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Biggest lesson learned from TMFL- The Impact of Choices

Rickchise23

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Three years ago while sitting in my work cubicle, staring out at the busy streets in the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, I realized that I was in a dead end job and had to do something about it. I made the decision to start my own business, instead of simply running a similar business for someone else.

"If you aren't where you want to be, the problem is your choices, your circumstances are the symptoms of those choices." - MJ DeMarco

This quote describes a very important lesson I've learned in the past few years. Recently in reading The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco, I was able to take a look back and better understand why we do the things we do and how we can make small subtle changes that will ultimately end up improving our lives in a major way.

MJ discusses in the book the consequences of our choices and how as we get older, each choice we make has permanent long term consequences by slowly changing our life's path.

MJ also explains how as we get older the "horsepower" of our choices begins to dissipate. He states that when you are younger, your choices have more firepower and simple choices can make incredible changes when extrapolated out 20 years down the road. Choices that are made in an instant can have profound effects for the rest of your life. When we get older, our choices lose some of the effectiveness or potency they once had.

I knew it was time to do something before it was too late!

Entrepreneur Time!

My first month after quitting my job I made $300 and while that sounds pretty depressing, I was excited. I knew that while $300 wouldn't do much for me in the big picture, however the business I had created had nearly unlimited upside and I could replicate my success over and over again while being my own boss, setting my own hours and running the business the way I saw fit.

A month later I pulled in $2200 and at that point I realized that I could make this business a full time job that could grow to support me and my family. Fast forward to a year later and I had grown the business to a gross profit of over $15,000 that July. I made the decision to start a new business, to work for myself and to not quit when times got difficult and go back to relying on someone else for employment, but rather to create my own employment.

Even better, I specifically designed the business with my future in mind and the freedom of lifestyle as the most important factor in how I setup my processes. I decided that I would no longer complete any task in my business that required my physical presence. That is, I had to be able to run this business from my laptop needing nothing more than a wifi connection, any other task needed to be outsourced and delegated to other people.

While this caused extra work, more hassle and added costs in the early stages, soon it had forced me to develop more efficient systems that now run my business seamlessly. On a recent 4 day trip to Mexico I spent a total of 5 minutes forwarding emails while the systems I have set up ran my business without me doing a thing.

Getting Out Of My Own Self Made Misery

I made another choice once my business had taken off and decided with my fiancee and our daughter to move our family from Seattle to Scottsdale. This choice has had a profoundly positive affect on our lives and the lower cost of living and higher quality of life has completely transformed our lives, my business and our relationship. In April of last year we got married and recently celebrated out 1 year anniversary, and marriage has been absolutely amazing.

Just two decisions that most people are not willing to make are what completely changed my life for the better. The horsepower of these decisions was massive. Making the decision to make these changes drove me down an entirely different path and while it wasn't always easy or comfortable, I had confidence that it was the right thing to do which allowed me to persevere through difficult times.

Take a minute to think about the choices you are making on a daily basis.


If there is something you are longing for or a lifestyle that you are dreaming of attaining, how are the choices you made today driving you towards that goal?

Would a change of location provide better weather, less traffic, more career prospects or give the mental clarity necessary to start your own business?

Would venturing into a new career, starting your own business or changing the way you run your current business send you down a different path?


I would venture to guess that for all of us, there are many small decisions that we can start making on a daily basis that will tip the needle in the right direction, driving us toward a better life and helping us to avoid the stagnate and mundane everyday routine that is in fact driving you to this pattern of self discovery that brought you here to the Fastlane Forum.

What I am hoping is for someone, this might just encourage you to start making choices that will ultimately drive your success and happiness. I say that not trying to be Tony Robbins, just as someone who had transformed my own life by making better choices, something I continue to try and practice today.

Start moving in your new direction, it is amazing to me just a few years later how dramatically different and better my life is today. I can only wonder now how much I would dread going back to that depressing cubicle after fighting through an hour of traffic and getting drenched in rain on my walk into the office.

Instead I'm getting drenched in waves from the sea of cortez while soaking in the sun, hand in hand with my wife on the beach in Mexico, drink in hand, smile on face and worries left thousands of miles away.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Your post is a few days old and I'm quite shocked it hasn't garnered many likes and comments.

