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Can I just mention how awful this job market is?

Achilles

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Started working at the golf course again. Got my head above water. Read a book recommended by Evan. Let's just say it was needed. Being unemployed for so long taking odd jobs not knowing what in gods name will I do for money honestly put me in a depressed state.

But after consistently telling myself that, " I have full power to achieve anything I want in life, I am in full control, and the buc stops with me." Ive rid myself of that victim mentality bullshit. Still not sure what direction to take, but no more excuses. If I don't make it, it's all on me
 
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Vigilante

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Nothing wrong with having a job. Catch your breath, study, and come back swinging down the road.
 

Quark

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Achilles,

I have been on this forum for a flash, but this might help a little.

Jim Rohn talked in one of his seminars about how it sucks to graduate school and still be stupid, cause you went to school and didn't bother to learn. If I were you, out rubbing elbows with successful business people I would look at it as a daily seminar they paid me to go to.

Keep your ears open, are they bitching about something? A problem you can file away, work on a solution. Ask them questions if appropriate... What needs do they have or their friends, they are people with money and can afford solutions.

This is an opportunity, yes it might suck right now but it also could be the low point that changed you life forever if you approach it with the right attitude.

Don't walk away from this stupid......get your education from it. paycheck + education = ?
 

juan917

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I recommend sales then. Focus on market needs, I'm in the process of getting a real estate license - already have a job lined up for afterwards and if you are in my state I will set you up a well.
 

ilrein

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@Achilles

Honestly most of the posters on here are over the age of thirty. They have no idea how god awful the market is for young people with no skills, especially when degrees count for nothing.

Everyone's going to immediately rip on you, and then just repeat "Go Fastlane". It's not helpful at all, and the condescension is equally annoying.

Younger aspiring fastlaners need to begin their journey somehow. Just ask MJ, he explains perfectly here.

I'll tell you what worked for me:
  1. Decide on a 9-12 week coding bootcamp
  2. Pick the lesser of all evils to find a way to pay for this
  3. Quit immediately after making the costs for the course
  4. Finish course with a porfolio
  5. Go to every tech networking event
  6. Apply to every tech job on craigslist
  7. Get your first job as a coder
I'm now on my third job, and I have an agent. I'm getting paid to learn highly valuable skills that can leverage into entrepreneurship easily. I make the same money as your average slowlaner, who has been working for years in their industry (in a fraction of the time, effort, or education). I can leave my job whenever I want, and find another one within the week. I have opportunity to look for work that is completely remote, so I can choose my location and have flexible hours. I also spend much of my free time learning, practising the craft. This is one of the best foundations you can setup for a future of entrepreneurship. You have fallback skills in case a venture goes south, and -- if you're good and dedicated -- people will beg you to work on their startups with them.
 
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Runum

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I am over 30 and I know the job market is tight for younger workers. I also know that it is possible to get a job.

You do have to stack the deck in your favor. I have offered help to many young people over the last several years with good results.

Most young people, even skilled young people don't know how to apply for jobs. Their presentation and social skills are lacking. They do not communicate well and do not dress the part.

I wrote 2 articles many years ago that may help some of you. I know, we are all trying to get fastlane, but you have to start somewhere and support yourself. Use the stuff in the 2 articles if you like. It is all free. Good luck.

http://jobs-4-me.com/get-a-job/
http://jobs-4-me.com/get-a-job-part-deux/
 
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SteveO

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Honestly most of the posters on here are over the age of thirty. They have no idea how god awful the market is for young people with no skills, especially when degrees count for nothing.
I know. Things were so much better back then. I started cleaning horse shit out of stables. Then I got a job washing trucks and cleaning a truck yard. Finally, I made the jump to ditch digger for a landscape company. :)
 

MJ DeMarco

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Everyone's going to immediately rip on you, and then just repeat "Go Fastlane".
It's not helpful at all,

The guy willing to flip burgers and dig ditches is far more Fastlane than the guy who is unwilling, the guy who thinks "that's below me; I have a college degree."

Fastlane grows from a mindset, your job is irrelevant.
 
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Unknown

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This thread actually touched on a very important topic that had been lost in 3 pages.
The college system in the U.S. is broken. It's turned into a giant business, and the only goal is to suck as much money as possible from the young.
This system is perpetuated by schools and society in general telling everyone that they must have a degree.

