A story of PERSEVERANCE! Overcoming Family and Friends getting in the way of FASTLANE!

[fastlane_dad]

-- OK so someone asked me in a PM how to deal with friends / family that is unsupportive -- and I thought It would be a great idea to make a post about it and what I have faced, on the road to my FASTLANE SUCCESS! I know MANY of you are encountering similar, so here's a bit of my journey with that.

When I was asked this - it triggered a reaction in me. I almost forgot about the startup challenges, and separating from the 'pact' when you are thinking of doing ANYTHING on your own.

My life is so ingrained now in entrepreneurship between building up / selling businesses, reading constantly, collaborating with others, investing and looking for opportunities (and value to add!) as I go through my daily life - that I forgot what all the outsider doubts were like when I was first 'starting off'.

Close to two decades later I am now seen as 'the successful entrepreneur', and if anything there is more belief now in me from those around me then I have in myself some days ! But it wasn't always this way...

To preface this story, I was on a traditional slowlane path. I did well in high school, especially in math and science. That naturally led to pursuing an engineering degree in college (bc they pay well!) - which led to a grim existence inside a corporate cubicle that provided luke warm coffee for $0.89 and 2 weeks off every year.

A year or two into my cubicle journey (and a good paycheck for the time) - I was disgruntled and continuously looking for additional opportunities to make money and get out of the 4 walled rat race.

I started working on an online marketing/digital marketing opportunity that I engulfed myself 24-7 in outside of my day job. This is the first point where some friends started falling by wayside, and I really learned what 'values' are. Several of friendships were either severed, or business partners lost because it turned out work ethic and opportunity meant COMPLETELY different things to all of us. I was 24 years old at the time, and this was my first 'big break' financially wise in the world of working for myself.

Needless to say, I was able to accumulate a tidy sum of money and move out to Arizona with a few close buddies. Simultaneously, I quit my corporate job exactly 2 years after I went in full time post my degree.

This is when the FAMILY feuds started. I was seen as an 'irresponsible , not-knowing-anything fool' - who left his 'prestigious' job to move across the USA with no 'job' or 'real opportunities' in mind.

I was constantly 'criticized' for not using my degree, and had to justify my plans and existence constantly. I was at that time building up my first fastlane business and definitely was already making enough to sustain myself! This was a VERY tense time in my life - never mind the fact that starting something from nothing carries tremendous challenges - on top of that I was battling close family that had far less belief in me then they should have. They viewed everything I'm doing at the time 'as a joke', and kept urging me to 'find a real job' and drop whatever 'hobby' I'm currently pursuing.

What was not seen yet at the time, was that the groundwork , and the beginnings were occurring to a business that would yield me MILLIONS in profits each year down the line, and the freedom to live life on my own terms.

To all those with un-supportive parents, friends and or acquaintances - YES you will get challenged on every step of your move. Friendships will be lost, and potentially family relationships severed.

Depending on what your life is like today, and who you are surrounding yourself with - that fight might be NASTY and I know it's challenging for every single one of you out there.

Just know that you aren't alone, and to build something big, meaningful and to have the SPACE and time to fight for your values - you must be willing to stand alone (or with an army of fastlaners online) - and fight until the skies are more clear.

 

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[Ernman]

Thank you for posting this @fastlane_dad. My story is very different as I didn't discover the FASTLANE until much later in life. I always knew something seemed off, but until I read TMF I couldn't put my finger on it. By that time I had retired from the US Navy and was about a decade into fighting my way up the corporate executive slow lane. You can imagine the looks I got when I told people I was leaving a job that was paying me close to $250K/year to do my own thing.

I still get the random, "Why are you still working?" "Isn't Navy retirement enough?" questions. I even have some family members who accuse me of being more interested in money than family. Of course, these are my side walking sibs and cousins who can only see life through their lens. I've just let them pass to the back stage of my life.

When asked why I'm still working I either tell people I suck at golf and fishing and need something to keep me out of the pool halls. I reserve the truth for those who appear to be capable of understanding it. There's still so much more I want to experience and accomplish with my life.