Well, I'm not waiting for them as I marked the thread GOLD.
You've essentially taken control and are now writing your own path. (In other words, you've broken from the SCRIPT.) :clap:::fistbump:

had grown the business to a gross profit of over $15,000 that July

Congratulations. And thank you for using PROFIT figures and not SALES figures. Frankly I'm getting tired of hearing "So-and-so is killing it and doing $500K in sales per month!" And later you find out that the company was blowing through cash and not profitable at all.

While you haven't read UNSCRIPTED quite yet or know what it means, you're basically THERE.

Just two decisions that most people are not willing to make are what completely changed my life for the better.

Yup, moving across the country was a big decision for me as well, with big impacts.

Thank you for sharing.
 
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Bellini

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@Rickchise23 - I just now saw this. Thank you for posting. It was so encouraging.

I am genuinely glad you are doing well, and took the time to remind the rest of us about the importance of our decisions.

It's a reminder that we have choices.
 
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Rickchise23

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Thanks for the kind words! I'm very excited the read the rest of Unscripted just ordered it!

I think my post title was too boring maybe?

Anyways, I went swimming with my wife today and BBQd outside on Mother's Day amazing how a move can change your perspective and change your lifestyle! Loving AZ life. Thanks for the inspiration!

Your post is a few days old and I'm quite shocked it hasn't garnered many likes and comments.

Well, I'm not waiting for them as I marked the thread GOLD.
You've essentially taken control and are now writing your own path. (In other words, you've broken from the SCRIPT.) :clap:::fistbump:



Congratulations. And thank you for using PROFIT figures and not SALES figures. Frankly I'm getting tired of hearing "So-and-so is killing it and doing $500K in sales per month!" And later you find out that the company was blowing through cash and not profitable at all.

While you haven't read UNSCRIPTED quite yet or know what it means, you're basically THERE.



Yup, moving across the country was a big decision for me as well, with big impacts.

Thank you for sharing.
 
Last edited:

jimmeboy

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I made another choice once my business had taken off and decided with my fiancee and our daughter to move our family from Seattle to Scottsdale.

Firstly, well done on taking hold of the reigns and changing the course of your life for the better! Inspirational reading indeed.

This might be a somewhat personal question about your decision relocate so feel free not to answer... It would be interesting to understand what drove you to make the decision, and also how you went about evaluating and eventually pushing the button on Scottsdale?

It would be interesting to hear about what factors your took into consideration when 'vetting' the relocation city (weather, housing, family, schools, location, taxes etc...).

All the best in Scottsdale!
 

Rickchise23

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Firstly, well done on taking hold of the reigns and changing the course of your life for the better! Inspirational reading indeed.

This might be a somewhat personal question about your decision relocate so feel free not to answer... It would be interesting to understand what drove you to make the decision, and also how you went about evaluating and eventually pushing the button on Scottsdale?

It would be interesting to hear about what factors your took into consideration when 'vetting' the relocation city (weather, housing, family, schools, location, taxes etc...).

All the best in Scottsdale!

Thanks for the question. I try not to promote my own blog too much but I wrote a post on why I decided to leave Seattle recently, here is the link

In short, trading 9 months of short rainy, cold days for 330 days of sunshine can do wonders for your happiness level which is why I've found AZ a much better place for me personally to live in. Also contributing factors are that Seattle is getting rediculously expensive. Where I lived in downtown before leaving a condo similar to the one I have in Scottsdale doesn't even really exist and if it did the rent would be over 6K per month. Here in Scottsdale we pay $1600 a month and we have 4 resort style pools, a gym that rivals most health clubs, an on site chef that cooks dinners 5 nights per week and two luxury great rooms which are great areas to hang out with wifi and 20+ TVs also two movie theaters that seat 30+ people with recliner chairs in them.

The quality of life here rivals most of the best places I've traveled too and while the area admittedly lacks a bit of culture and variety with all newer stucco buildings and shopping centers every exit on the 101, it is a great place to live and raise a family and you can afford to travel anywhere with the lower cost of living. For example its only May and this year we have spent two weeks in Seattle, a week in Nashville, 4 days in Denver, 4 days in Mexico and we are about to leave for a two week trip to Mexico next week. Taxes are relatively cheap but we currently choose to rent and not own. I am a realtor and see a correction coming soon in the housing market so we are currently renting our primary residence which would be cheaper than owning it with the HOA dues and PMI by about $200 per month. Instead we are currently looking to invest in a 4-plex as an investment property. The schools here are very good. The school we were set up to have my daughter go to in Seattle was ranked 2 out of 10 and instead we moved here right before she started kindergarten and the school in our neighborhood is ranked 10 out of 10 and she loves it there.

