The content argues that true business success lies in achieving outcomes with minimal effort, challenging the societal glorification of "hustle culture." It evaluates several business models based on "laziness" (low effort, stress, complexity, and risk) to identify the most effective one-person operation for generating at least $100 per day.
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All right, let me be very honest with
you because there are a lot of ways to
make money out there, but some quite
frankly are just a pain in the ass. You
have to deal with employees and
headaches and people and people are
emotional and blah and this and that.
And bear in mind, this is coming from
someone who employs hundreds of people
between my [music] businesses. So, I
experience it firsthand every single
day. So, this video is for me if I was
on the opposite side and I was like, you
know what, I just want to live a good
life. I want to have the laziest
business where I can just be one person.
and I don't have to deal with headaches
and managing team and employees [music]
and emotions and people waking up on the
wrong side of the bed every day and all
this sort of stuff which honestly the
more I talk about it sounds very lovely.
So I'm quite jealous of you watching
this video. So let me get into the
laziest one person business model that
can make you over $100 a day. And we're
going to do this by comparing a few
different business models and seeing
whether it fits this objective. Now let
me be clear. Are you going to make
millions of dollars a year from this?
Realistically, probably not. But for
most of you guys, $100 a day or even a
few hundred a day is life-changing. And
then from there, you can take the model
and you can make it more advanced. And
you know, you can hire people and do all
this stuff. But for now, let's just
focus on today's objective, which is
$100 a day online. Now, first thing we
need to do is remove this idea that lazy
is bad. You see, Bill Gates once said,
"I will always choose a lazy person to
do a difficult job because a lazy person
will find the easy way to do it. A lazy
person will find a way to make a system
efficient because there's no point
spending 8 hours on something that can
take two. That's not something that's
admirable. So, we want to achieve the
outcome with the lowest amount of
effort. So, isn't it kind of ironic that
one of the most successful entrepreneurs
of all time glorifies laziness, but yet
it's a trait that's exclusively
perceived as a negative by society
today? And what if I told you that he's
100% correct? What if laziness is
actually an advantage, especially in
[music] 2026? I mean, from the day we're
born, we get indoctrinated into
believing that you must suffer to be
successful. The harder you work, the
more you deserve, right? Wrong. That is
simply social conditioning. And the
truth is the world doesn't reward hard
work. It rewards outcomes. Outcomes are
the only thing that matter. And it's
interesting because there's actually a
term for this phenomenon. It's called
effort moralization. It's the belief
that working harder somehow makes you a
better, more moral person even if the
results are worse or at the very least
the same. And this is why so many people
take pride in being busy instead of
being effective. It's why everyone is so
blinded by hustle culture instead of
asking the most important question of
all, which is, "How can I work less and
earn more?" So, in today's video, we're
going to test this idea by
systematically breaking down different
business models to understand which
business model is truly the laziest but
most effective. We're not looking for
the most exciting or the most glamorous
business model. We are looking for the
one that makes the most money with the
least amount of effort, stress,
complexity, and most important of all
for someone who's beginner or
intermediate is the least amount of
risk. So, what we're going to do in
today's video is we're going to look at
five oneperson business models you've
seen all over YouTube and measure them
across five specific categories. And
these are the ones that really matter.
For example, if you want to build a
business without working around the
clock and without intorible amounts of
stress that keep you up at night. And by
the end of the video, you're going to
know exactly which model gives you the
highest income [music] with the lowest
input. And more importantly, you're
going to finally understand why the ones
winning in this new economy aren't the
ones grinding the hardest, but the ones
who work the smartest. So, grab a pen
and paper and let's get started. Now, if
I'm going to help you find out what's
really the laziest one person business,
you can't just guess your way through
this process. So before we get into the
first business model, let's look at the
five categories that we're going to use
to rate the laziness of each one of
these models. First is capital
investment. And in my eyes, this is
actually the most important one. And
honestly, it annoys me so much when I
see people telling beginners to start
businesses that can ruin them
financially. Think of a business model
like a car and success as the
destination. If you just keep driving,
you're going to eventually get there as
long as you don't run out of fuel. But
when you pick a business that burns cash
like a sports car drinks petrol, it
doesn't matter how good your map is. If
you run out of fuel halfway, you will
never get there. You see, most
entrepreneurs, they fail because they
run out of money, not because they're
lazy. And to prove this, let's look at
this study that Forbes did on startups.
