I am having trouble focusing!

[Hawk07]

Boy, do I love to read this forum and gain all of the info I can from some super successful businessmen and women. Its truly amazing how much people are willing to share on a forum like this, but locally, it appears no one is willing to share for fear of competition....the whole scarcity thinking.

Anyway, so I have been spending quite a bit of time trying to figure out a few things on how I am going to get myself out of the rat race fast...fastlane style. I have plotted my expenses...I know to the dollar how much my fixed and variable expenses are. We have been on a budget for a couple of months and that has been tremendous way of knowing exactly what our monthly outflow is.

I keep banging my head everyday trying to figure out what kind of business I should start. !!!

Here is my background

I am a licensed attorney (nonpracticing)---went to law school for the advanced degree (slow lane thoughts) and also to get a great education on real estate/taxes/etc...not to be a private practice lawyer...hated school...finished and decided to practice for awhile just to say I did....didnt like it after a few years...

I moved into sales and have been at it for about 6 years. Its paid well, but I have absolutely no control over my ultimate destiny. I could be fired tomorrow as I have seen it happen to many people in the past....and I have too many mouths to feed to let some corporate climber throw my family to the streets without any income. The fear of the axe scares me because I want to take care of my family. Period.

So, rather than just flowing through life happy that I have a job, I have really been struggling with what to do with my life. And it has been along time since I have been on this self-discovery. I want out of the rat race....but do not know the best route to take.

1. Practice of law was boring (research/writing briefs is hell....id rather swallow glass), plus for the most part it is not scalable...you must work 1 hour to bill 1 hour....oops, i mean 15 mins to bill 1 hour...so i guess there is leverage if you are not ethical).

2. Start a new part time business. what business? What market? Why that business? Do I have experience in that business? finding the niche within my work experiences has been difficult although I have a broad range of experiences.
I really enjoy and understand real estate...I have done a limited number of deals...but I am not sure it a decent business in my smaller area.

I just want to get out of the rat race quickly. I am willing to work hard, but so far I have not found any sort of "focus". What path do I go down and why? Start a flipping real estate business to generate capital than reinvest in apartments? Buy apartments right away with others money? what experiences do i have to get either of these two done? Who will help me? There is alot of opportunity out there....but where is it?

It is just real frustrating because I am someone who actually wants to do way better than average and has not chosen to settle like 99% of americans, but at the same time, cannot seem to focus on a path to separate myself. I just feel like I am all alone trying to figure out how to make it happen and that everyone locally seems to either hide their cards or has already settled.

I just need one course of action that is designed to be successful per MJs criteria of a great business (scalability, large market, huge demand, control, etc)....but what is it? Real estate investing is something that I enjoy reading about, talking about, doing, but I have not done it any great scale yet. Can I do that on a part time basis and eventually get out of the rat race? Should this be my plan because nothing else seems to have materialized for me?

Sorry, I wanted to rant a little bit on this post. I am just sick and tired of thinking about how im going to get out of the rat race and being under the thumb of an employer. Its not easy trying to be somebody greater than what you currently are.

Hawk07:smx4:

 

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[kwerner]

Suggestion: Read this thread.

Applying what is written in it may very well shave 3-10 years off your fastlane plan.

 

[Ready2bfamous]

I totally relate. Great job on shifting your mind power. We should talk sometime

 

[sanoy]

It is very difficult to choose business at the startup especially when you have several ideas in mind. It is same like selecting shoes in a big shoe shop but I think investing in real estate will be a good platform fro your fast lane plan.
One thing more if you have anyone of the 3 followings
1) Investment
2) Idea
3) Experience
Then you can start your own business with WikiEDGE brand of Yonsal Ltd. (yonsal.com)

 

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[Icy]

It's hard to focus on it, because all our lives we've been given the idea of "do this, and then you get x". In school we're told if you get good grade, then you'll get into a good college. Then in college we're told if you get good grades, you'll get a good job and be "successful". Even the path to get good grades was clearly defined for us. Homework was typically review of what you learn in class, and if you need to read a book, you're told how far to read.

It's easy to get accustomed to this, because the responsibility can easily be placed on someone else. You got a bad grade on a test? Well you did what the teacher told you, so it's the teachers fault.

After always being provided what needs to be done to succeed, getting mentally ready for an unset path is difficult. This type work introduces you to a world without a set path. You now have to create a way to get from where you are, to where you want to be. Ask 10 people the path they follow to break away from the rat race, and you'll get a bunch of different answers. Even if they are in the same line of work their path is most likely different from each other.

