This creator made $4.2M last year.

All at a 98% profit margin with zero employees.

He spends 2 hours a day writing content.

And he’s amassed 3.6M online followers across all platforms.

Here’s Dan Koe’s story:

As a kid, Dan noticed something disturbing.

Misery, gloom, despondency.

Most people seemed unhappy with their jobs, income, relationships – everything.

So Dan made it his mission to avoid this grim fate.

“Do the exact opposite of everyone else.”

While most people vegged out watching TV, drowning in a toxic flood of mainstream media and news…

Dan read self-improvement books and went to the gym after school.

At college, Dan's goal was to work out how to avoid the 9-to-5.

First, he posted fitness videos on YouTube with a friend. 

One of their videos—a 10,000 calorie food challenge—gained 20,000 views. But he soon became bored and gave up after a few months.

The spoils of freshman-living saw Dan put his goals on ice. 

Partying and video games took precedence. 

Until one night, when he and some friends got arrested for smoking pot in a parking lot near his dorm complex.

Days later, he received a letter giving him 2 options:

1. Go to court and risk becoming a convicted felon, or

2. Pay $10K and pee in a cup for 6 months

This shook Dan to his core.

So he cleaned up his act and began self-educating like mad.

Around that time, he also picked up Photoshop.

He’d spend 6-8 hours every day editing images.

He posted his creations on Instagram and gained 2,500 followers. 

But after a few months, he lost interest and stopped.

Time at college was ticking by. Dan still needed to work out how to make money online.

After taking an online course, he launched a Facebook Ads agency, sent some cold emails, jumped on a couple of sales calls, then… gave up. 

He didn’t have the patience for it.

So he focused on something he knew well – EDM festivals. In a matter of days, he spun up a rave clothing Shopify store, sold one shiny bra, finally made his first dollar online, then…(yep, you guessed it)...

Gave up again.

But with every new business experiment, he was honing new skills.

What changed the game for him was taking an Intro to Web Development Course.

Attending college classes quickly became a thing of the past. Coding was his new obsession.

Here was a skill that could guarantee him a high-paying job whether he graduated or not.

After reaching out to friends and family, he got a couple of freelance gigs.

Meanwhile, his time at college was running out.

The $500 he’d made from freelancing wasn’t going to save him from the 9-to-5.

Desperate, Dan pitched his Dad a half-baked business idea in an effort to borrow some money. 

His Dad lent him a few thousand bucks out of pity.

The plan was to sell blue light glasses. 

He took product pictures, launched on Shopify, ran some Facebook Ads, and paid some influencers to promote his product.

He threw everything at it, including his Dad’s loan.

But it flopped. 

I’m doomed, he thought.

With no other option, Dan got a job at a web design agency. He used his income to launch another e-commerce product – minimalist wallets. 

Another flop. Zero sales. More money up in flames.

So Dan pivoted back to freelancing.

He tried everything to get clients, including:

• LinkedIn prospecting

• Walking into local businesses, and

• Reaching out to his network (again)

He switched from offering web dev services to building simple service funnels.

He was now solving a more urgent and valuable business problem, going from… 

I’ll build you a pretty website → I’ll get you customers. 

With that, he raised his prices and soon quit his agency job.

Around that time, he started posting on Twitter (X).

Despite his list of business failures, Dan’s skill base was growing.

Graphic design, marketing, sales, web development, freelancing.

So he packaged up everything he’d learned into a digital product.

It added another $3K/m to his freelance income. All with only 500 followers.

“Solve your own problems and sell the solution”

By leveraging the audiences of big Twitter accounts, he grew his own.

He then created a 2nd digital product, teaching people how to create websites. 

Then a 3rd, after reaching 10K on Twitter.

By this time, Dan’s digital products were earning him 6-figures a year.

So he replaced his time-consuming freelance work with consulting.

This freed him to work on yet more digital products.

He soon bundled all his previous products into what became Modern Mastery.

This product, combined with his consultancy work, helped Dan hit his first $50K month.

And since then, Dan’s income and audience have exploded.

Today, Dan has:

• Amassed 3.6M followers across all platforms (w/150K on LinkedIn)

• Made over $4.2M as a one-person business

• Authored a book titled The Art of Focus

And he’s recently launched Kortex, a knowledge management system for creators.

Dan’s story is one of trial and error. It shows what’s possible from walking an unconventional path.

And he’s on a mission to help others find meaning by bringing their own ideal futures into reality.