This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Welcome to a brand new week of the program. It is the fall, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, middle of September, leaves are changing, students are going back to school, et cetera. Now we're actually gonna talk about going back to school today in the program, or at least we're gonna talk about getting into college. I'm really excited about this story. It is all about an overachiever who painstakingly learns to earn a perfect score on the SAT exam.
He does this at age 17, and then shares his wisdom with other students. Beginning with local classes in Nevada, he then transitions to online classes, allowing him the freedom to not be tied in one place. Now I just called him an overachiever. You're like, what's that about? Well, in addition to the perfect SAT score, he's also in training to become a doctor and runs this little $20 million business on the side.
That is correct. I'm talking about an eight figure side hustle that a college student who's now preparing to become a dermatologist runs in his spare time. More on that in a moment. And why is test prep such a big industry? He's doing tutoring.
There's all kinds of courses and resources out there for people who are trying to achieve a better score on the SAT or ACT or some other exam. Well, as we have seen in the USC application scandal or the other college application scandals where parents have been paying large amounts of money, essentially as bribes, or getting other people to take their students tests, all because they're desperate to get their kids into what they believe are the most desirable colleges. Now, I actually think there's a better way for the majority of people. It's essentially a Hunger Games style competition among elites, but that's not what this is about, at least not this story. You're probably not here to hear my editorial comments on all this kind of stuff, or you might be, but still it's my job to deliver a story, practical details, inspiration and tips, guidance perhaps to get you on the path to your side hustle, your income generating project.
This story is about a perfect SAT score that leads to a $20 million standardized test prep business for a young medical student. I'll tell you all about how he makes it happen. Right after this, shout out to our sponsor. [Music]
Sean Patel took the SATs for the first time when he was 15 years old. When he got his results back, he wasn't satisfied.
Despite receiving a score close to 1,700, Sean wanted to do much better. He had big dreams of earning a place in a college's combined Bachelor of Arts and MD program. But most students who were accepted into those programs scored closer to 2,200, nearly 500 points higher than his score. He took the test a second time, but didn't do much better. Of course, he was only 15.
Sean knew that there was an obvious way for him to improve his score. It's a crazy idea, really wild creative approach. It was to study for the exam. Those first few times, he only studied the week before the test. He arrived feeling underprepared and nervous.
Not wanting to fall back into his old habits, Sean locked himself up in the library, combed through SAT prep material for hours, and took as many practice exams as he could find. Finally, when the day of the test came once again, he felt calm and collected. He knew he was ready. And that day, at 17 years old, Sean scored a 2,400, otherwise known as a perfect scorer. That score did exactly what he hoped it would.
He was accepted into all of his top college choices, including programs at Brown, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins. He ultimately decided to attend the University of Southern California, where he was granted a full scholarship. Sean was amazed with all the opportunities that opened up to him just with his SAT score. He says that he wasn't a genius, he only became an expert on the test itself. He also believed he could help other students dramatically improve their scores.
So he decided to write an SAT prep book. Once he compiled some material, he began pitching that book to all kinds of literary agents and publishers. He pitched the book nearly 100 times, but was rejected over and over. Everyone told him that the SAT prep book industry was too competitive, and that he wasn't known enough to stand out in the market. So with that, Sean gave up on the book idea.
But he still had all the material he'd compiled, and wanted to make sure that it didn't go to waste. That's when he thought about starting his own SAT tutoring business. He'd had a little experience with tutoring people in high school, so the first thing he did was to advertise by sticking flyers on cars in high school parking lots. When that proved ineffective, Sean decided to create a website advertising his services, guessing correctly that he could reach more people online than just in a parking lot. He then optimized its pages for the search term Las Vegas SAT Prep.
From there, he ran his first six-week pilot course with 18 students. After those six weeks, their average score increased by 376 points. Pretty soon, other parents were knocking on his door. It became too much for him to handle, so he started training other tutors with his methods. He charged $1,500 for each six-week course.
