The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Curious about who here achieved Financial Freedom

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
Hi there,

I want to know who here achieved financial freedom. How long did it take? What value did you add to society? What knowledge brought you there? How hard was the start-up phase? What are your advices to people fighting for financial freedom? Were you alone during that journey? Is there anybody who helped you beside authors? What was your work environment like? Were you regularly travelling from country to country for variety? With how much money did you start up and how much did the execution cost? How was the execution like? Did you ever have "sucidal thoughts" given on how hard that is? How did you deal with that?

Describe briefly the process from acquiring the knowledge to build an idea for a productocracy, to taking initiation, executing and arriving at financial freedom.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
Hi there,

I want to know who here achieved financial freedom. How long did it take? What value did you add to society? What knowledge brought you there? How hard was the start-up phase? What are your advices to people fighting for financial freedom? Were you alone during that journey? Is there anybody who helped you beside authors? What was your work environment like? Were you regularly travelling from country to country for variety? With how much money did you start up and how much did the execution cost? How was the execution like? Did you ever have "sucidal thoughts" given on how hard that is? How did you deal with that?

Describe briefly the process from acquiring the knowledge to build an idea for a productocracy, to taking initiation, executing and arriving at financial freedom.
That's alot of questions!
 

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
I don't know how it works here, I'm new. What is the maximum amount of questions I can ask? Any other rules I should be aware of?
There's no set rules, but in general, if you ask too many questions, you may not get any answers at all. That's because nobody is going to sit down and write a huge response to all the questions. You'd be better off with just a couple questions. Each one of your questions could be its own thread.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
There's no set rules, but in general, if you ask too many questions, you may not get any answers at all. That's because nobody is going to sit down and write a huge response to all the questions. You'd be better off with just a couple questions. Each one of your questions could be its own thread.
Ohh I see. Noted. Did you achieve financial freedom yet? I see that you have been there since early 2007.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
What value did you create? How was the process?
I created a business that sells dog collars and leashes and also donates to dog rescues. It was a very long process, filled with learning the ins and outs of ecommerce, SEO, marketing, etc. Basically you just go do it and learn as you go.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
I created a business that sells dog collars and leashes and also donates to dog rescues. It was a very long process, filled with learning the ins and outs of ecommerce, SEO, marketing, etc. Basically you just go do it and learn as you go.
I see. It is happy to hear that you achieved financial freedom. How long was the process from start to finish (finish being when you got enough to be financially free forever)?
 

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
I see. It is happy to hear that you achieved financial freedom. How long was the process from start to finish (finish being when you got enough to be financially free forever)?
How do you define financial freedom? For some it's when they can quit their job. For others it is when they can never work another day in their life. It's hard to say, because you really don't know how much is enough. So you just keep going until, one day you realize that it is enough. I would say it took 13 years for me.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
How do you define financial freedom? For some it's when they can quit their job. For others it is when they can never work another day in their life. It's hard to say, because you really don't know how much is enough. So you just keep going until, one day you realize that it is enough. I would say it took 13 years for me.
I define financial freedom as not having to work another day in your life for the sake of money and money is no more a problem in your life. Instead of money being scarce, it becomes an abundant resource to you. That's how I define financial freedom.

If you don't mind, how much was your enough for you?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
I define financial freedom as not having to work another day in your life for the sake of money and money is no more a problem in your life. Instead of money being scarce, it becomes an abundant resource to you. That's how I define financial freedom.