But I am blessed with the greatest champion in my life - my wife. What I'm doing scares the crap out of her, but she's there for me every step of the way. She readily admits she doesn't understand most of what I talk about, but she has faith in me. And that just adds to the motivation to be successful.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Thank you for posting this @fastlane_dad. My story is very different as I didn't discover the FASTLANE until much later in life. I always knew something seemed off, but until I read TMF I couldn't put my finger on it. By that time I had retired from the US Navy and was about a decade into fighting my way up the corporate executive slow lane. You can imagine the looks I got when I told people I was leaving a job that was paying me close to $250K/year to do my own thing.

I still get the random, "Why are you still working?" "Isn't Navy retirement enough?" questions. I even have some family members who accuse me of being more interested in money than family. Of course, these are my side walking sibs and cousins who can only see life through their lens. I've just let them pass to the back stage of my life.

When asked why I'm still working I either tell people I suck at golf and fishing and need something to keep me out of the pool halls. I reserve the truth for those who appear to be capable of understanding it. There's still so much more I want to experience and accomplish with my life.

But I am blessed with the greatest champion in my life - my wife. What I'm doing scares the crap out of her, but she's there for me every step of the way. She readily admits she doesn't understand most of what I talk about, but she has faith in me. And that just adds to the motivation to be successful.

Great story! Yes - having support close to you is very important, at least several people on your side to keep you going through tough times.

Good luck on your endeavor, and please reach out if you need any help or advice!

What did you leave your job to go do?

 

[Ernman]

What did you leave your job to go do?

I started a scrap/recycling business. My philosophical goal was to start and grow an ethical business that gives back to our planet. The real incarnation of that is Shark Scrapper LLC. I redirect material, primarily electronic waste, out of the trash stream and into reuse and recycle streams. We also donate a portion of our revenue to shark research. We're only two years into this journey, so lots of work still to be done. But we're making good, albeit slow, progress.

 

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[PatriciaJoyBless]

Great inspiring stories.

 

[Damien Boss]

-- OK so someone asked me in a PM how to deal with friends / family that is unsupportive -- and I thought It would be a great idea to make a post about it and what I have faced, on the road to my FASTLANE SUCCESS! I know MANY of you are encountering similar, so here's a bit of my journey with that.

When I was asked this - it triggered a reaction in me. I almost forgot about the startup challenges, and separating from the 'pact' when you are thinking of doing ANYTHING on your own.

My life is so ingrained now in entrepreneurship between building up / selling businesses, reading constantly, collaborating with others, investing and looking for opportunities (and value to add!) as I go through my daily life - that I forgot what all the outsider doubts were like when I was first 'starting off'.

Close to two decades later I am now seen as 'the successful entrepreneur', and if anything there is more belief now in me from those around me then I have in myself some days ! But it wasn't always this way...

To preface this story, I was on a traditional slowlane path. I did well in high school, especially in math and science. That naturally led to pursuing an engineering degree in college (bc they pay well!) - which led to a grim existence inside a corporate cubicle that provided luke warm coffee for $0.89 and 2 weeks off every year.

A year or two into my cubicle journey (and a good paycheck for the time) - I was disgruntled and continuously looking for additional opportunities to make money and get out of the 4 walled rat race.

I started working on an online marketing/digital marketing opportunity that I engulfed myself 24-7 in outside of my day job. This is the first point where some friends started falling by wayside, and I really learned what 'values' are. Several of friendships were either severed, or business partners lost because it turned out work ethic and opportunity meant COMPLETELY different things to all of us. I was 24 years old at the time, and this was my first 'big break' financially wise in the world of working for myself.

Needless to say, I was able to accumulate a tidy sum of money and move out to Arizona with a few close buddies. Simultaneously, I quit my corporate job exactly 2 years after I went in full time post my degree.

This is when the FAMILY feuds started. I was seen as an 'irresponsible , not-knowing-anything fool' - who left his 'prestigious' job to move across the USA with no 'job' or 'real opportunities' in mind.

