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21 Year Old Aspiring "Inventor"

studentgrind

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Feb 11, 2018
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Hi guys, my name is Cole and I want to be a millionaire.

When I was young, and I mean ages 0-12 or so, I was constantly coming up with ideas. I kept an inventions journal and I asked questions. Why should you have to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer after you're done with a load of laundry? Why can't your car drive itself? And yes, I was a weird kid.

It got so bad my mom started limiting me to telling her two inventions per day. All I ever talked about was how I would grow up to change the world with my products and ideas. I imagined huge international companies and fame beyond my dreams.

As I got older, my passion for ideas dwindled. Maybe it was because as I grew I learned that many of the things I thought were original ideas (including above) already existed. Maybe it was because I had no way to follow through and turn my ideas into actual prototypes. At some point along the way, the invention journal was lost, and I had turned my focus to school and friends and my social life.

I got straight A's in junior high, and high school. I graduated near the top of my class. I always took Honors and/or AP classes and have been a gifted student my entire life. I enrolled at Arizona State (my dream school, but that's a different story), and entered the mechanical engineering program on a big fat scholarship. That's what inventors should do right? If you want to learn about designing and manufacturing products you become an engineer right?

Wrong.

Okay maybe not totally wrong, but I quickly learned that engineering wasn't all that I expected it to be. Yes I had no problem with calculus and I loved physics, but I didn't really want to learn about thermodynamics and I thoroughly despise chemistry. I was getting decent grades, but I had no passion for my work. Soon a hectic personal life started catching up to me and my grades began slipping. I took classes over summer to make up for it. The first semester of my sophomore year started and immediately I knew I didn't want to be there. I thought maybe a change was in order.

I switched my major from mechanical engineering to robotics engineering. It didn't help and the second semester was wasted as well. Summer came and went and I started my junior year, this time as an economics major. What was I doing? Was I good at economics? Yes. Did I care about economics? No. I thought if I got a degree in that field I could make a ton of money. I was chasing money. I had strayed so far from who I really was that I had almost accepted the fact that maybe, I was just meant to be poor. Maybe I was supposed to be an employee.

I'm not going to school this semester. I've wasted a lot of money. Remember that big fat scholarship? Yeah, It's gone. I've been working for a family friend who owns a very profitable and valuable business in the microchip world. I make money and I will have the opportunity to travel in the future and make more. But, this can't be the end of the road.

So here I am. I came across The Millionaire Fastlane and I started reading. Holy shit. I'm a textbook slow-laner. I've always followed the safe route. Wait, you can actually buy a Lamborghini as an "inventor"? I started to feel like my old self and the gears started turning.

I stayed up almost through the night last night. I had an idea, the first in years, and I researched for hours. I started a new journal and wrote down everything. I will make my life into something worth waking up for and I will be successful.

So yeah, that's me I guess. Oh and I play the drums in a band. Apologies for the length and/or grammar, I'm not a writer.

Here's to wealth, however you define it!
 
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Ambitious Guy

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Man this was a really good read. Thanks for posting this and keep following your dreams even if life knocks you down, you just gotta keep standing up!
 

Process

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Jul 19, 2017
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Hey thanks for sharing your story. Welcome to TFLF.

I want to address the part about seeing your idea has already been thought of...

If someone is already doing it... SO WHAT?

They probably have a billion gaps and deafening static interference in their business:
  • complacent execution
  • ***massive hole*** no follow-up to past customers
  • no measure of response to ads
  • off-target marketing/ no brand/identity
  • lack of customer support/service
  • tricky to set-up product
  • complex and maze-like website ui
  • low quality of materials
  • skimpy shipping offer
  • lousy support/sales staff
  • one owner doing everything without delegating
  • etc.

Meanwhile they are clinging to nothing but their idea, savvy entrepreneurs recognize ideas as pawns to split-test.

Keep tweaking and you'll be more aligned with your market's deep-seated motives.

Your business will be tuned to that frequency and be the channel the market uses as its outlet. A business is like a DIY electronics kit on steroids. Trial and error, congruence to the principles, and commitment are the only real barriers in business.
 

markK

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Feb 8, 2018
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Missouri, US
Hi guys, my name is Cole and I want to be a millionaire.

When I was young, and I mean ages 0-12 or so, I was constantly coming up with ideas. I kept an inventions journal and I asked questions. Why should you have to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer after you're done with a load of laundry? Why can't your car drive itself? And yes, I was a weird kid.

It got so bad my mom started limiting me to telling her two inventions per day. All I ever talked about was how I would grow up to change the world with my products and ideas. I imagined huge international companies and fame beyond my dreams.

As I got older, my passion for ideas dwindled. Maybe it was because as I grew I learned that many of the things I thought were original ideas (including above) already existed. Maybe it was because I had no way to follow through and turn my ideas into actual prototypes. At some point along the way, the invention journal was lost, and I had turned my focus to school and friends and my social life.

I got straight A's in junior high, and high school. I graduated near the top of my class. I always took Honors and/or AP classes and have been a gifted student my entire life. I enrolled at Arizona State (my dream school, but that's a different story), and entered the mechanical engineering program on a big fat scholarship. That's what inventors should do right? If you want to learn about designing and manufacturing products you become an engineer right?

Wrong.

Okay maybe not totally wrong, but I quickly learned that engineering wasn't all that I expected it to be. Yes I had no problem with calculus and I loved physics, but I didn't really want to learn about thermodynamics and I thoroughly despise chemistry. I was getting decent grades, but I had no passion for my work. Soon a hectic personal life started catching up to me and my grades began slipping. I took classes over summer to make up for it. The first semester of my sophomore year started and immediately I knew I didn't want to be there. I thought maybe a change was in order.

I switched my major from mechanical engineering to robotics engineering. It didn't help and the second semester was wasted as well. Summer came and went and I started my junior year, this time as an economics major. What was I doing? Was I good at economics? Yes. Did I care about economics? No. I thought if I got a degree in that field I could make a ton of money. I was chasing money. I had strayed so far from who I really was that I had almost accepted the fact that maybe, I was just meant to be poor. Maybe I was supposed to be an employee.

I'm not going to school this semester. I've wasted a lot of money. Remember that big fat scholarship? Yeah, It's gone. I've been working for a family friend who owns a very profitable and valuable business in the microchip world. I make money and I will have the opportunity to travel in the future and make more. But, this can't be the end of the road.

So here I am. I came across The Millionaire Fastlane and I started reading. Holy sh*t. I'm a textbook slow-laner. I've always followed the safe route. Wait, you can actually buy a Lamborghini as an "inventor"? I started to feel like my old self and the gears started turning.

I stayed up almost through the night last night. I had an idea, the first in years, and I researched for hours. I started a new journal and wrote down everything. I will make my life into something worth waking up for and I will be successful.

So yeah, that's me I guess. Oh and I play the drums in a band. Apologies for the length and/or grammar, I'm not a writer.

Here's to wealth, however you define it!
I'm new to the forum, but I have both of MJ's books heading my way and I've read enough of his material to know that I'm in the wrong lane and it's time to change lanes.

As an inventor also, one path that I have started to pursue that you might want to consider too, is licensing your ideas to companies for royalties. More and more companies are looking for new product ideas from outside their company and are willing to pay royalties. There is a process that greatly increases your chances of getting your ideas into companies and this can be done with very little money.

If you're interested, I would highly recommend the book, "One Simple Idea", by Stephen Key.

Thanks for sharing your journey up to this point.
 

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