If you don't mind, how much was your enough for you?
I'm not going to say what mine was because it changes all the time. You may say $5M, once you get there, you want $10M, once you get there, you want $20M. The numbers change based on market conditions and you still have to adapt. It's not like you get to $10M and then just chill and do nothing. You need to invest the $10M properly and that is a job in itself.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
I'm not going to say what mine was because it changes all the time. You may say $5M, once you get there, you want $10M, once you get there, you want $20M. The numbers change based on market conditions and you still have to adapt. It's not like you get to $10M and then just chill and do nothing. You need to invest the $10M properly and that is a job in itself.
Ohh I see. Thanks for sharing mate
 

Goodfella999

My biggest regret is not starting sooner
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
131%
Apr 29, 2022
94
123
South FL
I'm not going to say what mine was because it changes all the time. You may say $5M, once you get there, you want $10M, once you get there, you want $20M. The numbers change based on market conditions and you still have to adapt. It's not like you get to $10M and then just chill and do nothing. You need to invest the $10M properly and that is a job in itself.
I think I saw a post where you said "make money online and dump it into rentals". Is this what you've done with the ecommerce money? It seems like some of the highest net worth people I watch or learn from (Ben Mallah etc) all have been doing real estate a long time.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
I think I saw a post where you said "make money online and dump it into rentals". Is this what you've done with the ecommerce money? It seems like some of the highest net worth people I watch or learn from (Ben Mallah etc) all have been doing real estate a long time.
Yes, all my money pretty much goes into real estate.
 

MTF

Never give up
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
455%
May 1, 2011
7,560
34,430
That's because nobody is going to sit down and write a huge response to all the questions.

challenge-accepted-24925435f6.jpg

I want to know who here achieved financial freedom. How long did it take?

I had been consciously and actively pursuing financial freedom roughly between the ages of 17 to 27. At 27 I started feeling financially free. But in reality between 17 and 24 I wasted time trying new businesses every few months and never having enough discipline to keep going when things didn't work.

What value did you add to society?

I self-published over 100 titles, mostly non-fiction books. The 100+ titles contain short stories, translations, bundles, etc. so in reality it was a few dozen books. I've sold my books in all formats, including ebook, paperback, hardback, audiobook, and courses.

What knowledge brought you there?

Almost purely my writing experience. I must have written a few million words in my life already.

Various skills I picked up trying different businesses before self-publishing (stuff like a bit of copywriting, marketing, outsourcing, etc.) probably helped, too.

How hard was the start-up phase?

Prior to self-publishing, I gave up on pretty much every business within 6 months. Then I would inevitably get depressed for a few days to a few weeks before starting and failing with another business.

The one that worked best before self-publishing was a SEO-based business based on old high-PR domains. I sold it within a year of starting after getting hit by a Google update. I think I sold it for $20k. I remember I felt like the richest guy on the planet when the deal was finalized.

With self-publishing, it actually was quite easy in hindsight. I started making over $5k/month within a year. It was a great business model fit for my skills and the right time to enter this industry (not so much today) and I think that's what made it easy.

What are your advices to people fighting for financial freedom?

Pick just one business idea that you know works for other people and do NOT try anything else until you make it work.

Don't try to be original or come up with something new. You won't have the confidence that it will work and you'll be tempted to quit.

For example, I knew that the books I was writing were popular so it was possible to succeed just like other people have. If I had written some creative/unique books I wouldn't have had that conviction.

Outside of self-publishing, here are some examples of businesses that are proven to work:
  • Digital marketing agency. Perhaps you need to come up with a unique twist (like a digital marketing agency for the travel industry) but it will work for sure if you keep at it.
  • Content creator in a big niche like self-improvement, business, fitness, technology, etc. Thousands upon thousands of examples of people who kept creating content in their big niche and are big names today. It's impossible not to make it work given enough time and dedication.
  • Real estate. Millions of people have achieved financial freedom through real estate and it'll never change. But this depends on where you live.
  • Lots of B2B businesses. Just find an existing successful one, copy it and do something better.

Were you alone during that journey?

Yes, alone but my parents supported me by not throwing me out of the house when for years I was pretending to be an entrepreneur.

I think they don't regret it considering I was later able to buy them a new house :D

Is there anybody who helped you beside authors?

One random stranger gave me advice that pretty much made me millions.

Other than that, I didn't have any everyday personal help or support except for this forum.

What was your work environment like?

A crappy small room with a cheap adjustable Ikea desk. Because of back/hips issues caused by too much sitting, I later started working half-sitting/half-lying from my futon and do so to this day.

Were you regularly travelling from country to country for variety?

