Have you had your "FTE"? (Or Was it an FTM?!)

[SquatchMan]

I was 20 years old.
Working as a parking valet.
It is raining so hard I can barely see... and I have to run through this rain to pickup some lady's shitty 20 year old Toyota Corolla.
Door won't open.
Window is rolled down so I climb through it to get into the car.
Car is full of roaches, half eaten McDonald's food, and smells like shit.
Return the car and the lady yells at me for getting her car wet.

F*ck that event.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I was 20 years old.
Working as a parking valet.
It is raining so hard I can barely see... and I have to run through this rain to pickup some lady's shitty 20 year old Toyota Corolla.
Door won't open.
Window is rolled down so I climb through it to get into the car.
Car is full of roaches, half eaten McDonald's food, and smells like shit.
Return the car and the lady yells at me for getting her car wet.

F*ck that event.

Now that's an FTE. The more vivid, the more poignant. Featured+

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I pulled this from my archives...

I think this is @biophase 's brother who just like him, is #Unscripted and runs a global excursion company for adventurers.

 

[lewj24]

1 year ago. 21 years old. Full time college student living in St. Louis, MO. In an abusive relationship.

It's my dream to be a basketball coach so I switched my major from Business Administration to Physical Education so I could start as a high school coach as recommended by college coaches. I was assigned to observe 30 hours of PE class in a local high school and hated it. No kids want to be there. The teachers didn't want to be there and would berate me, telling me to wear nice clothes (I wore gym shorts and a T-shirt just like them) and to not talk to the students etc. I was so happy after the 30 hours was over and I thought to myself, "I wasn't even there for a full work week... and I was miserable." I immediately switched my major back to business.

At the same time I was working 30hours a week at Walmart. I worked my a$$ off and was better than my own manager. And then I decided to skip my cousin's birthday party which was on Easter Sunday because I was on the schedule to work that day. So I missed a huge family party and I get to work and 2 coworkers called off (out of 4 including me). I did the work of at least 2 people that day and the store was busier than ever (all other stores are closed on Easter). The next week my performance eval came in and I was rated worst in my department. I was so pissed.

This is all happening while I'm listening to TMF for the first time on car rides and while working in the back of Walmart. I was getting pissed stocking milk and listening to MJ talk about college being a scam. I'm going to be 80k in student loan debt and it just pisses me off.

That big clusterfuck and my abusive relationship was a huge FTE.

Now I haven't had much business success but I am getting there. I have gotten out of that relationship. I have gotten out of some bad habits. And I am moving to Tampa, FL with a buddy in exactly a week from now. I'm still in school but almost done. I'm currently focused on my weight loss and getting a job in Tampa to pay bills that are now coming. I feel like a new life is coming.

 

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[mtak.doc]

Since i could remember i was the kid on the block with every new toy being thrown at me from aunts, uncles and grandparents.Until the age of 9. Then the old house gets taken from us by an apartheid govt because 3 people in a 3 bedroom house is not lawful or whatever.. next I have 2 new siblings a year apart and my trust fund got used to purchase a new home. One day i see all my toys go into the ceiling in big plastic bags and thats what it looked like when my childhood ended. Next my dad breaks his arm, for which he receives zero support from his former employer and my moms home looking after a new born and a 1 year old. i resolve(FTE#1) i'm going to start a business selling sweets at school. I had bullies i got ripped off. Dad becomes self employed and preaches it is better to bring home a half a loaf of bread everyday than a loaf once a week

I wanted to become an ivy league graduate with an MBA so that i can help dad make more out his business at age 10. At 16 i was kicked out of school. I walk home calculating that if i find a way to look after my car(which i started doing by spending weekends in a mechanics home repair workshop to learn about cars)ill have transportation, Then find a way to pay for my groceries and my rent. i figured id have the basics covered and i can learn how to improve my life's conditions through entrepreneurship.

I become the first person to repair mobile phones in my neighbourhood the next year, outside the big brand HQ in my city. Highest sale in 1 day was 400 for a repair with a part taken from a broken phone. The big executive was shitting rainbows for me being able to help him recover his dead phone.

(FTE#2)I get ripped off by a familia member.

Had to get a job,Solid pine wood furniture frame making, get screamed at so much that the staff see me shaking from anger.(FTE#3) only i did'nt have capital. Even if was seeing business ops around me. Pay was soul sucking.

Get another job as a waiter, set a target to become kitchen staff management within a very large franchise. Become highest earning salesman within 3 months of knowing nothing about the industry, come in second place overall for the month by 5k less than the guy who is #1 every month. 3rd place person is 20k less than me. Get junior training kitchen manager position before i am 21. 2 guys get brought on to train under me in my 3rd month of initial training they allow for about 25k worth of stock to go bad on their shift i get roped in and blamed as well. On the date of my last day of training for which SOP dictates that a review of the previous 3 months is discussed and the 2nd 3 months is given for me to improve on the first 3 before i get a yay or nay from head office and every other trainee was treated this way. I was asked to sign my contract on that day and after i signed it gets added that the date of my "temporary employment" ends on that date by the operator.(FTE#4) #crickets from the franchise owner..

