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27-year-old middle-laner, trying to go from good to great

Lex Love

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I have found myself caught up in this book/community/forum at an interesting time.

I'm in a busy time of my life. My wife and I have two young sons with a girl on the way (we've literally had a baby every other Summer since we've been married). My wife stays at home with the guys while I hammer away at my job as a freight broker for a large firm. It's been a rough journey to get to where I am. As early as this January we were all cooped up with my wife's parents until I was able to build my book of business to enough commission to provide on my own.

As alluded to in the title, I feel I have found myself in something of a middle-lane. Not quite slow, not quite fast.

In my current job I have no commission cap. I make cold calls and do my selling thing to potentially large accounts, manage those accounts, and do everything I can to grow them. Like many sales jobs, there's a very low entry bar, but I guess I have managed to be somewhat "exceptional" as MJ refers to in his book. I'm doing significantly better than most of my tenure. If I were to continue to grind my a$$ off for another 3 or 4 years, I could likely make $200-400K a year.

Like the fastlane philosophy promotes, I have always been a big time and freedom guy. Before ever even reading the book, my peers knew my goals. I want freedom. Freedom to have hobbies without feeling bad about it. Freedom to pursue endeavors unlikely to make me enough money to support my family (I am an artist and a writer). Freedom to RAISE MY OWN KIDS.

When I was presented with this job, I saw it as an opportunity to attain that freedom. My goal was to work as hard as I could for the next few years to build my book. In the meantime I was going to be as stingy with my money as possible and save like crazy. Eventually I would pay off as much debt as possible, and hopefully invest into a few passive income side hustles that could contribute to my income flow. I had one big goal: A house paid off, 2 cars paid off, and enough passive income to at least not HAVE to work all the time. And yes, this path included investing into my 401k and mutual funds to help generate wealth.

Reading Fastlane Millionaire not only put a wrench into my plan, it had me captivated. I bought it on kindle last Thursday night and had it finished by Sunday (And it was actually a pretty busy weekend). Here was a man speaking my language (Time! Freedom! Control!) but his approach was different from mine. It was faster (cue snare and high hat).

To be honest, I had given considerable thought to entrepreneurialism. I had an intuitive hunch that maybe it was for me. But the risks seemed too great and all of the slowlane voices of my life crept into my consciousness every time I did: "It's unrealistic", "You'll never have time", "Only very special people exceed", and on and on. Loudest of all was my own: "You can't get distracted from your current plan!" It was enough to keep me from ever pursuing anything too seriously. Perhaps after I've reached my other goals...

But already the holes in my plan starting appearing. First was the drudgery of my current path. Freight brokering is a hard and very competitive job. And while I don't necessarily hate cold calls like many others do, I can't say I love it. Second, I hated pushing a product that wasn't mine. While yes I am selling my own customer service, I didn't come up with our model. I didn't come up with our technology. I didn't build our carrier base. I found myself trying to sell something I only sort of believed in. And third, the reward wasn't motivating enough. A house and 2 cars paid off? Well that would be nice but... It simple wasn't a provocative enough goal to keep me grinding as hard as I could. Especially knowing I could probably get away with half-assing the job and still make fairly decent money.

Millionaire Fastlane exposed those holes and many more and I'm already on the hunt for a business that makes C-E-N-T-S. It's obvious that if I put the same amount of effort into my own business that I've been planning on putting into my job, I could make many times more money in a shorter amount of time. I've always had dreams. I've always been repulsed by ordinary suburban life. And more than all, I've always wanted freedom. And here is the path. I know it's going to be freaking hard, but I also know I've got to do it.

I sincerely look forward to meeting all you folks on this forum as I make the journey to the freedom I so intensely desire.
 
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BlokeInProgress

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Welcome to the forum!

Good intro...it seems you're already ahead and got the ideal experience (sales, cold-calling). Hang around and keep reading threads. You might pickup and idea or two or you already have one that needs clarity or direction. I'm sure GOLD nuggets are everywhere here, you just need to keep reading, contributing and keep pushing forward.
 

lowtek

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Welcome aboard! You're in a great spot. Cold calling is a phenomenal skill to have, and one that most struggle to develop. While you may not love cold calling for a product you don't own, the experience is invaluable. Any gains you make in your current job will pay massive dividends in the future.
 

Lex Love

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Welcome to the forum!

Good intro...it seems you're already ahead and got the ideal experience (sales, cold-calling). Hang around and keep reading threads. You might pickup and idea or two or you already have one that needs clarity or direction. I'm sure GOLD nuggets are everywhere here, you just need to keep reading, contributing and keep pushing forward.

