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Zookeeper to Fastlaner

12B745

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So, I don't really know how to write this. I guess it's an extra thing to help keep me accountable.

I'm 23 and I've been trying to start little businesses since I was a kid. Was big into the whole, get rich quick deal. Middle school, I attempted to set up a knifemaking business as an FFA project. Made some knives and sold em. But never really kept track of the money and it wasn't feasible. Especially when you're ordering everything from Jantz Knifemaking, even the blades.

I attempted, not very well, to start a non-profit (that I will revive) for various different things. From cancer research to saving the whales. My kickstarter was half assed and just not very well thought out. Didn't get a single pledge.

Cue typical sidewalk type getting through life. Hell, I had to go back to a job I thought I'd never go back to. The zookeeper part. Which was pretty legit. I had my own special projects. I was a team leader. Essentially a step below a manager. Got to build exhibits. Play with baby tigers and other exotics. It was legit. Almost went to training for crocodile and alligator handling.

Then my dad lost his two year long battle to cancer. I had an epiphany of sorts as I stood in my dress blues taking the flag presented to me by funeral honors. See, my old man was old school. Military career man. He was a badass. Master paratrooper, pathfinder, air assault, and a lot of other things. Raised us by himself since my mother passed away from a failed lung transplant when my little sister and I were kids. (sorry for getting off topic. Teared up a bit and, it just felt nice to talk about him for a sec. If your family is half decent, don't take em for granted.)

I had already read the millionare fastlane at this point. It just occurred to me that, I need to start getting my act together because I can't raise a family on $10/hr. So, I quit my job. Moved in with my cousin, and he started teaching me drupal web development. I'm doing decent with it and could probably get a job as a junior drupal 8 developer.

Then, a month ago my cousin who I grew up with, lost his fight with luekemia which had turned itself into mds after a few failed bone marrow transplants. My grandmother, who raised him, (long family story, aunt also died of cystic fibrosis, and the father wanted nothing to do with him.) told me I need to make sure I actually LIVE life, because dalton won't be able to.

At this point my webdev skills are ok.

We're at the current day now. So what's driving me to even do this risky venture of fastlane?


Well, my girlfriend is stuck in a rock and a hard place with her situation. My grandparents who run a dog kennel now have competition coming to town and it's difficult for them as their not young anymore and my grandfather just got some weird form of leukemia. One of my other cousin's who has three kids just broke it off with her fiance and hasn't worked in two years because of his income is definitely going to need some support.

And me? Well. My dad was proud of me. I'm a 12B in the guard. I do ok. But, he was always worried about me financially and with jobs and what not. I'm doing this super scary thing, to make my life and my goals actually happen. I've never actually followed through with this stuff. It's really, really scary. But, I need to do this to prove to myself I can. That dad, I'll be ok. To take care of everyone.

So how am I gonna do it? Well, it's stupid simple in idea. Pain in the a$$ in practice. The basic idea is affiliate websites. I'm fully aware that this violates the command of control and that this could royally screw me over. However, a decent amount of people make decent money doing this.

I've got various marketing campaigns in the works, which I'm pretty sure will help make this project skyrocket.

With that funding a little bit will be used for investing in better equipment and housing. But most of it will be used to establish my own products and business. This place is a fantastic resource, so that's been a lot of help. Especially the, "just start" post.

I'm hoping to launch my websites, either late this week or next week. Since, I'm setting up my drupal config to have reusable terms, it'll almost be like a distribution. So I can just drop in the distribution, hit another product niche and go.

Almost finished with that actually. All I've gotta do is figure out how MailCheat(Chimp) works, and some styling and I'm rolling.

Please don't express sympathy towards my situation. It happens to everybody. Some sooner than others, and I just wanted people to know the reasons behind my thought process.

I apologize if this seems mildly scrambled. It's late, composer is taking too long to install a module.

I've attached some pictures from the zookeeper job. One day I will open up a national exotic animal rescue. Did you know that when a zoo shuts down, if the animals aren't able to go to another facility, most will be euthanized?

Side note, I find it really funny that in the unscripted book MJ talks about working in a market and building a product around that nice. He specifically made an example of the pet industry. Which most of my physical products will be in due to my interests with amphibians, reptiles and fish.
 
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MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Wow, some introduction. A lot of tragedy.

Glad you are here, hopefully we can be a part of your journey to better days.
 