That doesn't mean you can't change your own lot in life Achilles. It just means you have to work hard.
 

Vigilante

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This thread actually touched on a very important topic that had been lost in 3 pages.
The college system in the U.S. is broken. It's turned into a giant business, and the only goal is to suck as much money as possible from the young.
This system is perpetuated by schools and society in general telling everyone that they must have a degree.

That doesn't mean you can't change your own lot in life Achilles. It just means you have to work hard.

There are a lot of discussions about that elsewhere on the forum.
 

ilrein

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I know. Things were so much better back then. I started cleaning horse shit out of stables. Then I got a job washing trucks and cleaning a truck yard. Finally, I made the jump to ditch digger for a landscape company. :)

Want to ask me what I meant by step 2, when I said "choose the lesser of all evils to pay for course costs"?

There's a reason I linked MJ's post on "Is This Fastlane?". Because doing something -- anything -- provides experience and education.

The guy willing to flip burgers and dig ditches is far more Fastlane than the guy who is unwilling, the guy who thinks "that's below me; I have a college degree."

Fastlane grows from a mindset, your job is irrelevant.

Let me repeat myself:

Pick the lesser of all evils to find a way to pay for this

I spent 7 months working at a call center in order to save up money for my bootcamp attendance (which, FYI, doesn't give you a college diploma).

I'd like to share how embracing Fastlane as a mindset altered my experience at this company. It's the type of job where they just need people who can follow instructions, read scripts, and log data in their bad software. It was one where you need no skills, and the retention rate wasn't high either.

But the guy who ran it, is one hell of a guy. I was driven to this job for one reason, and one reason only: make $10 000 and quit. Unlike the other zombies that he hired, he knew I was different right from the beginning -- and I knew he would be a great mentor as well. He was a true Fastlaner, running an $11 million/year maintenance company. By demonstrating my eagerness to learn, and independent thinking, he marked me for rapid growth in the company. I was at the call center part of the job for a short time. I was moved into accounting, and later operations. I even drove some of the trucks sometimes. I got to experience every aspect of the business, and the role that everyone played and their value to the company. I got watch him be a leader. And not just any kind of leader, one whom others depend on for the livelihood.

It was with heavy hearts that I left that company, even though I knew when I started it was destined.

Rather than just some "shit job at a call center" -- a Fastlane mindset brought me meaningful work, and firsthand education. Not to mention, I've made a friend and a mentor for life.

Fastlane is a mindset, not a job.

Our poster here is like I was a few years ago -- broke, lost, and looking at college curriculums while thinking: every option is outdated and too expensive. What the hell should I do?

Rather than focus on my comments regarding age, you should focus on an actionable plan I gave him -- that is backed by real experience. Just look at the first page in this thread. No actionable advice, all mindset criticisms.

Yes, help with the mindset. But he needs an actionable plan as well. If you provide the first, but not the latter, you risk coming off as condescending, which is the truly the tone I felt from reading the first page of replies.

This call center job is the best "shit" job I ever had. My only options before that were:
  • Door-2-door sales
  • Telemarketing
  • Busboy
  • Paperboy
  • MLM schemes
  • Car washing
  • Landscaping
  • Data entry
Oh and @SteveO, at one point in my life, I've done ALL of the above ;)
 
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Delmania

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Fastlane is a mindset, not a job.

While listening to Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, I was struck Law 29, See It Through to The End. In a nutshell, it's about defining a goal, developing a strategy, and then sticking with it, being flexible only when necessary. This passage is constantly on my mind:

"[T]hose among us who think further ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seem to have a godlike power".
 
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Ubermensch

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While listening to Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, I was struck Law 29, See It Through to The End. In a nutshell, it's about defining a goal, developing a strategy, and then sticking with it, being flexible only when necessary. This passage is constantly on my mind:

"[T]hose among us who think further ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seem to have a godlike power".

This notion coincides with his chapter on Grand Strategy in the 33 Strategies of War.

The end is everything.

In business, this means the signed contract, the placed order, the money deposited. Until that happens, it's all talk.

Some talk, sales talk, if it proceeds in a "straight line," leads to the final destination.

Actions speak louder than words.

Laws reinforce laws.

If it right to plan all the way to the end...


Then it is clearly best to win through actions.