The list is longer. I follow the career of a person in property and when he gets here to teach, I have already known of him for 3 years but there was a post here about don't ever meet your hero's if i am correct.(FTE#5)The guy was teaching from a library of a another guru who i was currently reading. Chaaarging celebrity prices!

I have had the most recent FTE create whats made the resolve to find a way to help the person next to me even more important and i am finding reserves of capital as if i am creating it out of thin air, to fund this fast lane lab experiment of failing as fast as i can.

I am a salesman
If i do not have the answer i know where to go to find it
Life will not meet me halfway

That cold sweat i get when my heart starts beating outside of my chest is me on the edge of my comfort. Thats the moment making the leap and taking the next step has made me feel more alive and shown me a greater feeling of satisfaction than any amount of fb likes or "fitting in" could ever give me. Not a fastlaner or a big business owner yet but i'm coming for whats mine.

 

[amp0193]

It's my dream to be a basketball coach so I switched my major from Business Administration to Physical Education so I could start as a high school coach as recommended by college coaches. I was assigned to observe 30 hours of PE class in a local high school and hated it.

Sounds about right.

What they don't tell you is that "being a basketball coach", means that you work a full-time 40-hour-a-week job as a babysitter (P.E. class for unathletic kids), and have to teach some classes you don't want to teach (science, math, or history). Any coaching you do, comes as like a 2nd job, that occurs at before AND after school practice, and then all of the evening & weekend games. But you get paid ONE salary for working basically 2 jobs.... and you might get an extra $4,000 stipend to cover your additional coaching duties.... for the YEAR.

It'd be better to get your coaching fix volunteering for a local youth league, and skipping the bullshit.

 

[maverick]

@Coalission, your post cracked me up. I went through my old emails and found one of the "values awards" I got

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

I wonder how many of these are just moments and not events?

I think with just a "F*ck this moment", old habits will take back over and not much will change.

With a "F*ck this event", really nothing can stand in your way after that.

Not the TV
Not the video games
Not the nagging wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend
Not reading the 300th business book
Not feeling the need for a mentor
Not feeling the need to have family, friends, or forum members validate your idea

And none of the endless other action fakes we regularly see here either.

An FTE is like having a switch flipped in your head.

After my FTE, I lost 90lbs quickly, and worked multiple jobs to save money so I could start flipping mobile homes as soon as I could legally sign a contract.

(in my state you can work fulltime at age 16, and I had already graduated highschool...so I WORKED)

I haven't slowed down since.

 

[scottmsul]

I was a graduate student researching astrophysics. The work I was doing was quite esoteric - how do galaxies form? The timescales so far back that we can't observe anything, so the only approach is computer simulations. To me, the work felt speculative and unimportant, and I had no emotional investment. I left before publishing anything, but it felt like even if I did, maybe ten people would read it. Plus the pay was horrible, and I got the impression that academia was more about appearances/politics/connections than substance. There was no single FTE moment, I just felt more and more soul-crushed until I couldn't take it anymore.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

1 year ago. 21 years old. Full time college student living in St. Louis, MO. In an abusive relationship.

It's my dream to be a basketball coach so I switched my major from Business Administration to Physical Education so I could start as a high school coach as recommended by college coaches. I was assigned to observe 30 hours of PE class in a local high school and hated it. No kids want to be there. The teachers didn't want to be there and would berate me, telling me to wear nice clothes (I wore gym shorts and a T-shirt just like them) and to not talk to the students etc. I was so happy after the 30 hours was over and I thought to myself, "I wasn't even there for a full work week... and I was miserable." I immediately switched my major back to business.

At the same time I was working 30hours a week at Walmart. I worked my a$$ off and was better than my own manager. And then I decided to skip my cousin's birthday party which was on Easter Sunday because I was on the schedule to work that day. So I missed a huge family party and I get to work and 2 coworkers called off (out of 4 including me). I did the work of at least 2 people that day and the store was busier than ever (all other stores are closed on Easter). The next week my performance eval came in and I was rated worst in my department. I was so pissed.

This is all happening while I'm listening to TMF for the first time on car rides and while working in the back of Walmart. I was getting pissed stocking milk and listening to MJ talk about college being a scam. I'm going to be 80k in student loan debt and it just pisses me off.

That big clusterfuck and my abusive relationship was a huge FTE.

Now I haven't had much business success but I am getting there. I have gotten out of that relationship. I have gotten out of some bad habits. And I am moving to Tampa, FL with a buddy in exactly a week from now. I'm still in school but almost done. I'm currently focused on my weight loss and getting a job in Tampa to pay bills that are now coming. I feel like a new life is coming.

Small steps man, small steps. Think of it like that tiny domino, you can't knock over the huge one to start.

It'd be better to get your coaching fix volunteering for a local youth league, and skipping the bullshit.

Or better yet do it Unscripted ; open up your own basketball clinic, or a community gym. Earning a profit to pay bills, optional.

I wonder how many of these are just moments and not events?

And that's the million dollar question.

