Late to the party

[Flint]

Hi all,

I've been a slowlaner following the script for almost 40 years. I've worked hard and achieved a lot but never quite reached financial freedom.

I've tried corpo, smaller companies, even bootstrapped startups, hoping to find... something. And it ticked many of my boxes. It was fulfilling, exciting, demanding and taught me a lot. I've met many great people, lived on several continents, been to places and done things many probably only think of from the comfort of their homes.

Yet I've always worked for someone else. Trading my time for money. Without much control and personal scalability. Trapped with a middle class income and building someone else's dreams.

I can't pinpoint the exact event that sent me on a path to look for a different angle. I suppose I've been searching and trying for years, it's just that I didn't have a map.

Until I found @MJ DeMarco's books and this forum. What a source of inspiration and practical knowledge! I spent countless nights reading Gold and Notable threads, taking notes and looking for more answers. Not an easy task to find each relevant piece of the map but well worth it. Thanks a lot for sharing and keeping this place alive.

So here I am, late to the table but wanting to dive in and learn by doing.

 

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[jasonbuilds]

Welcome! I am glad you are here and hope you can share some of your valuable knowledge and experience with us.

 

[kleine2]

Hi all,

I've been a slowlaner following the script for almost 40 years. I've worked hard and achieved a lot but never quite reached financial freedom.

I've tried corpo, smaller companies, even bootstrapped startups, hoping to find... something. And it ticked many of my boxes. It was fulfilling, exciting, demanding and taught me a lot. I've met many great people, lived on several continents, been to places and done things many probably only think of from the comfort of their homes.

Yet I've always worked for someone else. Trading my time for money. Without much control and personal scalability. Trapped with a middle class income and building someone else's dreams.

I can't pinpoint the exact event that sent me on a path to look for a different angle. I suppose I've been searching and trying for years, it's just that I didn't have a map.

Until I found @MJ DeMarco's books and this forum. What a source of inspiration and practical knowledge! I spent countless nights reading Gold and Notable threads, taking notes and looking for more answers. Not an easy task to find each relevant piece of the map but well worth it. Thanks a lot for sharing and keeping this place alive.

So here I am, late to the table but wanting to dive in and learn by doing.

What is your next step?

 

[Flint]

What is your next step?

I'll give you six:

1. Restructure my day to maximise the uninterrupted time available to work on my ideas.
2. Sketch out one of my concepts and see how it flows end to end, from the need to the sale and beyond (building long term relationships, alignment with my sense of purpose etc).
3. Identify unknowns, questions and assumptions in the end to end flow.
4. Figure out how to test them individually and as a whole (minimum viable business plan).
5. Break it down into daily tasks (to do list).
6. Pick it up each day and move it forward until I refine my vision and understanding of what and how. I assume this will also refine my why.

At this stage, my focus is to learn and smash my sticking points rather than wait for the best idea to come.

 

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[kleine2]

I'll give you six:

1. Restructure my day to maximise the uninterrupted time available to work on my ideas.
2. Sketch out one of my concepts and see how it flows end to end, from the need to the sale and beyond (building long term relationships, alignment with my sense of purpose etc).
3. Identify unknowns, questions and assumptions in the end to end flow.
4. Figure out how to test them individually and as a whole (minimum viable business plan).
5. Break it down into daily tasks (to do list).
6. Pick it up each day and move it forward until I refine my vision and understanding of what and how. I assume this will also refine my why.

At this stage, my focus is to learn and smash my sticking points rather than wait for the best idea to come.

Nice!

 

[knz]

How is it going nowadays @Flint ?

 

[Flint]

How is it going nowadays @Flint ?

Thanks for asking @Koenz. It's been 2.5 months since that intro and a lot has happened. Good to look back and reflect.

• I have nice daily routines now. They help me get more bang for the buck and I have time for myself (incl. exercising and fastlane projects), my family, my 9 to 5 etc. (BTW there are great actionable insights in Atomic Habits by James Clear).
• The routines extend to my family who are also becoming more productive and we're getting more aligned.
• I've been working on a side ecommerce project to gain more freedom. I've managed to invalidate several ideas and it hasn't moved past the soft proof stage, but it's taught me to see things around more clearly. I'm noticing more opportunities (end to end, not just "ideas") and how different paths to wealth may mesh with my personality, skillset and purpose. I'm testing desirability, feasibility and viability of something as we speak.
• My slowlane job is something I'm good at but it's in a very slow, multi-layered and highly regulated industry with too many moving parts, dependencies and stakeholders. I've tried something akin to fastlane in this space in the past, but it requires significant financial and human resources, so it's not something you can do on your own with a quick feedback loop. But... all this fastlane effort is paying off and I'm using it both as my cash cow and a sandbox to test various entrepreneurial concepts and skills. I'm also borrowing my expertise from it and use in my own projects.
• I've spotted a real estate opportunity, jumped on it immediately and now I'm an owner. This is an experiment that doesn't have to take much of my effort and I'm planning to wait with this for a while to play my cards right. The worst case is I lose a bit of money and learn in the process. Best case, I keep it for myself or flip it and earn money.
• I'd say that one of the side effects of me being more open to opportunities is an increased level of kindness. I've noticed I'm genuinely trying to help one person at a time and it starts with deeper understanding of why they behave in a certain way. Like looking past their anger back to the root cause that isn't related to you, you've just happened to trigger/add to their frustration. After listening to one of @Andy Black's interviews, I've realised little acts of kindness compound over time and refine/enrich you in the process. Likewise, little unsolved problems compound to bigger frustrations. A domino effect. So yeah, with this in mind, I'm more patient, tolerant and kind. Which suddenly opens even more new doors.

 

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[BlackLynx]

Great to see the progress, Flint.