To determine his pricing, he took the 60 hours it took to complete the course and multiplied it by $25. So essentially, he was charging $25 an hour, which he says is much cheaper than most tutors. Of course, he was running that class with 18 students, so you multiply 18 students times $25 an hour, he's actually earning $450 an hour, which is, I'm pretty sure, a lot more than most tutors. Now, at first, Sean was only tutoring students when he was home from college for summer or winter break, but he had so many people asking for help that he decided to transition to online classes. That way, he wouldn't be limited to working with his new business, which was now called Prep Expert in person.
As time went on, Sean continued to build up his business. He was even able to go on Shark Tank and pitch his ideas to the investors. Mark Cuban invested $250,000 for 20% equity, and since then, the business has grown exponentially. In fact, in the three years since, total profits have increased from $1 million to $20 million. Again, this is all while he is going to school full-time, and not just going to school full-time, but he's in this difficult competitive program.
So how did he do it? Well, Sean says that the key to his success was investing the money he received in people. With that money from Shark Tank and all the sales that were already coming in, he built a customer service team, hired digital marketers, website designers and developers, and better full-time instructors. Once again, all while he is going to school full-time. So what's his advice?
He says a lot of people have great business ideas, but only a select few make strides to implement those ideas in real life. He also notes that side hustles have the word hustle in them for a reason. So you should be prepared to give up weekends and free time to make your business run, at least at first. With his devotion to creating his business around something he was an expert in, Sean has been able to create a test prep empire and help thousands of students. He plans to continue building out prep expert while he completes his residency and begins a full-time career as a dermatologist.
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So in this story, I mentioned something about how Sean was amazed with all the opportunities opened up to him because of his SAT score. He also says that he wasn't a genius, he just became an expert on the test itself. I thought that was interesting. You know, it might be questionable actually about him being a genius. It sounds like he's pretty smart.
Let's say that, you know, to get the perfect score and to do all this stuff as well while he's going to school, et cetera. But I get the concept of, you know, it's not so much about becoming, you know, extremely intelligent or extremely skilled and knowledgeable about every topic in the world. It's about understanding how can I hack this specific process? And when you do test prep, you understand, okay, here's why, you know, they're asking the question this way. When the question is phrased this way, the most likely answer is, you know, such and such.
So these are the tools and tactics and like ways of thinking that you learn when you go through those kinds of courses and resources. So, you know, for me, as someone who is definitely not a genius, like no question, I'm drawn to finding alternative ways to accomplish big goals. You know, so for me, it's like, I know I'm not gonna get the perfect score in the SAT. For me, if I was in this situation, you know, going back 20 years and I really wanted to go to a school like USC or Johns Hopkins. And, you know, I would be asking myself, what's another way to get into that program?
You know, and again, I guess in this day and age, we should say legal, ethical way, not a college admission scandal, but what's another way to get into a desirable program when I know I'm not gonna be able to get a perfect score? You know, there has to be an alternative path. You know, it could be through experience. It could be through service. It could be through standing out some other way because there's gonna be all kinds of people who are getting really good scores.
And, you know, have the best traditional CV or application. Alternatively, you could flip the question and say, okay, what's another way to thrive and succeed in life without going to a school like that in the first place? What do I ultimately want? Do I want the status and prestige, you know, perceived status and perceived prestige that comes from going to a program like that? Or is it that I really think it's going to open up doors, you know, and lead me to a promising career?
Is there another way to get to that promising career, perhaps even sooner than, you know, following that traditional path? If you can learn to ask why questions, like why are we doing it this way? Why is it done this way? What can I learn from this process? Is there another way, et cetera?
It can only benefit you. That can open up opportunities for you as well, including side hustle opportunities, including ways to make extra money and create freedom for yourself, which is what this program is still all about every single day, core mission, after nearly a thousand episodes. And I'm so glad that you are taking the time to invest in yourself each day and ask yourself some of those questions about what you're working toward and what your next step is. All right, today's show notes. All right, sidehustleschool.com/996.
The new book from Chase Jarvis Creative Calling is out tomorrow. Chase is a good friend of mine. I highly recommend this book. Go and check it out at your local bookstore or your favorite online retailer, Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis. I'll be back again tomorrow.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
