Hey everyone. My name is Ben. I'm a 32 year old husband and father to four children ages five, three, two, and one. I am a real estate agent in Upstate New York and aspiring entrepreneur and investor.
My life can only be described as failing forward. Bright, but uninspired high school student, on the verge of dropping out find music in his junior year and decides to go to Music School. While in college I maintain a GPA high enough to be on the president's list or the Dean's List. Then, only a month before I audition for a position at a 4-year School, my mom dies. I go to the audition, but the school does not accept me. I plan to audition again, but bilateral carpal tunnel derails me. So, I change majors. After I graduate, I bounced around between a number of dead-end jobs because the economy in my area has been in decline for decades. At one point, my then-girlfriend now wife had to buy me a $3 pair dress socks for a job interview because I didn't have the money. It was during this time I decided to go back to school for a master's degree.
When I was 26 or 27, I was working toward my master's degree in education, when halfway through my student teaching, my wife started to have complications with her pregnancy and she was forced to limit the amount she could work, so I dropped the program to get a job to support the family. I had a fair amount of success working in automotive service and sales, but the long hours definitely left me discontented and that's when I found Pat Flynn's SPI and MJ's interview as well as many others.
At that point I became inspired, and I put many good ideas down to paper but never executed them. I conceived of a number of apps as well as SaaS programs, but I kept telling myself that I was too busy to pursue them, or we didn't have the money to invest. And as luck would have it, apparently ideas don't exist only in the vacuum of my own mind, and I saw a number of ideas I had be executed by someone else. This left me frustrated and angry, but ultimately I had no one to blame but myself.
I decided to get my real estate license because I understand the importance that real estate can play in terms of building wealth. Additionally, This would at least give me a starting point in becoming an entrepreneur. But the process took longer than it should have. I was complacent and I didn't realize it. A few short months after getting my license, I realized I had become comfortable in my position with the long hours, but it wasn't getting me anywhere. In fact, my income had decreased 20% from the year prior. Once I realized what I was sacrificing for a dead-end job that was paying 20% less I knew it was time to quit.
So, now I'm here. I'm ready to crush it. Ready to learn and be accountable. Ready to build a legacy.
My life can only be described as failing forward. Bright, but uninspired high school student, on the verge of dropping out find music in his junior year and decides to go to Music School. While in college I maintain a GPA high enough to be on the president's list or the Dean's List. Then, only a month before I audition for a position at a 4-year School, my mom dies. I go to the audition, but the school does not accept me. I plan to audition again, but bilateral carpal tunnel derails me. So, I change majors. After I graduate, I bounced around between a number of dead-end jobs because the economy in my area has been in decline for decades. At one point, my then-girlfriend now wife had to buy me a $3 pair dress socks for a job interview because I didn't have the money. It was during this time I decided to go back to school for a master's degree.
When I was 26 or 27, I was working toward my master's degree in education, when halfway through my student teaching, my wife started to have complications with her pregnancy and she was forced to limit the amount she could work, so I dropped the program to get a job to support the family. I had a fair amount of success working in automotive service and sales, but the long hours definitely left me discontented and that's when I found Pat Flynn's SPI and MJ's interview as well as many others.
At that point I became inspired, and I put many good ideas down to paper but never executed them. I conceived of a number of apps as well as SaaS programs, but I kept telling myself that I was too busy to pursue them, or we didn't have the money to invest. And as luck would have it, apparently ideas don't exist only in the vacuum of my own mind, and I saw a number of ideas I had be executed by someone else. This left me frustrated and angry, but ultimately I had no one to blame but myself.
I decided to get my real estate license because I understand the importance that real estate can play in terms of building wealth. Additionally, This would at least give me a starting point in becoming an entrepreneur. But the process took longer than it should have. I was complacent and I didn't realize it. A few short months after getting my license, I realized I had become comfortable in my position with the long hours, but it wasn't getting me anywhere. In fact, my income had decreased 20% from the year prior. Once I realized what I was sacrificing for a dead-end job that was paying 20% less I knew it was time to quit.
So, now I'm here. I'm ready to crush it. Ready to learn and be accountable. Ready to build a legacy.
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