In Scottsdale we are 3.5 hours from the beach in Rocky Point Mexico, 4.5 hours to Vegas or Palm Springs, 2 hours from Sedona/ Flagstaff, and the airport here has cheap flights to alot of big cities as well. We recently flew to Nashville for $65 per person and to Denver for $49 per person on frontier airlines.

All in all our lives are dramatically better here, we live in a far better house, in a better school district in a better area all for less than HALF the cost. For us it was a no brainer.
 

Imgal

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Well deserved Gold status! You made a decision and didn't just stay stepping water waiting for a big wave to come along and speed you to your destination. You started swimming, making the shifts you needed to along the way. Love it!

Really intrigued what industry you're in (for no reason other than I'm just nosey!)

Ignore that question - I satisfied my own need for knowledge and went poking about in your website. Great post on your 60 day strategy!
 
Last edited:

rollerskates

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Very inspirational post! Congrats on your success so far. Heck, you make ME want to go to AZ and I'm really really Texan. :smile2:
 

Wale

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Awesome!!!! It's quite inspiring reading about someone already living my dream. Keep up the good work. This is a validation that no matter where you are, your dreams are valid as long as you're willing to "work" it out!
 

Olie Sins

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Discipline starts from the moment you wake up in the morning, to the time you go to bed. Try this: think of a bad habit you’d like to kick. It doesn’t have to be smoking cigarettes, it can be something as simple as taking excessively long naps during the day, eating from McDonald’s, or even jerking off and looking at too much porn on a daily basis. Let’s go ahead and say you want to stop eating at McDonald’s.

Starting tomorrow, you will stop eating at McDonald’s, that’s your goal. The rules: you have to sleep in as late as you can. You can watch t.v., you can jerk off and watch porn if you feel like it, you can go back to sleep for a few hours, you can drink soda, and eat some potato chips if you’d like, but for the love of Christ, you will not eat McDonald’s.

What you’ll notice is how incredibly difficult it is to stick to that goal (replace McDonald’s with any temptation). If you’re hungry for McDonald’s, why not eat there? You’ve already slept in late, jerked off all day, and have been eating like shit, what’s a little McDonald’s going to do?

It’s extremely difficult to be disciplined in one specific area of your life, if your life as a whole isn’t disciplined.

Now, let’s take the same bad habit, and take a new approach to beating it. Starting tomorrow, you will not eat at McDonald’s. You must wake up at five in the morning, knock out 100 pushups, or go for a run. You have to take a cold shower, and then you must read for thirty minutes. You are not allowed to nap, or jerk off, and the only snacks you’re allowed are fruits, and the only drink you’re allowed is water.

Of course, the second routine would be difficult for an undisciplined person, but if for one day, he could get himself to follow that routine, he would start to build momentum. It wouldn’t necessarily mean it would be easy to say no to McDonald’s, but it would be more difficult to give into the temptations simply because he’s already spent the majority of the day being disciplined. He feels so accomplished, so good about himself, that giving into the temptation of McDonald’s would make him feel guilty, and ashamed of himself, and he’ll feel like a quitter, which (if you’re a winner, or striving to become a winner) is the worst.

Over the course of a day this can be powerful, but over the course of a week, a month, several months, a year? You become unstoppable. The important thing is to simply get your ball of discipline moving.
 
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BrooklynHustle

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Congrats on making the decisions & following through to make things happen...

Three years ago while sitting in my work cubicle, staring out at the busy streets in the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, I realized that I was in a dead end job and had to do something about it. I made the decision to start my own business, instead of simply running a similar business for someone else.

"If you aren't where you want to be, the problem is your choices, your circumstances are the symptoms of those choices." - MJ DeMarco

This quote describes a very important lesson I've learned in the past few years. Recently in reading The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco, I was able to take a look back and better understand why we do the things we do and how we can make small subtle changes that will ultimately end up improving our lives in a major way.