I started traveling more often when I was confident my business was working well. I also lived in a few different countries for up to a few months.

I don't think it's a good idea to travel while you're building a new business. You'll be too distracted.

With how much money did you start up and how much did the execution cost?

Pre self-publishing: I started with what I had saved from freelance work but it was almost nothing (like a few hundred bucks). I kept reinvesting if I made any money (I rarely did).

For my self-publishing business I bought a course for $797. After that, I spent on average no more than $400-500 per month until I was able to invest more and improve the quality of my products.

How was the execution like?

A shit ton of writing every day until I burned out (but thankfully by that time I had written enough to build momentum). Then I regained my energy and kept writing for the next several years.

Did you ever have "sucidal thoughts" given on how hard that is? How did you deal with that?

I've had way more suicidal thoughts AFTER I achieved financial freedom than before. The hustle motivates you to keep going, even if you fail over and over again.

Once you achieve the biggest goal in your life, you lose meaning and it's very easy to feel like shit and want to die because there's nothing more you want to do.

I alter between "life's good" and "I can die today" every few weeks these days.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
T
View attachment 43620



I had been consciously and actively pursuing financial freedom roughly between the ages of 17 to 27. At 27 I started feeling financially free. But in reality between 17 and 24 I wasted time trying new businesses every few months and never having enough discipline to keep going when things didn't work.



I self-published over 100 titles, mostly non-fiction books. The 100+ titles contain short stories, translations, bundles, etc. so in reality it was a few dozen books. I've sold my books in all formats, including ebook, paperback, hardback, audiobook, and courses.



Almost purely my writing experience. I must have written a few million words in my life already.

Various skills I picked up trying different businesses before self-publishing (stuff like a bit of copywriting, marketing, outsourcing, etc.) probably helped, too.



Prior to self-publishing, I gave up on pretty much every business within 6 months. Then I would inevitably get depressed for a few days to a few weeks before starting and failing with another business.

The one that worked best before self-publishing was a SEO-based business based on old high-PR domains. I sold it within a year of starting after getting hit by a Google update. I think I sold it for $20k. I remember I felt like the richest guy on the planet when the deal was finalized.

With self-publishing, it actually was quite easy in hindsight. I started making over $5k/month within a year. It was a great business model fit for my skills and the right time to enter this industry (not so much today) and I think that's what made it easy.



Pick just one business idea that you know works for other people and do NOT try anything else until you make it work.

Don't try to be original or come up with something new. You won't have the confidence that it will work and you'll be tempted to quit.

For example, I knew that the books I was writing were popular so it was possible to succeed just like other people have. If I had written some creative/unique books I wouldn't have had that conviction.

Outside of self-publishing, here are some examples of businesses that are proven to work:
  • Digital marketing agency. Perhaps you need to come up with a unique twist (like a digital marketing agency for the travel industry) but it will work for sure if you keep at it.
  • Content creator in a big niche like self-improvement, business, fitness, technology, etc. Thousands upon thousands of examples of people who kept creating content in their big niche and are big names today. It's impossible not to make it work given enough time and dedication.
  • Real estate. Millions of people have achieved financial freedom through real estate and it'll never change. But this depends on where you live.
  • Lots of B2B businesses. Just find an existing successful one, copy it and do something better.



Yes, alone but my parents supported me by not throwing me out of the house when for years I was pretending to be an entrepreneur.

I think they don't regret it considering I was later able to buy them a new house :D



One random stranger gave me advice that pretty much made me millions.

Other than that, I didn't have any everyday personal help or support except for this forum.



A crappy small room with a cheap adjustable Ikea desk. Because of back/hips issues caused by too much sitting, I later started working half-sitting/half-lying from my futon and do so to this day.



I started traveling more often when I was confident my business was working well. I also lived in a few different countries for up to a few months.

I don't think it's a good idea to travel while you're building a new business. You'll be too distracted.



Pre self-publishing: I started with what I had saved from freelance work but it was almost nothing (like a few hundred bucks). I kept reinvesting if I made any money (I rarely did).

