On my Zero to Hero journey, the goal is simple: start with zero dollars and build a Growth Fund that compounds into something meaningful. This is not about paying a car payment or covering dinner. It’s about building capital. Real capital. The kind that can eventually buy assets like property, rentals, or small cash-flow businesses.
eBay flipping has been the primary engine funding this account so far. That’s where most of the real dollars are coming from. But I’m constantly testing smaller, low-effort side hustles that can drip money into the system. Focus groups. Surveys. Random opportunities that most people ignore. Recently, one of those showed up in my mailbox.
A few weeks ago, I received an invitation to participate in Google’s Device Usage Study. There was a QR code inside. Scan it, install their VPN, and you immediately receive a $30 gift card. After that, you earn ongoing rewards for continued participation. I signed up. Within five days, I earned another $6, bringing the total to $36.
Now let’s talk about the obvious concern: privacy.
The study works by routing your device traffic through their VPN so they can observe usage patterns. From a privacy standpoint, it’s not ideal. I’m not a huge fan of the concept. However, the app makes it very easy to pause transmission at any time. If I’m doing anything sensitive or private, I simply disable it temporarily. That balance is something each person has to evaluate for themselves.
But here’s the real point of this post.
Most people would take that $36 and treat it like found money. Go to lunch. Buy something random. Spend it because it feels free. And there’s nothing wrong with that if your goal is convenience.
But my goal right now is compounding.
Instead of spending the $36, I convert it. If I redeem an Amazon or Walmart gift card, my household buys the gift card from me at face value. I take the $36 in cash and deposit it directly into the Growth Fund. That money then becomes investable capital.
It’s not about the $36.
It’s about the mindset.
The difference between spending and compounding is everything. One path gives you a short-term reward. The other builds optionality. That $36 could sit in a brokerage account and potentially grow. It could be used for a small swing trade. It could stack with other small wins from flipping, surveys, and side hustles.
This is what Zero to Hero is really about. Finding money in places most people overlook and redirecting it into assets instead of consumption.
I could take my wife to lunch with that $36. That would be fine. But if I can turn that $36 into $50, then $75, then $150 over time, now we’re talking about leverage.
That’s the game.
The Growth Fund is not built from massive windfalls. It’s built from consistency. From flipping items. From testing side hustles. From compounding gift cards. From making small decisions differently.
Zero to Hero isn’t flashy.
It’s disciplined.