Studies show that running out of money
is the most common reason why businesses
fail, with 38% of startups failing for
this exact reason. So what we're looking
for here is a business model that
requires as little capital investment as
possible. So that way you don't risk
becoming a part of that 38%. Next, we
need to look at complexity. Basically,
this is how steep the learning curve is
and how difficult it becomes when
scaling. We're looking for the laziest
business model. So we're not looking for
a business model that requires years of
dedication to master skills that are
required to succeed. We don't want
business models that require hundreds of
complex systems and processes and a host
of skills on top of that that generally
have a high barrier to entry. They come
with a [music] lot of friction. Let's
take a software or a tech company as an
example. Everyone loves the idea of
building the next big app because it
sounds super glamorous and oh, you have
a very serious fancy sounding business.
Great. But I can tell you from
experience, I started my first software
company 5 years ago. In reality, it's
one of the most complex business models
on the planet. And not only very
complex, but [music] it can be very cash
intensive. You need to understand
product development, coding, UX design,
servers, databases, APIs, and then
you're going to need funding where
you're probably going to spend months
pitching investors who have already said
no to 99 other startups that week.
[music] And even if you do get funding,
now you've got to build a team,
engineers, designers, sales reps, each
with their own moving parts,
communication systems, and [music]
dependencies. The laziest business
models aren't necessarily mindless. They
are designed in a way where there is
minimal friction. Now, next [music] up,
we have time to profit. How quickly can
you expect to make money? If you're
watching this video, you're probably
looking for a way to make money in the
short term. Right now, also, I want to
make something very clear. There's no
such thing as get-rich quick. Now, does
get rich quicker, okay? Rather than
going into a business model where we see
returns after 5 years or 7 years, we can
get into a model where potentially after
5 to 7 months, we're in a great place.
But don't think that just happens
overnight because technically the
laziest way to make money is just keep
investing money in the S&P 500. But the
problem with that is that you need money
to invest [music] and it's going to take
a long time for you to see any
substantial returns. Let's say the
market has an incredible year and it
goes up 20%. You invested [music]
$2,000. Great. Your $2,000 is now
$2,400. That's not going to change your
life. That's not really going to do
anything for you. So, the laziest
business models are ones that pay early.
And you need to understand that first
dollar actually isn't even about the
money. It's proof, okay? Proof that it
works. Proof that you can do it. And
proof that you should keep going. Fast
[music] feedback loops keep motivation
high. Fourth is ongoing management.
Ongoing management is the category that
is a true indication of how lazy a
business model actually is. If you
choose a business model that requires
your attention 24/7, you may as well
just get a job. We're looking for a
business that doesn't demand your
constant attention around the clock. You
need to understand that if your business
demands constant attention where you
perform daily tasks like replying to
customers, fixing bugs, managing teams,
and putting out fires, well then you
[music] don't own the business. The
business owns you. We're looking for a
business model that continues to pay
even when you aren't actively working on
it dayto-day. And the fifth [music] is
income consistency. This measures the
stability of the income that the
business model produces. If you make
$10,000 one month and zero the next,
well, that's not really freedom. That's
just stress with no security. The issue
[music] is you can't plan, you can't
scale, and you definitely can't relax.
You are consistently in survival mode. A
lazy business model is one that is
predictably profitable. [music] So,
let's look at the first five business
models and see how it stacks up in these
five categories. Number one, Forex
trading. Now, I wouldn't even consider
this an actual business model, but if
you've been looking for ways to make
money online, this is definitely a model
that you've been seen or pitched.
[music] Without getting into the finer
details, traders basically bet on the
movements of financial markets. When
they take a buy position, they're
betting the price will rise. When they
take a sell position, they're betting
that the price will fall. If you're
right, you make money, but if you're
wrong, you will lose money. Sounds
pretty simple, right? Let's look at the
first category, capital investment. The
capital investment appears to be low
because you can open account with a few
hundred, but you need to [music]
understand that that's a trap. The
smaller that your account is, the faster
it can disappear. You need real capital
to make real returns. If you're trying
to make a $100 a day, you can't really
trade with $200 in your account. You're
either going to take insane risks or
you're going to burn out in a week. Most
traders need thousands and thousands and
thousands to navigate the market's
volatility. If you don't have that kind
of capital behind you, one wrong move
can lead to your capital being wiped out
completely. So, if you want to make a
$100 a day as a trader, you need a lot
of upfront capital to work with. Now,
capital investment might be a problem,
but let's take a look at a complexity. I
mean, if it is actually really easy to
make money, well, then investing a bit
more than you anticipate it might be
worth it, right? I mean, trading looks
super simple, right? From the outside,
charts go up, charts go down. The truth
is that behind the scenes, it's a war
zone. You have to learn how to read
technical indicators, track economic
data, understand candlestick patterns,
use risk management systems, and make
split-second decisions under pressure.
