Thread: When did you take the Red pill?

When and how did you realize that the Fastlane was for you? Did you always want to be an entrepreneur or did something spark an interest?

For me, I always wanted to own my own business, but I had never had anyone in my life who was even close to the Fastlane that I could learn from. My first job was tearing down engines for a small business owner, and when he was evicted for not paying his rent, I thought "Well if HE can't even make it on his own, how the heck can I make??" Two years later, I got into a conversation with Kenric on the train to Budapest and by the end of that trip, I knew that I would somehow manage to start my own business. I came back, read TMF, and that was it.

What I would like to know is what was your turning point?

TURNING PT #1: WHEN I SAW THAT COUNTACH MANY MOONS AGO...
TURNING PT #2: WHEN I LEARNED THAT THE WEALTHIEST WERE ALWAYS ENTREPRENEURS
TURNING PT #3: WHEN I REALIZED I RESISTED AUTHORITY AND COULDN'T BE HAPPY TAKING ORDERS
TURNING PT #4: WHEN I REALIZED THAT ENTREPRENEURSHIP KILLS THE SUNDAY BLUES AND SOFTENS THE FRIDAY HIGHS
TURNING PT #4: WHEN I REALIZED WHEN I WAS HAPPIEST BEING ON MY OWN, AND IN CONTROL (Even though control, many times, is just an illusion, sometimes the illusion is just as good.)

That's my CAPS LOCK take!

I can remember making up a list of 20 cars I MUST own when I was about 10 years old. I can actually remember being told off by the priest in church (I had no choice when I was a child) for talking about that list with my cousin! he actually stopped his sermon, turned to look at us and told us to shoosh!

When I left school I got a job as an apprentice Boilermaker/Welder but had no car and the job was on the other side of town so I had to get up at 5am, catch the first bus that went down our road to town, wait in town for half an hour to catch the first bus that took me to work to be there by 7:30.

I was over "going to work" day one! First red pill down the hatch.

I had no real choice other than to go to work (no internet forums back those days) when one day someone handed me "The Magic of Thinking BIG" and invited me to join a certain multi level company that we all know. Second big red pill down the hatch.

Then, (years later) I was invited to a wealth creation seminar where I heard about options for the first time. That was it for me, I'd found a way to make money from money and that was all I needed. Third red pill down the hatch.

I "retired" (after at least 50 jobs) that same year and haven't looked back yet. Actually, that's not entirely true, I did look back at options to shake my fist at them but the dream has never died. Once I tasted freedom there was no going back. Somewhere along the line someone said "

your life will be the same in 5 years from now but for two things...the books you read and the people you meet.

Both of these things (if positive) are big red pills. Being on this forum is like 1,000 red pills blended in a juicer and taken intravenously!

Sometimes I think I take too many red pills and I should eat some reality every now and then to balance the mental diet but how can you dream too big - right?

I found I sucked as an employee.

So no other choice but Self Employed. I started at 19. couldn't help it.

I didn't realize it was supposed to be hard. so i just did it.

and I always marched to a far distant drum I could never seem to point to.

Originally Posted by V8Bill

Being on this forum is like 1,000 red pills blended in a juicer and taken intravenously!

That has to be the best quote I've ever read about this forum. It's just perfect.

Reading the fast lane/rich dad/4 hour workweek were my 'red pills'. Read rich dad a few years ago and assumed it took having a 'rich dad' to make it big, so I put that philosophy off. Then seeing the success of someone in the same shoes as me (25, master's degree, no long term career in sight) made me know that I could do the same thing despite not being born into a very wealthy family. "Doing all the things I am supposed to do" in life hasn't put me where I want to be, and I know this is the route that can put me there.

For me i grew up learning from my dad and how he came from nothing to owning mulitple businesses now and he lives the life he wants. I think its in my genes

I always had a feeling that I wanted to do something big in my life, and now im on this forum somehow I ended up here.

Also the Lambo!!