Look at the "epiphany" graphic I posted above -- now that's an FTE with corroborating evidence.

Follow-up question for everyone who has posted an FTE ... what EVIDENCE have you shown yourself that it is a true FTE, and not an FTM? (F*ck this moment.) The truth is, everyone has "F*ck this" moments. Not everyone does anything about it.

 

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[GuestUser450]

Preface:
During finals week of a soul-sapping first year, at a school chosen by friends, as a major chosen by teachers, paying with loans chosen by parents - I get a call from my mother telling me my 48 year-old father had a stroke. I drive 6 hours home, feeling both terrified of losing my dad and guilty for the relief of leaving everything else behind. I get to the hospital and he's passed. I'm gutted and after seeing my mother fall apart, I decide to take a gap year to help sort through the mess and hopefully reset myself.

Flash forward 10 months:
My girlfriend was a family friend who reached out to pay condolences - we found solace and distraction together but I start to realize that our chemistry is based on mourning and not compatibility. In a small town with jobs being scarce, I'm running a food route - loading rusty racks into a broken-down bread truck at 3 am for $4.75/hour. I'm sleep-deprived, miserable, broke and so stressed that I start getting chest pains.

FTE:
Spring break. Everything is on ad. It's a huge week with a bonus for me if we do well. The delivery guy is late. I rush to load the truck and get to my first store - the store I hate, the one with the woman who's a receiving nazi that makes me read aloud and physically touch every product on every rack before letting me through, the one that makes me wait for the coke and pepsi guys even when I'm there first.

I hit the road, speeding, forgetting that I'm hauling a 5 ton garbage box down the highway. Morning traffic hits like a brick wall and I slam the brakes hard and swerve off road. When the dust literally settles, no one is hurt, but the racks broke loose from the walls and product is everywhere, most of it unsaleable.

I call my boss who is less than pleased. I can hear the wheels turning in his head, figuring out a way to sound sympathetic enough to get me to clean the mess and find more product, while also planning my exit.

I drive to another town that afternoon and "borrow" some of our inventory from 3 smaller stores to fill the big ones at home the next morning. By pure sweat, we have zero empty shelves while selling like crazy the entire week. I'm relieved and mentally spend my bonus check.

I'm fired on payday, no bonus.

Job is gone. Relationship is over. Friends are mad that I'm not coming back. My mom is still grieving and finding financial goblins my dad never shared.

It all hit me at once. I was tired of being a victim. I was tired of being rudderless, pushed by the waves instead of commanding my own ship. So I committed to build my own machine that I'd fuel to protect me, provide for me, give me fulfillment and make the lives of those around me better.

Edit: EVIDENCE
Not long after, I met an older gentlemen who was a small mexican food distributor with only a handful of restaurants and 1 grocery store. He was looking for part-time help because he couldn't physically do it anymore. I knew instantly that if I could buy him out, I could build it out and eventually sell it. It was my stepping stone to entrepreneurship and the idea never would've entered my mind before hitting rock bottom. I needed the FTE to see the opportunity.

 

[Sheps]

19 maybe 20 years old, working in a bar. Very pregnant woman walks up, orders drinks for her table then starts pondering what to order for herself. A pint and a double JD if memory serves.
I refused to make her drinks, she says she'll get someone at her table to order then, so I cancel the tables order and say I won't serve any of them but they're welcome to soft drinks and food (fully expect the cost of drinks already poured to come out of my meagre pay check but whatever).

So she asks to speak to my manager. He comes over, I explain that I won't make her drinks. He tells me to pour them anyway or he'd do it. I say "I won't and if you do I walk."

He did. I did.

Not a great event like many of the ones already posted. But I had a line, it was crossed, I acted. Best I could do. That manager cost the business their best barman by about 2 - 2.5x the nearest taker which is about the only solace I got. They closed about 9 months later (ironically).

 

[ZF Lee]

I was a graduate student researching astrophysics. The work I was doing was quite esoteric - how do galaxies form? The timescales so far back that we can't observe anything, so the only approach is computer simulations. To me, the work felt speculative and unimportant, and I had no emotional investment. I left before publishing anything, but it felt like even if I did, maybe ten people would read it. Plus the pay was horrible, and I got the impression that academia was more about appearances/politics/connections than substance. There was no single FTE moment, I just felt more and more soul-crushed until I couldn't take it anymore.

IMO, publishing academic works is still a very important field as it can yield good data that can be used to create future inventions or solutions.

I think Sergey Brin, Einstein and many greats involved in technology based the foundations of their Fastlane works on prior academic works and even developed their own white papers. But technology IS a big Fastlane need. We need technology to save time, clean dirt better, reduce infection, etc. It's all about solving problems.

But astrophysics is not as desperate for problem solving because it is more of a pioneering subject. Perhaps a century later, it will reap its full benefits comparable to other present academic fields like economics, maths or engineering when we have sectors that really need astrophysics like space travel or galactic terraforming.

Yes, those two fields are viable and even very lucrative. But it is in the work of generations, and by work, I mean substantial human labour in the form of researchers. You chose to be one of them, a worker bee. Not wrong, but is that your best choice? Or do you know how to control things to make your place bigger and more important?

