Aloha everyone,
My name is Nate, I live in Daytona Beach Florida (I am originally from Hawaii but moved to FL in 2022) with my beautiful wife and four kids. I am 37 and I have my own counseling private practice that I operate remotely via telehealth.
I was raised on the conventional slow lane mentality (both my parents were teachers) got good grades, went on to graduate school and got a “stable” job with the state dept of education then got a job at a private school.
On paper I made all the right moves but deep down had a feeling that something wasn't right. No matter how many pay raises or steps I went up in my salary job, I never quite felt the financial weight lift. I constantly felt the urge to leave my job and had dreams of building my own thing on the side (private practice and recording studio). I desired autonomy and freedom to express my work without anyone being able to tell me what to do.
When I was living in Hawaii, I started a slew of side hustle gigs at various times (teaching jiu jitsu, playing live music and then producing music, leading music at my church, teaching adjunct in the counseling graduate program) just to keep myself motivated but the cycle of riding the dopamine high followed by burnout was a normal pattern.
In 2020, after my first two children were born (and my wife decided to become a stay at home mom) the pressure intensified and the rat race realities started to feel crushing. When Hawaii initiated COVID restrictions and lockdowns it really shook my perspective on society and so I began questioning a lot of things beginning to go down the rabbit holes. It was at that point that I began to educate myself about investing, crypto, real estate, and personal finance.
In 2022, we decided to move away from Hawaii to maybe get some breathing room and escape the challenging cost of living in pursuit of something better.
After moving to FL and having two more kids. I thought, “finally we will be able to feel more comfortable financially.” I was completely wrong. We soon ended up in financial troubles even though my cost of living was substantially better.
Three years passed by and still no “real” solutions to improve our finances. I began brainstorming solutions and watching youtube videos of various financial influencers. Some were entrepreneurial but the advice and strategies seemed to be all over the place. I then started to watch a guy preaching slowlane investment strategies that he communicated in a way that made sense from a “hey this is boring but it works.” I guess this might be the direction I will go. I liquidated my crypto to pay some debts I had and started to look at index funds to start investing in.
In my continued YT scrolling, I stumbled upon someone who reviewed the Millionaire Fastlane book as the best book on money they had ever read. It caught my attention right away because no one else had mentioned this book or author. In the video it explained three different strategies (slowlane, sideway and fastlane). It immediately contradicted all of what the previous guy (that I liked) was saying (and strategy I was en route to pursue). This was definitely God changing my course midway.
I did more research about MJ and ordered “Unscripted ” on March 18, 2025. It was pretty unsettling to learn that I had been fed more scripts leading to a mediocre life (at a time when I had already begun to distrust the government and media). Despite all my efforts, I was still living paycheck to paycheck. Two of the most impactful parts of the book (though there were many that I'm still processing) was when MJ talked about trading youthful years for elderly time. My parents are now retired and they passed on a lot of life experiences due to their job. I don't want that same path. The second lesson that really stuck with me was “hall-of-famers fail 70% of the time.” I was raised on achievement through accomplishments to prove myself. I don't like failure. I want to shift that mindset.
In April, I decided I would begin to work on my first business (Jiu Jitsu apparel). Unfortunately it violated most of the CENTS framework. The reason I still pursued it was because I was interested in the design, manufacturing process and because I still train Jiu-Jitsu and am very familiar with the current market.
I went as far as finding a manufacturer, getting one pre-order, and getting samples. I did not have enough capital for future orders and lost motivation to continue after consulting with a local entrepreneur who advised against it for my first venture.
Today, I am currently working on leveraging my experience as a therapist to address the problem of pornography use amongst men ages 25-45. It's a high ticket retreat model focusing on connecting men with their desire to fight, develop vision, and improve emotional connection. I plan to have a rigorous screening process and do only word of mouth referrals.
Thank you for your book and this forum.
My name is Nate, I live in Daytona Beach Florida (I am originally from Hawaii but moved to FL in 2022) with my beautiful wife and four kids. I am 37 and I have my own counseling private practice that I operate remotely via telehealth.
I was raised on the conventional slow lane mentality (both my parents were teachers) got good grades, went on to graduate school and got a “stable” job with the state dept of education then got a job at a private school.
On paper I made all the right moves but deep down had a feeling that something wasn't right. No matter how many pay raises or steps I went up in my salary job, I never quite felt the financial weight lift. I constantly felt the urge to leave my job and had dreams of building my own thing on the side (private practice and recording studio). I desired autonomy and freedom to express my work without anyone being able to tell me what to do.
When I was living in Hawaii, I started a slew of side hustle gigs at various times (teaching jiu jitsu, playing live music and then producing music, leading music at my church, teaching adjunct in the counseling graduate program) just to keep myself motivated but the cycle of riding the dopamine high followed by burnout was a normal pattern.
In 2020, after my first two children were born (and my wife decided to become a stay at home mom) the pressure intensified and the rat race realities started to feel crushing. When Hawaii initiated COVID restrictions and lockdowns it really shook my perspective on society and so I began questioning a lot of things beginning to go down the rabbit holes. It was at that point that I began to educate myself about investing, crypto, real estate, and personal finance.
In 2022, we decided to move away from Hawaii to maybe get some breathing room and escape the challenging cost of living in pursuit of something better.
After moving to FL and having two more kids. I thought, “finally we will be able to feel more comfortable financially.” I was completely wrong. We soon ended up in financial troubles even though my cost of living was substantially better.
Three years passed by and still no “real” solutions to improve our finances. I began brainstorming solutions and watching youtube videos of various financial influencers. Some were entrepreneurial but the advice and strategies seemed to be all over the place. I then started to watch a guy preaching slowlane investment strategies that he communicated in a way that made sense from a “hey this is boring but it works.” I guess this might be the direction I will go. I liquidated my crypto to pay some debts I had and started to look at index funds to start investing in.
In my continued YT scrolling, I stumbled upon someone who reviewed the Millionaire Fastlane book as the best book on money they had ever read. It caught my attention right away because no one else had mentioned this book or author. In the video it explained three different strategies (slowlane, sideway and fastlane). It immediately contradicted all of what the previous guy (that I liked) was saying (and strategy I was en route to pursue). This was definitely God changing my course midway.
I did more research about MJ and ordered “Unscripted ” on March 18, 2025. It was pretty unsettling to learn that I had been fed more scripts leading to a mediocre life (at a time when I had already begun to distrust the government and media). Despite all my efforts, I was still living paycheck to paycheck. Two of the most impactful parts of the book (though there were many that I'm still processing) was when MJ talked about trading youthful years for elderly time. My parents are now retired and they passed on a lot of life experiences due to their job. I don't want that same path. The second lesson that really stuck with me was “hall-of-famers fail 70% of the time.” I was raised on achievement through accomplishments to prove myself. I don't like failure. I want to shift that mindset.
In April, I decided I would begin to work on my first business (Jiu Jitsu apparel). Unfortunately it violated most of the CENTS framework. The reason I still pursued it was because I was interested in the design, manufacturing process and because I still train Jiu-Jitsu and am very familiar with the current market.
I went as far as finding a manufacturer, getting one pre-order, and getting samples. I did not have enough capital for future orders and lost motivation to continue after consulting with a local entrepreneur who advised against it for my first venture.
Today, I am currently working on leveraging my experience as a therapist to address the problem of pornography use amongst men ages 25-45. It's a high ticket retreat model focusing on connecting men with their desire to fight, develop vision, and improve emotional connection. I plan to have a rigorous screening process and do only word of mouth referrals.
Thank you for your book and this forum.
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