Remember, you're not trading against
amateurs here. No, no, no. You're
trading against algorithms and
institutions that have faster technology
and huge amounts of data. And if you
want some data, here's a stat that
proves how big the learning curve for
trading really is. Just take a look at
this. 72% of traders end the year with
financial losses with only 3% of traders
making more than $50,000 per year.
Becoming a successful trader comes with
a steep learning curve both on the
technical side as well as on the mental
side of things. It takes a massive,
massive mental toll on you when it comes
to time to profit. It is a deceptive
category when it comes to trading
because you could technically be
profitable from day one. The truth is
that many traders spend months, even
years, just learning how to not lose
money. Not make money, but just not lose
money. And the average beginner blows
their first few accounts before they
even become profitable. You can win
quick, but this will come down to luck,
not skill. And for most people, trading
isn't going to provide a fast route to
profit. [music] Because quick wins are
usually luck, and real profits can take
months, even years. Time to profit is
slow. And trading is often positioned as
a model that requires minimal input. But
if you really want to get to the top of
the game, you have to live and breathe
this. You need to be watching the charts
daily, following the news, and react
instantly if an opportunity presents
itself. Then when it comes to ongoing
management, it well and truly fails a
test. If you're looking for a lazy
business model, this isn't it. Traders
that truly succeed are thinking about
trading even when they're not trading,
analyzing markets, planning their next
moves. And the final category is income
[music] consistency. And this is where
this business model really falls short.
Trading is a game of high risk and high
reward. You can make $2,000 one day and
lose 3,000 the next. You can make 10,000
one month and lose money the next month.
There is practically zero income
consistency when [music] it comes to
trading. You will have the highest of
the highs and the lowest of the lows. If
you are looking for a low stress
business model where you can predictably
calculate your income monthtomonth,
trading isn't the one. The next business
model is the one that many people view
as the original business model that made
making money online accessible to almost
anyone and that's drop shipping. In
simple terms, drop shipping is sourcing
physical products from countries like
China at a low price and selling them
for a higher price in countries like US,
United Kingdom and Australia. And the
reason why this business model became so
popular is because you're just the
middleman. Instead of buying and storing
inventory, the supplier takes care of
everything. You never touch the product.
You don't need a warehouse. and you only
pay for inventory after the [music]
customer pays you. Sounds amazing,
right? Well, here's what most beginners
miss. It's true that the supplier deals
with stock, inventory, and shipping. But
you still need to deal with one of the
most complex and expensive parts, the
marketing. So, let's look at drop
shipping using the five categories.
Starting with the first one, capital
investment. Once you find a product to
sell, you don't know whether people are
actually going to buy your product or
not. And that means that you have to
[music] test it. The only way to test a
product is to get eyes on your offer.
And how do you do that? you are going to
have to run paid ads on platforms like
Facebook, [music] Instagram, and Tik
Tok. The problem with running paid ads
is that it requires money before you've
made a sale and before you even know if
the product [music] is even going to
work. And this is the first major
problem with drop shipping. You need to
invest your hard-earned money just to
test if [music] the product is even
going to work. And in order to test a
product properly, using paid ads isn't
cheap. In fact, I've seen many beginners
burn through their entire savings trying
to find a product that works just to run
out of money before they ever find their
winning product. [music] And for that
reason, drop shipping capital investment
is high. When it comes to complexity,
most of the setup is pretty easy. It is
easier than ever to build store pages,
and there are lots of software options
to connect you to suppliers and write
all of the store page copy for you. The
setup is smooth, but the complexity
starts to rise when you are up and
[music] running. If you don't master
ads, you get no traffic and you start
burning cash. If your suppliers let you
down in terms of shipping times and
product quality, well then refunds start
to pile up. Now, in [music] comparison
to trading, I think drop shipping is
slightly less complex with a more
manageable learning curve. But with the
competition being as high as it is
currently, I think that there are better
options out there. Next, time to profit.
When you see the drop shipping
thumbnails on YouTube with those huge
numbers on screen, it's easy to think
that you can get rich overnight as a
drop shipper. The thing is and what you
need to understand those numbers aren't
profit [music]
they are revenue after paying the
suppliers the shipping cost the ad spend
etc the profit [music] is only a
fraction of that now you might be
wondering well how do you know all this
is one of my physical product brands I
started 5 years ago it's not the biggest
company on earth but it still does a few
million a year and outside of that I'm
an investor in many many many companies
in general I try to stay away from
physical product businesses but even on
my desk I have a few companies I've
invested in I'm an investor in this
company here's the candle on the table
right now I'm writing a check this week
to become an investor. And of course,
none of these three companies are drop
shipping businesses. I'm just saying
it's so frustrating seeing all these
beginners see these massive topline
numbers and understand that there's a
lot of e-commerce shops out there that
are making a million in topline and
losing money. So, until you know what
the profit looks like and what the
balance sheet looks like, trust me,
these are not businesses that [music]
you want to get into. Speaking from
experience, but not only that, people
truly don't understand the amount of
money that some of these drop shipping
businesses are spending on testing
products before they find the one that
truly works. And even when I ran an
agency for six years, we actually had
some big-time drop shippers that we were
running the ads for. And we were testing
a dozen plus different products per day.
