Whre I Started
I'm Othmane from Morocco. Not exactly a tech hub. But I had a laptop and a hunger to make money online.
Dropshipping seemed obvious. Sell what you don't have. Ship it when you get paid. What could go wrong?
A lot, it turns out.
Venture 1: eBay Dropshipping
I studied the materials. Applied what I learned. Started shipping products from Amazon to eBay buyers.
I made sales. Decent ones.
But I made no profit.
Here's what I learned too late: this model is for people with deep pockets. You build a strong rating profile. You establish reliable shipping. Then you create a mini-monopoly in your niche.
The problem? I had a lot of things going for me. Deep pockets wasn't one of them.
It wasn't a discipline issue. I wasn't stupid. It was simply the wrong model for my situation.
Venture 2: Affiliate Marketing
Next I tried affiliate marketing.
Being from Morocco created a problem. My local market was too small. To make real money, I had to go faceless and target international audiences.
It never gained traction.
I should mention something here. Throughout all these ventures, I was deep into self-help. Reading constantly. Watching endless content. Absorbing advice.
That consumption wasn't enough.
At a young age, you don't know when self-help shifts from being your ally to pulling you into fantasy land. The line is blurry. I crossed it without realizing.
Venture 3: Shopify Dropshipping
By this point, I had started freelancing. I was making around $3,500 USD per month. Pretty solid income where I live.
Maybe self-help wasn't all bad. It just doesn't give you the perfect picture you imagine.
I had funds now. So I invested them into Shopify dropshipping. Running Facebook ads. Testing products. Chasing winners.
My mistake? Targeting the big 5 countries in 2018.
I was late to the party. CPMs were sky-high. Conversions were rare. I burned through $5,000 with almost nothing to show for it.
But the money wasn't the worst part.
This business model is exhausting. I mean truly draining.
Every day looked the same: → Hours of product research with no clear criteria → Should I find a revolutionary product that's hard to market? → Or a simple product that's already been burned? → Building and updating product pages daily → Creating ad creatives before AI made it easy → Writing copy for everything
This is agency-level work. Company-level effort. And I was doing it alone with zero prior experience.
The only way to get that experience? Burn your funds and learn from the ashes.
Venture 4: The Dutch Market Pivot
I didn't quit. I pivoted.
Same business model. Different market. I targeted the Netherlands specifically. A smaller pond. Less competition. Or so I thought.
Two months. Another $5,000 in ads and tools. Almost no revenue.
That's when the realization hit me.
This business model requires effort more than leverage. It demands constant willpower. And willpower always breaks eventually. The machine needs you to keep feeding it. The moment you stop, it stops.
I needed something different. Something that could run without me pushing every single day.
The Insight That Changed Everything
During my years of consuming self-help, I came across Scott Adams' skill-stacking system.
The idea is simple. Identify the skills you have. Find the ones that, when merged together, create something unique. Something only you can offer.
I asked myself: when am I at my strongest?
The answer was clear: → Solving puzzles → Designing flows → Building dashboards → Creating systems
I remembered my time working as a product specialist for ShipStation. This was before AI existed. It was a SaaS automation company later bought by USPS.
Marketing was interesting to me. But I always looked at it from a metrics angle. Numbers. Patterns. Systems.
The truth became obvious.
I'm not built for manual hustle. I'm built for automation and distribution.
The New Model
I capitalized on that insight. The timing couldn't have been better.
AI automation had arrived.
Suddenly I could create workflows that did the same tasks as entire SaaS companies. The tools existed. The demand was there. And my skillset was perfectly matched.
This model works differently: → Marketing becomes distribution → Automation becomes durability → The system runs without constant willpower
I started landing clients with this approach. Real clients paying real money.
Turns out maybe I didn't need 10,000 Shopify sales. Maybe I just needed the right offer for the right people.
Bringing It Full Circle
Looking back at my shortest venture—affiliate marketing—I realized something.
That skill is still in my stack. I just applied it wrong the first time.
Now I want to capitalize on it properly. By building in public. By doing it the right way.
What I'm Building Now
I'm building Linear-Stack in public.
Every week I ship a workflow breakdown: → The template → What broke → How I fixed it
Completely free.
This isn't about hoarding knowledge. It's about showing the work. The real work. The messy parts included.
If you're a builder, you'll probably like this.
The Lesson
Five ventures. Years of effort. Thousands of dollars burned.
All of it taught me one thing:
The right model for someone else might be the wrong model for you. Your job isn't to force yourself into a business that fights your nature. Your job is to find the model that fits how you're already wired.
I was never bad at business. I was just playing games designed for different players.
Now I play my own game.