 

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[lewj24]

IMO, publishing academic works is still a very important field as it can yield good data that can be used to create future inventions or solutions.

I think Sergey Brin, Einstein and many greats involved in technology based the foundations of their Fastlane works on prior academic works and even developed their own white papers. But technology IS a big Fastlane need. We need technology to save time, clean dirt better, reduce infection, etc. It's all about solving problems.

But astrophysics is not as desperate for problem solving because it is more of a pioneering subject. Perhaps a century later, it will reap its full benefits comparable to other present academic fields like economics, maths or engineering when we have sectors that really need astrophysics like space travel or galactic terraforming.

Yes, those two fields are viable and even very lucrative. But it is in the work of generations, and by work, I mean substantial human labour in the form of researchers. You chose to be one of them, a worker bee. Not wrong, but is that your best choice? Or do you know how to control things to make your place bigger and more important?

C'mon man stick to the topic of the thread.

 

[Andy Black]

I've had several of these in my life. I look at my paths as stepping stones and at each hop to a new stone, I had a FTE that led to the hop.

Then I look at the different paths I had that had their hops:

• Relationships
• Job/Career
• Business
• Health
• several other small areas like family/being social, etc

The ones that stood out the most that really made my blood boil came down to job/career and business.

In a nutshell, I was working a job to make someone else rich. I was a loyal employee before I "opened my mind" and I would work with dedication and earnest for the employers I worked for. Some of my FTEs while being employed ( summarizing them ):

• Working on the weekends, not getting paid. Happened a lot while an hourly employee. Ended up getting a settlement check for this though years later from the employer in a class action lawsuit. Looks like I wasn't the only one.
  
  
• Was asked at one of my jobs to get rid of my current freelance clients in order to work there, which I followed through with. I only had a few, but it barely paid the bills for me so I thought it wasn't much of a loss to land this full-time job that would make me more per month. Got laid off 3 months later. Which was after getting this employer to top 3 positions in Google for 1,000s of keywords they still enjoy to this day. Couldn't get my old clients back because they found someone else to help them when I couldn't. Was without money for me and my family of 5 for months. Had to request unemployment which I was denied ( never could figure this out ) for and to get my kids on passport health plan.
  
  
• Passed over for Director level position even though I was promised it and next in line... AND after I hand built the department I was in by myself over 3 years from $10,000 in annual billings to over $5m. Instead, they brought someone in they did not know at all, who lied on their resume, who was working remotely ( but I was denied this benefit 4 times the last 3 years ) and then this person fired me based on a lie for something they said I did on my approved day off. This person stayed on another year before they got canned. No one cared though, and now this company is hitting the shitter.
  
  
• Promised equity in a new business as part of lowered salary for a CMO role in a current business. New business canceled with 6 months of me coming on by the owner, but he wouldn't raise my salary in current business though to compensate for the broken promise. Wouldn't hire a CTO to handle tech issues which I then took on myself too just to get things rolling. Later laid off because the owner was too busy cheating on Ashley Madison and acting like a "gangsta with money" every month with new luxury cars, condos, and vacations that he hurt the cash-flow of the business and ended up getting rid of 60% of his employees.
  
  
• Was laid off due to VC money coming into company and VCs wanted no remote employees. I just helped this company earn $38m that year from $400,000 the year before though. While leaving the company, they asked me to turn over my FB account ( my personal one ) because attached to it was a highly successful ad campaign I created on my own spare time that was sending leads to them. I didn't turn it over and I was their #1 lead generator. They wanted the account instead of paying me for it afterward.
  
  
• Was promised a years worth of salary was ready for me at a new startup before I came on board. Left position I was at to join this company to find out they lied and ran out of month in month 4. They were so busy buying t-shirts and cell phones and other BS, they didn't make any sales.
  
  
• Promised 7 hour work days, paid for health/dental/401k benefits, and negotiated extra's ( cell phone, internet expenses ). Ended up working 9-12 hours days. Never got a dime for health or any benefit at all and never seen a penny for internet or cell phone expenses. Company was strict about filling out your timecard daily to make sure you put in 7 hours at least. Cared more about this then the fact they piled people with so much work that they worked 12 hours days instead of focusing on their benefit of "35 hours work week". They looked at your timecard during the day, they knew you already clocked 7 hours by 1pm but didn't cared and still piled you on with more work due by end of that day. When brought up, was told "sometimes you have to put in extra to get stuff done". What's the purpose of a 7 hour work day then as a benefit? They were so strict about this timecard BS that I stressed out about it and when I hit 7 hours, I stopped putting in more time just so I could focus on quality work. Many times I was so stressed I just got to 7 and anything over 7 I would bank for the next day so I wouldn't have to stress about it and had a little buffer so I could focus on work.
  