What about loneliness? Was it a big deal on your journey? That's the one thing that can make one who was once a social person and had many friends get tempted and crazy about being alone hustling.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Great inspiring stories.

Thanks!

What about loneliness? Was it a big deal on your journey? That's the one thing that can make one who was once a social person and had many friends get tempted and crazy about being alone hustling.

Loneliness can come in many forms - and many times it's part of the equation. It doesn't matter if you are moving to a new city and immerse yourself into a new environment - or literally start to gravitate towards a new mindset and leaving your old ways of thinking and seeing the world behind.

Loneliness can also manifest as a departure from the 'slowlane' mentality, clique and group of people you are used to hanging around.

You need to align yourself and find partners and mentors who can encourage and see you on your path to entrepreneurship/fastlane and hold you up and accountable when you start to slide. These boards are a great place to start to make friends and see that your ideas make it through to the real world instead of residing in your head all day.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

So sad that the crab mentality is so common, and worse, it comes from people who are supposed to be supportive, like friends and family.

 

[Anon05554]

Thank you for posting this @fastlane_dad. My story is very different as I didn't discover the FASTLANE until much later in life. I always knew something seemed off, but until I read TMF I couldn't put my finger on it. By that time I had retired from the US Navy and was about a decade into fighting my way up the corporate executive slow lane. You can imagine the looks I got when I told people I was leaving a job that was paying me close to $250K/year to do my own thing.

I still get the random, "Why are you still working?" "Isn't Navy retirement enough?" questions. I even have some family members who accuse me of being more interested in money than family. Of course, these are my side walking sibs and cousins who can only see life through their lens. I've just let them pass to the back stage of my life.

When asked why I'm still working I either tell people I suck at golf and fishing and need something to keep me out of the pool halls. I reserve the truth for those who appear to be capable of understanding it. There's still so much more I want to experience and accomplish with my life.

But I am blessed with the greatest champion in my life - my wife. What I'm doing scares the crap out of her, but she's there for me every step of the way. She readily admits she doesn't understand most of what I talk about, but she has faith in me. And that just adds to the motivation to be successful.

Lucky you.Keep encouraging us timid souls.

 

[Ernman]

What about loneliness? Was it a big deal on your journey? That's the one thing that can make one who was once a social person and had many friends get tempted and crazy about being alone hustling.

For those of us who are gregarious your question is real and needs to be dealt with. One's Fastlane life does NOT have to be devoid of friends and associates. But you do need to find those who are supportive, hopefully helpful in the journey. While this forum can help, it is a poor second to real human interaction. I handled this in two ways. First, as I got to know my clients I found some who were entrepreneurial. Over time we built a trust that allowed us to talk openly about business challenges and lessons learned. We talk about business NOT politics. We help each other out as sounding boards to problem solving, sometimes even lending equipment, tools, etc.

Second, I searched out local business groups to associate with. One must be careful with this as many of these groups are more social/political in nature than truly business oriented. For instance, your local Chamber of Commerce is most likely a waste of your time and money. Lots of talk with little walk. Even when you find a good group of professionals, few will understand the Fastlane mentality. But when you do find such a group, or a subset of folks within such a group, it can be a wonderfully fulfilling experience and satisfy your craving for human interaction - that is focused on success - without dragging down your Fastlane journey.

For many, this journey can be a lonely slog. BUT it doesn't have to be that way as long as you are careful who you bring into your new orbit of success.

 

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[LifeisSuffering]

@fastlane_dad thanks for this great reminder, As i'm going to pursue my first fastlane business seeing friends and especially some familly members trying to sell you of what you're doing is wrong and try to push you back into the scripted road. as most of them are in the slowlane, they will rather enjoy seeing you miserable with them in mediocrity to support you grow out of it.

 

[K1 Lambo]

Thanks!

Loneliness can come in many forms - and many times it's part of the equation. It doesn't matter if you are moving to a new city and immerse yourself into a new environment - or literally start to gravitate towards a new mindset and leaving your old ways of thinking and seeing the world behind.

Loneliness can also manifest as a departure from the 'slowlane' mentality, clique and group of people you are used to hanging around.

