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41, MBA, Failed biz attempts, Ready to get serious

Larry P

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Oct 10, 2017
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Hi all,

I read The Millionaire Fastlane years ago, and the by-the-numbers, no-nonsense, no-bullshit approach shook me out of my "work hard, start a business, and one day things will work out" fantasy mindset. I got charged up and took a few stabs at some businesses, but I ultimately failed. A lot of it, on reflection, was due to personal issues and magical thinking. Magical thinking about time (its abundance). Magical thinking about resources (I have all the physical/mental energy in the world). Magical thinking about the ease of doing these things (surely, I can quickly make this stuff happen when I actually commit). I've faced down the demons and realize I have to make some hard sacrifices again, be open to failure, be willing to make mistakes or look foolish, listen to the market, and keep giving it an earnest effort.

I've done all the slow lane stuff, working all sorts of jobs, (including very dangerous and sh*tty jobs when I was younger), and put myself through college over 20 years of school on evenings and weekend, culminating in a BS in Marketing, BS in Accounting, an MBA, and the couple of Associate's degrees I got when I started. My first Associate's was accounting, out of necessity, so I could get some kind of office job that would allow me to continue to go to school and build skills. My first Bachelor's was marketing, because I had my eye on starting my own business, and I knew marketing would be invaluable. The MBA was something I thought would bring more income and help me do consult or train others. And the last BS in accounting was so I could return to the workforce after being a dumbass and taking on debt, only to fail.

I really feel the clock is ticking now, and life isn't where I want it to be. I'm in more debt than ever and feel like I'm climbing uphill again, just like I was in my early 20's, except this time I don't quite have the energy or enthusiasm I did back then. (I'm working on diet, sleep, exercise, and changing my mindset to try to get some of this back.) What I do have is more experience, more education, and a more practical mindset.

I'm ditching a lot of things that I've done over my life - music (I've played guitar and sang in bands, play drums, etc.), video games (I go back to the original Nintendo and Sega Master System days - I used to photograph the end screen on all the games I won and keep them in a photo book), photography (I got into this for a little while), and I'm really cutting back on movies and such (which I typically just watch while working on something else - but it still slows you down...).

I really, really, really want to live life on my terms. I know where I want to live. I have an idea of the basic lifestyle I want, and I want time to visit friends, walk in the woods, guiltlessly play the new great game that came out, maybe play a gig in a bar in Austin every now and then (I now live in Dallas, TX), and general enjoy the time I have left. Life, to this point, has been a long grind. I was working and paying for my own stuff in my teens, was pretty much kicked out of the house after high school (my lovely family situation), and I've been working full-time since, while racking up the degrees on evenings and weekends.

I really want to make things happen. My biggest problems at this point are overcoming the fears of rejection and looking like an idiot and just taking action - any action!!! And that's the crazy thing. I am an action guy. I've done all this school on my own while working full-time. I get things done at work - managing people and projects. I knock out to-do lists. I can food prep. I can get myself to the gym. But I just haven't been able to make this entrepreneur thing work. Why can I do other things well, but not this??? It seems the action I take is more towards playing at business than actually doing business. I'm going to have to start small, without the grand plans, and just start helping people (as some of the posts here recommend).

I'm reading Unscripted now and feasting off the great posts and minds here at the Fastlane Forum. Thank you all so much for what you're sharing and the advice you're giving here. I'm loving it already! I hope to make my dreams happen over then next couple of years, and this site will be an important part of my support system. That's why I'm here!

And thank you, MJ @MJ DeMarco for your books and making this all happen. You are a lighthouse in a giant swirling storm of bullshittery, guiding weary travelers to safer shores.

-LP
 
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GMSI7D

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Hi all,




I really feel the clock is ticking now, and life isn't where I want it to be.

I really, really, really want to live life on my terms. I know where I want to live. I have an idea of the basic lifestyle I want,

I really want to make things happen.



-LP


1) yes . i am 41 too so i understand your point of view.

2) very good. you are above 95 % of people

most people don't know what they want,

don't know why there are on earth,

don't know anything on life and its meaning,

don't have a clear philosphy, don't think by themselves


they are puppets in a circus., mastered by an occult elite.

they are batteries of the system.

i won't dig into the details here


puppet.jpg




3) the odds are against you

unless you have a clear major definite purpose and a 100 % determination to achieve it.

otherwise, the distractions of this world will destroy your commitment


BS on TV ( "the news " ) , entertainment, average people and so on and so on.


.
 

Larry P

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Oct 10, 2017
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Update 2 - years later.

I recently turned 44. About the time of my introductory post I had moved out of my home town to a new city (Dallas - Ft Worth, TX area). I had to re-embark on anold career path to get back on track money-wise. I was not a high-earner in the accounting field. Opportunities for growth were available, so I've been plying myself at the job, studying and credentialing, to climb the ladder and get my salary up. I'm still carrying a heavy debt load, and a high level of debt with the associated payments doesn't give a lot of wiggle room and working capital for new ventures. Anyhow...the work paid off and I hit CFO last week as well. This is small company CFO, not public corporate CFO, so I'm on the baby end of the CFO pay scale, but still at market for a $50 to $100M-sized business. I've checked off a significant career milestone and hit a comfortable level of pay that will allow me to pay off debt and start putting money away if I'm not an idiot.

