MidReal Story
Crafting Success: ECommerce Journey of Ambition
Scenario: Je veux écrire un livre sur comment générer de l’argent grâce à l’E-Commerce
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Tara Singh
cofounder of a successful online store, collaborates with Emily and Marcus, early 30s, creative and strategic.
Marcus Lee
seasoned ECommerce expert, mentor to Emily, late 30s, sharp and insightful.
Emily Carter
aspiring entrepreneur, friends with other protagonists, mid20s, ambitious and resourceful.
I lost my job during the pandemic.
I was devastated, but I didn’t give up.
Instead, I decided to start an online store selling handmade crafts.
I had no experience in ECommerce, so I attended a seminar where I met Marcus Lee, a seasoned ECommerce expert.
He offered to mentor me in exchange for equity.
I agreed and started working with him and his team.
With their help, I launched my online store and made my first sale within a week.
But it wasn’t easy.
I faced many challenges along the way, from marketing to sales to customer service.
Luckily, I had Marcus and his team by my side, guiding me every step of the way.
I also collaborated with Tara Singh, the cofounder of a successful online store in the same niche as mine.
Together, we came up with creative strategies to grow our businesses.
Chapter 1: Losing My Job
The first time I was ever laid off, I thought it was the end of the world.
It was only a few months after I graduated from college.
I was young, and I thought I had my whole life ahead of me.
I remember lying in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours, wondering what I was going to do with my life.
After a few days, I finally accepted my fate and started looking for another job.
But this time was different.
For one, I was older.
I turned twenty-five a few months ago, and I started to feel like time was running out.
Second, I really loved my job.
I worked as a graphic designer for a small creative agency.
I loved everything about it—the fast-paced environment, the creative freedom, and most of all, my coworkers.
We were like one big happy family.
So when the pandemic hit, and our office closed for good, I was devastated.
At first, I thought it wasn’t real—that it was just temporary.
But as the days turned into weeks, and then months, I started to lose hope.
I had been laid off before, but this time was different.
The world was in chaos, and no one knew what was going to happen next.
All I could do was wait and hope for the best.
But as time passed and nothing changed, I started to lose hope.
I began to realize that my job wasn’t coming back, at least not anytime soon.
And even if it did, it wouldn’t be the same as before.
The world had changed, and I needed to change with it—if I wanted to stay afloat.
As I grappled with this harsh reality, I realized how much my priorities had shifted over the past few years.
When I graduated from college with a degree in graphic design, I was convinced that being a designer was my calling—that it was what I was meant to do with my life.
But over the years, I started to have doubts.
I loved designing things, but working for someone else made me miserable.
I felt like I was always just another cog in the machine—never really appreciated or valued for my work.
And the worst part was that I wasn’t even allowed to be creative.
My boss always had the final say on everything, which left me feeling stifled and unfulfilled.
So instead of following my passion and starting my own design studio like I always wanted to, I decided to play it safe and get a regular job.
Looking back now, it’s clear that that was a mistake.
And if losing my job taught me anything, it’s that I needed to stop settling and start living up to my true potential—if I wanted to be happy and successful in life.
Since I had a lot of free time on my hands, I figured I might as well try to make some money—especially since I had bills to pay and no income to pay them.
I always loved the idea of starting an online store.
I’ve tried to do it a few times in the past with no success.
I would spend hours setting up the store and adding products only to realize that I had no idea how to get people to actually buy them.
It was beyond frustrating.
In the end, all I had to show for my efforts were a bunch of half-empty stores and a lot of wasted time and money.
I knew that there had to be a way to make online stores work.
After all, so many people were doing it successfully.
But I couldn’t figure out what the secret sauce was.
So when I heard about an ECommerce seminar happening in town, I knew I had to go.
I figured that if anyone could teach me the secrets of online success, it would be there.
The seminar was hosted by a well-known ECommerce guru who had made millions of dollars selling products online.
There were hundreds of people in attendance, all eager to learn how to make money online.
I remember feeling both inspired and intimidated as I looked around the room.
There were people of all ages and backgrounds—students looking to make a few extra bucks on the side, parents trying to support their families, and retirees looking to supplement their pensions.
Everyone was there for the same reason: to learn how to start an online store and make thousands of dollars every month—without ever having to leave their home.
As the seminar kicked off, the speaker introduced himself and shared his story of how he went from working a 9-5 job he hated to becoming a successful online entrepreneur who made more money than he ever dreamed possible.
He was funny and engaging and kept the audience hanging on his every word as he promised to reveal the secrets to online success that he had spent years learning the hard way so that we didn’t have to.
I remember being skeptical at first—thinking that there was no way he could give away his secrets for free—but I quickly changed my mind as he started to talk about what it really takes to make an online store work.
As he spoke, I realized that I had been going about it all wrong—I shouldn’t have been focusing on the products so much as the business model behind them.
That was my first mistake and probably the reason why I had failed in the past.
I had been so focused on what I was selling that I never stopped to think about how I was going to sell it.
I had been so busy trying to create a perfect store that I never stopped to think about how I was going to get people to visit it.
It sounded so obvious in hindsight, and yet, I had never thought of it before.
As I listened, I took notes on my phone, pausing every so often to check my bank balance, which was slowly but surely dwindling away.
I knew that if I didn’t do something soon, I would be in real trouble—and not just financially.
That’s when I saw him—the man who would change my life forever—looking at me from across the room with a curious expression on his face.
He was tall and lean, with short dark hair and piercing brown eyes that seemed to see right through me.
I felt myself blushing under his gaze, suddenly self-conscious of my appearance and situation.
I quickly looked away, hoping he hadn’t noticed me staring at my phone like an idiot.
The next thing I knew, he was standing in front of me, introducing himself as Marcus Lee—seasoned E-commerce expert, leader of an online store, and my soon-to-be mentor—with an offer I couldn’t refuse: he would let me learn his secrets and work with his team, as long as I promised to eventually do something for them—and do it for free in return for my education and experience—instead of charging them an upfront fee, as I had been planning to do all along if I ever managed to scrape together enough money for this harebrained scheme of mine.
I was taken aback by his offer, humbled, and stirred up by a mix of emotions all at once: anxiety, fear, excitement, gratitude, and confusion.
I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to say or how to respond.
It was like he had read my mind and knew everything about me, from my business idea to my financial struggles—and all the doubts and insecurities in between.
He knew that I couldn’t afford to spend any more money on yet another useless course, and yet, he also knew that I would never learn how to do this on my own—that I needed someone to show me the ropes and hold my hand every step of the way if I was ever going to succeed.
It was like he had known me my entire life and had been waiting for this moment to come along so that we could finally meet.
As I stood there, trying to process everything, Marcus smiled politely and pulled out his phone, as if he was getting ready to leave me alone with my thoughts, but I didn’t want him to go—not just yet—and I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind:
“How do I know if this is real?”
