I logged into my old Facebook account today. It had been 8 years.
The first thing I saw was a ghost town. My “Sales Goji Berry” & “Roolup piano” page was still there, frozen in time. I saw a list of contacts from 6 years ago—people I had added in a blind attempt to “grow my network”. I saw video posts about Goji berries and roll-up pianos, polished with marketing copy that nobody read, let alone cared about.
Back then, I was a “Salesman.”
My strategy was simple: Find a product, find a link, and spam it. I measured success by how many people clicked, but the math told a different story: I made a few sales, but once the costs were tallied, I was still firmly in the red.
Looking at those screenshots today, I didn’t feel shame. I felt clarity.
The Pivot
For years, I treated my business like a machine to extract sales. Now, I treat it like a garden.
- Then: I was looking for customers. Now: I’m looking for a community.
- Then: I was hiding behind a brand name (“Sales Goji Berry”). Now: I am building in public as myself (“Ordinary Man Trying”).
- Then: I used marketing fluff. Now: I use code, AI, and transparency.
I spent 6 years, 877 posts, and endless money on ads chasing a phantom. But that failure was the tuition I had to pay to understand what “value” actually looks like.
Why I’m Doing This (Again)
I’m starting over, but this time, I’m doing it with an AI-assisted roadmap and a 5-year experiment. No more spamming links. No more fake personas. Just a live log of how an ordinary person navigates an AI-driven future.
To my old contacts from 6 years ago: I’m sorry for the spam. If you’re still out there, I’d love to show you what I’m actually building now—something real.
I’m no longer hiding behind brand pages. If you’re curious about who is actually behind this experiment—or just want to connect on a human level—you can find me on Facebook here. I’d love to hear your story, too.
The “Archive of Abandoned Dreams”
As I dug deeper into my digital past, I found something even more humbling than my Facebook posts: my old YouTube channels.
Look at these.
I spent countless hours editing these videos, trying to “hack” the YouTube algorithm. I thought if I just posted enough content—whether it was sheet music for the roll-up piano—the traffic would eventually follow.
I was obsessed with the idea of being a creator, but I wasn’t actually creating anything of substance. I was just throwing noise into a digital void.
It’s painful to look at these numbers today. But honestly? I’m glad they still exist. They are the artifacts of my “blind-leading-the-blind” era. They remind me of a time when I was chasing numbers rather than solving problems.
Today, I’m done chasing algorithms. I’m just building things that are useful, one day at a time. The growth might be slower, but this time, it’s real.
If this story resonates, here’s one of the small tools I’ve built as part of this experiment: The Loneliness Test — 13 levels of solo activities, from shopping alone to going to surgery alone. See where you stop.
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