Interestingly, with the increased paycheck, I'm no longer interested in blowing money or buying things like I did when I made less or took on smaller pay bumps. I see the futility of it like I never have before. Reward myself with some fancy tech I've been wanting? Nope. Upgrade something I own that's a few years old? Nope. Better, faster phone? Nope. A guitar I've been wanting? Nope. Trade the Honda for a BMW? haha Nope! (last car was a Ford but gave me too much trouble...)

In fact, I'm highly motivated to start ditching anything and everything I have to generate extra money and pay down debt for the next phase. TV's, Playstation, Xbox, gaming laptop, nice bikes, high-end audio, excess tech, and so on. Not that I can even use all this stuff, but my previous justification was to have some nice things to enjoy for the little bit of free time I have. Now they are feeling like dead weight and a distraction for a metamorphosis to the next stage. I want to clear things out and focus. I want to find my escape and entertainment in the real world, through people and new ventures. Not that I'm against my former hobbies, but I feel like I need to clear the path for a new beginning. Maybe one day I'll go back to these things when I'm not a salary-man working the daily grind. I was getting to the point where a brief escape wasn't as satisfactory anyway, not when I had a huge to do list and ambitions on the sidelines.

So what's the plan and why am I posting an update? My goals for the rest of the year are to liquidate, minimize, cut some expenses, re-focus, and get some entrepreneurial projects going now that I've got some career items settled. I'm renting (no houses or equity, post-divorce, years ago) and looking to downsize or get a roommate to drastically cut rent. I don't need a car as much and toyed with options there. It's so weird that I don't care as much about nicer things now that I'm in a better place paycheck-wise.... (maybe this goes back to lack we experienced, my brother and I, and what we experienced growing up). Like, I wouldn't even mind driving a rust bucket for a year or two to further get things on track but I wanted a nicer car before while I was rebuilding myself and getting back on track with the "career".

I'm jumping all over the place here... Anyway, I plan to retire the regular consumption activities, streamline my life, and get serious with entrepreneurial side gigs toward the last quarter of this year and continue them forward for the rest of my life until I start establishing and hitting goals and meeting with the kind of success that can at least replace my current income and free up a significant amount of time to have a life. Why later this year and not now? I need to downsize, move, and clear the extraordinary workload at work right now which is quite draining. These are temporary projects that have been in the works for the better part of a year, and they will wind down towards the end of this year.

That's my big update! I haven't been a big contributor on the site and am a wannabe entrepreneur, a spectator, for the time being. But I am knocking out goals, moving in the right direction, building some wiggle room, and I'm still as interested as ever in the end goal of some sort of financial/lifestyle freedom that isn't living for the weekends.

I wanted mostly to document my experience and change in perspective with hitting the career goal. I really didn't expect to feel or respond this way. But I feel great about the progress - any kind of progress also feels great when you've been working hard at something, so I'll take it!

Also, I don't recall the stats, but I know lots of people start companies after they've been out in the world and garnered experience (and some resources), say within their 40's and 50's. I wished I'd gotten on the entrepreneurial track much sooner, and I'm really impressed by the younger people on that path on this forum and those who have knocked it out of the park. But I figure I'm still on track and it's worth all the effort even if it takes 4 or 5 years to pull something off. I hope it doesn't take that long, but I know it will still be worth it!

-LP
 

Choate

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Mar 25, 2014
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Hey man, great update!

I get the same sort of feeling from this post that I had when I was talking to a member back at the 2017 summit. We were finishing climbing down Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale and I was telling him how in order to get to the next level, I was planning to sell the Xbox, re-focus from my job to being independent, and other things. I too needed to downsize, not so much from material possessions, but from distractions. He said, what's holding you back? Just do it.

It was that simple. He could see my situation crystal clear and there was nothing holding me back other than to just act. I did; I went home and a few days later took the sledgehammer to the Xbox and 2 months later, quit the safe insurance job I had.

When I read this post, I think it's important that you try to start the snowball on your own endeavor; as you said it yourself, you feel like a spectator in the fastlane coliseum. Not only that, but you are more intertwined with the slowlane now than ever. I think the more intertwined one is with the slowlane, the more important it is to at least get your feet down with some daily action towards fastlane progress so you don't lose sight of your goals, only to re-visit them weeks or months later.

You can cut out those distractions this week; maybe give yourself the chance to finish up one show you've been watching or finish one game. You should aggressively pay down the student debt from your degrees and keep creating that wiggle room; and start to use that wiggle room towards your entrepreneurial aspirations. A little bit of progress now will go a long way in November or December which is when you hint at when you'll be ready to start. Start this week instead, I bet you can find 30 minutes of spare time on your week days and even a couple of hours on weekends. It might even energize you in other areas of life as you start taking action on the one thing you've been wanting to but haven't been.

Hitting a 315 bench milestone, reaching CFO, reaching level 100 in a video game, or finishing reading 3 books a month doesn't move the fastlane needle. You've got to take distinctive fastlane action and it sounds like you're in a great position to do so now. Find the balance between work, minimizing, downsizing, & creating wiggle room, and taking action. Create the time to move the needle everyday. Good luck and look forward to reading your next update!
 
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