It is almost my 45th birthday, and the math is sobering. My insurance agent's actuarial table says I will live to 87, accounting for the fact that I am a non-smoker with a family history of pancreatic cancer who has already survived to 45. Half my life is behind me. So I figure I should spend as much of the remaining half as possible doing things I love.
This morning I stopped to meet one of my old mentors and his wife at their regular bagel shop. I arrived early, ordered a coffee and a bagel, and sat alone with my thoughts about family, gratitude, and the quiet luxury of time that belongs entirely to you. It was 6 AM. My day job could wait. I was self-medicating with a warm caffeinated beverage and deep thoughts.
The whole experience made me think how nice it would be to be a bagel shop blogger.
I snapped a picture of the counter, uploaded it to WordPress, and started writing.
The Rich Guys at Starbucks
Years ago, when my oldest kids were in elementary school, I used to drop them off and grab a coffee at Starbucks on my way to work. By 8 AM I was standing in line checking emails on my phone, feeling guilty about not being early to the office. That Starbucks was in a wealthy part of Dallas, and in Dallas, “wealthy” means real money. Guys in khaki shorts and button-down collar shirts wearing loafers from Neiman Marcus with no socks. In many cases, the loafers cost more than my laptop.
I used to wonder: what do those guys do for a living? They were sitting around in their fancy casual clothes chatting about the weather while I was late for work. How cool would it be to have that kind of freedom and independence?
I wonder how many of them were bagel shop bloggers taking a coffee break.
Why Internet Business Is Different
It is a serious question. Internet business models are one of the few ways you can make money that scales mostly independent of hours and employees. Consulting is great, but eventually you run out of hours in the day. My day job is great, but there are real limits to how much money I can make there. I could open a donut shop, but to make real money I would need 10 donut shops, employees, and a bunch of capital.
Internet business is different. It is not easy money — nobody should confuse scalable with simple. But the potential to scale is essentially limitless. Constraints are generally not geographic. Most internet businesses are automation-friendly. And that is what makes the model so compelling for anyone who wants to build something that works while they are sitting in a bagel shop at 6 AM, enjoying a cup of coffee and the quiet luxury of owning their own time.
What's Changed Since This Post
Mark wrote this in 2013, and the vision of location-independent entrepreneurship he describes has gone from aspirational outlier to mainstream career path.
The creator economy has made the “bagel shop blogger” lifestyle accessible to millions. Platforms like Substack, YouTube, podcast hosting services, and Shopify have dramatically lowered the barriers to building a scalable online business. The guys in the Starbucks that Mark wondered about in the mid-2000s are now joined by a generation of remote workers, content creators, and digital entrepreneurs who genuinely do run their businesses from coffee shops.
Remote work went mainstream after 2020. What used to be an unusual perk is now standard practice across industries. The pandemic compressed a decade of cultural change into two years, normalizing the idea that productive work does not require a commute or an office.
The tools have caught up to the vision. In 2013, building an internet business still required meaningful technical skill. In 2026, no-code platforms, AI writing assistants, automated marketing tools, and drag-and-drop website builders mean that the gap between “I have an idea” and “I have a business” is smaller than ever. The fundamental insight Mark shares here — that internet businesses scale without proportional increases in time, employees, or capital — remains the core economic advantage of building online.
Hey Mark;
Loved this article — and love the fact that you stay in contact with your mentors.
I too see these “independently wealthy people” milling about in coffee shops. They can’t all be internet marketers, can they?
Keep up the good work,
Jill
Thanks Jill — mentors are critical to accelerate growth in any business (corporate or solo) — but these two are pretty special.
I agree that all of these people cannot be online marketers. In the area of town I was referring to in the post above, I am thinking that there were several “trust fund babies” as well.
Thanks for the comment,
Mark
“Trust fund babies.” Yeah… I know a few of those who run their own business – very little profit – but are convinced they’re self-made people. LOL. Not that I have class envy – I’m sure I’d be a slacker if I had an account full of money.
It would be nice to find out — that’s for sure.
This was a great article. LOL 45 is not old. We are just starting to live our lives at 45 🙂
Thanks Alexis. Sometimes I feel really old — but not today!
Marc,
That was a great article! I feel you dream to be independent, I feel it because I have the same dream!
While reading you article I realized that “having the same dream” is a great way to connect to your audience. Keep up the good work, stay focused on your goal, one day you’ll achieve it!
Cheers,
Marc
Thanks Marc. Appreciate the feedback.
“So since my life is almost half done, I figure I should spend as much of it as possible doing stuff that I love.” – Unfortunately doing some of those things could shorten my life!
‘So since my life is almost half done, I figure I should spend as much of it as possible doing stuff that I love.’ – Unfortunately doing some of that could shorten my life!
Mark – serious question about this. Do you think successful bloggers discovered a niche and seized upon it or were they just in the right cyber place and the right time? I believe circumstances breed bloggers, not vice versa. It takes social, political, business, societal change to drive new bloggers – but blogger don’t create change. Thoughts?
Hi Mark,
First of all, great blog. I actually found you through researching podcasting, where you were actually one of my research subjects. I actually thought I would be one of the first to do a podcast on Internet Marketing, but it seems quite a few of you have beaten me to it – by a number of years!
It is actually incredible how I have found some of you – people like yourself, Joey Kissimee, Cliff Ravenscraft and Patt Flyn – without the podcasts, I wouldn’t have heard of you guys maybe.
I have had my blog for 7 months now. I talk about the mistakes I have made when I started my first blog, the incredible journey and earnings my eBooks and membership sites have brought me, and various other journeys such as affiliate marketing, list building – in fact, everything to do with Earning Money Online.
I just want to say that this post has been the most influential in establishing a connection with you. So many blogs make the mistake of talking about generic things – actually, such a post makes me want to know more about you and your life, which I think is an essential ingredient in building trust. It is something that I started from my early postings – talking about my battle with my weight (and how running has transformed me), and talking about something that made me very unhappy and down back in March (which was at one time, the most viewed/commented on post, despite it having nothing to do with IM).
So congratulations on an excellent podcast series, a great blog and being a ‘genuine’ guy in an industry where so many are just trying to get a click on a link here, there and everywhere.
All the best,
Richard Martin