A story in seven chapters

How Amazon
gave me my life back.

- Jakub

Scroll to begin

Chapter 01

The Early Hustle

I was always the kid with a hustle.

From a young age, I was obsessed with making my own money. I always had a passion for the hustle. I was always looking for the next opportunity to build something and see a return on my effort.

In school, it started small - selling sweets and loom bands out of my backpack to classmates. As I got older, the hustle scaled. I was flipping bottles of KSI's Prime at the height of the craze and selling phone cases on eBay.

I didn’t just want a job; I wanted to control my own time and income. I had the spirit of a young entrepreneur long before I knew what the word meant.

[IMAGE: Young Jakub with his early hustle, b&w, candid]

Chapter 02

The corporate world

AJ Bell · 2022

A finance employee in a tower of suits.

After finishing college, I did what was expected: I landed an apprenticeship in the heart of the finance world. On the outside, it looked like I’d made it. I was learning the machinery of a multi-billion pound industry, handling high-pressure demands, and mastering the art of professional communication.

But as I climbed the ladder, I realised the view from the top didn’t look like freedom. I was trading my best hours for a paycheck and a tiny window of “allowed” time off. I wanted to see the world and visit family without needing a manager’s signature to do it. The stability was great, but the ceiling was too low.

Mon–Fri: 9 to 5
Lunch: 1 hour
Holidays: 25 days/year
Freedom: none

Chapter 03

The spark

Spring 2025

Trying to find a way out.

I always wanted a side hustle alongside my 9-5 to eventually make it out. I tried everything. It started with selling on TikTok Shop, then moved to trading Forex and futures. I put in the hours, but none of it worked. I was spinning my wheels, looking for something that actually made sense.

[IMAGE: Trading charts or attempts at trading]

Then I found Amazon FBA.

I was still at my finance job when I started digging into the world of e-commerce. But when I discovered the FBA model, everything clicked. The realisation that I could send inventory to Amazon's warehouses and let them handle the storage, shipping, and customer service was mind-blowing. It meant I could actually scale a brand without a warehouse of my own.

“The Amazon FBA business model blew my mind.”

Chapter 04

The first sale

My first sale came on

May 24th, 2025

“It was just £10. It changed everything - not because of the money, but because someone, somewhere, had bought something I’d put into the world.”

The next day I received 3 more sales, and we got the ball rolling.

Chapter 05

The crossroads

Three moments that changed everything.

Moment 01

The day Amazon paid me what my full-time job did.

Winter 2025. I looked at my Seller Central dashboard, then I looked at my payslip. They were the same. For the first time, two paths sat side by side on a screen - and one of them I'd built myself.

Moment 02

The promotion that didn't fix anything.

Around the same time, I got promoted towards managing a team. It should've felt like a win. It didn't. I was good at it - but I knew, with absolute clarity, that being good at something isn't the same as wanting it.

Moment 03

Wasting my life one Monday at a time.

Every Sunday night I felt it. The dread. Not because the job was terrible - it wasn't. Because every hour spent there was an hour not spent on the thing I actually cared about.

Chapter 06

The leap

I quit.

Two words I’d been afraid to say for two years.

I won’t pretend it was easy. The fear of leaving a steady paycheque doesn’t disappear just because you’ve got something working on the side. But I’d done the math. I’d done the work. And I’d watched too many people stay in jobs they hated because leaving felt risky - when staying was the bigger risk all along.

Chapter 07

Today

May 2026

Now I do what I want.

£0+

In Amazon revenue to date

£0

Average weekly revenue

Holidays a year

Real numbers, real time, real business. Updated May 2026.

“Amazon didn’t make me rich overnight. It made me free. I get to pick where I am, who I’m with, and what I work on. To me, that’s the only currency that’s ever really mattered.”

What freedom looks like