It was insane. It was this constant
hamster wheel. So, especially for
beginners, it can take months of testing
before you find a winning product that
makes you profitable. It varies, but on
average, time to profit is actually
slow. And ongoing management for a drop
shipping store can be a real dealbreaker
when you're looking for the laziest
business model because you're going to
have to handle customer complaints and a
lot of customers. By the way, listen,
it's different when you have five or 10
customers per month, but when you have
thousands, sometimes even tens of
thousands of customers per month, it's
[music] a lot. You have advertising
performance. You have supplier issues.
Speaking from experience, you wake up
one morning and there's some new tariff
news. It just totally changes the
financials of your business. You have
refund requests. It's a lot. And as I
said, take this coming from someone who
not only runs but invests in physical
product businesses. I try to stay away
from them. But for me, it's just passion
project stuff. And I can only do this
because I have the real solid
businesses, which I'll show you one of
them that I helped get me to this point.
So, trust me when I tell you ecom can be
rough. And of course, granted, I've
never done drop shipping, so that makes
things slightly easier. But really, just
understand that if a supplier messes up
the order, the customer blames you. If
your ad account gets banned, your entire
income disappears overnight. Those who
get to the top of the mountain with drop
shipping as their vehicle. They automate
everything. They hire massive teams to
manage the chaos [music] or expensive
agencies and service providers. Drop
shipping doesn't stay a one-man business
for very long, trust me. And finally, we
have income consistency. If you build a
real brand around a product that has
longevity, the income can start to
become pretty predictable and
consistent. As I said, I've been running
my eyewear brand for 5 years now, but
once again, it's a real brand. It's not
drop shipped. Okay? Drop shipping and
building a real e-commerce business are
two very different things with different
levels of complexity. With traditional
drop shipping, you're really focusing on
trending products. So, if you're early,
your income climbs quickly and
consistently until the trend ends and
your income falls off. I'm sure you guys
all remember the fidget spinners. People
made millions with that like 8 or 10
years ago. Do you ever see them anymore?
No. So, drop shippers are constantly
planning this by looking for the next
trending product, which means they're
always in survival mode. So, if you
don't find the next trend in time, your
monthly income can drop from tens of
thousands to a few hundred before you
know it. And that is why I consider drop
shipping to have a volatile income
consistency. Now, for this next model,
let's move away from online business
models and look at one of the oldest
wealth building models in history, real
estate. This model is pretty simple. You
buy a property in the form of an
apartment, a house, or a commercial
property, and you are able to make a
return in two ways. You have cash flow
and appreciation. And I apologize when I
was preparing this, I actually did them
the other way around. So cash flow,
you're going to rent out the property
and earn monthly income from the
tenants. And then you have appreciation.
The property value goes up over time and
you [music] sell it for a profit. So
there's two angles there. Now, just like
with the other models, let's see how it
stacks up as a lazy business model.
Starting with capital investment. This
is a very obvious roadblock in this
business model. Real estate is one of
the most expensive assets that the
average person buys in their lifetime.
So, the capital investment is
substantial. Of course, there are loans
available to help people purchase real
estate, but it isn't that simple. Banks
will do their due diligence before
approving a loan application, looking
into factors such as income stability,
debt to income ratio, credit history,
property value, as well as down payment.
Even if you get a loan, there are so
many hidden costs you may not even think
of right now, like closing costs, taxes,
agent fees, legal fees, maintenance
fees, and many more. So, I think it's
pretty fair to say that real estate is a
capital heavy business model. So, we
understand that you need a lot of money
to get into real estate, but how complex
is it as a business model? The
purchasing process is complex with many
moving parts that [music] you need to
understand. I'm talking about financing,
the legal side of things, as well as
property valuations. And the complexity
doesn't stop once the purchase is
complete. You need to deal with repairs
and maintenance, rental agreements,
tenants, and ad hoc issues that are
going to occur. And as you add
properties to your portfolio, the
complexity just increases. Despite how
simple real estate looks from the
outside, it can be a nightmare to
manage. Everything requires approval,
signatures, and patience. So, for that
reason, it's considered a complex
business model. And then, when it comes
time to profit, this one is brutal. Real
estate is a long-term game. You might
hold a property for [music] years before
you see any sort of meaningful return.
