Is making a lot of money with poker, easier than other jobs, running a business, becoming a content creator, influencer, streamer, or an athlete or esports pro?
Poker vs Sports
Why do I think I have the authority to talk about in the first place? I have experience in all of them. I tried to become a football pro. I played for Energie Cottbus from 6-8 of age until I think I was 15 or 16. So I can tell you it takes a lot of time and sacrifice to make it as a football pro or any other sport. You have to be at the very top in order to make money from it, to live from it, and not just be a passion where you play in an almost neglectable league, let's say fifth or sixth league in football in Germany.
Now if you want to make it, you really have to sacrifice almost your entire youth or childhood. And I've seen it for myself. I've sacrificed a lot in my teenage years just to be a mediocre football player, and those who made it sacrificed even more. You're basically trading your youth for a potential high-paid job later on. And we're talking about here 10-15 years until you have a slight chance of reaping the fruits, usually with your first contract. Maybe it's an amateur contract at 17-18 where you start making some money, but usually people start playing football, taking football at the age of five, six, or seven. I started six or seven in the lowest or in the youngest youth leagues, and then from there on I try to grind my way up.
But you can already see the amount of time it takes to get to that level. If you compare that to poker, you can already start making money after one year of hard work, and you don't need to sacrifice your entire life. You can learn the game on the side while you have a job and make it a side income at the beginning, and then slowly grind your way up. You have a lot more room to integrate that into your life. It's still hard, don't get me wrong. You still need to sacrifice things. I'm not selling you magic pill, but comparing this with any other traditional sport, becoming an athlete, it's a joke.
Poker vs Chess
If you want to become really, really good at chess, how many people are really making money in chess? The top 10? The top 50? Top 100? So you want to become part of that, you probably have to grind your ass off for 5, 10, 15 years. And then compared to if you're at the top 100, top 50 in poker, you probably not even making a fraction of that with chess unless you're a chess superstar and sponsoring contracts, etc. But in order to get there, if you would spend that time into poker, you can make a lot more money a lot easier and a lot faster way.
You actually have no clue the opportunity you have with poker, and I don't care about your feelings and that poker, yeah, you're sitting in the basement. Yeah, as if it would be different with chess. And yes, you might make more valuable experience in meeting people, and it's a bit nerdy playing poker. Yeah, I get it. But I'm not talking about these soft factors. I'm just talking about making money faster, easier compared to all of these things. And some of you guys just care about, "Hey, I actually would like to break free from the 9-to-5 trap. I want to become my own boss and I want to make some money with poker." That's my goal, and that video is then for you to give you more confidence and open your eyes about all the other possibilities out there.
Poker vs Esports
Now let's compare it to becoming esports pro, which I would put a little bit higher on the ranking of making money with it or becoming successful. Let's say doing anything competitively online next to poker apart from chess.
But in esports pro, it's different. You don't need to spend 10 or 15 years to become good at something like video games and then compete at big tournaments for a lot of money. Yes, it's still hard. You need to be signed, you need to be scouted, you have to try out, you have to connect, you have to network, you have to get into those teams, you have to get into this ecosystem. But again, compared to football, compared to traditional sports, the obstacles are a lot less because you can just start playing today if you have a computer, if you have the game, and start making yourself a name.
It still takes quite some time, yes, but again, compared to football or we talk about 5, 10, 15 years or any other spot to become really, really good just have the slightest chance to get into the elite to make some money. It's a lot less. Literally with one or two years, it's possible.
I've seen players join the tier-one teams within one or two years of grinding their way up. Yes, it still requires sacrifice, but you can do it from home. You can still do it also on the side while you have a job or side job, and you are sacrificing a lot less, which is a huge advantage compared to traditional sports and athletes. Yes, I understand it's not necessarily good for your body. You're moving your body a lot less, you might be eating crap, but you can still be self-responsible about it. You can still work out on the side, you can still yield healthy. Again, I'm not talking about these soft factors. I'm just talking about what are the odds and how long does it take to make a lot of money with each of these things.
Poker vs Content Creator, Influencer, or Streamer
The next is content creator or influencer or streamer or whatever it is. Honestly, I think these days it's pretty easy to make viral content and make money from it, and it can happen pretty fast. The moment you start getting thousands of views, you can already make ad revenue, which might not be thousands per month, but you already start making money. And that's a huge advantage compared to anything else.
Obviously, it really depends on the platform. It depends on the form of content, type of content, and which industry you're in. The ad revenue in certain industries is higher compared to other industries, so this is something you need to be aware of. It doesn't take that long to become a Twitch partner or whatever platform it is, but there's one major downside that I will explain in a second.
But the advantage of doing something on social media is you can have all sorts of different revenue streams. You can have subscriptions, you can have ad revenue, you can have sponsorship integrations. Perhaps you can build communities, you can sell online courses, or whatever it is. So you can try out different things. Obviously, it also takes time. Usually, within a couple of months, it's pretty unrealistic. It's also a grind of one, two, three, sometimes four, sometimes four to five years. But usually, if you really find your niche, if there's really something you enjoy, whether it's you talk about a certain topic, you give tips, maybe it's more casual content, it's more entertainment, whatever it is, I don't really care, but here again, it's a lot faster.