For my self-publishing business I bought a course for $797. After that, I spent on average no more than $400-500 per month until I was able to invest more and improve the quality of my products.



A shit ton of writing every day until I burned out (but thankfully by that time I had written enough to build momentum). Then I regained my energy and kept writing for the next several years.



I've had way more suicidal thoughts AFTER I achieved financial freedom than before. The hustle motivates you to keep going, even if you fail over and over again.

Once you achieve the biggest goal in your life, you lose meaning and it's very easy to feel like shit and want to die because there's nothing more you want to do.

I alter between "life's good" and "I can die today" every few weeks these days.
Thanks for taking you time and sharing mate.

You talked about the real estate business which enabled millions of people to achieve financial freedom, I actually wanted to do this about 2 years ago. I had 6 big books on real estate, I followed almost every "successful" real estate entrepreneurs on youtube and regularly watched them. It was also respecting CENTS in my opinion: It may had a small scale but its magnitude was high, I remember learning that from the Millionaire Fastlane which I read about 2 years ago.

My problem that for getting into the real estate thing is lack of money. I could not even borrow money from the bank as I am jobless (I choosed to be jobless). I wanted to go to the army, work for 5 year, save all the money I received and then buy a house. But then, I changed my mind. For the real estate business to provide me enough for financial freedom, I needed to rent at least 12houses. Now, I would need money that I invested in those houses back and that was going to take me at least 15years/house given that I pay no interest for the money I borrowed. In my opinion, this business works only if I have a huge capital for investment and I would not really be the one enjoying financial freedom from it, it would be my children as I would already be kind of old before that really works. I may be wrong.

What I am doing right now is mastering the mindset of an entrepreneur. I see many opportunities each time I talk to someone but I never tried turning them into an income. Why? Because I feel like I still have a lot to learn from the books I own and starting up a business will take all my time. Fact: I dropped out of university because it was consuming all my time in a way I didn't like.

Right now, my part time job is a private taxi driver. I am from Mauritius. In case any of you is coming to visit Mauritius, feel free to message me for taxi service :).

Thanks again for your reply, I took notes.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MTF

Never give up
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
455%
May 1, 2011
7,560
34,430
My problem that for getting into the real estate thing is lack of money. I could not even borrow money from the bank as I am jobless (I choosed to be jobless). I wanted to go to the army, work for 5 year, save all the money I received and then buy a house. But then, I changed my mind. For the real estate business to provide me enough for financial freedom, I needed to rent at least 12houses. Now, I would need money that I invested in those houses back and that was going to take me at least 15years/house given that I pay no interest for the money I borrowed. In my opinion, this business works only if I have a huge capital for investment and I would not really be the one enjoying financial freedom from it, it would be my children as I would already be kind of old before that really works. I may be wrong.

Because real estate done the Fastlane way is about leverage, not saving money and slowly buying new houses every few years.

The Fastlane way to go about this would be to gain the trust of potential investors who would lend you money. Then you would buy real estate with their money and pay them off with profits. Once you prove you can make them money, you wouldn't have a problem funding your deals.

I don't know that much about real estate but I assume this would work best with flipping, not rentals.

If you were to do rentals, it would probably make most sense to rent a place long-term and sublease it for short-term rentals.

Without much start-up money you could become a property manager, for example managing Airbnb rentals for owners.

There are many ways to approach this. You don't need much money to start.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
Because real estate done the Fastlane way is about leverage, not saving money and slowly buying new houses every few years.

The Fastlane way to go about this would be to gain the trust of potential investors who would lend you money. Then you would buy real estate with their money and pay them off with profits. Once you prove you can make them money, you wouldn't have a problem funding your deals.

I don't know that much about real estate but I assume this would work best with flipping, not rentals.

If you were to do rentals, it would probably make most sense to rent a place long-term and sublease it for short-term rentals.

Without much start-up money you could become a property manager, for example managing Airbnb rentals for owners.

