Tucker Findley was 9 years old and failing in school. He had both dyslexia and dyscalculia, which prevented him from both reading or counting. Everyone was concerned about his future. Tucker's family lives in Virginia with a stream flowing by their backyard. That stream also goes through 2 public golf courses. He kept finding golf balls by the stream. At first he just grabbed them because he liked them. Then an idea hit him. What if I sold them? He cleaned the balls up and listed them on facebook marketplace at a $1 a ball. He sold all 2000 in 3 days. His dad Ryan was blown away. He talked to his son a little about business. As the COO for a payroll company he fully understood how this could grow.
Tucker made the tough business decision to reinvest every penny of that money into his new business. He hired kids to clean the balls at 5 cents a ball. He bought a kayak to go further out and get more balls. He would also look at local yard sales for used golf balls. "One time I bought 2000 balls for 100 bucks".
Tucker was also obsessed with the shows American Pickers and Antique Roadshow. Because of that he started expanding from used golf balls to antique toys. He bought a few and flipped them on Facebook marketplace. He felt like his shift to antiques required a different platform so he asked his dad to help him launch an E-bay store. Ryan's response? "I said what in the world is that"? Once Tucker explained that ebay has a world wide audience while Facebook is geared more for people who can pick up the item, meaning rare unusual items should sell for more on ebay. Dad figured out how to start a store. Ryan said it works because Tucker has a great eye. “He would buy things that were sitting at flea markets for like $10. He’d put them on his ebay store for $100 and it would sell in five minutes. He bought a BMX bike frame missing a wheel and other parts for $6, then sold the individual bike parts for $500. He bought 600 sports cards for $1000 and sold them the next day for $20,000!"
Tucker was earning more than his dad by the time he was 12. Today when he livestreams auctions he averages 5 grand an hour. His business is now a multi million dollar business and he's only 14. The big takeaway according to Tucker is "find what you’re good at, not focus on what you’re bad at. I'm happy now, but it's not because of the money, it's because I'm good at something".