Even if you rent it out, that cash flow
goes straight into mortgage payments,
repairs, and property management fees.
Real estate is a slow and steady model.
It's predictable, not fast and exciting.
If your goal is to start a cash flow
business that pays you quickly, real
estate [music] is not the one. It is one
of, if not the slowest vehicle you could
choose. Now, you might be listening to
all this and going, "Oh, you're a real
estate hater." I've invested well over 8
figures personally myself into real
estate in multiple countries as well.
So, I'm not a real estate hater, but I
can tell you few things. In every
country that I have real estate, I have
someone to manage the properties. And by
the way, this isn't like a property
management [music] company. These are
full-time people that work for me for
separate things and also manage the
property. I have no debt. I have no
mortgage. And every single person that
is in my properties I know personally.
So not just random tenants that are
disrespectful and don't give a and
want to cause problems in the place. And
with all that being said, [music] it's
still a headache. There's still always a
random thing every month that comes up.
So, do I regret buying all that
property? No. Because a lot of it it's
more of, hey, I just want these
properties and it's nice. I'll make a
little bit of money. It's not going to
be anything crazy. But I can tell you
from firsthand experience, [music] if
you try to make this your main
occupation, it really is a full-time
job. You need a lot of money to get into
it. And as I said, I think real estate's
great, but it's not a lazy way to make
money. In fact, it's not a way to make
money at all. It's a way to invest your
money. And those are two very different
things. The way you generate your money
and the way you invest your money are
two very different things. Now, also
bear in mind once your investment
portfolio is big enough, then at some
point that can become your main
occupation where all you do is manage
your money and invest. But if you don't
have at least $3 million in your
investment portfolio, in my humble
opinion, you should be more focused on
making money rather than just investing
it. So, as I told you, listen, there's a
lot of ongoing management. Repairs and
maintenance is always going to be
something that needs to be managed, but
the level of management required depends
on how the property gets utilized. So,
if you buy the property just to hold and
sell it for a profit later, there isn't
much ongoing management. But if you're
buying property to make money, it's
unlikely you're going to utilize it in
that way because you're going to need a
way to cover the mortgage costs and
taxes. Most people buy a property,
[music] rent it out, and use the money
to cover these costs and hopefully keep
some profit. Now, there are two types of
rental properties. You have long-term
rentals, and these are properties that
have tenants that occupy the property
for long periods of time. Because
tenants [music] stay there for months,
even years, the property owner has
security, and rental prices are usually
lower than short-term [music] rentals.
The ongoing management of long-term
rentals still requires the owner to take
care of repairs, but generally, the
ongoing management is manageable. But
let's say you want better returns.
You're going to look at short-term
rentals, and this is a different story.
These are properties that get rented out
for a few days at a time, maybe even a
month at push by listing them on
platforms like Airbnb. Short-term
rentals are more profitable because the
lack of security allows the owner to
demand higher prices. But this also
comes at a cost. The ongoing management
is very intense because the owner needs
to take care of everything [music] a
long-term rental owner does, but also
needs to manage bookings. They need to
organize cleaning after every booking
and will also need to communicate with
clients regularly. And most short-term
rental owners will work with property
managers or agencies that provide
property management services because of
the high ongoing management demands. So,
as you can see, if you really want to
make money with real estate, the ongoing
management is not as easy as it seems
because there are different levels of
management depending on how the property
is utilized. Ongoing management I'm
going to place as moderate. Lastly, is
income [music] consistency. This is
where real estate performs relatively
well. As long as the market performs
well, you can manage your property
portfolio correctly and as long as you
did your due diligence upfront, real
estate provides a stable income. Now,
for the penultimate business model,
we're going to go back into the online
business model space. This is a business
model I haven't spoken about much, but
with my success on this platform, I
really know what goes into being
successful with this model, and that is
YouTube automation. Now, I'm sure that
many of you know that YouTube pays
creators depending on the number of
views that they get. So, as long as you
stay within YouTube's guidelines, which
by the way, their guidelines are
becoming more and more strict as days go
by, you can monetize your channel and
YouTube will pay you depending on the
number of views that you get. And
YouTube's automation takes advantage of
this by creating multiple YouTube
channels in multiple niches in the
attempt to rack up views and ultimately
get paid. These channels are often
completely faceless, so the viewer
actually doesn't know who the creator
is. So, let's take a look at Sunny V2
for example. They have [music] over 4
million subscribers with their videos
getting millions of views. Based on the
number of views, Sunny V2 is making
thousands of dollars a month from this
channel, maybe even tens of thousands of
dollars a month. The channel is
completely faceless and the videos cover
a variety of topics that people are
interested in. And as you can see, he
has done incredibly incredibly well. And
to be honest, he has a wide array of
very interesting videos. So all credit
to him. But let's break down YouTube
automation to see if it's as lazy as it
seems. Starting with the capital
investment. Starting a YouTube channel
is free, so that's a good start.
