I did something kind of insane. I just spent millions of dollars on dirt. 231 acres, 45 minutes from my house in DFW. In this post: why I bought it, how I plan to make money on it, and exactly what I paid. Here's the story. A couple years ago my buddy Jeff bought a ranch. And ever since, I've been watching his boys drive out there. Move a bulldozer around. Drive a skid steer. Bring in the cows. Build a burn pile after the storm. I admired that. I feel so strongly that having your kids learn to work hard is one of the best things you can do as a parent. And it's also one of the hardest. I think they're correlated. The harder things you do as a parent are also the most important things you do as a parent. I have four kids. I want them to have opportunities I never had, and I don't want them to be soft. A ranch is the greatest hard work simulator ever invented. Fixing fence in the July heat. Feeding cows when it's 37 degrees. Hauling hay. That will change a kid. It'll build something in a kid that no app ever will. They say business isn't personal. It is personal. This was an emotional decision first. But I'm a capitalist and an entrepreneur, so here's the financial side: DFW is adding 150 to 200,000 people a year, growing north and east. This ranch is 57 miles from downtown Dallas, in the path of growth. Worst case, my family gets a ranch that we love. Best case, the Metroplex crawls to my fence line. We started out looking at 50 to 100 acre parcels. Then I realized something: one day I'll feel stupid for not buying more land at only $10K an acre this close to Dallas. So we went bigger. The ranch wasn't distressed. I still negotiated almost $400K off the list price. Here's how: I uploaded the seller's appraisal to Claude. It caught that their comps were 60 acre parcels and mine is 231, and bigger parcels are worth much less per acre. It picked also apart the whole appraisal, caught a bunch of other stuff, and wrote my negotiation replies. My $20 a month subscription saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another hack: My wife got her real estate license, represented us herself, and gave back 2% of her commission at closing. $50K off. Then I shook the seller's hand and promised this never becomes a neighborhood or a data center. That handshake is one reason he picked me over the developers. Relationships matter. So how am I gonna make money on this? A few of the plays: - The previous owner keeps ranching it on a grazing lease with me. He keeps spraying, mowing, and maintaining the fences. I collect a check. - There's a 2,400 sq ft shop on the property, already rented out. Another check. - Grass-fed beef under the 888 brand. A quarter cow sells for about $1,500 at roughly 40% net margin. And you don't need to own land to do this. ButcherBox doesn't own a single ranch. - A YouTube channel documenting everything. If it gets to a fraction of my main channel's size, it covers the entire ranch payment. Zero ongoing expenses. - Farm stays and campsites. Right next door is a tiny home community doing $17,000 a month on 20 acres. I have 231. - Maybe an Airbnb over the river with a plexiglass floor. Septic near a river is tricky, but everything's figureoutable. - I’ll use my own dozer instead of hiring one. Companies charge $200 to $500 an hour. Used dozers go for $10 to $30K and I’ll hire young guys to operate them and expand the pond for much cheaper. - Ag exemption. Property taxes on a ranch this size would be $45 to $50K a year. Mine are about $1,500. I don't plan to flip this. I'm building a barndominium out there, then eventually a house. I plan to own it for the rest of my life, and hopefully my kids and grandkids after that. What did I pay? $2.35 million. My wife and I got married on 08/08/08. So this is 888 Ranch. Three eights in a row make a great cattle brand. One last thing. If you've ever listened to the podcast, watched a video, or started a business because of something I shared: you are part of the reason I was able to buy this. I mean that. Thank you. I'm documenting all of it on a new YouTube channel, 888 Ranch Your learnings compound just like money does. Come watch mine. 888 Ranch site-- tripleeightranch.com 888 Ranch Youtube -- piped.video/@tripleeightranc…

I was talking to a friend the other day that just shut down his longstanding lawncare biz "Nobody wants to work anymore," he said "Did you try paying them more?" I asked He'd legit never considered that! People are & will always be willing to work Charge more, pay more!

Supposedly this company is paying 6-7 figures for internal company data. Have you or anyone you know sold data to these guys? If so, how much? I'm curious what your experience has been. req.micro1.ai/post/74520e8b-…

You’ll learn more about making money in this one tweet below than I found in a 4 year business degree + a 2 year MBA. It really is that simple. But you have to actually do something.

I saw this post and almost commented “Why doesn’t this have a million views?” So I’m reposting it to make it come true. With every passing day there are fewer and fewer excuses to be poor.

If you think blue collar businesses are safe from AI, think again. What happens to their profit margins when they have to compete against 82 different quotes, instead of only 2? The future is agents talking to agents, until the dollar amount necessitates a human. As a blue collar business owner myself, I still think this is a net win. “Adapt or die” has never been more true.

Well this was an easy fix. I had my AI agent scape and contact all 82 pool companies in DFW while I slept. It sent my plans and survey and said I’d prefer to not hop on a call yet. Just need a ballpark price via email. I already have 5 prices. 77 to go. The game has changed. It’s managing all follow up questions as well. If a company doesn’t want my business, I don’t want theirs. I have cash and am ready to break ground tomorrow, but I’m not driving to Frisco to look at travertine before I know a ballpark price. Absolutely ridiculous.

Imagine thinking: “I’m going to start a pizza chain, except we won’t cook the pizza. We’ll just sell ‘em raw” And then having 1,100 locations and $800m in revenue. There’s a business for everything.

I need a spray foam insulation guy in DFW. I have money for them. Who can send them my way?

Have your 4th kid. Go into debt if you have to. I saw all 50 states in 60 days with mine, and it was the best 2 months of my life.

Insider Twitter secret: I don’t mention liability in these posts because then I wouldn’t get hundreds of comments saying “But ahcktually liability insurance liability insurance insurance liability!” You will destroy any chance of success if you get caught on all that BEFORE you even start.

BREAKING NEWS: The tire industry recommends you always buy 4 tires, not 1-3. Also, my realtor just told me it’s a great time to buy a home and my barber thinks I need a haircut. Thought y’all should know.

This is the worst feature Tesla has ever shipped. As soon as we take over driving we have a popup to interact with? That never goes away! There’s no way they get good data from this. I always hit a different button out of spite. Not a fan of popups while driving. Who is?

The philosophers of tomorrow will just read AI outputs from a teleprompter app. It’s already happening. This guy is praised as a brilliant mind in the comment section.