Hello everyone,
I think it's about time I properly introduced myself to this forum after lurking for the better part of 8 months. I've finished reading all three books (TMF , Unscripted , TGRRE ), and have also read many great forum posts on here as well. Currently however, I've clearly reached a point where I'm just stuck endlessly consuming knowledge as a form of procrastination, so I've come here to get outside of my own head form a plan of action to build a business, even if it may not be the best of its kind.
To start off, I am a 22 year old who graduated with a degree in electronic engineering last year. I first read The Millionaire Fastlane after uncovering it in an extensive search triggered by reading another, more obscure book I discovered during my second year of university. The book itself (not TMF) was about the memoirs and life philosophy of the author, who illustrated the principles he followed which allowed him, a working class man, to attain complete freedom over his time, escape soul-crushing employment, and master his own life and destiny, among many other brilliant things. To someone who, at the time, wandered apathetically though life believing that freedom from mediocrity and perpetual employment would always be beyond my reach, reading it set off a spark within me. It made me realise that I could be more than simply a spectator in the game of life, living and dying by the 9 to 5 routine; that I didn't have to forsake my freedom, my ambitions, and my wildest dreams to chain myself into 40 years of meaningless employment.
Describing myself as livid after finishing that book would have been a huge understatement; it felt as if every square inch of my body was set ablaze. I desperately wanted to get out of my mediocre life, even briefly considering dropping out of university. Thankfully though, I kept enough of myself together because not only would that be a dumb thing to do, but also my knowledge was incomplete. From what I understood, a business which could generate income independent of my time would be a critical component in achieving my freedom, which the book mentioned but didn't discuss in great enough detail to act upon. So, despite approaching exam season, I spent all my remaining free time scouring the internet for a book on entrepreneurship also underpinned by a similar philosophy, which of course, lead me to discovering the TMF series.
Moving back to the present day, I have had much to reflect upon concerning how I am going to play this all out. I have absolutely zero experience with any form of entrepreneurship, or in other words, I have not made a single dollar (or pound) independently before, so I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated. I am however, strong in various maker-oriented skills like being able to design electronics, creating mechanisms and their parts in CAD, being experienced with 3D printing, and knowing how to write software. I have come up with novel electronic and mechanical designs before and have decent artistic ability, so I feel confident with being creative as well. I taught myself most of these skills in my teenage years while dumping all my free time into complex long-term personal projects, so I feel confident that persistence and being an autodidact should not be an issue. Considering all of these skills, I believe I would hold the greatest advantage in entrepreneurship by becoming an inventor. I already have a few ideas for products that I personally would like to use that do not exist on the market, and that I can readily execute on with the resources I currently have.
Having said all that though, I do not doubt that this will be the most challenging thing I will do yet. I will have to learn many skills far outside of what I am familiar with, like marketing tactics, copywriting and E-commerce. Parts of my old mindset, like low self-esteem, overthinking and procrastination still linger. I cannot make any bold assertions about making millions in the foreseeable future and will probably meet failure after failure trying, looking like an idiot whenever it happens. Yet, in the face of this uncertainty, I have never felt more compelled to see all of this though. I remember the many times I've been told to "be realistic", that I'm "too young" to be doing something, that I need to stop dreaming and "act normal like everyone else", yet at the same time those who said such things have nothing going for them outside of being chronically employed; no great adventures, no grand feats, no unique stories to tell. What is considered "realistic" and "normal" now is, among other things, never being able to afford property or living expenses while being grateful for the privilege of working your life away, cowering in fear and anxiety in the face of the never-ending "crises" manufactured by the government and media (whatever comes to your mind included), and then blotting it all out by losing oneself within a digital hyper-reality of their choosing.
I am tired of living life in a cage, letting it be something that "happens" to me and everybody else, living in fear of what could be and in regret of what could have been. I want to be able to step out of my front door, from a house that I own, knowing I can be anywhere I want at any time. I want to have the time and resources to transform whatever insane ideas I have into equally insane creations. I want to obliterate the mainstream BS I am supposed to believe and live life on my own terms, one full of endless potential and possibility. If I ever want to be able to find out the full extent of who I am, what I am truly capable of, and the beauty of this world, I cannot be stuck following the Script. If I really am going to deal my financial problems, then I must go straight for the throat.
Hence, if there is one thing I am certain of it is this: I will know the taste of financial freedom. It doesn't matter what happens, there is nothing else I would rather strive for.
If you really did read all of that, you have my greatest thanks. I hope it wasn't too long or dramatic, as I wanted to properly articulate and compile all the things I have been thinking about over the past year or so. Writing all this would be meaningless without at least making some goals, so to get started I will begin properly researching and designing a prototype for my primary idea, try to start chatting with the members from the Inventor's Virtual Meetup thread to get more of my goals straight, and read up on marketing techniques and E-commerce if I get the time. I'm not exactly sure I can offer much to this forum at this stage in terms of business itself, but I would be more than happy to offer my knowledge on anything to do with electronics and discuss making things in general.
As an aside, I do have two small questions I want to ask, so feel free to answer if you're up for it:
I've finally got nothing left to say. I'm going to go start building now, hope to meet everyone here soon.
I think it's about time I properly introduced myself to this forum after lurking for the better part of 8 months. I've finished reading all three books (TMF , Unscripted , TGRRE ), and have also read many great forum posts on here as well. Currently however, I've clearly reached a point where I'm just stuck endlessly consuming knowledge as a form of procrastination, so I've come here to get outside of my own head form a plan of action to build a business, even if it may not be the best of its kind.
