Bottom of the 9th, Bases Loaded, 2 Outs...

[Jakeeck]

My team is shutout 3-0, I slowly step to the plate, mind about to pop out of my head and home-run itself out of the stadium. The pitcher is a conglomeration of everyone who has ever doubted me or thought I wasn't good enough, glued together by my own self-doubt. It has scalding red eyes, yellow-hued foam escaping through its teeth, and a world-class slider. If this monster strikes me out, it would love nothing more than to rush the plate and eat me alive. I stare it down as it huffs and puffs on the mound, and decide I'm swinging for the fences. This will be the story of my all or nothing at bat.

Me:
-24 Years old.
-Just quit accounting job I was supposed to start in November.
-About $10,000 to my name, just graduated college.
-Live with Dad.
-Moving to Arizona in November.

*I'm very nervous about making this thread because I feel like it puts my entire reputation on the line, and I don't want to be known as a quitter. I've been inspired by a lot of you here in my short time on this forum, and I want to have the privilege of joining the ranks with you guys.

Alright so here's what's going on, I'll keep it short.

I've got a huge idea I've been working on for a few days now, and that idea evolved into a whole new level last night. I couldn't sleep and that "wow this could turn the world upside-down" excitement is coursing through every vein in my body. I'm pretty sure there are coffee grounds in my blood stream as well. It's a HUGE scale idea, and it would impact the lives of everyone in the US and more. I couldn't even go to bed until 6am, and I woke up a few hours later to get back to work. I don't want to say the idea because I believe it's so valuable(yeah yeah everyone's idea is gold), and people with any programming background could blow right past me in executing it right now. That's all I will say about it at the current time. I want to execute a part of it before I go on anymore about how great I think it is.

My temporary site is pollbeast.com for anyone who wants to follow my progress, and I'll also be posting updates as I see fit in here. It will keep me more motivated and provides accountability. I feel like this thread is a small, but very necessary step in turning this idea into a reality.

The site really has nothing to do with my idea as of yet, and I spent almost no time on layout and color scheme. The domain name is random and won't be the name when everything is ready to go. I spent the better part of my last few days learning how to edit some code. It's all Wordpress, but I've been going into the files and changing things around. Right now I'm like a bird who can't finds its mother. It all looks very foreign to me, but it's very exciting when something "clicks" and shows up on the page the way I want it to. Yesterday it took me 10-12 hours to make some good progress on my Register page, but I like it how it's coming along.

What I want to get done today:
-Finish the registration page, and make sure all submitted information shows up correctly in my database.
-Talk to my best friend who's a computer programmer. I'm not exactly sure how capable he is, but I know for a fact he knows more than me about this stuff so I'm gonna ask him for help. I texted him at 3AM this morning telling him how we can take over the world with this. He probably thinks I'm a nutjob. Maybe I am, oh well.

At they very least I want to entertain you guys on my journey. I hope to make it interesting.

Thanks for reading.

Jake

 

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[firmwear]

Hi,

I visited your recent thread: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-people-dont-make-it-there.53296/#post-379250 and I immediately went looking for your progress thread. Glad I found it, tagged!

I have failed a couple times without even starting a progress thread to begin with. I hope to start a progress thread when I am starting to see success and have something interesting to share with the forum. Most people are not interested in failure unless they see some kind of triumph at the end.

Goodluck in your endeavors.

 

[Jakeeck]

Hi,

I visited your recent thread: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-people-dont-make-it-there.53296/#post-379250 and I immediately went looking for your progress thread. Glad I found it, tagged!

I have failed a couple times without even starting a progress thread to begin with. I hope to start a progress thread when I am starting to see success and have something interesting to share with the forum. Most people are not interested in failure unless they see some kind of triumph at the end.

Goodluck in your endeavors.

Thanks, I wasn't going to update this thread until another week or so because I've been busy getting ready to move to Phoenix and selling all of my belongings. I know in my OP I said I'd be moving in November, but I can't stand my current living situation any longer. I'll be leaving by Wednesday next week at the latest. However, I've done a few things so far:

-Taken an online beginner course in flash
-Learned how to create my registration page the way I want it/learned how to edit code
-Read Science of Advertising and Boron Letters trying to learn some copy

 

[tafy]

I got no idea what your up to but I hope it goes well!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Moving to Arizona in November.

Oooh congratulations. Whereabout? Scottsdale? Phoenix? Why AZ?

Dad pissed off?

I couldn't sleep and that "wow this could turn the world upside-down" excitement is coursing through every vein in my body. I'm pretty sure there are coffee grounds in my blood stream as well. It's a HUGE scale idea, and it would impact the lives of everyone in the US and more.

Love to hear this as it is the essence of how Fastlane's are built: Passion for a product and it's solution.

 

[Jakeeck]

Oooh congratulations. Whereabout? Scottsdale? Phoenix? Why AZ?

Dad pissed off?



Love to hear this as it is the essence of how Fastlane's are built: Passion for a product and it's solution.

You probably didn't see, but in my latest reply in this thread I stated I'm moving next week. I just have that feeling where I need to get the hell out of here. I've been wanting to for a while, but school held me back. I switched banks due to the move, and I'm stuck here until my checks and debit card come in the mail. Should be able to sell all my belongings before then. I'm driving down with only my car, laptop, small monitor, maybe a desk, and clothes. Maybe a microwave and other small things if I can fit them.

I'll be living in the Camelback East Village in Phoenix. My favorite thing to do out there is wake up real early and hike up Camelback Mountain. Not only is it a great workout and beautiful, but there's something about being around the people that really makes me happy. Everyone says good morning to each other, and you make friends with people while you're climbing or hanging out at the top. They are all go-getters with high energy and have an uplifting effect on my mood.