I appreciate that. Yes I am pursuing ways to add value. In my current job I am already to think in that way for my customers (though like I mentioned, I didn't create the value myself).
 
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Lex Love

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Welcome aboard! You're in a great spot. Cold calling is a phenomenal skill to have, and one that most struggle to develop. While you may not love cold calling for a product you don't own, the experience is invaluable. Any gains you make in your current job will pay massive dividends in the future.

Yes I definitely am thankful for the experience I have gained in this job. Lead generation, sales, cold-calling, account management, customer service, accounting, team leading, and more. I don't know if I ever would have even picked up MJ's book had I not already started down this lane.
 

Matt Hunt

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Sounds like you had the same plan I did. I also called it the middle lane. Except I'm pretty much capped at $120k in my job, aside from cost of living adjustments, 3-4% per year. Also, I'm investing in real estate, so better returns than the stock market. But it'd take me 10 years to get to a point I could retire.

Anyway, I think you'll love what you find around this forum. I haven't been here very long, and have already found tons of valuable info!
 

Jeff Noel

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Hey, welcome to the forums !

Congrats on the little girl coming soon.

Around me, everyone keeps discouraging others about entrepreneurship. "You'll always be working, you won't make enough money, you gotta take taxes into account, you don't even know X or Y, you'll need an accountant for that, and Z for X... John tried that and failed miserably, don't go that way, keep your job."

I can already suggest something: change your speech. The title triggered me.
Are you just trying to go from good to great ? Or are you hitting great level in X day/weeks/months ?
Writing things differently will change your mindset. "I can try becoming a millionaire", or "I will be a millionaire in 5 years. Here are the steps I will take in the next month, here's what I will do for the month after and here's what could change until then. Today, I already achieved 2 out of my 3 goals from my Millionaire To-Do List"

You read the book, was it The Millionaire Fastlane , or Unscripted ? If you read TMF , I HIGHLY recommend you to purchase Unscripted and read it ASAP.

Don't try. Do.
Don't desire a situation. Get there.

I hope you'll stay with us for a while !
 
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Lex Love

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May 21, 2019
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Hey, welcome to the forums !

Congrats on the little girl coming soon.

Around me, everyone keeps discouraging others about entrepreneurship. "You'll always be working, you won't make enough money, you gotta take taxes into account, you don't even know X or Y, you'll need an accountant for that, and Z for X... John tried that and failed miserably, don't go that way, keep your job."

I can already suggest something: change your speech. The title triggered me.
Are you just trying to go from good to great ? Or are you hitting great level in X day/weeks/months ?
Writing things differently will change your mindset. "I can try becoming a millionaire", or "I will be a millionaire in 5 years. Here are the steps I will take in the next month, here's what I will do for the month after and here's what could change until then. Today, I already achieved 2 out of my 3 goals from my Millionaire To-Do List"

You read the book, was it The Millionaire Fastlane , or Unscripted ? If you read TMF , I HIGHLY recommend you to purchase Unscripted and read it ASAP.

Don't try. Do.
Don't desire a situation. Get there.

I hope you'll stay with us for a while !

Very great stuff thank you.

I think the biggest hurdle for me will be a half-convinced wife. She plays things relatively "safe". I put that in quote marks because I am decreasingly feeling like our current path is all that safe.

And yes I purchased UNSCRIPTED and am reading every moment I can (stopped at a red light, crapping, etc). Should have it finished by the weekend. I guess I need to go ahead and get the Fastlane badge while I'm at it.
 

Lex Love

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Sounds like you had the same plan I did. I also called it the middle lane. Except I'm pretty much capped at $120k in my job, aside from cost of living adjustments, 3-4% per year. Also, I'm investing in real estate, so better returns than the stock market. But it'd take me 10 years to get to a point I could retire.

Anyway, I think you'll love what you find around this forum. I haven't been here very long, and have already found tons of valuable info!

Yeah your situation sounds pretty similar. I realized at best if I retired in ten years I would be able to stay afloat. Not necessarily freed up to do some of the dreams I would love to pursue.
 

Jeff Noel

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I think the biggest hurdle for me will be a half-convinced wife.
Is it possible for you to start working on something as a side hustle ? I know it's harder with kids and all, but if you can put 2 hours/day towards something, get an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) out and soft validate it (gauge people's interest, gather a little of interested people) or even get an hard validation (a sale or a pre-order), the actions and the results could be enough for your wife to become more open towards your new project.

You can't change them, but you can change yourself. Make them change their mind by becoming who you want to be, and actually starting what you want to become with one action, everyday.
 
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