To start off, I am a 22 year old who graduated with a degree in electronic engineering last year. I first read The Millionaire Fastlane after uncovering it in an extensive search triggered by reading another, more obscure book I discovered during my second year of university. The book itself (not TMF) was about the memoirs and life philosophy of the author, who illustrated the principles he followed which allowed him, a working class man, to attain complete freedom over his time, escape soul-crushing employment, and master his own life and destiny, among many other brilliant things. To someone who, at the time, wandered apathetically though life believing that freedom from mediocrity and perpetual employment would always be beyond my reach, reading it set off a spark within me. It made me realise that I could be more than simply a spectator in the game of life, living and dying by the 9 to 5 routine; that I didn't have to forsake my freedom, my ambitions, and my wildest dreams to chain myself into 40 years of meaningless employment.
Describing myself as livid after finishing that book would have been a huge understatement; it felt as if every square inch of my body was set ablaze. I desperately wanted to get out of my mediocre life, even briefly considering dropping out of university. Thankfully though, I kept enough of myself together because not only would that be a dumb thing to do, but also my knowledge was incomplete. From what I understood, a business which could generate income independent of my time would be a critical component in achieving my freedom, which the book mentioned but didn't discuss in great enough detail to act upon. So, despite approaching exam season, I spent all my remaining free time scouring the internet for a book on entrepreneurship also underpinned by a similar philosophy, which of course, lead me to discovering the TMF series.
Moving back to the present day, I have had much to reflect upon concerning how I am going to play this all out. I have absolutely zero experience with any form of entrepreneurship, or in other words, I have not made a single dollar (or pound) independently before, so I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated. I am however, strong in various maker-oriented skills like being able to design electronics, creating mechanisms and their parts in CAD, being experienced with 3D printing, and knowing how to write software. I have come up with novel electronic and mechanical designs before and have decent artistic ability, so I feel confident with being creative as well. I taught myself most of these skills in my teenage years while dumping all my free time into complex long-term personal projects, so I feel confident that persistence and being an autodidact should not be an issue. Considering all of these skills, I believe I would hold the greatest advantage in entrepreneurship by becoming an inventor. I already have a few ideas for products that I personally would like to use that do not exist on the market, and that I can readily execute on with the resources I currently have.
Having said all that though, I do not doubt that this will be the most challenging thing I will do yet. I will have to learn many skills far outside of what I am familiar with, like marketing tactics, copywriting and E-commerce. Parts of my old mindset, like low self-esteem, overthinking and procrastination still linger. I cannot make any bold assertions about making millions in the foreseeable future and will probably meet failure after failure trying, looking like an idiot whenever it happens. Yet, in the face of this uncertainty, I have never felt more compelled to see all of this though. I remember the many times I've been told to "be realistic", that I'm "too young" to be doing something, that I need to stop dreaming and "act normal like everyone else", yet at the same time those who said such things have nothing going for them outside of being chronically employed; no great adventures, no grand feats, no unique stories to tell. What is considered "realistic" and "normal" now is, among other things, never being able to afford property or living expenses while being grateful for the privilege of working your life away, cowering in fear and anxiety in the face of the never-ending "crises" manufactured by the government and media (whatever comes to your mind included), and then blotting it all out by losing oneself within a digital hyper-reality of their choosing.
I am tired of living life in a cage, letting it be something that "happens" to me and everybody else, living in fear of what could be and in regret of what could have been. I want to be able to step out of my front door, from a house that I own, knowing I can be anywhere I want at any time. I want to have the time and resources to transform whatever insane ideas I have into equally insane creations. I want to obliterate the mainstream BS I am supposed to believe and live life on my own terms, one full of endless potential and possibility. If I ever want to be able to find out the full extent of who I am, what I am truly capable of, and the beauty of this world, I cannot be stuck following the Script. If I really am going to deal my financial problems, then I must go straight for the throat.
Hence, if there is one thing I am certain of it is this: I will know the taste of financial freedom. It doesn't matter what happens, there is nothing else I would rather strive for.
If you really did read all of that, you have my greatest thanks. I hope it wasn't too long or dramatic, as I wanted to properly articulate and compile all the things I have been thinking about over the past year or so. Writing all this would be meaningless without at least making some goals, so to get started I will begin properly researching and designing a prototype for my primary idea, try to start chatting with the members from the Inventor's Virtual Meetup thread to get more of my goals straight, and read up on marketing techniques and E-commerce if I get the time. I'm not exactly sure I can offer much to this forum at this stage in terms of business itself, but I would be more than happy to offer my knowledge on anything to do with electronics and discuss making things in general.
As an aside, I do have two small questions I want to ask, so feel free to answer if you're up for it:
- How do you hold enough confidence in your idea during the building process to follow through and bring it to market (i.e. how do you beat the "Desert of Desertion")? I find I keep second-guessing my ideas with rationalisations like: "Why has no one capitalised on this idea/variation yet? Is it too simple/unnecessary/small TAM/dumb/...etc.?", despite the fact that I would personally buy it myself.
- I see that members of this forum will often avoid explicitly posting what their current ideas are. Is it because people steal ideas from this forum, or is it something else? Regardless, should I be taking precautions to avoid disclosing my ideas in posts and execution threads?
I've finally got nothing left to say. I'm going to go start building now, hope to meet everyone here soon.
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