  
• After working a position that 12 people now do ( I visited the company a year later ), I asked for a raise from $26,000 a year to $30,000 on my 2 year anniversary. Was told, " we don't have the budget". I quit and went to work at another company where I did less work and was paid the $30k I wanted. 4 months later the old company calls me up wanting me back offering me less work and $32,000. Where'd the money come up in just 4 months? Hmmmmm. I actually went back to work for this company and negotiated remote work "when the numbers looked good". Well, I took their sister company from 0 sales to $1m in less than 12 months and on my yearly asked for my remote work benefit. Was told I could "maybe" get 1 day to work from home per week. I quit that week because it was known I wanted to work full time from home when I came back.
  
  
• Boss intermingles in my company email inbox ( which I am fine with, its his company ) and jumps into convos I am having with clients routinely via email and I never know when this happens because I am not CC'd on it or it comes in after hours and is missing sections in the reply'd email.This happens daily, several times a day. Even though he is "trying" to help, it's basically micro-management and it confuses me, the client, and causes a ton of productivity loss to recoup and try to figure out what has been done and promised to the client and start back at zero again to resume work that is now added to my plate. In the end, it was a cluster F*ck daily and tons of stress to sort through. This process routinely delayed projects by more than week several times and caused errors in peoples ad accounts where he jumped in, misunderstood, and made changes in their account that I had to later undo and fix only after the client complained about it.
  
  
• Being told I need to do work that employee B, C, and D can't do or can't handle even though it's their assigned job function. Even though I technically know how to do it, it's not my job function and this is happening all the time daily. An example of this would be me being hired to managing multiple PPC campaigns at an agency. For some reason I am now told I have to write the copy for the website and also do the social media and SEO work. Employees B, C, and D can't do it for X reason or can't handle it, but now I am suppose to. I don't get paid their salaries though in combination with mine and I am also not allowed more hours to get the work done. I don't mind to help out in a time of need or crunch, but this is daily ongoing for months and isn't just 1 or 2 projects, but like multiple spread over 90 clients.
  
  
• Laid off from a startup because I wouldn't move to San Francisco so the company could be close to investors. Helped this company go from basically 0 sales to their first 50k customers and 500k in sales. This success helped them later get into Y Combinator and get funding from a Shark Tank investor. All wasn't lost, I did have some equity and was able to cash out on that, but being told you are getting let go because you don't live in X place even though the company was pretty much all remote was tough.
  
  
• Another agency I was at, they routinely could not pay me on time. They expected me to always meet deadlines and would be rather harsh if it wasn't on time. I'm cool with that, but then they would never meet their payroll. I would wait a week or 2 on check and was told, "it was sent" but it was ALWAYS late without fail. One time I waited 4 full weeks and the check didn't come. When I asked about it I was told, "oh we havent been paid yet by X,Y,Z client, so we can't process payroll". Hmmmm, ok. Could you have at least told your employees this before it happened? I had to contact you to find out about your failure to meet your obligations? I was then told they didn't know when they could process payment but I was "first on the list" to be paid. These people would also take lots of time ( 4-5 days ) to answer a simple email or voice mail which would delay my projects causing me to be late on them, which they would in turn be harsh to me about.. lol

Needless to say, I haven't been employed as a w-2 for a while now. People think it's a "safe" bet and it has never been that in my experience.

.

Bejesus. Each one of those is bad enough... but combined?

This post brought up some long forgotten wrongs that I'd thought I'd gotten over. I'd write my FTM but I think I'd get so annoyed it would set me back a few weeks, or months.

 

[LVMont]

FTE #1:
Got hired on as a maintenance tech for an apartment complex. Started me out at $9/hr the manager told me after 90 days I'll get bumped upto $12.50. Worked my a$$ off in the beginning; worked on the weekends, coming in early and leaving late. Then I realized that no one gave a damn about me busting my a$$. I was giving myself more work todo for peanuts, if that. My probation period ended and I was still making $9 dollars. Talked to the property manager and she told me she have to talk to HR about it. Never got my raise and didn't hear anything about it ever again.Yet somehow, I managed to stay there for two years. The only reason I stayed was because I was learning to fix shit. After two years I was still making $9/hr when I finally said F*ck this shit and quit.

FTE #2 I became a EMT for a ambulance company. It was great in the beginning I loved helping people and making their day better somehow. I was picking up extra shifts left and right. 10/12hr shifts. Pretty much working 7days a week straight. Until one day I had a slip up. Got placed on Admin leave pending investigation. I pretty much got fired for "being dishonest." it was devastating and scary this was the first job I ever got fired from. I'm locked out from being a EMT here in town because they own both ambulance companies that run the city. Luckily, I had money saved up to cover the bills for a couple months.

 

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[Liberty T. Vance]

I wonder how many of these are just moments and not events?

I think with just a "F*ck this moment", old habits will take back over and not much will change.

With a "F*ck this event", really nothing can stand in your way after that.

This is so true....

My "F*ck this event":

After spending 2 out of 3 months in the hole in Federal Correctional Center, Terminal Island (the island part sounded so relaxing, it wasn't) for drug use, fighting and just being a complete piece of shit I was transferred to FCC, Milan.

At Milan I continued playing the convict games of drugs, drinking and trying to be a bad a$$ which landed me in the hole a few more times until...