There are many ways to approach this. You don't need much money to start.
Ohh I see what you mean, like a salesman selling the real estates and getting a comission out of it. Or, buying a house, renewing it and then reselling it. Yeah, it is a great way of reaching financial freedom in my opinion. Someone can literally be making millions per year, depending on how good that someone is.

I literally forgot about all those possibilities.

I am very good at sales. I will share something. Almost everything I own was paid by me - I don't have the intention to brag. The phone I am using to type this? I bought this. The laptop I use to read books? I paid 3/4 of it. I am not someone who can just ask my parents something and bam, days later, I get it. No. I was very deprived. So, how was I able to buy things I needed? I saved and invested. This started when I was 13. I wanted a smartphone but my parents weren't willing to buy me one, unless I get super great results in school. Was I getting good results? Yes but they wanted me to perform even better. What happenned? I got fed up. I literally deprived myself of everything for a year, saved my money and then bought the smartphone. Later on, I wanted more and more things and at the same time, I was still depriving myself. 2 years later, I had enough money to buy a drone. I did and the drone was defective, I didn't even get a refund. I sold the drone as defective and lost a significant amout of money. About 6 months later, I bought another one, the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum. I bargained for the lowest possible price. I didn't buy it with the intention of making profits by reselling it. I bought it because I enjoyed drones. I have personally build several drones too during that time. Briefly: I was big on this drone thing and I gained popularity due to my skills. I was contacted by companies and wedding halls for filming purposes too and it paid very well (for a teenager). I was also contacted to repair damaged drones and to teach people how to fly(fpv drones). Later on, I wanted to try out another drone but didn't have the money. What did I do? I sold this one and made a significant amount of profit. I have done this several times to the point that I was the richest teenager(I was about 17 at that time and this is about when I stopped this drone thing) compared to any teens that I knew, teens who were using the latest Apple phone, wearing designer clothes, freauently going out to eat. What satisfies me is that I made all this money by myself and I did all that while having a great time. Selling didn't feel like work. It took me some minutes to make the post and thanks to my popularity in the drone field, I was contacted within days (sometimes weeks or even months). Each time when people tell me I'm taking the wrong path, that story reminds me of how "independant" I was at a very young age while others were partying and having fun with their parent's money.

Fast forward to now, I abanded the drone thing but people still contact me for advices. Why did I abandon it? Drones didn't interest me anymore as much as they did years back and I had huge exams that was taking place. I was also on the leap from high school to college.

Also, why I don't really care if I fail in my entrepreneurship journey and ends up several time with 0$? I know I will find a way to deal with it.

Now, I still deprive myself. I avoid going out if that means spending money. I am even labeled as someone who cares too much about money and that's the case. I lived without money, I know how it sucks. That's why, until it is in abundance, I avoid spending it whenever I can and this many times break relationships with people in my life, being turned off by how much I care about my money and me not wanting to spend almost nothing.

This was kind of irrelavant to the topic but I wanted to share.

So yeah, thanks for reminding me that we can start up something without money.
 

Angler

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
271%
Sep 9, 2021
140
379
22
I had been consciously and actively pursuing financial freedom roughly between the ages of 17 to 27. At 27 I started feeling financially free. But in reality between 17 and 24 I wasted time trying new businesses every few months and never having enough discipline to keep going when things didn't work.
MTF, I hope you know this is a damn awesome reply. Reading it for the second time, it seems like you outline the rough map a-z for building something worthwhile from nothing. Not the step by step blue print, but a rough guideline, which is more than enough if the reader can put 1 and 1 together.

What you just did there in a few paragraph is the theme I see when I read progress threads. And it fuels my fire man. I'll talking 100% gasoline. This hits harder than black coffee. That exact thing you mention about working from your room is my exact circumstance RIGHT NOW. The quoted text I mentioned is the very reason I will not quit and giving up is not an option. It will take however long it takes and it's either I will make work or I will die making it work.