MJ discusses in the book the consequences of our choices and how as we get older, each choice we make has permanent long term consequences by slowly changing our life's path.

MJ also explains how as we get older the "horsepower" of our choices begins to dissipate. He states that when you are younger, your choices have more firepower and simple choices can make incredible changes when extrapolated out 20 years down the road. Choices that are made in an instant can have profound effects for the rest of your life. When we get older, our choices lose some of the effectiveness or potency they once had.

I knew it was time to do something before it was too late!

Entrepreneur Time!

My first month after quitting my job I made $300 and while that sounds pretty depressing, I was excited. I knew that while $300 wouldn't do much for me in the big picture, however the business I had created had nearly unlimited upside and I could replicate my success over and over again while being my own boss, setting my own hours and running the business the way I saw fit.

A month later I pulled in $2200 and at that point I realized that I could make this business a full time job that could grow to support me and my family. Fast forward to a year later and I had grown the business to a gross profit of over $15,000 that July. I made the decision to start a new business, to work for myself and to not quit when times got difficult and go back to relying on someone else for employment, but rather to create my own employment.

Even better, I specifically designed the business with my future in mind and the freedom of lifestyle as the most important factor in how I setup my processes. I decided that I would no longer complete any task in my business that required my physical presence. That is, I had to be able to run this business from my laptop needing nothing more than a wifi connection, any other task needed to be outsourced and delegated to other people.

While this caused extra work, more hassle and added costs in the early stages, soon it had forced me to develop more efficient systems that now run my business seamlessly. On a recent 4 day trip to Mexico I spent a total of 5 minutes forwarding emails while the systems I have set up ran my business without me doing a thing.

Getting Out Of My Own Self Made Misery

I made another choice once my business had taken off and decided with my fiancee and our daughter to move our family from Seattle to Scottsdale. This choice has had a profoundly positive affect on our lives and the lower cost of living and higher quality of life has completely transformed our lives, my business and our relationship. In April of last year we got married and recently celebrated out 1 year anniversary, and marriage has been absolutely amazing.

Just two decisions that most people are not willing to make are what completely changed my life for the better. The horsepower of these decisions was massive. Making the decision to make these changes drove me down an entirely different path and while it wasn't always easy or comfortable, I had confidence that it was the right thing to do which allowed me to persevere through difficult times.

Take a minute to think about the choices you are making on a daily basis.


If there is something you are longing for or a lifestyle that you are dreaming of attaining, how are the choices you made today driving you towards that goal?

Would a change of location provide better weather, less traffic, more career prospects or give the mental clarity necessary to start your own business?

Would venturing into a new career, starting your own business or changing the way you run your current business send you down a different path?


I would venture to guess that for all of us, there are many small decisions that we can start making on a daily basis that will tip the needle in the right direction, driving us toward a better life and helping us to avoid the stagnate and mundane everyday routine that is in fact driving you to this pattern of self discovery that brought you here to the Fastlane Forum.

What I am hoping is for someone, this might just encourage you to start making choices that will ultimately drive your success and happiness. I say that not trying to be Tony Robbins, just as someone who had transformed my own life by making better choices, something I continue to try and practice today.

Start moving in your new direction, it is amazing to me just a few years later how dramatically different and better my life is today. I can only wonder now how much I would dread going back to that depressing cubicle after fighting through an hour of traffic and getting drenched in rain on my walk into the office.

Instead I'm getting drenched in waves from the sea of cortez while soaking in the sun, hand in hand with my wife on the beach in Mexico, drink in hand, smile on face and worries left thousands of miles away.
 

letter9

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Three years ago while sitting in my work cubicle, staring out at the busy streets in the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle, I realized that I was in a dead end job and had to do something about it. I made the decision to start my own business, instead of simply running a similar business for someone else.

"If you aren't where you want to be, the problem is your choices, your circumstances are the symptoms of those choices." - MJ DeMarco

This quote describes a very important lesson I've learned in the past few years. Recently in reading The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco, I was able to take a look back and better understand why we do the things we do and how we can make small subtle changes that will ultimately end up improving our lives in a major way.

MJ discusses in the book the consequences of our choices and how as we get older, each choice we make has permanent long term consequences by slowly changing our life's path.

