I'm lost after going down from 200k$ to 70k$ need advice please !

Thank you Guys for all your words and advices i really appreciate !

Mike2005 said:

u need just traffic.
traffic = money

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i'm into something related now ! i hope it goes well !

PhilipLuc said:

hello guys!

tbh im a bit embarrassed to write this but im kinda at a point where i really need some outside advice...I've been trying to figure this out myself for quite a long time but lately i just feel pretty lost and i dont want to keep making the same mistakes

So from 2023 to 2025 i was running a business in a bit of a gray area and it worked really well with my skills in automation coding and marketing ;at some point i was making around 500$-1k/day and managed to accumulate around 200K$ ..

then things changed completely, during the last year the business became harder and harder until it basically stopped working. i kept trying to make the same business work again for months but honestly nothing really worked
during those 3 years i also spent around 130K$ on living expenses and failed projects and now im basically left with around 70K$

the biggest problem for me now isnt even just the money its more about my mindset i got used to making relatively easy money and sometimes making 500$ or 1k$ in a day going back to building something slowly and maybe making almost nothing for months became really difficult for me... , i started so many projects during the last year and left most of them half done cuz i would start thinking this probably wont work anyway and then move to something else,i feel like i lost the ability to focus on one thing and actually give it enough time

im a very technical guy with 9+ years of coding and automation experience and i also have pretty good knowledge in marketing
i could obviously go back to freelancing but ive done freelance basically most of my life and honestly i really dont want to go back to that for now ... i would love to build my own thing

so im looking for some advice from people who maybe went through something similar if you had around 70K$ left how would you approach rebuilding, what online business models are actually working these days

- is there any legit arbitrage opportunities that can be automated or coded
-if you had strong coding + automation + marketing skills what would you personally try to build ?
-would you invest some of the 70K or keep most of it while trying different things

and probably most importantly how do you fix your mindset after getting used to easy money im not looking for some magic get rich quick method, i know there is no guarantee and i probably need to rebuild properly from zero again i just feel really stuck right now and honestly pretty discouraged after spending so much time trying to make the old business work ...

i know i have skills and i know ive made money online before but somehow right now i feel completely lost and keep making bad decisions because i just want to get back to where i was Before

if anyone has been in a similar situation and managed to turn things around i would really appreciate hearing what you did even if you just have an idea or a business model i should look into or something you tried yourself

Anything that could give me a direction would honestly mean a lot right now, and again thanks to anyone who actually takes the time to read all this and give me some advice

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We have opposite problems. I'm a game developer (mobile games) who recently pivoted into the iGaming industry (online casino games) and have secured a publishing deal with Stake (the biggest crypto casino platform in the world). I pitched a concept to them for a new type of instant game that offers players an entirely new emotional/psychological experience. They loved it and now I'm in. Exciting stuff considering that I just pivoted like 6 months ago.

Before I pivoted, I ran a contract-based game studio, building skill based real-money games for the biggest game company in Israel (Papaya), among other mid-size companies, before Papaya shut down the new initiative i was helping them build (PLAY ON; think TikTok but for game competitions with real money on the line). In total, over roughly a year, I made ~$30k with a very high profit margin.

Then the tragedy happened. An African client exploited a benevolent contract-clause I gave them, allowing them to request a full refund if the game quality didn't meet their satisfaction. They changed priorities internally and decided to exploit me, after I spent 5 months grinding on the game. It was heart-breaking and I couldn't do anything about it because I legally gave them the power to do so, in good faith. That was around the same time when Papaya was also pivoting. Everything worked out terribly against me and I somehow ended up with $10k of debt.

No regrets! I'm 21, young, grateful for the learning experience, and charging forward with full hunger to rebuild what was lost and much, much, more.

Back to the present. I pivoted from mobile and skill based gaming into the casino industry after attending an iGaming expo earlier this year. In just a few months after this, I pitched a game concept to the biggest crypto gambling platform in the world, Stake dot com, and landed a deal with them. This is where I'm at currently.
Only issue is, I'm not in a good place financially rn and can't afford the tooling I need to complete the game, e.g Codex AI subscription.
I spoke to other independent developers (on Discord) who also got in and have published their unique games on Stake. There's one dude making $30k/month. I know another small studio making $50k/month. This is from their top game alone. I tried suggesting a partnership with one of them but he wants me to tell him my game concept before considering anything and I refuse to do that because then he can simply build it himself and screw me over.
The opportunity is surreal. It's my ticket out of my current financial situation and into real wealth. But I'm in a very funny situation because I'm sitting on an opportunity that can pull in tens of thousands of dollars passively each month (if gamblers love my game) while at the same time not being able to tap into it because I don't have money for AI coding subscription, art outsourcing, or even internet! (I'm literally using a friend's wifi rn).
Partnering with someone who can fund the development of the game with $500 ($200 AI coding subscription + $250 art outsourcing + $50 internet) would be ideal, but I'd rather not give out a share of recurring revenue of my game, for years, all for $500 capital.
I'm currently looking into finding a freelance game dev gig to raise the needed $500. But i must hurry! Because the online casino gaming industry moves very quickly.

If we can decide on a very fair (unexploitative) revenue split, we could work on this together. There's long term potential to release more games after this my initial star concept, and build a portfolio of unique titles on Stake pulling in massive revenue each month.

It's pretty funny to see us experience similar things (falling from grace) but end up in completely opposite situations (you have capital but no engine to multiply it; I have the engine but no capital to run it). Haha.

BlackHatWorld is a very interesting place indeed.