My "F*ck this event". I got a drunk walking across the yard and ended up in the hole again (#4)... As I sat in the hole catching shit from my two friends (one turned out to be a real friend the other not so much), who I got busted along with me, I realized I didn't like prison and my future wasn't looking too bright.

I realized I didn't like living with a bunch of men, being told what to do, when to do it and constantly watching my back for that one idiot who feels he was disrespected because I got something in my eye, and in my attempt to get the foreign object out of my eye, I ended up looking at him "wrong" and now he wants to stab me....

A switch went off in my head and I decided I wasn't going to get high, drink or play convict games anymore. "F*ck this event".

Instead I met a couple of guys who were taking advantage of the education offered by the institution and straightening their lives out. I surrounded myself with like minded people with real plans to stay out and be a part of society. So, I followed suit and got my high school diploma and started college courses covering business and computers ( in 1988).

The people I surrounded myself with changed (saved) my life... Thanks to them I became a model prisoner (such a ridiculous term. I laugh every time I say it), got all of my good time back I had lost (took 6 months to lose 2 years of good time and took 2 years to get it all back. Ha, ha) and started to repair the damage I had done to my family.

My "F*ck this moment":

I'm currently working a dead end teaching job in China and working for the worst school I've ever worked at. The administration is like a bunch of bobble-heads that keep bumping into each other unable to get out of their own way...

It's surprising they manage to make it to work and back home everyday without wondering into the street and getting hit by a car or bus...

I've used all of this to motivate myself to learn new skills and work on my mindset to move out of the slowlane that I've been stuck in for the last 9 years.

But...

Because the job is fairly easy I get lulled back into cruising the slowlane. I've got a place to live, my salary is on time, I can save some money, I get 8 weeks holiday, blah, blah, blah... And there I am miserable, wanting (knowing I have) to change things but the old habits take over. So...

F*ck this...

I've worked my a$$ off to straighten my life out, try to contribute to society instead of being a leech and thanks to @SinisterLex, @Fox, @ChickenHawk, @Andy Black, @MJ DeMarco and many more through reading these threads, changing my mindset to helping people (remember I was in prison and it wasn't for helping people) to allow this "JOB" to drag me down under the sidewalk...

Damn... This feels good...

Looking back at my "F*ck this event" some of the feelings (triggers?) I had at that time are starting to percolate in my mind so I'm going to change this "moment" into an "event".

Thanks to everyone in this thread... This came along at the right time...

 

[GSF]

FTE 1:

My manager calls me in for a meeting. He tells me im being promoted, many more responsibilities, now required to work weekends when needed, being moved onto a salary so no overtime pay for extra hours/ days worked, oh and for the same basic pay as before until I prove myself, but its ok because I get a cool job title.
Id already started a side hustle in my spare time which was earning nearly as much as my job. I nodded along politely, told him it sounds great, when he was finished and the meeting was over I asked to borrow a sheet paper, went to the staff room, scribbled out a resignation letter and then returned it to him in his office, best feeling ever.

FTE 2:

5 years after starting what I thought was a business, I realise its not much better than a job. Ive put everything I had into it, Im working 12 hour days, sometimes 7 days a week, in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, high overheads, if i don't work the money stops.

My health deteriorates and I get diagnosed with a genetic inflammatory disease, most days I cant walk let alone carry out my business. With 2 young kids and family to support I make a last ditch attempt to keep things going and employ staff which fails due to low profits and high local competition beating my prices (I realise I hate employing people). I realise im crazy continuing this high risk business for low pay, poor prospects and poor health. I close the business down and start researching more profitable ventures, the first book I read is the fastlane!

 

[JWelch]

I don't consider my FTE to be a single event but a hodgepodge of FTM's over a few years of working for the company I am currently employed with.

They were bought out about 8 years ago by a global corporation and for the last 5 years everything from wages to benefits to work schedules to bonuses has been slashed. You name it, it's worse than it was.

For example, recently a man retired who worked for the company for 40 years. Instead of hiring a new guy, management decided they could save more by having a few of us learn his job and do it on top of doing our own job. No extra pay for the extra work or anything.

We also received a cost of living raise in January of a whole 16¢ per hour... you read that right.
As it were the company would also pay for 15 minutes of wash up time at the end of the day. These guys would get an extra .5 hours of overtime per day adding up to 2.5 hours per week because we had a 15 minute meeting before start time every day as well. Well they took that wash up time away and the meeting away at the same time as the raise which actually equated to about a 30-50 dollar per week pay cut. Peanuts I know, but that's how the SCRIPT reads.
The list of bullshit like this over the years is very long it's almost like bad news every day you walk in.

Had I not had a wife and two kids I would've quit a long time ago but as of now we are currently working on our house and it will be listed for sale next month.
After we sell we are relocating from Michigan to Texas and I'm following through with my entrepreneurial goals. I'll have enough money to live on for about 2 years whether or not I earn a dime during that time.

Nothing like holding a gun to your own head to say "get your a$$ to work"!

