Hello Everybody! My name is Jim and I am currently working on my way to the fastlane.
I found the forum first, then bought the book based on the wealth of knowledge and missing out on some references that are vital to understanding some of the conversations that go on around here. I've worked a number of crappy jobs, a number of awesome jobs, but they all have one thing in common. The word JOB. Which means I either hated them or they were never guaranteed.
A little about myself, I've always been a hard worker. My first "job" was working for my dad helping him in his harness business when I was little. My brother and I would make something equivalent to $22 an hour (which was awesome for a 12-13 year old in the mid/late 90's), but that was only occasionally and never more than 100 bucks at a time. My first exposure to the suckitude of employment. A little later I took my first "real" job at a pottery factory outlet store (Haeger Potteries) at age 16. I had fun at that job, and worked with some awesome people, but it definitely wasn't anything other than a part time high school job.
I wanted more from life, which ultimately led me to enlist in the Marine Corps straight out of high school. My mom says I couldn't get out the door fast enough on the day the recruiter came to pick me up and take me to the processing station. I saw two tours in Iraq, which was very interesting being exposed to a foreign culture, even if it was only from my vantage point in the gun turret of my truck. It certainly gave me a whole new perspective on just how good we have it in the US compared to a people who are largely still trying to scratch a living from parched earth with a sprinkling of outdated technology thrown in for good measure. Easiest job by far that I've ever had, I got paid to work out, play with guns, blow shit up and generally just be a badass. I had a roof over my head, guaranteed 3 square a day, guaranteed pay on the 1st and the 15th. And all I had to do was live the aforementioned dream that every little boy has at some point. Sure, there was a lot of bullshit, pomp and military regulation, but let me tell you, there are very, very few things like pulling the lanyard of a howitzer and sending a 100 pound screaming steel projectile filled with 27 pounds of pure hate and discontent downrange to vaporize some poor target and all his little target buddies within 150 meter radius. Or punch a whole the size of a small car in the side of a tank. Or, if you were (un)lucky and you got an old powder and the gun belched flames out of the end of the cannon tube through the vents of the muzzlebrake. We in the artillery community call it dragons breathe, and it looks awesome and is terrifying all in the same instant.
Unfortunately, this time of plenty wouldn't last. Just after my 4th year in (I re enlisted and got almost 40k in bonus money, which I blew through like the typical hormonal early 20 something I was at that time. Still kick myself for that every now and then), while crawling out of bed of all things, my right knee popped really loud. Couldn't bend it more than a few degrees in either direction and it hurt like no tomorrow to try and stand on it. Long story short I had to have the cartlidge replaced, and that pretty much ended my plan of doing my 20 and getting a pension.
With the military now no longer an option, I had to come up with a plan. I worked two part time jobs after my discharge to cover my bills since i didn't want to eat up what was left of my severance pay (to the tune of 25k, give or take, can't remember the exact amount) as I would need that to move to Cleveland Ohio where I attended Ohio Technical College, and earned an A.S.S. in High Performance and Racing Technology. My plan at that time went something along the lines of "If I can't play Marine anymore, I'll go play Racecar". 6 months to graduation I started working at a local race shop, initially on a Top Alcohol funnycar team, then that guy decided he wanted to run NHRA Nitro Funnycar (also known as Big Show since they are the 10k hp screamers that will run 1000ft in 4 sec or less). I was living the dream, getting paid to do what many people only dreamed of doing. Then the harshness and suckitude of the word Job kicked in again. I was let go in a very confusing, shitty manner that I won't get into here for reasons I still have no clue as to why when I was told I was doing an excellent job and the crew chief that guy hired told him to hang on to me and make sure I didn't go anywhere.
Which leads me to my current JOB, working at a machine shop. Where my boss' also happens to run an IHRA Nostalgia Nitro Funnycar (current world record holder for that class I might add. You can also find my ugly mug on the cover of the February issue of Kenny Youngblood's Fuel Coupe magazine for this year checking tire pressure in the staging lanes). The arrangement we have is I work at the machine shop for pay and they pay my way (room and board essentially) to go racing. There is just one problem with this arrangement, I don't have any income when we are gone racing. While this isn't a problem for covering my bills (My wife and I live well within our means) it can make it tricky to cover bills due to the vagaries of when the due dates fall on the calender. I do enjoy the job ( as well as picking up some valuable skills) and make enough to survive, I still must wrestle with the fact that it is a JOB, which is still beyond my direct control.
Which leads me to today, making my introduction thread on a forum for entrepreneurial types as I take my first steps towards finding my own fast lane to financial freedom. The business I'm currently developing (in the planning stages right now), I found the niche almost completely by accident. This business most likely won't be my direct ticket to the fastlane, but it will be my ticket to take back control of my life from the perfidious clutches of JOB. There will also be opportunities once the core business is profitable to organically expand into related but separate aspects of the niche and the market in general.
I have a pretty solid idea of where I'm going, but already this forum and TMF have shown me some serious flaws in my plan prior to this point, namely thinking too small and leaving myself in a poor position to scale once the opportunity intersects with the realm of feasibility. On the positive side, what I found here and in the book gave me a quantifiable way to affirm what my instinct was telling me is a good idea to pursue. I am hoping to be able to launch by the end of the year, but that's not a hard goal just yet (no I'm not waiting for the perfect time, there is just a shit load of ground work I need to lay and ensure is in place before I proceed. I realize that there is no "perfect time" to do anything, only the time you pick to act).
If you have read this far I applaud your intestinal fortitude to read such a long post, and I look forwards to learning more and giving what little I have to offer at the moment.