Getting to any meaningful and significant "end" involves a specific set of actions.

Game Theory tells us that there does exist a perfect strategy.

Robert Greene says to think of strategy as a series of lines and arrows, all directed at you achieving your goal.

Anyone who has played around with "branches" in Game Theory knows this on perhaps a different level.

Game Theory is a relatively new science, less than 100 years old.


If you train yourself to mentally think on a different level, you will develop higher level plans, with deeper significance, and perfect the art of bringing into fruition that which you first imagine in your mind.

Sometimes, it is hard to wait.

It is hard to wait, sometimes, when you KNOW the long-term results will pan out eventually, when you've mathematically calculated how many drops of sweat you have to drop, how many haters you have to prove wrong, how many negative people you have to ignore... in order to reach your final position, the checkmate.

It is hard to wait, whilst those in the slow lane talk shit. Minds incapable of comprehending your plans, telling you that your plans won't work.

You know, it's funny how the people who like to say they were there for you the most, are the ones who left you hanging when you needed someone the most.

It's funny how, the closer you get to big money, people want to just keep on talking shit... because they don't know about the money you're making, because you're not telling them, because they wouldn't appreciate it, because they can't appreciate it.

Prepare yourself for loneliness, if you can handle that level of loneliness. I'm talking the kind of loneliness that makes you feel alone in a room full of people, because they don't see the world like you do; because they don't see human potential like you do; because they don't see grandiose dreams of the future like you do, because they don't affect the globe on an earth-shaking basis like you do, because they can't spit fire like you do; because they've never closed million-dollar deals before; because they can't relate to a single motherfuckin' drop of sweat that you've spilled; billions of drops into an ocean of determination, an ocean now formed into a T$UNAMI.

People can't relate.

People don't get it.

They can't understand the high-level energy.

Is it the testosterone?

Perhaps, in part.

Mostly, it's the greed.

It's the greed - "for life, for money, for love" - in the words of Grandfather Gordon Gekko, and for the glory of winning the game between people.

it is the unquenchable intellectual curiosity which leads one far beyond merely scratching the surface of Ayn Rand's fiction: Anthem, Then Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged... and onto her real, serious work as a philosopher.

She gave nods to only two philosopher dudes.

Aristotle, and Nietzsche.

Dr. HAHA Lung is a fan of all of the above.

Dr. HAHA Lung gets it.

If you're a true hustler, he gets you.

Do you realize what you have to do to your own psychology, to your own mental state, to the words in your mind, to the images in your mind - do you realize how intensely you must control these very F*cking important things (the most important things!)...

I am invincible to haters.

I am immune to doubters.

I do not need anyone to co-sign for my ideas.

I say this not to boast, but simply to demonstrate my own mental state as empirical evidence for the validity of the ingredients in Ubermensch Mental Soup: Rand, Greene, Nietzsche, Sun-Tzu, et al.

Ah, who am I kidding.

I do say that to boast.

I boast, because...

That is all I do is boast.

I boast to myself mostly.

I boast in the mirror.

"Damn, I look good."

I boast in my head.

I talk shit in my head.

"Damn, I'm smart.

I'm smarter than all of them.

HAHAHAHA.

Nobody can stop me.

I am Neo from the Matrix.

I am F*cking Tony Stark.

I am Bruce Wayne AND Bane.

I am the dark side and light side of the force.

I am Cesare Borgia.

I am Genghis kahn.

I will crush them totally... with stacks, and bricks, and piles, and mountains of cash!"

I can be as "crazy" as I want in my head.

I can say whatever the F*ck I want.

This is good, because what I say in my head needs to be said, and if I said what I say in my head out loud I would probably start fights.

And then I would win those fights.

And then I would go to jail (tremendous short-term satisfaction, bad END result).

And I am very happy to be clazy in my clazy head, because as I look around at this place that people used to call America, I see a lot of normal people.

I see a lot of normal people, living normal lives, telling themselves the lie that money isn't everything (while they go to jobs they hate... haha idiots... no wonder the Illuminati says 99% of people are sheep).

Why be crazy, when such craziness is sane?

Crazy insane, or insane crazy?

I don't even recognize the guy I used to be.

The guy I used to be was such a nice guy.

That was before he tasted defeat in this life of War.

Deleteduser396 understands.

He sent me this in an e-mail.