You need to align yourself and find partners and mentors who can encourage and see you on your path to entrepreneurship/fastlane and hold you up and accountable when you start to slide. These boards are a great place to start to make friends and see that your ideas make it through to the real world instead of residing in your head all day.

Great story! Yes, and also I'd add to surround yourself with winners as much as you can. Just by being in that environment will help you out so much. I heard once that the biggest reason why people never make it in life is because they're stuck in this bubble of their old circle and pretty much no one makes it out. Which is why you should always strive to find like minded people either through seminars, forums like this one, war room etc. It's a very important thing!

 

[SSTrey]

My story is very different as I didn't discover the FASTLANE until much later in life. I always knew something seemed off, but until I read TMF I couldn't put my finger on it.

You know, I'm 38 this year & I feel so frustrated with myself off late as I feel I discovered the FASTLANE so late too. In my case I had a very similar tertiary background as @fastlane_dad I too am an engineer (chose it because of the money & I'm very good at Math and Science, also 2 years into corporate I felt the heaviness of the rat race & this mundaneity.
However, Rich Dad was my push to start something, unfortunately for me, I had no idea at 25 years old what FASTLANE was and I did not even know at the time what a Startup was.
I always assumed people just started a business hence I started a conventional business, then another & another, but most of them were failures.
It was not until I turned 32/33 that I realised a whole new world out there and now the CENTS model attracts me like you can't believe. Even though I have now started something & am working toward it, I feel a bit of anxiety toward not starting earlier, but maybe that's just me being hard on myself.

Re support of family and/or friends, most of them just don't know better. It's about fear & conformity. I find that the more of these everyday stresses we train ourselves to cope with, the better we are as entrepreneurs.
I have a friend who was in university with me, he spent the last 5 to 6 years creating, building & growing his online grocery delivery app, few days ago he stepped down from the company after selling it to Walmart's subidiary, Massmart, here in South Africa. He is 36 years old & now he is FREE.

We have TFF, let's support, help & make it happen via perseverence.

 

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[DavidePaco00]

Thanks!

Loneliness can come in many forms - and many times it's part of the equation. It doesn't matter if you are moving to a new city and immerse yourself into a new environment - or literally start to gravitate towards a new mindset and leaving your old ways of thinking and seeing the world behind.

Loneliness can also manifest as a departure from the 'slowlane' mentality, clique and group of people you are used to hanging around.

You need to align yourself and find partners and mentors who can encourage and see you on your path to entrepreneurship/fastlane and hold you up and accountable when you start to slide. These boards are a great place to start to make friends and see that your ideas make it through to the real world instead of residing in your head all day.

I completely agree with that.

Having supportive people is essential to keep pushing sometimes. Negative People can really suck You energy.

For this reason You have to learn how to recognize toxic enviroments.

There are many Alarm Bells that help You recognize toxic People, here I explain You how to deal with them:

-Number One : Negative people think they know more that You.

They do not support any of You project.

They have no experience in the field, but based on what they've heard, they're think they know it all.

They have a Closed Mind and are not willing to expand their knowledge.

- Number 2 (This Can be Tricky): Negative people want to be around You all the Time

" Are you coming for the Tenthousandsth Time at the Pub tonight?"

"No Man , I have to Work. By The the way i have to wake Up at 6 Tomorrow to, You know, working on my dreams!"

"C'Mon! How can You do this to me!"

They play the victims game, trying to make You feeling like an a**hole.

Man , I hate people who insist to keep You around all the time...

People used to call me everyday asking me to hang out.

Then I started telling them the truth about my projects.

"Not that I don' t want to be your friend, but my Goals are more important than our Friendship right now, I'm sorry. "

Learn to be Alone!

I love to be Alone.

Actually, I seek to be Alone.

Nowadays i its hard that I call anyone to hang out.

THEY DO

"Why?" You may ask.

Because I am High Value, High Achiever Man, so I offer value to poeple when I'm in their company.

PART TWO

Learn to be Your own motivator.

I know it sounds contradicting because I said that You have to surround Yourself of positive people., but listen to me.