12B745

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Wow, some introduction. A lot of tragedy.

Glad you are here, hopefully we can be a part of your journey to better days.

Just finished the last little bit of major functionality with MailCheat(Chimp). So, this project should be rolling late this week or early next week. I'm really thankful to be here, and it's a massive boost to have you respond. I'll be posting an update here in the next few months or so on the progress of the project. I'll be lurking though to get as much knowledge as possible.
 

biophase

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As someone who volunteered at a zoo for a few years... use your zoo knowledge to start a business. I have many “zoo” related ideas.

You know what zoos need. Think business to business. What do they use behind the scenes?

For example, I used to buy the zoo new knives twice a year because they get dull so fast from chopping veggies. I get them knife sharpeners and cutting boards.

They also always need new rakes and shovels.

For the animal side, think of big animal toys, think boomer balls and other enrichment stuff!
 
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NLRDesign

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So, I don't really know how to write this. I guess it's an extra thing to help keep me accountable.

I've attached some pictures from the zookeeper job. One day I will open up a national exotic animal rescue. Did you know that when a zoo shuts down, if the animals aren't able to go to another facility, most will be euthanized?

Side note, I find it really funny that in the unscripted book MJ talks about working in a market and building a product around that nice. He specifically made an example of the pet industry. Which most of my physical products will be in due to my interests with amphibians, reptiles and fish.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I too have had a rather chaotic path touched by tragedy and share similar interests to yours. I actually spent years breaking into my area of design because I wanted to design zoo and aquarium exhibits, but am currently designing theme parks instead because that's who was hiring (which sounds fun, but is not that fulfilling). I was also excited to hear that specific example from MJ about the pet shelter, because what I would love to do ultimately is open an animal sanctuary (more on the domestic/farm animal side) that teams with at risk youth for volunteer and humane education purposes (that's the shortest way I know how to describe it, but I have many more detailed and differentiating ideas to go along with it). So, of course, other than the obvious of caring for family and gaining freedom, that is the main reason for trying to move into the Fastlane. I don't want to wait till I'm 65 to try and found something like this and then die when it's just taking off. I want my children to be able to participate and grow along with it. That being said, I'm working on creating a passive income system for which I have numerous ideas. However, I know there is a way to create these other sources of income in a way that will build toward that end goal rather than just be fulfilling a random need (not that there is anything wrong with that either) I just haven't figured it out yet. I just think that by building the passive income and side hustles toward that end goal (which will not generate much money) it will build the right connections and the idea will be realized faster (Obviously...). Of course, @biophase posted some great ideas on that front. I really look forward to following your journey and sharing mine with you. There is a lot to read on this Forum, so it's possible I missed an entire thread about everything I'm talking about........
 

12B745

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As someone who volunteered at a zoo for a few years... use your zoo knowledge to start a business. I have many “zoo” related ideas.

You know what zoos need. Think business to business. What do they use behind the scenes?

For example, I used to buy the zoo new knives twice a year because they get dull so fast from chopping veggies. I get them knife sharpeners and cutting boards.

They also always need new rakes and shovels.

For the animal side, think of big animal toys, think boomer balls and other enrichment stuff!


I've actually got some really awesome ideas for the zoo/aquarium industry! I've been looking into it quite a bit and what I'm going to be producing on that front is something that hasn't been quite done yet. So, literally as soon as I'm able to achieve the funding whether it be via the affiliate thing or working as a drupal dev, plans will be made to head in that way. However, that whole basic needs type thing is super important. I know the facility I worked for had issues with cheap products like knives and rakes breaking. So maybe something more rugged while maintaining a decent price point should be in order.

I'll have to think more on that, thank you for the advice!


@NLRDesign wow, thats some awesome stuff you're doing and have planned. I for sure agree about the not waiting for 65 thing. One of my NCOs at the time got me employed at a timeshare place. Decent company, decent product if you used it correctly. But the main point is, most of these people were in their 60s and up. Just now getting to being able to vacation and whatnot. That experience compounded with everything that happened recently just kinda got me going to pursue fastlane.

I love the at risk youth idea. A lot of folks don't realize that the youth are who are going to be running the nation in not too terribly long. Any positive impact that can be made to help them better themselves and their lives is absolutely fantastic.

I'm looking forward to see what you'll do.

This is great. Something I know I needed. This accountability per say.
 

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