Real recognize real.

Got another interesting message from another guy recently...

[2/2/2016 3:20:33 PM] By the way, brother, I found it hilarious looking back at your first threads on the Fastlane — and the sheer amount of shit ‘respected’ people gave you — and then to see them totally flip sides by the end of it all. You are essentially the definition of an action taker, something that has been seriously lacking on the forum as of late.

[2/2/2016 3:24:25 PM] So mad props and I’m glad I reached out to you.

It's funny how the tide turning on this forum coincides with the water shifting in my real life, business and personal.

People used to say I was full of shit, that I didn't know what I was talking about.

They would mock me and my ideas.

I've had a few real-life conflicts in business, deals I lost, potential clients that told me to go F*ck off.

I made mistakes in the process of putting together multi-million dollar transactions.

Delays occurred.

Many times, often times, things did not - and still don't - go exactly according to plan.

The worst part about thinking long-term is dealing with the people who don't think long-term and can't think long-term.

A person who can't - or won't - think long-term is like torture to talk to, especially if you think long-term.

A person stuck in the moment literally plans for the day, and that's about it.

Their emotions go up and down with the day, and they often make life-altering decisions in the moment, or even in the heat of the moment.

It's impossible to seriously commit to people like this, either in personal or business relations.

Commitment, like getting a client to sign a contract, is a long-term notion. It implies the long-term.

I've never really met someone that has believed in me, and seen the entire vision and appreciated it for what it was. I see now that was and is a blessing, not a curse.

Having no one else believe in me gave me fuel for my own fire. What I once starved so longingly - which seemed like forever in the moment (because it hurt when I didn't get it), and now seems like a blip in the past in hindsight - I learned to feed that to myself.

Other people can't see how dope it is to have a certain kind of meeting.

Many people who work corporate jobs have meetings all of the time, meetings to give money to other businesses, to handle the income and revenue from other businesses.

If you're in sales, and you have an in-person meeting, that meeting better be worth a whole bunch of money.

If it's small bucks money, then close that bitch over the phone.

If it's big money - if it's the kind of money that will allow you to talk shit to Jordan F*ckin' Belfort on Instagram - then you show respect by showing your presence.

Most people can't see the significance of a meeting like that, because they've never been able to put themselves in a position to make that kind of money off of one meeting, off of one relationship.

The scale of importance and significance of that meeting - in comparison to the a slow laner who has meetings on the job all of the time - is EXPONENTIALLY higher.
 

Jon L

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I know. Things were so much better back then. I started cleaning horse shit out of stables. Then I got a job washing trucks and cleaning a truck yard. Finally, I made the jump to ditch digger for a landscape company. :)
I recall one job I had in college included digging through 6 feet of sewage-infested dirt to fix a sewer pipe. Yeah...those were the days. Fond memories.
 

marklov

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The job market is pretty bad in my country.....

Went to a new gas station to fill up my car and surprisingly had
an old classmate pump my gas for me.

He studied law and is $18,000 US in debt and earning $60 US a week:(.

I remember that career fair at my HS quite clearly and how everyone was pumped at becoming
a top shot lawyer but those recruiters eyes were telling a different story.

Im keen to those type of things especially in a "developing" country seeing through BS is a necessity if you want to survive lol.
 
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ZF Lee

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You mean my english degree doesn't guarantee a high paying job? I spent4 years learning something useless, i demand a 100k a year job! I am entitled to a high salary !!!!!! My skills and value be damned! Entrepreneurs shouldn't be allowed to make millions without me making a high salary too!
Jack Ma studied English in university. Still worked out for him :)
 

The-J

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It's really hard to be one of those things that everyone wants to be.

There's no such thing as a safe and secure job.

Part-time and contract work are more common than ever.

The dream of a full time job till 65 is DEAD. I repeat... DEAD.

College or no college.

Hell, that "dream" was made up in the 50s. It's really, really recent. Didn't take that long for it to die.

However, rich merchants have been around for thousands of years.

Think about that before you go off to college.
 

Vitom

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I just hate caddying but I gotta do it. Gonna walk in there tomorrow with a smile on my face regardless so don't worry

Discussion thread not pick a part ops words thread

You can always better yourself and learn lessons, even in a "Crap 9-5 job" my friend.

Make something good out of every job.

- Vito M.
 
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