I was a 22-year-old college student.

I was a 22-year-old college student.

I had an up-and-coming nightclub promotions business in Chicago.

But I was aiming higher.

Then… our big break.

A college spring break travel company approached me with an offer.

The deal was simple.

Sell their spring break trips to our audience and earn $70 per traveler.

But even better, sell 300 trips?

We’d co-produce the biggest clubs in Cancun with them for Spring Break.

The deal felt almost too good to be true.

We went all in.

We hustled, hit campuses across the Midwest, and sold over 600 trips.

2x what was needed!

We couldn’t wait to get to Cancun and make this a roaring success.

As spring break inched closer, the travel company gave us the runaround.

We needed specifics.

Event dates.

Venue names.

With just 1 week before spring break, they finally gave us logistics.

But it wasn’t popular nightclubs like Coco Bongo.

It was hole-in-the-wall dive bars.

We did our best, given the circumstances.

But it wasn’t the dream we had signed up for.

To make things worse, the company filed for bankruptcy soon after.

I never saw a dime of the $42,000 commission.

The ordeal was painful, but the lessons I learned were invaluable.

Talk to industry peers.

They would’ve warned me that this travel company had burned others.

Always get the details in writing.

Our contract was vague, and when things went south, we had no backup.

Never spend money you don’t have.

I counted on a commission that never came, and it cost me.

These lessons have been my business roadmap ever since.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.