Ready for some long-winded writing? Buckle in!
My name is Cam. I'm 27, I have a degree in Psychology -- which means next to nothing, but which cost me (and my parents) a pretty penny.
The way it stands, they will have debt from MY education for the rest of their lives.
I'm not comfortable with that, and I know I can help them with that.
After undergrad, I went to Grad school... for a Master's in Psych. It took me two long and painful years of hating the material for me to man up and finally leave without completing my Thesis. Many doubted me, but I felt empowered by taking control of my destiny. I needed work, however, and ended up applying to a vaguely worded 'web assistant' job off Craigslist.
It was in porn. Not acting, mind you
, but as a kind of 'many-hats-wearing-computer-guy'. To be honest, I'm still employed by that company after over two years. More on why later.
After about a month in that job, I became numb to the constant barrage of private parts assaulting my eyeballs daily (I started by sending copyright notices to a multitude of sites in the adult web underworld). But I got my processes down. I learned Auto Hotkey and automated most of my work over the course of a few weeks. I began thinking of every process as an algorithm, and every facet of the job as a segment that could be batch-processed.
My job suddenly became 80% direct time-for-money trading. But the time was unsupervised and I saw it as a huge blessing at the time.
With my newfound time, I listened to audiobooks and podcasts, took notes on various ideas I was having relating business, and occasionally even wrote songs. Still, my boss loved me because I was one of the only reliable and efficient employees he had. I even created a whole training manual for employees who might want to use the same productivity tricks and tools (I built a web dashboard for my job) that I was using. To this day, nobody has even seen that training manual lol.
One day, I began looking for other jobs... jobs that I thought would be more 'appropriate' for someone like me. I'm a pretty straight-laced fellow... even most folks in my life still don't know my employment history. I found a sales job, basically an assistant-to-salesmen with the promise of working my way up a sales ladder. They sold to the military and other government branches. It seemed very 'straight edge' compared to my current job.
They made an offer (15/hour), I took it to my boss, and he gave me 20/hour to stay. He also let me start building an affiliate program. I worked my butt off creating derivative content of our adult videos. I made gifs, I made compilations, I made just about anything I could think of. It was something I got quite good at (Adobe Premiere) and I had a schedule that churned out new affiliate content every day. I was also responsible for finding affiliates to sell our memberships, but I found that I made way more just focusing on churning out my own affiliate-linked content. At my peak, over a year ago, my links made about 400/month of extra income. Today, I still make around 200 and I haven't created content since 2016.
After about 6 months of that, I started getting bored. The affiliate grind was stagnating, and a coworker was trying to snake his way into control of the affiliate platforms we used (so he could get more of the pie). I was cool with it, and I thought 'hey I should go back to school'
What a slowlaner, eh.
Long story short, I got into an online program for getting an accelerated degree in Computer Science over the course of a year and a half. My boss (who still loves me) let me stay and work whatever hours I wanted (I do 10/week usually) and take my classes on the side.
I'm graduating with a C.S. degree in March, and I know a ton more about programming (especially web development) than I used to. The cost? Another $30k in debt to add to my other $12k that had slowly gone down from $25k in 2012.
Sigh, I'm not proud of that. Not at all. And now, as I polish my resume, portfolio, and network for job opportunities, I've been faced with the same nagging feeling... like I will find myself bored and unsatisfied in another few months.
I picked up MFL to read about 3 months ago, and didn't start until sometime in early January. Reading about 20 pages a night, I became obsessed. It's a real eye-opener. Sometimes, after reading a chapter, I had to close the book and just let it sink in for the rest of the night. I walk around in my downtown metro area and can't help but see the world through a Fastlaner perspective... It's been quite a shift for me. People on the street, people I know... it's amazing how ingrained the slowlane mindset is in my world. Anyway...MJ did a great job, and I'm 80% finished right now (according to my kindle). I plan on reading another couple chapters this evening.
