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What if life was about working on the advancement of humanity like Elon Musk?

Filippos

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MY ETHICS
I am working my a$$ off for my employer on the manufacturing industry and to get my PhD at a German research institute. I am an engineer, because I want to solve problems with technical systems that leave no chance to human error. If you take the example of a car accident:
  • a lawyer would come after the fact to sue the responsible (the law-maker can only make rules that punish people after the fact)
  • a doctor would come after the fact and try to fix as much as can be fixed
  • but an engineer can build a system that prevents a car accident before it happens (before you say that car accidents are still happening, there are many more accidents that have been prevented by the ABS for example)

MY BIG PICTURE

Despite of my pure intentions, the reality is that I'm tied both financially and with respect to time with my current job, although it is in the middle of innovation. As a development engineer at a German research institute, I have to submit proposals to the government to get funding for quick-rich schemes for our industrial partners. All innovative ideas I had until now got beaten down by lazy-minded, fat salesmen from industrial Goliaths, who care more to eat a sandwich than talk about business.
So I'm tied to working on pointless things that have nothing to do with innovation. And that leaves me with less free-time to work on something that actually makes sense. However, I managed to develop a mechatronic system to a point that I made it my PhD topic and my chance to create a startup that can actually bring some value to the industry.
However, my 3 years of work experience has showed me that there is no way in hell that my free-time will ever increase and there is no chance to have a comfortable life, even with the decent salary I get in comparison to many others in the job market. Since I plan to finish my PhD in 2 years from now, I want to become financially independent and free up my time so that I can work on things I find reasonable.

MY NEXT ACTIONABLE STEP
In order to achieve this, I found out that the best way to do that is to write an e-book and create an online coaching business on the topic of discipline as a solution in contrast to motivation. I've been into personal development for a long time and have read many books. I always had the feeling that all this content is too emotional and too far away from reality, so I decided that writing a book on the principles that helped me get things done consistently without the need of weird motivational quotes would be very valuable for anyone going through the path I went in personal development. I published the book on September 2018 and I'm currently on the process of marketing the book and creating an automated system to coach people on the topic.

MY STORY
I left my home country at the age of 18 to study mechanical engineering in Germany. I was always a nerd, so my dream was to study at the most renowned university in Germany. Unfortunately, when I finished high-school, I didn't have the needed certification for the German language, so I had to go first to a less known university. So I spent my first 3 years in Duisburg and got my B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and then I applied to my dream university in Aachen. They didn't accept me with the first try, but they didn't stand a chance... I wrote a letter to the rector and sent him a 30-page explanation why I think I should get accepted. They accepted me and I got my M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering 2 years after that. Being an innocent idealist, my dream was to follow an academic career, so I chose to work at a research institute instead of going to the industry. It took me about 6 months to land a job and when I got it, I worked like there is no tomorrow for the first 6 months. Gradually, I realized that everyone around me has fallen into what I call the "safety sleep"... Everyone is doing just enough to get easy money and not more. The bosses are over-worked and have more concerns to keep their department financed than spend time searching about new technologies and new solutions. They just babble about the same fancy words all the time, talking for hours without content. Everyone is working for money, no-one to give value... Everyone is lying constantly to the government and to the industrial customers, no-one wants to lose their nice evening walk with their wives to research in the literature. Out of the almost 100 people of the institute, I can put my hand on fire that no-one has ever read more than 10 papers... And we call this innovation... After 3 years of eye-opening experience and over-working myself for nothing, I have finally given up on research in the conventional ways of the scripted culture. The only way to help is to do it my way, independent of scripted mentalities and institutions!

THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH
I read both the Millionaire Fastlane and the Unscripted books and I honestly owe a lot of gratitude to @MJ DeMarco for writing them. My mind was blown several times per millisecond I was reading them, which forces me to read them again and again, whenever I find the time to.
 
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Phillip Anderson

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> I wrote a letter to the rector and sent him a 30-page explanation why I think I should get accepted. They accepted me and I got my M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering 2 years after that.

Amazing, if it's the truth!
 

Filippos

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> I wrote a letter to the rector and sent him a 30-page explanation why I think I should get accepted. They accepted me and I got my M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering 2 years after that.

Amazing, if it's the truth!

Yeah, it was mind-blowing to me too that it worked, but you never know until you try it ;) hehe
 
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Filippos

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Well the advancement of humanity doesn't happen without the everyday people who work under Elon Musk and every other leader.

Totally agree! Still, even if you want to work for Elon Musk or for anyone really trying to develop anything valuable, you need to develop skills. And this needs time and/or money, but especially time, which is the main resource battered by conventional living and conventional businesses. There's no time for example to learn coding in a new language or for a new interface, if you are idiotically burdened with bureaucratic tasks, just because the business leader doesn't care or realize that this is decreasing productivity and innovation.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
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Great intro, welcome aboard my friend. Glad you found the books insightful.
 
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George Appiah

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Thank you for such an amazing introduction.

I published the book on September 2018 and I'm currently on the process of marketing the book and creating an automated system to coach people on the topic.

Mind giving the name or link to the book?
 

Filippos

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Thanks! The book is called "Discipline in 5 Simple Steps", you can find it here
The Book
 

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