Let's assume there was a written out map of how to get to where you want to be. The problem is it'd still get you no further than where you are today, because most of the value would be lost. Anyone can follow a map to achieve something (and that's what we do with school!). It's the extra little bit that's not (and cannot be) written out that makes the difference.

If everyone is following the same method to produce something then the only "advantage" their product can provide is a lower price. Even a lower price eventually cannot be lowered anymore. Don't do what everyone else is doing because then it becomes a competition of price, and not so much "true" value.

Ha, this reply has definitely been influenced by Linchpin by Seth Godin. Definitely a good read.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

successful per MJs criteria of a great business (scalability, large market, huge demand, control, etc)...

How do you know this? Just by reading this forum? That is pretty impressive.

The power of Fastlane relies in mathematics ... you are finding law oppressive because of the mathematical wealth equation to which it operates within ... to earn one billable hour you have to work one billable hour. To flip the math in your favor, you have to create something that is scalable and replicatable (book, software, product invention, subscription to website support service) and simultaneously solves a problem. You don't need a big market to be successful at this ... my initial entry into business was in ground transportation which was a $6 billion dollar industry (relatively small). Serious money can be made in niches because the mathematics exist there too.

 

[Hawk07]

Wow, ICY and MJ make some great points!

ICY - what you are saying is so true....I have been planned to do x to get y and it is really hard when I do not have the set x. I was just telling my brother that same thing but in different terms the other day. I was saying how no one is going to come out and say, hey do this and you will be successful or try this...instead, most will just do it themselves and hide their cards. Ok, so I know that I need to recognize the mental switch I need to make from being given a map to forming my own map....now...what map?

MJ - I was just simplifying things in terms of what makes a great business and using some of the characteristics that I have found in the forum. Mathematics! This is another concept that I have discovered and am beginning to understand....man, after having it laid out for me, it seems so obvious....but its not. I have thought about a thousand random business ideas that would not be supported by the math, but seemed like great ideas. You mentioned book, software, invention, subscription to website support service that solves a problem.

How do you do market research to see how big a market is? You say $6 billion dollar market for ground transportation....where do you get that number from? It seems that a lot of the successful business owners or aspiring business owners can tell you their market and the dollar amount but I do not know where they get this type of information from....website services? Which ones? Also, I like the fact of identifying the market BEFORE the product/service...it reminds me a lot of STEVEO's real estate investment techniques he learned from Vollucci and Berges. It makes a lot of sense to me, but what are the resources to determine if mathematics would be in your favor?

Questions

1. How do people do market research? What specific sources?
2. Okay, Ive identified a market, now what product/service....keeping in mind the mathematics/scalability/demand, etc)? It seems like the internet based business would hit all of the areas here. So I know internet company would be the ultimate fastlane....but where do you go from there?

I can totally visualize this whole "map". Its like a great big pond with a couple of lilly pads as my only jumping points....I pinpoint market....I pinpoint a service/product needed by the market....I know internet based would provide scalability/mathematics to become fastlane.....and thats about it.

Geez, just writing this out really makes me realize that my thinking is just as ICY said it was.....my hurdle is its tough to do things when I do not know exactly what it is I need to do! I do much better with a playbook.....but there is no playbook!

:smx4:

 

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[Icy]

Geez, just writing this out really makes me realize that my thinking is just as ICY said it was.....my hurdle is its tough to do things when I do not know exactly what it is I need to do! I do much better with a playbook.....but there is no playbook!

No "playbook" is a blessing and a curse really.

It's a curse obviously because there is a chance it could end up being a waste of time. An example would be looking up information in the domain you think you can "bring" something to(some of which Mj pointed out). This definitely doesn't ensure success\failure though, there is a lot more to it than that.

The blessing of it is the real treat of this type of work. You can choose what you do, and how you will go about helping people. There will be no one over you shoulder forcing you to add a specific thing. It is essentially your baby, and it grows in the direction you feel it should. Why could be more rewarding than building something out of your vision, and in turn that creation can potentially help millions of people.

If you only follow the map that other people have laid out for you won't ever be even as successful as them. The world is constantly changing and you have to be able to see these changes, and react. Not wait until someone else tells you what to do next.

Sure, it can be scary, but isn't it better than being forced to go into a building at a certain time every day, and merely going through the motions? Maps allows us to take the responsibility off of ourselves, but the expense of that is losing our sense of worth.