However, creating videos that get
millions of views is not. Let me
explain. You need hundreds of thousands
of views a month, if not even millions
of views a month, to make substantial
YouTube AdSense. That means that content
matters and the quality matters. You're
going to need to pay script writers,
editors, voiceover artists, thumbnail
designers, even researchers. If you
really want to take things to the next
[music] level, you are investing money
into videos that may not make a scent.
And by the way, take this from someone
who knows. Growing an audience on
YouTube is a slow burn. It requires
months, even years of testing and
improving. And on top of that, there's
always a level of luck involved. In
fact, this year will be 10 years I've
been on YouTube, which is crazy to say.
I've posted a video pretty consistently
every week for 10 years to grow my
audience. And even while showing my
face, it took me a while to gain any
sort of real traction. You're going to
be burning cash month after month before
you even see the smallest return. And
for [music] that reason, capital
investment is high. Now, despite the
capital investment being a problem, it
seems pretty simple, right? Just keep
creating and posting videos until you
blow up and start making thousands a
month. Unfortunately, it's not as simple
as that. There is an art to growing on
YouTube. You need to create and test
thumbnails in order to increase the
click-through rates to optimize video
performance. You need to write scripts
that keep people watching. You need to
find topics people are interested
[music] in. There's so much trial and
error involved before you master
YouTube. Mastering the business model is
already difficult. And on top of that,
you also need to build systems for your
team to operate in effectively. And I
speak from experience when I say that
building and managing a content team on
top of mastering the art of YouTube is
[music] extremely complex and the
learning curve is steep. Time to profit
is also a massive roadblock in this
business model. The combination of the
business model's need for upfront
investment coupled with the slow burning
nature of YouTube means that it can take
months, if not even longer, before you
[music] break even. If your goal is to
make $100 a day from AdSense, well then
you're going to need hundreds of
thousands of views with YouTube's payout
structure. From the outside, YouTube
automation looks like easy money. But in
truth, it's one of the slowest ways to
make money online. And ongoing
management is where you're going to see
the word automation fall apart
completely. This business model is
full-time because YouTube rewards
consistency. You need to keep uploading
or your channel starts to die [music]
and your income follows that. Even if
you outsource editing and scripting,
you're still managing the process,
reviewing content, approving drafts,
fixing mistakes, and tracking
performance. The truth is, those who
succeed with YouTube automation aren't
lazy. They're organized. They treat
their channel like a media company.
Income consistency is an interesting one
when it comes to YouTube automation. As
your channel grows, your income grows
steadily alongside it. And there are
going to be dips during months where
your videos didn't hit the mark, and you
will have high income outliers where a
video went super viral. As I said
before, it is a slow burn. But if you
gain some momentum, you should see
steady growth. It's important to keep up
with trends and position your channel in
a way that is built for longevity, not
just short-lived topics. [music] Now, as
you've probably seen, none of these
business models are truly lazy if you
just look at them objectively. Now,
above the surface, they're going to all
present themselves as easy money
opportunities. But today, I've given you
some insight into what lies below the
surface. And a lot of this coming from
personal experience. They all demand too
much money, too much time, too much
expertise, and too much mental bandwidth
for anyone that wants to make money the
smart way. And I'll be honest with you,
I already knew that. I've been in the
world of online business for over 10
years, and I have seen business models
come and go. I've tested most of them
myself, and that's why I know what they
actually [music] require to be
successful. Now, there is one business
model for 2026 that has always been
extremely profitable. But until
recently, due to the rise of AI, in good
conscience, I couldn't consider it lazy.
In fact, I was actually one of the early
adopters of this business model without
even realizing it at the time. And that
model is AI shadow operating. And this,
my friend, is the laziest oneperson
business model. And I am going to prove
to you that this is truly the laziest
business model you can start right now
using the same five categories that
we've been using. But first, let me
explain what AI shadow operating
actually is. There are millions of micro
creators out there with 20,000
followers, 32,000 followers, 57,000
followers, making engaging content,
building loyal audiences, but still
earning an average 9 to5 income. Or in
fact, most of the times not even making
any income from their social media. Now,
yeah, sure, maybe they get some free
stuff here and there. They have a few
affiliate links that they get some
commissions from, and if they're lucky,
they get a few small brand deals. But
what they haven't realized yet is that
the biggest creators in the world aren't
making their money from brand deals and
affiliate links. They're making their
money from digital products, courses,
mentorships, communities, even apps.