 

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[Supa]

It was a hot summer day.
3 months after graduation.
3 months of freedom. Happy to be done with school. Great weather. Spending most days on the lake. Playing volleyball. Staying up until late at night. Sleeping in.
3 months without any worries at all.
Just 3 or 4 more days until I'd start my very first job.
Wasn't 18 at that time, so a friend was driving me home after another day at the lake. Probably one of the last that summer.

"Damn, just a few more days, then I have to start at that job" I said to him.
"Yeah, that's life man" he said, "as soon as you're done with school this is how life looks like"
"What you mean?" I asked him.
"You're living from weekend to weekend" he said, "and on week days, you are looking forward to your weekend".
The days following this short conversation, there were questions running through my head.

Is this everything?
That's what life is about?
Doing the same boring shit for 40 years? And then what? I mean 40 years is 40 years.
40 years of doing shit you don't enjoy?
What the F*ck is this?

Those questions didn't lead to anything big back then.
But it was the first time I felt like there's something wrong with this job-working-lifestyle.
I never got rid of that attitude.
Then I found TMF .

 

[WinTheDay]

I've had plenty of FTM's over the past 2 years.

Many being from jobs and past relationships but none of them seemed to last much longer than a few days or weeks at best.

Then finally a FTE happened at 20 years old, a few months ago actually. While I was working as a valet driver ironically enough and our manager had just ran off with a week and a halfs worth of pay, about $350 for me. Then one of the workers who was supposedly a friend of mine took over and took all of the hours and started treating us like pieces of shit all while giving himself a pay raise. Nothing pissed me off so bad than to be literally taken advantage of by someone I was just on the same level as.

So I did what anyone who was wired the same as us would do. I tried to start my own F*cking Valet company with one of the workers who is a good buddy of mine, pitched my idea to the local barbershop and was able to get started made $70 bucks the first day but that ultimately failed relatively quickly. My buddy went back to work for the Valet spot but I said no way in hell I am going back there so I am currently on my 6th attempt on my Entrepreneur journey with 5 failures on my belt. The difference is that I don't have a choice, my FTE put me in a do or die situation, I've been working hard daily and just keep "turning the gumball machine" until my gold one comes out. Since my event I stopped dabbling, I stopped taking daily/weekly breaks from business, I've gone all in.

 

[corius]

Thanks to everyone for sharing. Some of your FTE's are pretty intense.

Mine happened 2/22/17. I had melted steel fall inside my ear. 3 surgeries and almost 3 months later and cleared to return back to work. Permanent hearing loss but the surgeon did his best to make me look normal again. (My left ear is a little bit skewed now)

And the funny thing is just this morning my wife and I argued. She said that I have become obsessed with starting my own company and I should spend time with the family instead of reading while everyone is watching TV. (Her words made me realize that it truly was an event and not just a moment)

Sent from my C811 4G using Tapatalk

 

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[JWelch]

Thanks to everyone for sharing. Some of your FTE's are pretty intense.

Mine happened 2/22/17. I had melted steel fall inside my ear. 3 surgeries and almost 3 months later and cleared to return back to work. Permanent hearing loss but the surgeon did his best to make me look normal again. (My left ear is a little bit skewed now)

And the funny thing is just this morning my wife and I argued. She said that I have become obsessed with starting my own company and I should spend time with the family instead of reading while everyone is watching TV. (Her words made me realize that it truly was an event and not just a moment)

Sent from my C811 4G using Tapatalk

That's a pretty bad thing to experience but it sounds like your head is where it needs to be now. Sometimes a little obsession is what's needed.

 

[LuckyPup]

The biggest one I remember was right after the May, 2011 Joplin tornado.

I worked in the collections dept. at the hospital that didn't get wiped out.

For maybe 2 weeks after the disaster we only collected on accounts outside of the "red" zone.

Then we resumed all collections.

Massive hospital debts people already couldn't afford.

I had to call and let them know, despite not having a home or a car or half their family .. the hospital still wanted its money.

A few days later I quit and started selling lego portraits.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I was born with the word "rebel" stamped on my forehead.

F-ing Mercy. I live in St. Louis and could share some Mercy stories that would make your blood boil. Bunch of crooked assholes wrapped in a cloak of psuedo Christianity.

 

[LuckyPup]

1) Working as a drug rep I celebrated my 30th birthday with a cancer diagnosis. I'm laying in my hospital bed the day after surgery and my district manager calls me and asks when I can "get back out in the field." Decided to quit that day, but waited six months to do it until my 401k vested.

2) Worked for an obese, narcissistic boss whose chronic lateness to meetings collectively wasted weeks, of not months of our team's time; who took credit for other people's work and who blatantly reneged on a salary agreement we had (my fault for not getting in writing). I didn't quit right away, but instead used the job and the salary while starting my business. Boss used me for a few years, so I used the boss right back, quid pro quo. Gave 'em a dose of their own medicine. Maybe not the best way to do it, but F*ck 'em.

 

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[LauraLou]

I was already thinking about leaving, but I had my first review for my PhD, and my external reviewer was less than kind to me.

For those who don't know, academics are very stuck in their ways. The bad review was because I was using a different method to the one that he was researching.