I found the forum first, then bought the book based on the wealth of knowledge and missing out on some references that are vital to understanding some of the conversations that go on around here. I've worked a number of crappy jobs, a number of awesome jobs, but they all have one thing in common. The word JOB. Which means I either hated them or they were never guaranteed.
A little about myself, I've always been a hard worker. My first "job" was working for my dad helping him in his harness business when I was little. My brother and I would make something equivalent to $22 an hour (which was awesome for a 12-13 year old in the mid/late 90's), but that was only occasionally and never more than 100 bucks at a time. My first exposure to the suckitude of employment. A little later I took my first "real" job at a pottery factory outlet store (Haeger Potteries) at age 16. I had fun at that job, and worked with some awesome people, but it definitely wasn't anything other than a part time high school job.
I wanted more from life, which ultimately led me to enlist in the Marine Corps straight out of high school. My mom says I couldn't get out the door fast enough on the day the recruiter came to pick me up and take me to the processing station. I saw two tours in Iraq, which was very interesting being exposed to a foreign culture, even if it was only from my vantage point in the gun turret of my truck. It certainly gave me a whole new perspective on just how good we have it in the US compared to a people who are largely still trying to scratch a living from parched earth with a sprinkling of outdated technology thrown in for good measure. Easiest job by far that I've ever had, I got paid to work out, play with guns, blow shit up and generally just be a badass. I had a roof over my head, guaranteed 3 square a day, guaranteed pay on the 1st and the 15th. And all I had to do was live the aforementioned dream that every little boy has at some point. Sure, there was a lot of bullshit, pomp and military regulation, but let me tell you, there are very, very few things like pulling the lanyard of a howitzer and sending a 100 pound screaming steel projectile filled with 27 pounds of pure hate and discontent downrange to vaporize some poor target and all his little target buddies within 150 meter radius. Or punch a whole the size of a small car in the side of a tank. Or, if you were (un)lucky and you got an old powder and the gun belched flames out of the end of the cannon tube through the vents of the muzzlebrake. We in the artillery community call it dragons breathe, and it looks awesome and is terrifying all in the same instant.
Unfortunately, this time of plenty wouldn't last. Just after my 4th year in (I re enlisted and got almost 40k in bonus money, which I blew through like the typical hormonal early 20 something I was at that time. Still kick myself for that every now and then), while crawling out of bed of all things, my right knee popped really loud. Couldn't bend it more than a few degrees in either direction and it hurt like no tomorrow to try and stand on it. Long story short I had to have the cartlidge replaced, and that pretty much ended my plan of doing my 20 and getting a pension.
With the military now no longer an option, I had to come up with a plan. I worked two part time jobs after my discharge to cover my bills since i didn't want to eat up what was left of my severance pay (to the tune of 25k, give or take, can't remember the exact amount) as I would need that to move to Cleveland Ohio where I attended Ohio Technical College, and earned an A.S.S. in High Performance and Racing Technology. My plan at that time went something along the lines of "If I can't play Marine anymore, I'll go play Racecar". 6 months to graduation I started working at a local race shop, initially on a Top Alcohol funnycar team, then that guy decided he wanted to run NHRA Nitro Funnycar (also known as Big Show since they are the 10k hp screamers that will run 1000ft in 4 sec or less). I was living the dream, getting paid to do what many people only dreamed of doing. Then the harshness and suckitude of the word Job kicked in again. I was let go in a very confusing, shitty manner that I won't get into here for reasons I still have no clue as to why when I was told I was doing an excellent job and the crew chief that guy hired told him to hang on to me and make sure I didn't go anywhere.
Which leads me to my current JOB, working at a machine shop. Where my boss' also happens to run an IHRA Nostalgia Nitro Funnycar (current world record holder for that class I might add. You can also find my ugly mug on the cover of the February issue of Kenny Youngblood's Fuel Coupe magazine for this year checking tire pressure in the staging lanes). The arrangement we have is I work at the machine shop for pay and they pay my way (room and board essentially) to go racing. There is just one problem with this arrangement, I don't have any income when we are gone racing. While this isn't a problem for covering my bills (My wife and I live well within our means) it can make it tricky to cover bills due to the vagaries of when the due dates fall on the calender. I do enjoy the job ( as well as picking up some valuable skills) and make enough to survive, I still must wrestle with the fact that it is a JOB, which is still beyond my direct control.
Which leads me to today, making my introduction thread on a forum for entrepreneurial types as I take my first steps towards finding my own fast lane to financial freedom. The business I'm currently developing (in the planning stages right now), I found the niche almost completely by accident. This business most likely won't be my direct ticket to the fastlane, but it will be my ticket to take back control of my life from the perfidious clutches of JOB. There will also be opportunities once the core business is profitable to organically expand into related but separate aspects of the niche and the market in general.
I have a pretty solid idea of where I'm going, but already this forum and TMF have shown me some serious flaws in my plan prior to this point, namely thinking too small and leaving myself in a poor position to scale once the opportunity intersects with the realm of feasibility. On the positive side, what I found here and in the book gave me a quantifiable way to affirm what my instinct was telling me is a good idea to pursue. I am hoping to be able to launch by the end of the year, but that's not a hard goal just yet (no I'm not waiting for the perfect time, there is just a shit load of ground work I need to lay and ensure is in place before I proceed. I realize that there is no "perfect time" to do anything, only the time you pick to act).
If you have read this far I applaud your intestinal fortitude to read such a long post, and I look forwards to learning more and giving what little I have to offer at the moment.
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