They understand their audience's needs.
They package the solution digitally and
they sell it to an audience that already
knows, likes, and trust them. Now, the
macro creators, the people with millions
of followers, most of them, not all of
them, but most of them already have this
method down to a science. But the
microcreators, they don't know how. They
haven't caught up. They don't have the
ability. As I said, they either don't
know the opportunity even exists, or
they don't have the appetite to run a
business. They just want to create
content and get more followers. And this
is where the opportunity lies for shadow
operators. As a shadow operator, all you
need to do is approach microcreators and
help them understand how much money
they're leaving on the table. Your offer
is very simple. Let me help you build
and launch your digital product. You
create the content. I'll handle
everything else. And you handle all the
boring stuff they don't want to deal
with. For example, like building the
offer, creating the launch strategy, and
setting up the to process payments
and host their digital product. They
stick to what they like doing, which is
creating content. And the result of this
partnership, you take a percentage of
each sale made, usually 20 to 30%
depending on the agreement. And by the
way, this isn't a once- off. You get a
cut of every sale of that product for
life. Now, I get it. I get it. I know
that some of the terms that I've used
might sound slightly complicated. Terms
like launch strategy or building an
offer. Remember when I said I wouldn't
have considered this a lazy business
model a few years ago. That's the truth
of it. Four years ago or 8 years ago
when I was doing this stuff myself, it
wasn't a lazy business model. And it
also wasn't appropriate for beginners
because today there are ultra
specialized AI tools that build all of
that for you. These tools aren't just
able to do the job. They build launch
strategies as well as marketers with
years of experience. And when you use
these tools, AI does 90% of the work for
you. These tools can create product
outlines, build product offers, create
multiplatform launch strategies, write
sales copy, everything you need to
launch a successful offer. So let's see
how AI shadow operating performs across
the five categories that we have used
throughout this test. Starting with
capital investment. AI shadow operating
doesn't require much capital investment
at all because there's no ad cost. The
microcreator already has the audience.
There's no inventory cuz it's a digital
product, an info product, a coaching
offer. There's no tangible product. So
there's no headaches with inventory or
tariffs and no purchases of physical
assets. All you require is a laptop,
internet connection, and some
specialized AI software. And that's only
needed once. and you have a creator
partnership in the pipeline. This model
is a car with unlimited fuel. You can go
at your own pace without the stress of
knowing that you're burning cash daily.
And for that reason, capital investment
is low. Now, in many cases, business
models that don't require large capital
investments tend to rely on hard work
and expert skills. AI shadow operating
is a rare case where this doesn't apply.
Now, what's interesting about this model
is you're not asking for money upfront.
So, there's no sales. You're simply
providing an opportunity to someone with
huge monetization potential and with the
help of specialized AI tools helping
them execute on that opportunity. Now,
because we have these AI tools, they can
do 90% of the work for you, which means
that there's no need for complex SOPs
and systems. It is a four-step process
you execute over and over again. First,
you find a creator who has an audience
but no offer. You pitch them on
launching a digital product. Bear in
mind, when I say digital product, it
could be digital product, info offer,
coaching offer. There's actually many
things that they can launch, but
remember, they're the expert. you're not
the expert, so it doesn't actually
matter how you package it up. It's just
different ways to really present the
same thing. Then you set up the backend
and create the launch strategy using
specialized AI tools. Then you're going
to launch and split the profits. Now,
there's one last thing that I will
mention that decreases complexity even
more. When I was working with creators
and launching their digital product
offers for them, they had to reconcile
every one of their sales at the end of
each month and pay me my cut. And this
was back when I was running an agency
for 6 years. And this was the most
annoying thing about it, okay? I always
had to chase them for payments in many
cases and honestly there was a lot of
trust involved. Now, as many of you guys
know, I wrote a very, very, very, very,
very large check in order to become a
co-owner at a company called And we
just recently rolled out a revenue split
feature which allows payments to be
split in real time, which means all the
problems that I faced when I was a
shadow operator, but I was like a shadow
operator agency, whereas now you can be
a one person AI shadow operator. But
anyways, beside the point, all the
problems that I faced are now gone. You
don't have the same problems that I had
to deal with. So payment comes in and
then based on your agreement, let's say
for here the shadow operator gets 30%
and the creator gets 70 or let's say
it's 9010 or 50/50, however you want to
split it up. And obviously as you get
more experience and more case studies,
you can demand a much bigger piece of
the pie. Now the process is simple,
okay? There's no sale involved. You
don't need a team and all the systems
have been optimized to the point where
there is minimal complexity left. I