I'm meeting you all at a crossroads. An intersection point in my life (i.e. a crisis point).
I've got friends at Amazon who are ready and willing to pass my resume off to web development managers. That's a 'stable job' that my fiancee is definitely pushing for me to take. She's been working two different jobs (one career, and one side 'hobby' job) to help support us while I bust my a$$ for software grades...
I feel that I owe her, my parents, and myself more than just a cushy corporate web job. I know, deep in my soul, that I can and should become more.
So, with mere weeks (about 7 to be exact) before I graduate, my options are the following:
Door #1) Study my butt off and try to ace some cushy corporate (still, entry-level) software job interviews.
Door #2) Stick around my current 'porn job' while working mostly on self-development, income streams, or still approaching Door #1 (a software job).
Door #3) Try to generate an income stream that justifies NOT taking a software job (or returning to work 40 hours at a meaningless adult-content job) before I run out of money.
I am thinking I will have to go with some combination, since I am new to the entrepreneurial mindset (the book both shattered and inspired me). I want to go all-out, but there a number of factors (like my fiancee and the fact that I basically owe her some stability after a very long 18 months). And if you recall, I'm also shackled to about $40k in debt (it's only 3% interest but STILL)!
I'm not here asking for advice. Feel free to offer it to me, but I wanted to introduce myself in a way that showed you what I'm truly about/where I am in life. I'm gripping my steering wheel with some sweaty a$$ palms, hoping I can find the interstate quickly.
The internet is my targeted interstate, considering I'm a newly minted developer of sorts. I have so many ideas, and I've gone through some long sessions of determining which ones constitute Fastlane. Not many are, but it's so nice to apply the 5 commandments and determine if it has any potential to leverage my time and scale.
So... here I am. Nice to meet you.
TLDR; I'm Cam, I have a lot of student debt (some very recent). I have a fiancee who I need to support, a dwindling bank balance, and some hard choices to make moving forward. However, I believe that with some hard work, focus, and determination, I can fit into this community and find my Fastlane. Thanks for having me.
My name is Cam. I'm 27, I have a degree in Psychology -- which means next to nothing, but which cost me (and my parents) a pretty penny.
The way it stands, they will have debt from MY education for the rest of their lives.
I'm not comfortable with that, and I know I can help them with that.
After undergrad, I went to Grad school... for a Master's in Psych. It took me two long and painful years of hating the material for me to man up and finally leave without completing my Thesis. Many doubted me, but I felt empowered by taking control of my destiny. I needed work, however, and ended up applying to a vaguely worded 'web assistant' job off Craigslist.
It was in porn. Not acting, mind you
, but as a kind of 'many-hats-wearing-computer-guy'. To be honest, I'm still employed by that company after over two years. More on why later.After about a month in that job, I became numb to the constant barrage of private parts assaulting my eyeballs daily (I started by sending copyright notices to a multitude of sites in the adult web underworld). But I got my processes down. I learned Auto Hotkey and automated most of my work over the course of a few weeks. I began thinking of every process as an algorithm, and every facet of the job as a segment that could be batch-processed.
My job suddenly became 80% direct time-for-money trading. But the time was unsupervised and I saw it as a huge blessing at the time.
With my newfound time, I listened to audiobooks and podcasts, took notes on various ideas I was having relating business, and occasionally even wrote songs. Still, my boss loved me because I was one of the only reliable and efficient employees he had. I even created a whole training manual for employees who might want to use the same productivity tricks and tools (I built a web dashboard for my job) that I was using. To this day, nobody has even seen that training manual lol.
One day, I began looking for other jobs... jobs that I thought would be more 'appropriate' for someone like me. I'm a pretty straight-laced fellow... even most folks in my life still don't know my employment history. I found a sales job, basically an assistant-to-salesmen with the promise of working my way up a sales ladder. They sold to the military and other government branches. It seemed very 'straight edge' compared to my current job.