MJ also explains how as we get older the "horsepower" of our choices begins to dissipate. He states that when you are younger, your choices have more firepower and simple choices can make incredible changes when extrapolated out 20 years down the road. Choices that are made in an instant can have profound effects for the rest of your life. When we get older, our choices lose some of the effectiveness or potency they once had.

I knew it was time to do something before it was too late!

Entrepreneur Time!

My first month after quitting my job I made $300 and while that sounds pretty depressing, I was excited. I knew that while $300 wouldn't do much for me in the big picture, however the business I had created had nearly unlimited upside and I could replicate my success over and over again while being my own boss, setting my own hours and running the business the way I saw fit.

A month later I pulled in $2200 and at that point I realized that I could make this business a full time job that could grow to support me and my family. Fast forward to a year later and I had grown the business to a gross profit of over $15,000 that July. I made the decision to start a new business, to work for myself and to not quit when times got difficult and go back to relying on someone else for employment, but rather to create my own employment.

Even better, I specifically designed the business with my future in mind and the freedom of lifestyle as the most important factor in how I setup my processes. I decided that I would no longer complete any task in my business that required my physical presence. That is, I had to be able to run this business from my laptop needing nothing more than a wifi connection, any other task needed to be outsourced and delegated to other people.

While this caused extra work, more hassle and added costs in the early stages, soon it had forced me to develop more efficient systems that now run my business seamlessly. On a recent 4 day trip to Mexico I spent a total of 5 minutes forwarding emails while the systems I have set up ran my business without me doing a thing.

Getting Out Of My Own Self Made Misery

I made another choice once my business had taken off and decided with my fiancee and our daughter to move our family from Seattle to Scottsdale. This choice has had a profoundly positive affect on our lives and the lower cost of living and higher quality of life has completely transformed our lives, my business and our relationship. In April of last year we got married and recently celebrated out 1 year anniversary, and marriage has been absolutely amazing.

Just two decisions that most people are not willing to make are what completely changed my life for the better. The horsepower of these decisions was massive. Making the decision to make these changes drove me down an entirely different path and while it wasn't always easy or comfortable, I had confidence that it was the right thing to do which allowed me to persevere through difficult times.

Take a minute to think about the choices you are making on a daily basis.


If there is something you are longing for or a lifestyle that you are dreaming of attaining, how are the choices you made today driving you towards that goal?

Would a change of location provide better weather, less traffic, more career prospects or give the mental clarity necessary to start your own business?

Would venturing into a new career, starting your own business or changing the way you run your current business send you down a different path?


I would venture to guess that for all of us, there are many small decisions that we can start making on a daily basis that will tip the needle in the right direction, driving us toward a better life and helping us to avoid the stagnate and mundane everyday routine that is in fact driving you to this pattern of self discovery that brought you here to the Fastlane Forum.

What I am hoping is for someone, this might just encourage you to start making choices that will ultimately drive your success and happiness. I say that not trying to be Tony Robbins, just as someone who had transformed my own life by making better choices, something I continue to try and practice today.

Start moving in your new direction, it is amazing to me just a few years later how dramatically different and better my life is today. I can only wonder now how much I would dread going back to that depressing cubicle after fighting through an hour of traffic and getting drenched in rain on my walk into the office.

Instead I'm getting drenched in waves from the sea of cortez while soaking in the sun, hand in hand with my wife on the beach in Mexico, drink in hand, smile on face and worries left thousands of miles away.

Thanks for posting this!

To add to that, often we make the choices out of habit. So it's good idea to question all your current choices/activities from time to time.
 
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GabrielDC

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It's amazing how a post with not a lot of $$ numbers in it has a lot less likes and interaction compared to others that do have them..
That tells a lot of things to me.
I'm genuinely happy for you,and I hope that last's forever.
Thanks for sharing.

(sorry for my english, as always)
 

AnAverageJoe

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Thanks for sharing. Checking out your blog now.
 

STBarett

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I think this is attributed to Warren Buffet but since we all have the same amount of time during the day, you only have 10 major decisions that you can make in your life. I try to make sure that I only involve myself in things that have a potential to make a big difference in my net worth. A great example of this is going all in on cryptocurrency in 2017.
 

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