Much love to your words.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Angler

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
271%
Sep 9, 2021
140
379
22

Attachments

  • mic drop.gif
    mic drop.gif
    727.2 KB · Views: 2

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,566
68,699
Ireland

MTF

Never give up
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
455%
May 1, 2011
7,560
34,430
Ohh I see what you mean, like a salesman selling the real estates and getting a comission out of it. Or, buying a house, renewing it and then reselling it. Yeah, it is a great way of reaching financial freedom in my opinion. Someone can literally be making millions per year, depending on how good that someone is.

I literally forgot about all those possibilities.

I am very good at sales. I will share something. Almost everything I own was paid by me - I don't have the intention to brag. The phone I am using to type this? I bought this. The laptop I use to read books? I paid 3/4 of it. I am not someone who can just ask my parents something and bam, days later, I get it. No. I was very deprived. So, how was I able to buy things I needed? I saved and invested. This started when I was 13. I wanted a smartphone but my parents weren't willing to buy me one, unless I get super great results in school. Was I getting good results? Yes but they wanted me to perform even better. What happenned? I got fed up. I literally deprived myself of everything for a year, saved my money and then bought the smartphone. Later on, I wanted more and more things and at the same time, I was still depriving myself. 2 years later, I had enough money to buy a drone. I did and the drone was defective, I didn't even get a refund. I sold the drone as defective and lost a significant amout of money. About 6 months later, I bought another one, the DJI Mavic Pro Platinum. I bargained for the lowest possible price. I didn't buy it with the intention of making profits by reselling it. I bought it because I enjoyed drones. I have personally build several drones too during that time. Briefly: I was big on this drone thing and I gained popularity due to my skills. I was contacted by companies and wedding halls for filming purposes too and it paid very well (for a teenager). I was also contacted to repair damaged drones and to teach people how to fly(fpv drones). Later on, I wanted to try out another drone but didn't have the money. What did I do? I sold this one and made a significant amount of profit. I have done this several times to the point that I was the richest teenager(I was about 17 at that time and this is about when I stopped this drone thing) compared to any teens that I knew, teens who were using the latest Apple phone, wearing designer clothes, freauently going out to eat. What satisfies me is that I made all this money by myself and I did all that while having a great time. Selling didn't feel like work. It took me some minutes to make the post and thanks to my popularity in the drone field, I was contacted within days (sometimes weeks or even months). Each time when people tell me I'm taking the wrong path, that story reminds me of how "independant" I was at a very young age while others were partying and having fun with their parent's money.

Fast forward to now, I abanded the drone thing but people still contact me for advices. Why did I abandon it? Drones didn't interest me anymore as much as they did years back and I had huge exams that was taking place. I was also on the leap from high school to college.

Also, why I don't really care if I fail in my entrepreneurship journey and ends up several time with 0$? I know I will find a way to deal with it.

Now, I still deprive myself. I avoid going out if that means spending money. I am even labeled as someone who cares too much about money and that's the case. I lived without money, I know how it sucks. That's why, until it is in abundance, I avoid spending it whenever I can and this many times break relationships with people in my life, being turned off by how much I care about my money and me not wanting to spend almost nothing.

This was kind of irrelavant to the topic but I wanted to share.

So yeah, thanks for reminding me that we can start up something without money.

Thank you for sharing this story. You have all the right tools and the right mindset to succeed. I rarely reply in threads posted by new people but through the way you interact with this forum I had a feeling it would be worth my time to respond to your questions.

MTF, I hope you know this is a damn awesome reply. Reading it for the second time, it seems like you outline the rough map a-z for building something worthwhile from nothing. Not the step by step blue print, but a rough guideline, which is more than enough if the reader can put 1 and 1 together.

What you just did there in a few paragraph is the theme I see when I read progress threads. And it fuels my fire man. I'll talking 100% gasoline. This hits harder than black coffee. That exact thing you mention about working from your room is my exact circumstance RIGHT NOW. The quoted text I mentioned is the very reason I will not quit and giving up is not an option. It will take however long it takes and it's either I will make work or I will die making it work.

Much love to your words.