Typically, if you do more on the educational side of things, you also have to educate yourself to feed your audience with new information, new trends, new insights, new tips, etc. So you educate yourself, you can combine your passion for something, whether it's talking about hummus or whether it's talking about strawberry jam, whether it's talking about some specific industries. I don't really care about history, about World War II, and you want to build a channel or whatever. Of course, with some, it's going to be easier, or you're going to be goofing around. You have a certain personality, a certain character.
I mean, these days, the opportunities are endless. You have a lot more possibilities. You should stick to something for a while and slowly build your audience. I mean, if you check YouTube, if you check the online sphere, whatever it is that interests you, go for it. Build an audience and start monetizing it, whether it's with ad revenue, whether you sell merchandise, that's also possible. Whether you want to make a course, maybe you want to teach people about relationships, whatever it is, and give good advice and help people. Start building an audience, and then you can start offering certain exclusive VIP or more premium advice or courses, whatever it is.
And here's the downside: if you purely focus on content creation, it sucks the life out of you if you don't do it right. I have met so many content creators and spoke to them, and luckily I did right from the beginning, that if you find something, and I'm talking mostly here about this entertaining kind of cringe that gets a lot of views, drama, scandals, all this kind of crap, you're becoming a slave to that content. And you will grow, you will get older, and at some point, you realize, is this really what I want to dedicate my life to? This s*** content, this nonsense content?
The problem is if you want to start doing different formats, people don't care, and the way the algorithm works, it pushes out to a test audience your follower. And if you have hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of followers that follow you for your trash content, yes, it gets a lot of views, it gets a lot of attention. Maybe you make decent money off the ad revenue. But one day, if you're tired of this and you want to make more serious content, you will pay the dues.
Poker vs Running Your Own Business
I think from all of these, it's the riskiest, but it has a lot of upsides such as educating yourself, and learning fundamentally important skills, whether it's sales, whether it's marketing, whether it's hiring, or working in a team. And obviously, the upsides are endless, as they are with poker as well.
I think the upsides with all of these are rather capped unless again, you're Cristiano Ronaldo. I already see the YouTube warriors, "Oh, but you're Cristiano Ronaldo." Yeah, of course, we all have these exceptional superstars in each of the industries, but they are not the norm, they are not the rule.
In these days, you can start your own business relatively risk-free. With traditional businesses where you have to rent a space, you have to buy the goods. It's a lot of risk, it's a lot of capital required. But for an online business, it's not. You can set up a lot of stuff for free these days, whether it's websites, whether it's graphics. A lot is possible with AI, and you can start running and operating your business.
And if you want to take it a little more seriously, if you want to get a little bit of a kickstart, you can invest thousands of dollars to get better designs or get a better website and so on and so forth, and spending money on ads. But you can get your products and services in front of hundreds of thousands of people with paid ads. You can start your social channels almost for free. Running paid ads is obviously not free, and you learn fundamentally important skills: how to set up ads, good copywriting, etc. It also takes time, don't get me wrong here. Compared to becoming esports pro or becoming influencer, I think it takes a lot more time. But I think the upsides, even if it doesn't work out within two or three years, is that you can then reinvest in different projects and then make money.
But an online business, if you start your product, if you start your services, you can also make money relatively quick. And if we talk about percentages here compared to poker, I would say 5 to 10% make money, are consistent winning players with poker. I think with business it's a little bit less. I think there were some statistics that nine out of 10 startups fail within the first one or two years. I think I've seen different statistics and different data, but I think it's pretty accurate.
So I think it's very similar to poker, but obviously then year two, year three, you have to follow up with trends, you have to release new products, you have to realign your business. It's very easy to make a lot of money in year one and year two, and then just get out of business in year three.
And poker, once you learn the game, obviously you still have to stay ahead with the trends and learn new concepts and sharpen your game. But usually, let's say if you have the fundamentals, if you're solid, if you really understand how to make money with poker, you're set for a very long time unless you start playing out of your bankroll. If you crush low-stakes and mid-stakes, and you really understand the solid preflop mechanics and how to operate post-flop, how to exploit your opponents, this is almost an evergreen concept.
You will also be able to do that within a couple of years. Obviously, the higher you get, the more competitive it gets, and the more you need to learn advanced concepts. But if you're humble, if you're modest, hey, just making 3, 4, 5K a month with grinding low stakes, mid-stakes, it's actually pretty easy. And if I compare that to business, until you get to the point to make 3, 4, 5 grand with a business in profit that ends on your bank account, that's quite a bit of work.
But still, it's a lot better than all the other endeavors, and I think especially these days with an online business, there is a lot less risk involved. And again, also if you apply bankroll management for operating and running a business, the same as for playing poker, the risk is almost neglectable if you do it the right way.
Those people who say you're pushing people into gambling addiction, you're doing this and that, no, you just have no f***ing clue how to do it in a professional way with proper bankroll management, to do it in a financially stable situation. We always advise to not play poker for real money if you're in a financially risky situation. If you don't take my teachings and my tips and think you can get out of your financially miserable situation, you shouldn't be doing it. You shouldn't open a business, it's way too much pressure, and you're not going to make rational decisions.
Watch the remaining few minutes on the Raise Your Edge channel.
