Re: Finding new ideas before they become \"big\"
Carving out a piece from a big nongrowing industry is alot harder than entering a new growing industry. In a low growth industry everyone is going after the same piece of the pie, and they won't just give up their 1% willingly. In growth industries, everyone is profiting and growing because of the growth.
I have seen several trends come and go where people made a ton of money for little or no work, but where I learned about it too late. This includes simple things like Alladvantage/casino bonuses that people gamed to get a few grand/month as well as bigger opportunities like poker.
IMO, the critical aspect to finding the 'next thing' is being part of many communities and keeping your eyes open. the worst thing you can do is keeping the same surroundings. For example, I used to only read Fatwallet.com and I never learned about poker/casino stuff because they don't allow posting of gambling related things. Likewise, if you only read 2+2, you are unlikely to learn about things that are not interesting to most poker players.
Now the question is, which communities/newsites are at the forefront of big waves. I wish I knew. I do read techcrunch.com - a blog about new startups and VC - and fatwallet.com, but not much else. I would like to hear some suggestions as well, and perhaps stories of others and how they found their big thing in the past.
Lastly, about 'passive income'. PI as a concept is great, but most people get to passive income through active income. They work, then they invest, and then live off their investments. If you hit one or two hot things, you can make your 1 million and at that point simple investments will get you 80-120K/year in income. That's as passive as it gets. It's not balla money, but it's decent money to live in most places on earth. Or you build your business to the point where it runs itself/pay someone to run it, but it's still alot of work early to get to PI at the end. I guess my point is to pursue income and opportunities, and not worry about PI as that will be the result anyway.
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