Hi people,
ok, total exaggeration on the title... Here's the thing:
My name is Michael, I am 29 years old, living in Germany and I want to tell you a little story of how I decided to become a useful member in this community.
I have a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA and I am also someone who values his freedom a lot. Turns out, the former is not exactly helping me achieve the latter. I currently work as an engineering consultant and while I enjoy the work in general, it comes with a massive workload and very inflexible hours (and not that well-paid also). After five years of doing that I would rather put all that work into a business that works for me and not someone else and lets me live my life they way I want it to be.
So I started reading a ton(!) of books on business and entrepreneurship, also came across TMF and realized that it was different. In the good sense. I joined the forum 7 months ago and even went Inside, because I thought I will finally find my business idea there.
... Wrong approach ...
From the few threads I read I couldn't find value in this forum so I stopped coming here. It was now several months later that I thought I could see what was going on here, maybe read some GOLD threads.
... Wow ...
Honestly, I have no idea how I missed all the massive value in this forum. Loved @SinisterLex's thread about getting freelance jobs by finding out what the client really needs. And still I was looking through the forum looking for what it can do for me. I also thought I had nothing of value to give to this forum. After all, I
... Until I met AndyBlack ...
... or rather, read his thread here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...from-700-pms-with-fellow-forum-members.66903/
If you haven't: read it! He talks about solving other people's problems and everything else will take care of itself. Very along the lines of what MJ preaches. He also describes how other people say that he lives "in a sunny little world" and that it is because he doesn't wait for other people to smile. He smiles first!
And then it clicked and I thought back to an incident the day before. I was driving in my car which has a license plate from my hometown, on the other side of Germany. I practically never see the same code in my town. Indidentally, that day someone passed me with my hometown code on his plates.
I thought: "Hey, that's funny. I wonder if he thinks it's funny, too"
What did he do: He waved excitedly and gave me the broadest smile ever. (Very un-German).
I smiled, waived back and thought: "Wow, how nice. But what if I had just completely ignored the guy? He would have looked like a fool."
... I bet that was not what he thought. I bet he thought: "Hey, I have the chance to make someone else (and myself) smile, so I'm just gonna go ahead and do it. If he ignores me that's too bad for him, but at least I will have tried to make a difference.
The result of this smile? I am one life-changing experience richer! I will try not to care what this forum can do for me. For a while at least. You know what? I am an engineer. I have several years experience as a consultant. Production engineering. This might come in handy for some of you. I have not only studied how to be a more effective person, I can honestly say I have made big progress in that field and I have a lot to share on this topic.
Honestly, I might be of help to some of you! So I will start doing that now.
Smile first!
Thanks, Andy
PS: Sorry for the long-a$$ introduction
ok, total exaggeration on the title... Here's the thing:
My name is Michael, I am 29 years old, living in Germany and I want to tell you a little story of how I decided to become a useful member in this community.
I have a degree in electrical engineering and an MBA and I am also someone who values his freedom a lot. Turns out, the former is not exactly helping me achieve the latter. I currently work as an engineering consultant and while I enjoy the work in general, it comes with a massive workload and very inflexible hours (and not that well-paid also). After five years of doing that I would rather put all that work into a business that works for me and not someone else and lets me live my life they way I want it to be.
So I started reading a ton(!) of books on business and entrepreneurship, also came across TMF and realized that it was different. In the good sense. I joined the forum 7 months ago and even went Inside, because I thought I will finally find my business idea there.
... Wrong approach ...
From the few threads I read I couldn't find value in this forum so I stopped coming here. It was now several months later that I thought I could see what was going on here, maybe read some GOLD threads.
... Wow ...
Honestly, I have no idea how I missed all the massive value in this forum. Loved @SinisterLex's thread about getting freelance jobs by finding out what the client really needs. And still I was looking through the forum looking for what it can do for me. I also thought I had nothing of value to give to this forum. After all, I
... Until I met AndyBlack ...
... or rather, read his thread here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...from-700-pms-with-fellow-forum-members.66903/
If you haven't: read it! He talks about solving other people's problems and everything else will take care of itself. Very along the lines of what MJ preaches. He also describes how other people say that he lives "in a sunny little world" and that it is because he doesn't wait for other people to smile. He smiles first!
And then it clicked and I thought back to an incident the day before. I was driving in my car which has a license plate from my hometown, on the other side of Germany. I practically never see the same code in my town. Indidentally, that day someone passed me with my hometown code on his plates.
I thought: "Hey, that's funny. I wonder if he thinks it's funny, too"
What did he do: He waved excitedly and gave me the broadest smile ever. (Very un-German).
I smiled, waived back and thought: "Wow, how nice. But what if I had just completely ignored the guy? He would have looked like a fool."
... I bet that was not what he thought. I bet he thought: "Hey, I have the chance to make someone else (and myself) smile, so I'm just gonna go ahead and do it. If he ignores me that's too bad for him, but at least I will have tried to make a difference.
The result of this smile? I am one life-changing experience richer! I will try not to care what this forum can do for me. For a while at least. You know what? I am an engineer. I have several years experience as a consultant. Production engineering. This might come in handy for some of you. I have not only studied how to be a more effective person, I can honestly say I have made big progress in that field and I have a lot to share on this topic.
Honestly, I might be of help to some of you! So I will start doing that now.
Smile first!
Thanks, Andy
PS: Sorry for the long-a$$ introduction
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