Thread: I got TERMINATED from my job yesterday...planning Entrepreneur.

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post and I would first like to say hi to all of the Fastlane people out there. I read MJ Demarco's book a few months ago and I love it. Very clear explanation and very straight forward, learned plenty from reading the book. I've read books from Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and even David Bach but none of them tops MJ's Fastlane book. I am going to actually read the Fastlane book again since I have been recently terminated from my job and now have more time.

I got terminated from my job yesterday and it actually reminded me of the Fastlane book. I've read the book a few months back and I remember MJ saying in his book that you have NO CONTROL of your boss, your job, your wage, and that you can get fired/laid-off from your job anytime. This is definitely true since it happen to me before and now it happened again. You can be the best employee and work your hardest, but much of the time the people up top don't care...they will just let you go if the business isn't good. My friend recently got laid-off too and she informed me that 40 people in her company got laid off in a week including her because business wasn't doing good.

It's demoralizing that plenty of people my generation (late 20s - early 30s) are having a tough time finding or keeping a job. Some actually have to move back with mom and dad for support. Yesterday gave me the wake up call to pursue ENTREPRENEURSHIP since having your own business is the way to achieve Financial Freedom. I was only making $22/hr ($45K/yr) at my job as an IT Specialist...providing computer repair. Being an IT guy you get to work with everyone and get to know who the cool people are and who are the "Prima-Donnas". I am definitely part of the Slowlane and part of the 5-2 ratio. It depresses me working at a job because it will take me years to save up for a house, can't travel to the countries I want to visit whenever I want, nor would I be able to afford my fav.....AUDI cars. Making only $22/hr forget it. A lot of IT guys are underpaid...even System Administrators. System Administrators should get paid a good $90k - $120k but I see plenty of them only grossing about $60K a year. My friend, who is also an IT guy, said that the reason many of us are underpaid is that they have shipped most of the labor in India. He further said that why bother paying an IT guy like me here more when they can pay someone in India for much much less.

I have been thinking about starting my own IT COMPUTER REPAIR business. Unfortunately, by reading MJ's Fastlane book, the Computer Repair business conflicts with the NECST Commandments...primarily with (E) Entry and (S) Scale commandment. While there is always a need of Computer Repair, there are already many people/businesses doing computer repair. Everywhere I drive I see computer repair shops every other block. Scale is also affected because if I start my own IT Consulting/Computer Repair business, I am only limited to my local area...NOT Globally which is recommended by MJ. I remember from reading the book MJ says "To make millions, you must IMPACT millions."

Well I got terminated from my job yesterday but I am NOT GIVING UP...I will keep my chin up. My WILL TO ACT is everything!!! I look forward to reading and learning alot from all of the Fastlane Gurus in this forum. I will also join and collaborate with Entrepreneur groups in my city since there are plenty of Entrepreneur group meetings around the city. I will stick myself with Entrepreneur people/successful people as much as possible and work my way from the ground up.


Jimmy
Los Angeles, California

Thank you Russ H. and 458 for the support. Yes, have lots of free time now but no $$$ coming in lol. I am thinking I should get another job so that I can have some money coming in to pay my bills, while in addition, I think and execute my business.

Consider that option carefully - I've seen a lot of people "just get a job in the meantime" then they slowly creep back into full-on- employee mode and abandon their bigger plans because it becomes too easy to sit on a salary again.

Remember that you can also INDIRECTLY impact millions and make millions. For instance if you serve the IT needs of just 1 single client but they have millions of customers, that 1 relationship can easily become a million dollar business, let alone a $300,000/year business which could be sold for $1MM.

I would start the repair business, you could do something simple and charge 100 bucks flat rate. With online advertising you could easily get 3-8 customers a day. You'll be making a whole crap load more than at your IT job or any job you're qualified to do. Then while you're making money you can start your fastlane business, but you got to eat first.

Lots of companies out there need a part time IT guy. Look at places like large architecture firms, large accounting firms, ambulance companies. If you can pickup a 20-25 hour a week gig, that pays the rent, and gives you a lot of time to work on your own projects. Then us your IT skills to look at creating your own IT outsource network, websites, consulting, or whatever you have an interest in.

Try to find some people to help, no man is an island, best choices for start could be local people with skills you need, you can offer only % of future income but its better than sitting in living room with beer xbox and wasting time all day long.

Maybe you could use your IT expertise to create a series of online videos explaining to people how to fix their computers for free. Just accept donations or something if people found them helpful. 1,000,000 donations of $2 is decent pay!

Hmm, I see a lot of people throwing around hypothetical figures which is quite worrisome.

Of course $2 from 1,000,000 people is great but why should people donate to him instead of the million or so other businesses that also offer the same service?

If you want to live in the fastlane, you have to learn to think out of the box. You can do what others have said and chase after your clients or you can do something special and have them chase after you. As you already mentioned in your original post, the computer repair industry is overly saturated. Just do a quick check on Craigslist and you'll see pages and pages of locals offering to fix computers. My suggestion is to mix your computer skills with something new to create a unique service that others don't offer.

Fastlane thinking is tough - requires nutrients hitting your brain and that means food which costs money... unless there is a nice nest egg to lean on I would advocate some job 9-5 and then 5-9 at night is time to build your fastlane business. But I am currently feeling like a speedbump in the slowlane getting run over by the folks who I am making money for so I may be wrong :-)