Aimless 23 year-old college graduate

[Skay_bae]

Hello Fast Lane members (and lurkers ),

I've been reading the FLF daily over the past few months to soak up all the information I can about your experiences. Many of your stories have been inspirational and have motivated me to make a change in my own life which, as of lately, has been what most of you would define as slow lane.

Here's my quick origin story:

18 year-old me was fascinated by weather and decided to go to college to study Meteorology, probably with the hopes of chasing tornadoes or becoming the next Jim Cantore. In reality, college just seemed like the next "logical step", at least according to my teachers, family, and friends (I didn't know any better at the time). After grinding for 4 years learning calculus, physics, thermodynamics, and a whole portfolio of other random subjects, I ended up discovering 2 important things:

1. College has absolutely failed at teaching me any applicable work skills and

2. I could've been using that time to work or build a business, etc.

So a year out of college (and many temp jobs later), I've built up enough frustration to seek out alternative routes towards financial freedom. These have included trading stocks, buying/selling laptops on Craiglist, creating a niche website, learning to program, writing on Upwork, starting a YouTube channel, writing screenplays, and a handful of other ideas that have resulted in little to no success.

What I'm trying to figure out is... where do I go from here?

I understand this is a loaded question - perhaps nobody has the answer. I've felt pretty aimless since college and spend a lot of time dreaming about what I could possibly do to save myself. Some days it seems easier to work a 9-5 job, pay my student loans, and learn to love the smaller things. But it never feels right.

Has anybody else gone through something similar? What did you do to save yourself? How do you choose among all these possible avenues? How do you find what you like and be successful at it? Any kind of advice or guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading

 

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[theag]

Has anybody else gone through something similar? What did you do to save yourself? How do you choose among all these possible avenues? How do you find what you like and be successful at it?

Yes, I've been depressed for many years after I dropped out of college, because life as a wannabe entrepreneur was much harder than I imagined.

What saved me was to just keep going. I tried idea after idea after idea after idea and then suddenly something worked and I built on that. What helped was staying within one area (ecommerce/online marketing in my case), so my skills and insights improved from idea to idea.

Its not about finding something you like. I dont especially like what I do. All that talk about following your passion etc is bullshit.

You need to find a way to create value. Once you did that for the first time and know the feeling, you will like to create value and with time become successful at it, no matter the specific product or service you're working on.

 

[Skay_bae]

Yes, I've been depressed for many years after I dropped out of college, because life as a wannabe entrepreneur was much harder than I imagined.

What saved me was to just keep going. I tried idea after idea after idea after idea and then suddenly something worked and I built on that. What helped was staying within one area (ecommerce/online marketing in my case), so my skills and insights improved from idea to idea.

Its not about finding something you like. I dont especially like what I do. All that talk about following your passion etc is bullshit.

You need to find a way to create value. Once you did that for the first time and know the feeling, you will like to create value and with time become successful at it, no matter the specific product or service you're working on.

Thanks for replying theag,

Maybe I haven't found the right avenue for creating value yet. I'll spend more time focusing on that aspect, rather than on the potential of making money.

How did you settle on ecommerce and marketing?

 

[theag]

How did you settle on ecommerce and marketing?

Hard to say. Started creating websites when I was around 10-11, so I always had some natural interest in it and I guess also some talent to quickly "get it". But thats not really the reason I settled on it. I guess I did because its the first thing where I saw potential and had a low barrier to entry (I was broke), so it simply was "within reach", compared to other stuff thats more interesting but has high barriers to entry, mainly due to capital required. IMO its one of the best ways to get started as an entrepreneur today.

 

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[OldFaithful]

Hi @Skay_bae, and welcome to the forum.

Have you read the book this forum is based on? The Millionaire Fastlane . It helps you answer some of your own questions and provides some guidance for getting started. Click the link at the top of this page to get to the "book" section and download/read the first 3 chapters for free. That's my suggestion.

I did it all backwards. I started on the path to entrepreneurship by starting my business and then searched for a community/forum. I found this place and then discovered the book.

Good luck & Godspeed.

 

[samuraijack]

Consider yourself lucky! I started going back to college at age 23.

I would say the most important thing learned is to pick one thing and take action on it till it either

- becomes successful
- or it fails and you know you need to switch course beyond any reasonable doubt.

The cool thing is, no matter what happens you walk away with something. As evidence by the many threads here. Opportunities will come to you because you put your mind in the right place to see them.

Lets say you decide to improve a niche product. You learn how to import, speak with manufacturers, get designs made, etc...But the product doesn't sell well. Turns out you weren't really adding any value people wanted.

But along the way you have been learning more and more about that niche and the customers. And more often then not your mind will pick up on something else you can add value to (something you would have NEVER noticed unless you tried in the first place).

With that said I would start closest to home. What services or products do you or people you know use that can be improved?

 

[Tapp001]

I've found learning to love the small things very conducive to entrepreneurial ambitions. It means you see risk as less of a risk, because it doesn't take much to be happy. You can afford to take more chances in life if you disconnect from the golden handcuff mindset, and those chances in turn will help you get the big things.

At least, that's my current theory.

 

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