Dad is pissed, yes. Well he was, now that he couldn't convince me to stay he seems more disappointed than pissed.

 

[GuestUser113]

Thanks, I wasn't going to update this thread until another week or so because I've been busy getting ready to move to Phoenix and selling all of my belongings. I know in my OP I said I'd be moving in November, but I can't stand my current living situation any longer. I'll be leaving by Wednesday next week at the latest. However, I've done a few things so far:

-Taken an online beginner course in flash
-Learned how to create my registration page the way I want it/learned how to edit code
-Read Science of Advertising and Boron Letters trying to learn some copy

http://regoapps.tumblr.com/post/48809989663/for-those-who-keep-asking-me-where-you-can-learn-a

Allen has a slew of online resources to learn code.

 

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[Jakeeck]

http://regoapps.tumblr.com/post/48809989663/for-those-who-keep-asking-me-where-you-can-learn-a

Allen has a slew of online resources to learn code.

Thanks, I really appreciate that! It's crazy how you can scour the web and still not find such useful information like that. Looks like a very useful site for me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

'll be living in the Camelback East Village in Phoenix. My favorite thing to do out there is wake up real early and hike up Camelback Mountain. Not only is it a great workout and beautiful, but there's something about being around the people that really makes me happy. Everyone says good morning to each other, and you make friends with people while you're climbing or hanging out at the top. They are all go-getters with high energy and have an uplifting effect on my mood.

Yea, this gives me nostalgia -- that's how I felt too when I moved to AZ. You'll love it here, although the hiking might have to wait until September, we've entered the hot and sometimes muggy time of year.

 

[Jakeeck]

Yea, this gives me nostalgia -- that's how I felt too when I moved to AZ. You'll love it here, although the hiking might have to wait until September, we've entered the hot and sometimes muggy time of year.

I've been watching the weather out there and I think I saw 6 of the 7 days in the forecast had rain. Monsoon season might cut into my ability to hike, but I've been there in the middle of August when it's 110-115 degrees every day and still hiked. Just gotta get up real early and beat the heat.

 

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[Jakeeck]

Figured it's about time I update this.

Life Stuff(Skip to business progress if you'd rather not hear about this)
Been in Phoenix for exactly 2 weeks now. I've been settled in and working for 11 days. The last few days have been a grind and I feel like posting here will make me feel a bit better. My motivation has declined in the past few days, but I've still been putting in hard work. It's just that it's been very challenging mentally, but that can likely be attributed to lack of sleep. I want to end this paragraph by stating that I'm never going to give up, I'm just expressing my feelings

My routine has been waking up at 5 every morning and hiking Camelback Mountain or hitting the gym. After that it's been non-stop working on my website and writing articles on textbroker.com to have at least some sort of income coming in. This takes up 12-14 hours of my day. I'm only making $4-$5 an hour on textbroker, which is pretty terrible looking at it on the surface, but I feel like my writing is getting so much better. I've been getting excellent reviews from all my clients and I believe I'll be able to land a client who values my writing enough to pay me more. It feels good to know that I'm learning a valuable skill, and that I'm learning about a bunch of random topics that I have to write about.

I've turned down 3 almost sure-thing job opportunities out here in Phoenix so far, 2 from family making 40-50k a year, and a personal training job. The personal training job came after I had an appointment with the gym representative who I bought my membership from. It came up in conversation that I was a certified personal trainer and had worked as one for 1.5 years before. I politely declined after he called 2 days later saying he wanted to interview me. I'm seriously 100% committed to making this work on my own.

I feel stressed like the feeling you get when you've got an 8 page research paper due in 4 hours, which is a good thing for my productivity level, but bad thing for my sanity

Alright alright, I'll end the diary entry there and get to the business portion.

Business
Despite my somber attitude, the website is actually coming along very well! I'm pretty damn excited. I'm close to finishing the "rough copy." I hired my first freelancer yesterday and I wish I would have started doing this sooner. I found a guy to customize one of my plugins at the rate of $5/hr, and he did a damn good job. It would have taken me FOREVER to do what he did in a few hours. In fact it did take me forever, about 12 hours worth of searching the web for a solution, and I wasn't even on the right track. Learned from that experience for sure so it's not a totally lost 12 hours, at least that's what I tell myself.

The business is in the fitness industry. Now I know most people have negative things to say about that since it's an extremely saturated industry; however, my website is nothing like you're thinking. I can promise you that! Without getting too specific at this point, it has an interactive marketplace, and has near unlimited scalability. The initial launch will have the main features I need to get traffic, and I will build on it from there. I have huge plans for this thing.

As for keeping productivity at a high level, I've installed a chrome extension called StayFocused. I have it activated from 8am to 10pm, and it will shutdown my browser for 12 hours if I go on any of the sites that I added to the "blacklist" for more than 10 minutes. My blacklist includes sites that only subtract from my ticking time bank, while adding no value to my business. Today I found myself on Facebook for longer than I should have been and the notification popped up from StayFocused that I had 20 seconds until my browser is nuked for 12 hours. Got me off Facebook real quick I tell ya!

Sometimes a good song about going against the grain is all it takes to perk me up and get me working. The really popular pop song "Am I Wrong" has some great lyrics for anybody doing anything Fastlane.

I'll end it here before I start typing to words just to type them, like I am right now.

Hope everyone is doing well.

 

[Jakeeck]

And just like that, overnight I got a message from one of the people I wrote for.

"You're a rockstar. I like your style of writing. I am going to need more of these types of articles."

It was more of a social article where I had to be funny. I guess Buzzfeed type of writing would be a good way to describe it. I felt like it was really good and I was hoping they would contact me. Sure enough...

Feels good