They made an offer (15/hour), I took it to my boss, and he gave me 20/hour to stay. He also let me start building an affiliate program. I worked my butt off creating derivative content of our adult videos. I made gifs, I made compilations, I made just about anything I could think of. It was something I got quite good at (Adobe Premiere) and I had a schedule that churned out new affiliate content every day. I was also responsible for finding affiliates to sell our memberships, but I found that I made way more just focusing on churning out my own affiliate-linked content. At my peak, over a year ago, my links made about 400/month of extra income. Today, I still make around 200 and I haven't created content since 2016.
After about 6 months of that, I started getting bored. The affiliate grind was stagnating, and a coworker was trying to snake his way into control of the affiliate platforms we used (so he could get more of the pie). I was cool with it, and I thought 'hey I should go back to school'
What a slowlaner, eh.Long story short, I got into an online program for getting an accelerated degree in Computer Science over the course of a year and a half. My boss (who still loves me) let me stay and work whatever hours I wanted (I do 10/week usually) and take my classes on the side.
I'm graduating with a C.S. degree in March, and I know a ton more about programming (especially web development) than I used to. The cost? Another $30k in debt to add to my other $12k that had slowly gone down from $25k in 2012.
Sigh, I'm not proud of that. Not at all. And now, as I polish my resume, portfolio, and network for job opportunities, I've been faced with the same nagging feeling... like I will find myself bored and unsatisfied in another few months.
I picked up MFL to read about 3 months ago, and didn't start until sometime in early January. Reading about 20 pages a night, I became obsessed. It's a real eye-opener. Sometimes, after reading a chapter, I had to close the book and just let it sink in for the rest of the night. I walk around in my downtown metro area and can't help but see the world through a Fastlaner perspective... It's been quite a shift for me. People on the street, people I know... it's amazing how ingrained the slowlane mindset is in my world. Anyway...MJ did a great job, and I'm 80% finished right now (according to my kindle). I plan on reading another couple chapters this evening.
I'm meeting you all at a crossroads. An intersection point in my life (i.e. a crisis point).
I've got friends at Amazon who are ready and willing to pass my resume off to web development managers. That's a 'stable job' that my fiancee is definitely pushing for me to take. She's been working two different jobs (one career, and one side 'hobby' job) to help support us while I bust my a$$ for software grades...
I feel that I owe her, my parents, and myself more than just a cushy corporate web job. I know, deep in my soul, that I can and should become more.
So, with mere weeks (about 7 to be exact) before I graduate, my options are the following:
Door #1) Study my butt off and try to ace some cushy corporate (still, entry-level) software job interviews.
Door #2) Stick around my current 'porn job' while working mostly on self-development, income streams, or still approaching Door #1 (a software job).
Door #3) Try to generate an income stream that justifies NOT taking a software job (or returning to work 40 hours at a meaningless adult-content job) before I run out of money.
I am thinking I will have to go with some combination, since I am new to the entrepreneurial mindset (the book both shattered and inspired me). I want to go all-out, but there a number of factors (like my fiancee and the fact that I basically owe her some stability after a very long 18 months). And if you recall, I'm also shackled to about $40k in debt (it's only 3% interest but STILL)!
I'm not here asking for advice. Feel free to offer it to me, but I wanted to introduce myself in a way that showed you what I'm truly about/where I am in life. I'm gripping my steering wheel with some sweaty a$$ palms, hoping I can find the interstate quickly.
The internet is my targeted interstate, considering I'm a newly minted developer of sorts. I have so many ideas, and I've gone through some long sessions of determining which ones constitute Fastlane. Not many are, but it's so nice to apply the 5 commandments and determine if it has any potential to leverage my time and scale.
So... here I am. Nice to meet you.
TLDR; I'm Cam, I have a lot of student debt (some very recent). I have a fiancee who I need to support, a dwindling bank balance, and some hard choices to make moving forward. However, I believe that with some hard work, focus, and determination, I can fit into this community and find my Fastlane. Thanks for having me.
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