Thank you, I'm glad to hear I could fuel your fire. A few years from now you'll look at your post and realize you were 100% right to have that fire and keep going no matter what.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Goodfella999

My biggest regret is not starting sooner
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
131%
Apr 29, 2022
94
123
South FL
@biophase , Im sure the depreciation on your rentals helps offset high income from online business for taxes. Thats an issue Ive started running into, only so many traditional write offs. Need to buy more properties.
 

ZCP

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
336%
Oct 22, 2010
3,952
13,267
Woodstock, GA
Thank you @biophase for being patient and answering questions!
This thread turned out solid.

All coming behind. Learn for both sides. Be clear with questions. Be willing to share.
Best Forum Ever!
 

biophase

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
474%
Jul 25, 2007
9,121
43,261
Scottsdale, AZ
Thank you @biophase for being patient and answering questions!
This thread turned out solid.

All coming behind. Learn for both sides. Be clear with questions. Be willing to share.
Best Forum Ever!
This thread has made me think about the term financial freedom. I don't believe each of us define it the same.

Many times, I've seen it defined as when your passive or business income becomes greater than your expenses. But this is not the same as retiring.

So when the OP asks about financial freedom, is the number $10,000 a month coming in from your business, or is it $10M that generates $10,000 a month in return. There is a huge difference between the two.

How do you define financial freedom? For some it's when they can quit their job. For others it is when they can never work another day in their life. It's hard to say, because you really don't know how much is enough. So you just keep going until, one day you realize that it is enough. I would say it took 13 years for me.
When I answered the above question saying 13 years. This was when I felt like my net worth was enough to never have to work again. It was a lump sum number. I based it on a certain amount of money that I could never spend in my lifetime.

However, if you want to define it by income>expenses, I would say I hit this around 3 years in. However, my expenses were never very high to start with.

So how do we define financial freedom here?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Antifragile

Progress not perfection
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
453%
Mar 15, 2018
3,709
16,814
Medal goes to @MTF for the most thorough response!

While I appreciate where the OP is coming from, these questions are very hard. You are new and asking for a lot, in some ways more than I most of us would be willing to share. It's not only the quantity of questions, it's how much it would take to answer them. It's like coming up to a stranger at a coffee shop and asking them "how much money do you have in the bank and how much are you making p.a. ?"

I'll share some thoughts:
- my path wis not as relevant because as Heraclitus used to say that you can't cross the same river twice...
- I am not sure if I have achieved "financial freedom" as each of us will have a different definition of what that means. I cannot imagine "retiring" as it might just kill me of boredom. And because I run a business, I never have enough money, but by any normal human definition, I am financially wealthy.
- Value created to the world: all in real estate. Have been doing it a while.
- Business is a roller coaster ride. Some people come off one ride, puke their guts out and say "never again"; stress is too much. Others love it and can't wait to jump on another ride. That's what it feels like for me year after year, month after month. I go from low to high, from high to low. And I love it, wouldn't want to have any other way.
 

Kirsov

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
90%
Apr 30, 2022
62
56
22
Germany
It's like coming up to a stranger at a coffee shop and asking them "how much money do you have in the bank and how much are you making p.a. ?"
It is a normal thing for me to do. I am that kind of person who goes directly to the point, even if I just met you seconds ago. Many people are surprised to how direct I am (in real life), in a good way.

I'll share some thoughts:
- my path wis not as relevant because as Heraclitus used to say that you can't cross the same river twice...
- I am not sure if I have achieved "financial freedom" as each of us will have a different definition of what that means. I cannot imagine "retiring" as it might just kill me of boredom. And because I run a business, I never have enough money, but by any normal human definition, I am financially wealthy.
- Value created to the world: all in real estate. Have been doing it a while.
- Business is a roller coaster ride. Some people come off one ride, puke their guts out and say "never again"; stress is too much. Others love it and can't wait to jump on another ride. That's what it feels like for me year after year, month after month. I go from low to high, from high to low. And I love it, wouldn't want to have any other way.
Thanks for sharing. My definition of financial freedom isn't about retiring, but about money not being a problem to do whatever you want to do in life.

Do you have a post about your real estate and your coaster ride? I am interested to see how you made it.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top