I got the results of my review half way through a training day with the company that sponsored me. Both of my supervisors, after an entire year of saying that I was doing fine and to just carry on with what I'm doing, had thrown me under the bus in an attempt to save their reputations by destroying mine. I left the training day mid-exercise and honestly it's the best decision I've ever made

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

 

[Pete799p]

One of many: Working 60 hours a week for a small salary, no benefits, and I had to use my car = less then minimum wage. Was running ghetto multifamily buildings (actually taking over vacant REOs, then throwing everybody out dope dealers and all, then busting my a$$ to get them stabilized) . The gangs were all at war and it was the height of the depression so people were desperate.

You would have thought I would have quit after:
Being assigned a building because my friend quit after getting chased out of it by a masked man with a gun who started shooting at him, or after kicking the door in to a unit in a new building we took over to find a body in the bath tub, or the countless death threats received, or after witnessing a double homicide in front of the building I was at collecting rent, or when me and my construction crew got held up by some crack heads who ended up putting one of my guys in the hospital after beating him with the but end of a pistol, or the cockroaches bed bugs & rats the size of small dogs, or when I was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, or when my car window got shot out while I was driving that the company said they would reimburse me for but never did, or...

But I didn't. I kept showing up early and leaving late. I worked late nights doing collections and weekends for no pay. It got so bad down there my family offered to pay me just so I would quit.

But I never quit. I got fired after being thrown under the bus by an incompetent manager, who was eventually demoted, to save his own a$$.

The rest is history. One of these days I'll get around to sending him a thank you card.

 

[Silver Silk]

I was contracting working on the train tracks and id see people who were full blown c*nts basically get jobs over me when i contributed a lot more & always gave 100% to my job, well mannered and professional but then I realised there is no loyalty from my contracting company or managers who kept giving these idiots vans with fuel card and the easiest shifts while I was driving my own car with my own petrol to different cities every week. Basically favouritism but i couldn't understand why because they were shit at they did and brought the company more problems.

As a labour contractor its no fun at all most the time, i was in the cold changing rail components, lifting heavy gear, being spoken to like shit, being used as a scape goat because you're are the contractor and the official bodies cant do anything wrong, all this shit while the official bodies would just watch and drink coffee, hardly lift a finger on track.

I said F*ck this shit and applied for literally 100 jobs with the UKs main railway company for a contracted and other benefits (im aware of the slowlane actions but its temporary I just had to get off contracting its awful). Been at my new job for 6 months now & before I opened the forum today I came into work to find my line managers not in when they should be, my other 10 colleagues are off, the sun is shining and im basically locked in this corporate building until 3pm officially. Im sitting here with next to nothing to do.

This isn't living, this isn't what I was born to do. Everyday is while im in a 9-5 job is FTE. I do my job well and i am tipped for the next promotion but this slowlane life just isn't a life for me. I was born to live a winner life & so were you guys. I get home and i continue to grind for a better life, I wont stop until one of my business kick off and I think this year is going to be the best one yet!

Loved reading all your FTE's and I hope everybody is on the way to a winner life or there already!

 

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[amp0193]

You would have thought I would have quit after:
Being assigned a building because my friend quit after getting chased out of it by a masked man with a gun who started shooting at him, or after kicking the door in to a unit in a new building we took over to find a body in the bath tub with a bullet hole in his head, or the countless death threats received, or after witnessing a double homicide in front of the building I was at collecting rent, or when me and my construction crew got held up by some crack heads who ended up putting one of my guys in the hospital after beating him with the but end of a pistol, or the cockroaches bed bugs & rats the size of small dogs, or when I was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, or when my car window got shot out while I was driving that the company said they would reimburse me for but never did, or...

You win.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Working as a drug rep I celebrated my 30th birthday with a cancer diagnosis.

Off-topic, but I hope you are doing better.

One of many: Working 60 hours a week for a small salary, no benefits, and I had to use my car = less then minimum wage. Was running ghetto multifamily buildings (actually taking over vacant REOs, then throwing everybody out dope dealers and all, then busting my a$$ to get them stabilized) . The gangs were all at war and it was the height of the depression so people were desperate.

You would have thought I would have quit after:
Being assigned a building because my friend quit after getting chased out of it by a masked man with a gun who started shooting at him, or after kicking the door in to a unit in a new building we took over to find a body in the bath tub with a bullet hole in his head, or the countless death threats received, or after witnessing a double homicide in front of the building I was at collecting rent, or when me and my construction crew got held up by some crack heads who ended up putting one of my guys in the hospital after beating him with the but end of a pistol, or the cockroaches bed bugs & rats the size of small dogs, or when I was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, or when my car window got shot out while I was driving that the company said they would reimburse me for but never did, or...

But I didn't. I kept showing up early and leaving late. I worked late nights doing collections and weekends for no pay. It got so bad down there my family offered to pay me just so I would quit.

But I never quit. I got fired after being thrown under the bus by an incompetent manager, who was eventually demoted, to save his own a$$.

The rest is history. One of these days I'll get around to sending him a thank you card.

Holy crap, if that doesn't compel a "FTE" what will? This is pretty scary stuff.