FBC – 87 – Learn On Somebody Else’s Money

Learn On Somebody Else's Money.

Hey guys, today you have a unique opportunity to learn on MY money. Basically you get years of research, and $50k+ spend it trying, testing and evaluating products, FOR FREE!

You can find the list of all the tools I use on this page: martinebongue.com/resources/

Not only will I tell you WHAT I use, but also WHY I use them and this is gold.

click here to check the list: martinebongue.com/resources/

So to day I wanted to give you some news about what I was testing. I was testing some stuff with Reddit which is only available in the US. I mean from here in Bali I can't use Reddit. If have to use a VPN.

And I was testing a new strategy to be able to get some traffic out of Reddit. And as I said you know on paper everything looks good. But when you try it sometimes it doesn't work. So in this case it didn't work. But I'm going to keep trying because some people are actually doing it.

So I will I will try to find a way. OK. So I was a little bit disappointed. When you've put in so many hours and then you try and it doesn't work but you know I just see it as like feedback from the market right as to whether it works or not.

And just like a learning experience this is how it works. You know this is something people don't understand. They think that whatever you try is just going to magically work and if that was the case I would have like trillions of dollars.

You know not everything works. So you need to circle back and try to analyse and try something else which is what I'm going to do.

Learn On Somebody Else's Money

So today I wanted to give you some sort of like a gift.

Many people always ask me how do I do this and how do I do that and what tools do I use? I might be repeating myself but I think I told you that on numerous occasions the tools are just as good as your strategy.

So the first lesson is that if you get five minutes with a millionaire or a billionaire or something, don't ask them what tool they're using. Please don't. Okay. You ask them what their strategy is. The strategy is very important. That's the most important thing. Strategy is the most important thing.

And then afterwards the tools are going to complement that strategy and make the strategy easier to implement. That's all it is. Right. So don't focus too much on the tools if you have five minutes with you know like a mentor a like a millionaire a billionaire.

So the strategy is the most important thing. So that's very important you need to understand this. Once you have a strategy then the tools are going to be super handy. All right. Because they will automate for example whatever you're trying to do. and make it easier. All right.

And as I explained every tool that I use is integrated in a strategy of mine. I don't choose tools randomly. Right. So there are different steps in your strategy you know step one that I know you get a client and afterward you send them to this and blah blah. OK. So you lay that out all right. And now your job is how are you going to implement that strategy?

And what I recommend is you break it down into different steps and you basically try to figure out how can I make this step easier? This is going to do two things. Make your life ten times easier because you know these tools are going to automate you know pretty much everything so it saves you time.

But also you're not going to take like random tools and stuff. These are going to make your strategy even better because if you find the right tools then you're going to do that 24/7 instead of you doing it like three hours a day.

So this is the reason why I'm going to put the direct link to that page on my website where I listed all the tools that I use personally in my business which integrate in my strategy. None of these tools have been picked by accident OK. They all integrate in my strategy.

So I listed every each and every one of them for you. And what I did as well is that I recorded a video for each and every one of them to tell you where it fits my strategy so that it can help you. And it helps me as well because I'm sick and tired of repeating the same thing. Right. So you can have a look at there is this link.

And this is the selection of the best tools that I've bought myself that I'm paying subscriptions or something for and I'm giving that to you so that you don't have to spend time and money needlessly.

So you're saving a lot of money by having a look at this list of tools.

About the Author

Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches, from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms, while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does learning on somebody else's money mean for entrepreneurs?

Getting paid to acquire skills instead of paying for them. Working a corporate job, freelancing, or running a low-stakes service business while you learn marketing, sales, and operations on someone else's payroll funds the education. The training cost is zero and the salary is a stipend during your apprenticeship.

How do you structure a job to maximize entrepreneur learning?

Pick roles with broad scope at small companies over narrow roles at large ones. A marketing seat at a 20-person startup teaches more in 18 months than a specialist seat at a 5,000-person corporation teaches in five years. Optimize for surface area, exposure, and proximity to revenue decisions.

What skills are best learned on someone else's payroll?

Sales conversations, paid acquisition, hiring, customer support, and basic finance. Each of these would cost 10,000 to 50,000 dollars in courses or coaching, and most beginners never apply the lessons because they have no live context. A job gives you the context for free, with feedback baked in.

When should you stop learning on someone else's money and start your own business?

When the job stops teaching you something new every quarter and your savings cover six months of expenses. Most founders leave too early on enthusiasm or too late on comfort. The cleanest signal is repeated boredom plus financial runway, not motivation alone.

Further reading

• LinkedIn Newsletter (Diary of a Virtual CEO): operational tactics covered weekly in the LinkedIn Newsletter (Diary of a Virtual CEO).
• Martin's story page: the full origin story on Martin's story page.
• HubSpot Blog: sales and marketing benchmarks on the HubSpot Blog.
• Harvard Business Review: research on solo and founder-led operations from Harvard Business Review.