Why I Passed on a Bad Deal Today

November 22, 2025

Today I had a moment that reminded me why every hustle needs logic behind it. There was this guy who picks up metal on the streets. He hit me up trying to sell me a Whirlpool washer for $100.

I told him straight up — the numbers don’t make sense.

If I buy a washer for $100, I still have to:

fix it
test it
clean it
resell it
OR break it down for parts

All of that takes time, tools, space, and more money. And even after that, there’s no guarantee I’m making a big profit. But this guy didn’t want to understand my point of view, so I passed.

And passing was the right choice.

Because here’s the truth:

If I’m out here hustling, driving around Los Angeles, minimum wage is about $17 an hour. In the same 2–3 hours I would’ve spent fixing that one washer, I could easily pick up one or two free washers on the street, strip them, part them out, or scrap them — and make:

my $100 back
AND possibly more

All without spending a single dollar up front.

That’s when the math hit me:

Why buy something for $100 when I can get something similar for free just by being outside hustling?

Sometimes the best business move is not buying the deal.

Sometimes the best move is recognizing what your time is worth and using it smarter.

This situation just proved that:

Time matters.
Math matters.
And not all deals are good deals.

At the end of the day, I’d rather use my time picking up free scrap, flipping the parts, and making real profit — not forcing a deal that doesn’t make sense.