You need to stay sharp when everything makes You think about quitting.

Have a mantra, a reminder of why You want to achieve something in the first place.

Write You Goal on a Big and Put It on a Wall, read It everyday, imagining how You feel having achieved it. This is called AUTOSUGGESTION.

The human mind seeks for 3 things: Food , Sex and, In general , COMFORT.

As Napoleon Hill said, You need to persuade your subconcious mind thinking that You've already reached Your goals

Otherwise , Your negative thought will take over and You'll start making excuses.

Start taking notes about Yourself. You need to start knowing how Your mind works, especially where are You Habits and Emotions Formed, How do You feel and what makes You feel this way.

Became an observer aware of Your Thought, until You'll manage To Control Your Flow of Thoughts, not the opposite.

Hope that helps,

Davide

 

[Stepan]

-- OK so someone asked me in a PM how to deal with friends / family that is unsupportive -- and I thought It would be a great idea to make a post about it and what I have faced, on the road to my FASTLANE SUCCESS! I know MANY of you are encountering similar, so here's a bit of my journey with that.

When I was asked this - it triggered a reaction in me. I almost forgot about the startup challenges, and separating from the 'pact' when you are thinking of doing ANYTHING on your own.

My life is so ingrained now in entrepreneurship between building up / selling businesses, reading constantly, collaborating with others, investing and looking for opportunities (and value to add!) as I go through my daily life - that I forgot what all the outsider doubts were like when I was first 'starting off'.

Close to two decades later I am now seen as 'the successful entrepreneur', and if anything there is more belief now in me from those around me then I have in myself some days ! But it wasn't always this way...

To preface this story, I was on a traditional slowlane path. I did well in high school, especially in math and science. That naturally led to pursuing an engineering degree in college (bc they pay well!) - which led to a grim existence inside a corporate cubicle that provided luke warm coffee for $0.89 and 2 weeks off every year.

A year or two into my cubicle journey (and a good paycheck for the time) - I was disgruntled and continuously looking for additional opportunities to make money and get out of the 4 walled rat race.

I started working on an online marketing/digital marketing opportunity that I engulfed myself 24-7 in outside of my day job. This is the first point where some friends started falling by wayside, and I really learned what 'values' are. Several of friendships were either severed, or business partners lost because it turned out work ethic and opportunity meant COMPLETELY different things to all of us. I was 24 years old at the time, and this was my first 'big break' financially wise in the world of working for myself.

Needless to say, I was able to accumulate a tidy sum of money and move out to Arizona with a few close buddies. Simultaneously, I quit my corporate job exactly 2 years after I went in full time post my degree.

This is when the FAMILY feuds started. I was seen as an 'irresponsible , not-knowing-anything fool' - who left his 'prestigious' job to move across the USA with no 'job' or 'real opportunities' in mind.

I was constantly 'criticized' for not using my degree, and had to justify my plans and existence constantly. I was at that time building up my first fastlane business and definitely was already making enough to sustain myself! This was a VERY tense time in my life - never mind the fact that starting something from nothing carries tremendous challenges - on top of that I was battling close family that had far less belief in me then they should have. They viewed everything I'm doing at the time 'as a joke', and kept urging me to 'find a real job' and drop whatever 'hobby' I'm currently pursuing.

What was not seen yet at the time, was that the groundwork , and the beginnings were occurring to a business that would yield me MILLIONS in profits each year down the line, and the freedom to live life on my own terms.

To all those with un-supportive parents, friends and or acquaintances - YES you will get challenged on every step of your move. Friendships will be lost, and potentially family relationships severed.

Depending on what your life is like today, and who you are surrounding yourself with - that fight might be NASTY and I know it's challenging for every single one of you out there.

Just know that you aren't alone, and to build something big, meaningful and to have the SPACE and time to fight for your values - you must be willing to stand alone (or with an army of fastlaners online) - and fight until the skies are more clear.

Thank you, man. Appreciate your impact

 

[Fastlane_boy]

Thank you, man. Appreciate your impact

Thanks for sharing it @fastlane_dad.

 

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