think it's fair to say that this is a
low complexity business model. Now let's
talk about time to profit. Considering
you don't get paid up front, this is
potentially where this business model
could fall short. But in comparison to
the other models, this actually isn't
the case. There are millions of creators
[music] out there, so the client pool is
massive, and partnering with them is
also easy, so it won't take months to
find a willing creator. Now, from
conception to launch of a digital
product also doesn't take as long as you
would think. Many of the creators you're
speaking to may opt for group coaching
or mentorship to start with. So, there's
no lag time like there is with video
courses, even if a creator opts for a
video course format because they are so
comfortable on camera and they're the
expert. They have an audience for a
reason. Many creators can create a
product that is ready for launch in 7
days or less. It is very, very realistic
that you could be making money within
the first 45 to 60 days. But here's the
thing. I'm not talking about a few
dollars here and there. If you find the
right creator and you trust the
specialized AI tools to create the
launch strategy for you, you can make
thousands of dollars, maybe even tens of
thousands of dollars from a single
launch. Now, I want to be very
transparent with you. Is AI shadow
operating a model where you can make
money within day? No. But once you
launch and the money starts coming in,
it can come in very quick. Now, because
the model requires some patience and
some upfront work, I'm comfortable
ranking it as a moderate in the time to
profit category. AI shadow operating is
a front-loaded business model, which
means the majority of the work is done
first [music] and then the money starts
rolling in. Now, when it comes to
ongoing management, there isn't much to
it. After the first launch, you can use
the AI tools to create new launch
strategies when you and the creator want
to ramp up the sales again. But from a
day-to-day point of view, there's little
to no ongoing management. Your main goal
as an AI shadow operator is to keep
adding new creators to your portfolio
because the income from each new creator
[music] just stacks onto the monthly
income you already have from your
current creators. Now, I personally
haven't seen a business model that
requires less ongoing management than
shadow operating. It is a true oneperson
business. So, you can have no team
management responsibilities and all of
the work that you do after the first
launch has a direct impact on your
[music] income and that is why it ranks
low in the ongoing management category.
Finally, how consistent is your income
as a shadow operator? Like any business
model on Earth, it will always
fluctuate. During months where you do a
launch with a creator, there will be
spikes, but during months where you
don't do launches, your income will
remain steady. Shadow operators
generally see a steady increase in their
income because they are always adding
new creators to their portfolio. So
unlike some business models, it's not
possible for you to go from $10,000 to
$0. Major fluctuations tend to be
positive spikes in income during months
with big launches. So for that reason,
the income consistency is stable. Now
let's bring this back to the final
table. There is a very very very clear
winner. [music] And for me personally,
as I look at the online business
landscape right now, AI shadow operating
is the biggest opportunity on the table
going into 2026. [music] That being
said, any opportunity with this kind of
potential doesn't stay untapped for
long. There are a handful of very
private in the shadow people, as the
name would suggest, already taking
advantage of this business model, like
one of our users, Ted, who saw this
opportunity and made the transition from
traditional SMMA to AI shadow operating.
And it's been super cool to see it. At
21 years of age, Ted makes multiple five
figures per month and has recently moved
into his dream apartment. And in fact,
during a call with my head of product,
Andre, [music] Ted said this about AI
shadow operating. I was weighing up the
pros and cons of transitioning into the
creator economy, and it was a
no-brainer. [music] Getting partnerships
is easier than landing traditional
clients. I get to work with people I
actually like, and the hardest part is
taking care of because they already have
a loyal audience of buyers. Remember,
you don't have to be a dancing monkey
online or create content or risk money
on ads. They have an audience already.
Like, it's literally a gold mine waiting
to be extracted. And this allows me to
make more money while working less. I
cannot find a downside in this model.
So, for me, that is every entrepreneur's
dream. A business model that requires no
selling. You're not asking them, hey,
can you pay my monthly fee? Or, hey, can
you buy this product or anything like
that? You are simply partnering with
people you love working with and making
more money with less input. AI shadow
operating is undoubtedly the laziest,
most beginner-friendly model out there
right now. And to me personally, I think
this is the king for 2026. And if you're
looking to start an online business, for
me, you shouldn't be looking anywhere
else. But at the end of the day, like
anything you see online, be skeptical,
do your own due diligence, use your
brain, and if it still makes sense to
you, well then great, because I see a
lot of opportunity for you guys out
there doing this in 2026. And as I said,
this is coming from someone who has
experience with pretty much all of these
models. So, on that note, I hope this
video was helpful for you. As always,
I'm watching from afar and I'm rooting
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