I would say : focus on creating value and helping other people.

Going fastlane is scary if you've been in the slowlane for so long. I can relate. It is akin to sitting in a plane with a parachute strapped on - terrified and not knowing if it will open and you will land on a wad of cash or if you will splatter to the ground.

At some point you just have to jump to find out.

 

[df1992]

Thanks for asking @Koenz. It's been 2.5 months since that intro and a lot has happened. Good to look back and reflect.

• I have nice daily routines now. They help me get more bang for the buck and I have time for myself (incl. exercising and fastlane projects), my family, my 9 to 5 etc. (BTW there are great actionable insights in Atomic Habits by James Clear).
• The routines extend to my family who are also becoming more productive and we're getting more aligned.
• I've been working on a side ecommerce project to gain more freedom. I've managed to invalidate several ideas and it hasn't moved past the soft proof stage, but it's taught me to see things around more clearly. I'm noticing more opportunities (end to end, not just "ideas") and how different paths to wealth may mesh with my personality, skillset and purpose. I'm testing desirability, feasibility and viability of something as we speak.
• My slowlane job is something I'm good at but it's in a very slow, multi-layered and highly regulated industry with too many moving parts, dependencies and stakeholders. I've tried something akin to fastlane in this space in the past, but it requires significant financial and human resources, so it's not something you can do on your own with a quick feedback loop. But... all this fastlane effort is paying off and I'm using it both as my cash cow and a sandbox to test various entrepreneurial concepts and skills. I'm also borrowing my expertise from it and use in my own projects.
• I've spotted a real estate opportunity, jumped on it immediately and now I'm an owner. This is an experiment that doesn't have to take much of my effort and I'm planning to wait with this for a while to play my cards right. The worst case is I lose a bit of money and learn in the process. Best case, I keep it for myself or flip it and earn money.
• I'd say that one of the side effects of me being more open to opportunities is an increased level of kindness. I've noticed I'm genuinely trying to help one person at a time and it starts with deeper understanding of why they behave in a certain way. Like looking past their anger back to the root cause that isn't related to you, you've just happened to trigger/add to their frustration. After listening to one of @Andy Black's interviews, I've realised little acts of kindness compound over time and refine/enrich you in the process. Likewise, little unsolved problems compound to bigger frustrations. A domino effect. So yeah, with this in mind, I'm more patient, tolerant and kind. Which suddenly opens even more new doors.

Sounds positive! Keep plugging away

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome my friend, glad you found some value in the books.

 

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[Flint]

@djcoax @df1992 @MJ DeMarco

Thank you for the kind words.

I should clarify that 40 is not the number of years I've been in a slowlane job. I just count I was born into the slowlane life and continued my parents' scripted path for that long.

At some point you just have to jump to find out.

Definitely. I think the most difficult thing to grasp, at the emotional level, is that not jumping, staying on your a$$ and making no progress is more terrifying than a few unexpected bumps on the path to your goals.

 

[knz]

Thanks for asking @Koenz. It's been 2.5 months since that intro and a lot has happened. Good to look back and reflect.

• I have nice daily routines now. They help me get more bang for the buck and I have time for myself (incl. exercising and fastlane projects), my family, my 9 to 5 etc. (BTW there are great actionable insights in Atomic Habits by James Clear).
• The routines extend to my family who are also becoming more productive and we're getting more aligned.
• I've been working on a side ecommerce project to gain more freedom. I've managed to invalidate several ideas and it hasn't moved past the soft proof stage, but it's taught me to see things around more clearly. I'm noticing more opportunities (end to end, not just "ideas") and how different paths to wealth may mesh with my personality, skillset and purpose. I'm testing desirability, feasibility and viability of something as we speak.
• My slowlane job is something I'm good at but it's in a very slow, multi-layered and highly regulated industry with too many moving parts, dependencies and stakeholders. I've tried something akin to fastlane in this space in the past, but it requires significant financial and human resources, so it's not something you can do on your own with a quick feedback loop. But... all this fastlane effort is paying off and I'm using it both as my cash cow and a sandbox to test various entrepreneurial concepts and skills. I'm also borrowing my expertise from it and use in my own projects.
• I've spotted a real estate opportunity, jumped on it immediately and now I'm an owner. This is an experiment that doesn't have to take much of my effort and I'm planning to wait with this for a while to play my cards right. The worst case is I lose a bit of money and learn in the process. Best case, I keep it for myself or flip it and earn money.
• I'd say that one of the side effects of me being more open to opportunities is an increased level of kindness. I've noticed I'm genuinely trying to help one person at a time and it starts with deeper understanding of why they behave in a certain way. Like looking past their anger back to the root cause that isn't related to you, you've just happened to trigger/add to their frustration. After listening to one of @Andy Black's interviews, I've realised little acts of kindness compound over time and refine/enrich you in the process. Likewise, little unsolved problems compound to bigger frustrations. A domino effect. So yeah, with this in mind, I'm more patient, tolerant and kind. Which suddenly opens even more new doors.

Hope looking back and reflecting also helped, good to see your progress! Better habits also lead to better results in time, and apparently to a more productive and aligned family which is good to hear. Good tip about the book 'Atomic Habits', heard about it but didn't read it yet. Will check it out soon.

Your ecommerce project is a great example of just starting and not thinking forever. You started and therefore see more opportunities and personal traits. Keep testing, love to hear your progress!

Slowlane job finances your fastlane testing, a good thing in this phase. Also congrats on being the owner of the real estate opportunity. Curious what you'll do with it!

Seems like your mindset is in the right place on all fronts. You genuinely want to help people which is a great start for a business. As @djcoax mentioned: focus on creating value and helping people. This again will lead to opportunities coming your way.

Looking forward to your follow ups!