foy and Sole know their target customers very well and have seen that there is a high demand for quality vegan products. Some may ask, “Who would ever want to pay for a $16 burger?” or “Why isn’t the 50 cent spicy ketchup included with my fries?” Without doubt, the prices are high and sauces are not included with fries, burgers, nor cauliflower nuggets. A gourmet truffle oil dressing retails for eleven dollars. Perhaps it is hard to believe here in western Pennsylvania, but their local customers – hard core vegan regulars, and tourists – do buy and enjoy the expensive truffle oil dressing as well as the $16 burgers. The customers believe that the high prices are worth the money for what they receive. Foy and Sole have created a demand for specialty vegan food.

Please take a look at Sprout and Lentil’s website:

http://sproutandlentil.com/

 

The Bridge to Success

Social media has been building bridges to new ways of innovation and entrepreneurship ever since it began. Those who have capitalized on it when it began, however, are the ones making all the money and gaining the most fame. Felix Kjellberg, or better known to some as “Pewdiepie,” created his youtube account only one year after the website was released. It wasn’t until 2011, though, that he began to post on what would become the largest account on the platform ever (owned by one person). He began by posting quite short and relatively boring videos on his account purely for the entertainment of his friends and himself. As time went on, more people began to find his account, subscribing to it, and Felix’s fanbase grew. Less than a year later he had surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark. He began to post more and more and only a year after that was at 10 million. It was safe to say that he was on the right track.

Pewdiepie began to create merch such as shirts, chairs, headsets, and eventually his own game on the app store. He was rapidly gaining fans and in the spring of 2019, the creator finally reached an astonishing 100 million followers, which meant that 1 in 15 people who used youtube was subscribed to his account. This may not seem like much, however, almost half of the country uses this platform. He is still creating to this day and after selling many products and featuring in other videos and ads, he has accumulated roughly a cool $45,000,000 from online interactions alone. Felix will forever be remembered in the industry of videomaking and for revolutionizing the world by his assistance in bridging the gap between the real and digital worlds of entrepreneurship.