I wasted my first $10k month

March 24, 2026

Hey there,

I was 17 when I hit my first $10k month.

Grid, my puzzle game app, was crushing it. 50,000 downloads in one month. $10k in ad revenue.

Back then, nobody knew about onboarding or subscription-based apps. It wasn't a thing yet.

But I was a high school kid printing money from my mobile game.

And I blew every single dollar.

I didn't reinvest a cent, didn't hire anyone, didn't scale the ads, didn't save any of it. 

Just spent it all on dumb stuff.

Looking back, that was the dumbest financial decision I've ever made. 

I could've taken Grid so much further. I could've built a real business at 17. Instead, I treated it like a lottery win.

But that $10k month changed everything because it gave me something no amount of advice could have:

Proof that it was actually possible.

Before Grid, I'd tried drop shipping hoverboards. That business completely blew up because of shipping times. I learned e-commerce was a terrible business model.

But apps? Apps worked.

And after that first $10k month, I was hooked forever. There was nothing else I was ever going to do.

So my lesson isn't "save your money" or "reinvest everything."

My lesson is: get your proof moment as fast as possible.

Build something, launch it, get one paying customer, hit your first $1k month. Your first $10k month.

Once you see a real number hit your account from something you built, the question stops being "can I do this?" and becomes "how far can I take it?"

Peace,
Steven