I had always wanted to be an Entrepreneur, but then in college I started to think maybe I'd be better working my way up the latter in Corporate America. After 2 years in Corporate America, getting a promotion, then getting married a buying a house, I realize how unsatisfied yet perfectly content I was - and immediately realized that if I didn't do something soon I would be trapped in this life forever.

For me the biggest reason has been seeing my dad juggle his job and family life. He misses so many things by being at work all the time and also doesn't have the time to do what he likes to do. I swear I will not go into that, ever.
Other ones are just I like being entrepreneurial, and always will, being able to live where I want and help people in need.

Cool avi Jacob.

Some assign mystical qualities to the financially successful to absolve themselves - they also don't necessarily want anyone around them achieving success because it will blow a gaping hole in their own excuses. My turnaround happened when someone said, "you don't have to be Bill Gates, but anyone can make it with a vision and hard work toward the goal." At that moment I KNEW it was possible.

Goals are what makes an individual an individual; period. Without goals and their achievement, the modern world would at once cease to be modern at all.

Grant

_When I saw the math didn't really work out... 60k/year job after college wasn't going to make me a millionaire.. at least not fast and thought to myself that there has got to be another way
_When I met friends on the fastlane in college
_When I saw how good the other side of my family was living
_When I saw my grandma poor and alone but I couldn't help her
_When I saw my parents constantly argue over money issues, even just a couple of bucks
_When I started reading self-help books
_When I read FLM

two red pills for me.

Red pill #1: bought Rich Dad, Poor Dad off of a co-worker for $10, the effect of the pill wore off though, my Slowlanitis was just too strong.

Red Pill #2: read Cantwait2's success story, bit me in my ass (in a good way), and also the loathing I had for the managers that treated the employees like shit. Filed for my LLC right before I got laid off and here I am! Not a millionaire yet, but rather have it this way than taking the blue pill

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

TURNING PT #1: WHEN I SAW THAT COUNTACH MANY MOONS AGO...
TURNING PT #2: WHEN I LEARNED THAT THE WEALTHIEST WERE ALWAYS ENTREPRENEURS
TURNING PT #3: WHEN I REALIZED I RESISTED AUTHORITY AND COULDN'T BE HAPPY TAKING ORDERS
TURNING PT #4: WHEN I REALIZED THAT ENTREPRENEURSHIP KILLS THE SUNDAY BLUES AND SOFTENS THE FRIDAY HIGHS
TURNING PT #4: WHEN I REALIZED WHEN I WAS HAPPIEST BEING ON MY OWN, AND IN CONTROL (Even though control, many times, is just an illusion, sometimes the illusion is just as good.)

That's my CAPS LOCK take!

That's the big one for me. I absolutely can't stand being told what to do. I'd rather be earning 30,000 a year running my own business than earning 300,000 a year working for someone else. That might seem crazy to some, but I've always had a resistance to authority; ever since I was a child.

For me there were several red pills:
1) I LOVE my independence! Taking orders and instructions of what to do was never my thing. I was always trying to find ways to be the captain of my life and of my time in particular, but had never been able to figure out the financial freedom part of it that is totally necessary to really do it.
2) I realized that whatever I do in a 9-to-5 job will NEVER get me where I need to be before having sold my life (time) to my employer and being too old and even then I would only be financially free if I had a job at the top level somewhere.
3) Read Rich Dad Poor Dad but didn't really see the solution in his vision which is heavily based on real estate investments and it always bugged me that nowhere in his books he talks about his "Rich Dad Poor Dad" brand/empire (unless I missed it) and how all that plays into his wealth creation system. Maybe there is a major part of the equation missing that he is not talking about?
4) Read other self-help book classics (The Power of Positive Thinking, Psycho-Cybernetics, Think and Grow Rich, etc.)
4) Read TMF which made the most sense for me. It confirmed different lines of thought I already had, answered many questions and gave me new ideas and inspirations.
Here we go, after that started actively working on my goal and I will make it!