Never Decide In Fear

Private investigators walked into my workplace and asked a question I will never forget: “Have you been stealing vegetable oil from restaurants?” I was young, finally steady in a career, and determined not to slip back into the trouble I grew up around. I had not stolen anything, but the fear hit anyway, and it pushed me into a decision that still teaches me something years later.

I tell the full story from the beginning: working as an engineer in the oil field, making strong side money in the scrap metal business, and then stumbling into an unexpected niche. Restaurants needed used vegetable oil disposal, and I realized the waste stream had value because it could be recycled into biodiesel. I started calling around, trying to solve a real problem, and I thought I was on the edge of building a legitimate service business. Then the accusations came, along with pressure to stop contacting “their customers,” and my nervous system took over.

The real lesson is bigger than vegetable oil or any one side hustle. I explain how fear-based decision making can quietly kill good opportunities, and how I now approach risk with a clearer head, especially in real estate investing where I take on distressed properties, mobile homes, and title issues that most people avoid. If you have been hesitating on a deal, a business idea, or a hard conversation, this will help you separate real risk from fear noise.

Subscribe to the Property Profits Podcast, share this with a friend, and leave an honest review wherever you listen. What is one decision you are delaying because fear is driving?

Transcript

Oil Field Side Hustle Origins

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So years and years ago when I was in the oil field, I was an engineer in the oil field. Alright, and I had a side business where I was making a thousand dollars a day uh scrap with doing scrap metal stuff. So like the pipe they would send down in the earth, they would blow it up, and it was just scrap metal at that point. But a lot of people didn't know how to dispose of it. I did, I figured it out early on. That's how I ended up getting in the oil field. But, anyways, that's another story. I was selling this scrap metal for a thousand dollars a trailer a day. Which hindsight, I should have scaled that company, but I was young and didn't even realize it was a company, just thought it was something that made me money. It sounds stupid, but it is what it is.

Spotting The Used Oil Opportunity

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Anyways, on that venture, I stumbled across uh some restaurants because I was in the scrap business, so I was like kind of in the garbage business, right? I stumbled across some companies, restaurants in particular, that needed to get rid of uh like vegetable oil, like used vegetable oil. All right, and what other companies were doing with it, like I don't know if you were calling environmental companies or whatever, but they were turning it into biodiesel. I stumbled across a bunch of restaurants that were needing this disposed of. So I started calling around blindly, and I'm like, hey, like you need this disposed of. Um, I can do it. And I was getting some cool let's meet ups, right? And I'm like, all right, cool. And like flash forward, my older self now is a big industry. I just didn't know at the time I was just trying to solve a problem, right?

Accused By Private Investigators

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Well, some PIs showed up, private investigators showed up at my job. And mind you, I'm young, I'm an engineer now, I was in trouble as an adolescent, right? Like, in and out of a lot of trouble. All right. And last thing I wanted was any more trouble. I had spent years getting my life back on track, right? Uh, because I was just a hoodlop when I was younger. And so, like, this PI shows up, and they're in my manager's office. Like, Travis, I talk to you. Have you been stealing vegetable oil from restaurants? And I'm like, no, I've never stolen a thing, my like anything, you know. And uh this PI is like, well, we heard you've been calling around a lot of our customers, and just so happens uh some of their totes or um they were like barrels or whatever of vegetable oil. They look like I don't know if you remember what they look like, but anyways, uh they've been going missing. And I'm like, no, like I just thought it was a good opportunity because you know, I saw and heard that they needed this disposed of. So somebody's not doing a good job, or there's not enough service or something, but I was gonna buy a truck and start disposing of it, right? And they're like, well, we're gonna be keeping an eye on you and all this. I'm like, where did y'all even come up with me doing this? You know, and I'm shook, right? I'm like, dude, I've already like been in so much trouble my life. I am finally like, I got this good job, I've worked my way up, like tooth and nail, just you don't even know. It was rough getting to that spot where I was at. And I'm like, well, I'll just stop my adventure, you know. Like, I didn't do anything. They're like, well, we don't want you calling our customers, we don't want you this and that. And now, knowing what I know, it was like a scare tactic, right?

The Cost Of A Fear Decision

SPEAKER_00 3:43

So now that you understand that story, is I want you to understand not this isn't like me saying that company did whatever or I should have done this or that. No, it's a lesson to learn. Everything, every trial, tribulation, anything is a lesson to learn from. And my biggest lesson I learned from that is not to make decisions in a place of fear, right? In a state of fear, rather. Like if you make a decision, make a decision, stick with your decision, know why you're doing it, believe it, do it. It's your decision, live with it, own it, but don't make it out of fear. I made that decision purely out of fear. I'm well, I love where my life is now, right? Things happen for a reason. But I made that decision purely out of fear of getting in more trouble. And, you know, they exposed that fear. They leaned in because they saw that I didn't want to get in any more trouble, you know, and I didn't. I didn't want any trouble. I had I had passed that point in my life. I'm like, I don't want any part of this. Y'all go ahead. And I just quit. I stopped. I didn't pursue it, you know, and is what it is.

Taking Bigger Risks In Real Estate

SPEAKER_00 4:55

But now these days, like I take on properties that a lot of people wouldn't, like broke down ass mobile homes, like stuff with title issues, mobile homes with title issues, parks, like the unknown, right? And that lesson, I guess, molded who I am today. Every lesson molds who we are, but I will never, ever, ever make another decision knowingly, cog cognizantly, out of fear. And I hope you don't either. So if there's something you really want to do, you know, ask yourself am I not doing it because I'm afraid? If you're not doing it for other reasons, cool. And it's cool even if you are afraid, that's not why you're doing it. I just want to bring this to life because it does happen, it did happen to me, and I learned from it. And I hope that you can learn from it.

Final Challenge And How To Support

SPEAKER_00 5:47

My name's Travis Wells. This is the Property Profits Podcast. Thank you so much for jumping on. Please refer a friend, a family member. It would mean the world if you subscribe to this channel, this podcast, wherever you listen to. Leave an honest review. All right. Thank y'all so much. Until next time, see you then.