Shopify dropshipping is not a lazy person’s game.

The sole intention of this article is to address the mental state an aspiring dropshipper should get themselves into. It is not aimed at teaching you how to start a dropshipping business, even though I give some nuggets of wisdom on how to get there.

I have come to learn that success is not simply about asking lots of questions, it’s about asking the right questions. Whatever you do, wherever you go, your quality of life will almost always be determined by the quality of questions you ask and the actions you take after getting your answers.

This way of thinking applies to dropshipping. If you ask the same questions everybody is asking, you will get the same answers everybody is getting. Is dropshipping dead? Is dropshipping oversaturated? Is dropshipping profitable?

Why do any of these things matter? Was the social media space saturated when TikTok got into the game? How did they get in? Why is TikTok different from other social media sites? How is it different? Who uses it?

For every question you ask, there will always be an answer. Whether or not the answer adds tangible value to your life is entirely up to you.

Table of Contents

What is dropshipping? Why is it so hard?

Everybody knows what dropshipping is, I’ll tell you what it is not. Dropshipping is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Dropshipping is not a hobby. Dropshipping is not a quick fix to your financial problems. Most of all, dropshipping is not easy. Whoever offers you a contrary answer should better show you exactly how without selling you something (you know what I’m talking about).

You can achieve an extraordinary level of success with dropshipping, but you have to work on your mindset first. Think of it as a long-term commitment that you intend to work on for the next 10 or 20 years (until you retire, if you wish to retire).

First of all, if you are lazy, this is not going to work. It is not going to work because dropshipping has 6 core prerequisites that everyone interested in pursuing it must meet. They are,

Effort
Patience
Resilience
Research skills
Marketing skills
Customer service

If you equip yourself with these 6 things, you’re well on your way to success. This is not to say that you will not encounter frustrations on your path, far from it. Every day will present a different obstacle in the form of a rude customer, a chargeback, diminishing sales, a payment gateway issue, disabled ad accounts, etc. The more success you achieve, the more challenges will come your way.

A lazy person (in my opinion, with respect to dropshipping) is one who looks to make the most amount of money in the shortest period with the least effort and is in a committed relationship with whining.

As a dropshipper myself, I have learned that perhaps the two most important phases of launching or sustaining a dropshipping business are the research and marketing phases.

These phases make or break you. The upside is that with time, you develop processes that help you find products and market them to the right people. This will significantly reduce the time and money you spend trying to launch a new product every time.

If you are lazy, developing these processes will be daunting and ultimately, you will quit citing extreme competition, market saturation, and high Facebook, Instagram, or influencer advertising costs. Also, you’ll become a dropshipping prophet of doom.

In other words, a lazy person will find a reason to quit. This is the case for at least 95% of people who try dropshipping, which ironically implies that those enjoying success in this field only make up at most 5% of the total population that is giving it a try, which also makes me wonder where the “saturation” everyone is talking about is.

How to succeed as a dropshipper.

Before we even get to the how, let’s discuss the requirements.

You need money, obviously, a good amount of it, depending on how quick you are to pick up lessons from the industry. I personally recommend that you make sure you have a job and at least $5,000 in savings specifically meant for this venture. Your other life savings and emergency fund should be separate from this.

In addition, you need to set aside a small amount of money from your monthly salary to keep supplementing the cash reserves that fund your experiments.

The other requirement is a level head. Get a hold of your emotions, because it gets nasty sometimes, especially when you’re losing, which you are going to, a lot! If you get emotional, I promise you that you will burn through most of your savings in a few weeks, and it will only get worse from there, especially for your mental health.

Now let’s discuss the how.

In the initial phases, your focus should not be on profit (although you should try not to lose money), you should instead focus on developing a process that helps you identify winning products and get them in front of the right audiences. This is what will lead to success. Once you have mastered this, you will start building everything else on top of this; your customer service, fulfillment process, etc.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, because you will, take some time off and think about what you are trying to achieve. Get yourself to calm down then get back to it.

Remember, you increase your chances of succeeding when you test more products. Do not compare yourself to others and do not get greedy. Avoid trends in favor of sustainability, this will guarantee success over the long term and will reduce frustrations on your end.

Conclusion

Lazy people make up one of the biggest groups of unhappy people for a reason. They want a good life with zero struggles. Don’t get me wrong, I am not glorifying struggling but nothing good comes without a struggle that is retrospectively appreciated. Deep down, you know the kind of person you are. It’s the beauty of being human. You can never lie to yourself.

If you know you are lazy and disinterested in change, don’t even try dropshipping. All you will manage to do is successfully produce another bitter dropshipping ‘expert’. Otherwise, if you are willing to take some risks and change your habits and work on your mental state, good things are waiting for you on the other side.