CHAPTER II: IT'S ALIVE!!!
Burying my head in the sand isn't an option anymore.
Part I: April's Highlights
I hope everybody is having a fantastic day or night. As you might already know, April was the last month of tax season, so I filed them on April 18th, literally the last day to do so. To summarize, I'm super proud to have paid $750, and unless I miss my guess, my total income for 2021 was anywhere around $20k-$25k.In addition, I'm delighted to have received my first "profit or loss from business (sole proprietorship)" tax document. (More details in Part II.) The total? $90.
However, I could've received this document, perhaps due to the fact of being somewhat self-employed. If it's not for the aforesaid reason, then I can officially call myself an ENTREPRENEUR.
Aside from that, I had the fantastic opportunity to encounter a dark blue Ferrari parked on the sideway on 56th Street, Manhattan. If I recall correctly, I was on my way to work in the first week of April. I'm not a massive fan of Ferrari, so I can't name which model it was. Nonetheless, it was a powerful reminder of my dream car.
Part II: Progress Stats
1. April's Financial Statement
I'm not sure if y'all were able to watch my last month's finances in the image displayed in the previous chapter due to the size of it. Therefore, I would now include a brief written demonstration of the stats for each month. And it goes like this:Income: $1,855
Assets: $8,010
Cash: $1,580
Expenses: $1,817
Debt: $0
Passive Income: $90
Net Worth: $9,590
Profit/Loss: $38+
2. Fastlane Commandments
Now let's discuss relative value; I've currently been working as a dishwasher for a few months now (I started in January), and in the last chapter, I mentioned blogging and purposely excluded mentioning another venture that I've been doing for several months now on the side. (You sort of guessed it right @MJ DeMarco ).Next, or should I say NECST? *cricket sounds*.
Anyways, let's start by examining this business venture clearly through the Five Fastlane Commandments.
Need: It doesn't fulfill this commandment entirely, but with value-skew, there is room for improvement.
Entry: It definitely violates entry. Anyone can literally signup in less than 5 minutes and have a decent, good-looking profile. The only barrier is to have at least a number of followers in order to monetize your work.
Control: At this point, some of you may be guessing this venture is a social platform, anddd... you are absolutely correct. I can get kicked out of the platform at any time if I don't follow their community guidelines.
Scale: On the other hand, it fulfills this commandment because my work can reach a high amount of eyeballs only if the quality of my inputs is excellent enough to accomplish this.
Time: Furthermore, it also satisfies the commandment of time fantastically. I can go a month without doing any work and still receive a decent amount of value vouchers. The $90 of semi-passive income I received in April was mainly from this income stream (97%/100%).
This passive income is the equivalent of having $21,571 in dividends at a 5% annually. Of course, this highly fluctuates from month to month, and if I were to stop providing value, this amount could definitely decrease dramatically.
Looking back, I've made a terrible mistake of investing $10k into growth stocks when I was told not to, which is currently down 20%, jeez. Oh well, we're just left to learn, act, assess, and adjust.
3. April vs. March (Inputs & Outputs)
March's Input:15 Hours Invested Into Fastlane = $149.14
124 Hours Dishwashing = $1,436
April's Input:
51 Hours Invested Into Fastlane = $429.69
122.5 Hours Dishwashing = $1,426
If you are interested in how I track my time invested into Fastlane, I personally use Clockify, it's free, and no, I'm not sponsored or affiliated with them. To further clarify, I work 30-35 hours every week at my dishwashing job (4 out of 7 Days).
Part III: Adversities
Procrastination
My main current enemy disallowed me from giving my 100% last month. On my part, I quit Instagram and Snapchat at the end of February and decided since then to only use them on the last three days of every month, which continues to work well.But still, procrastination seemed to scrape my drive last month through other temptations like slothfulness and gluttony; yesterday, I came up with a contingency plan to deal with this problem. We'll see how May goes.
Part IV: Counterpunches
April's Accomplishments:
1. 51 Hours of Fastlane
2nd Week: 14:20:10 & $151.05 VV
3rd Week: 15:11:48 & $131.27 VV
4th Week: 7:42:38 & $147.37 VV
TOTAL: 51:04:40 & $429.69 VV
2. 75% (150 Pages) Completion of Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine
My Biggest Takeaway so far
Stress is not bad; stress is just stress. How we ultimately choose to respond to it is what determines our outcome. In Mark's words, "How we learn to respond to stress and use it to grow is the better story."
In the end, we can all choose to fight, flight or freeze.
Quote of the Month:
The way I analyze this quote is how making it to heaven (UNSCRIPTION) is my only mf option. Remaining stagnant in a situation that I'm not satisfied with is completely nuts.
However, it's essential to remain grateful for one's own blessings while looking for better days. This is why I thank the Lord for my many blessings the majority of my days, even for what may seem insignificant to others, just as a quart of water or a bowl of rice.
I'm fully aware that life can throw some red gumballs at me, but it's up to me to make the most out of every adversity and opportunity I receive every month. Red gumballs are inevitable, and for that reason, I've been preparing myself mentally and will continue to do so every day, for the worst and best-case scenarios while also delivering the best value I possibly can.
Part V: The Future
As for this month, I will at least invest 50 hours minimum to my Fastlane journey and finish Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine while initiating a new book to read in the process.If you made it this far and you're curious to see a more detailed explanation of the business venture explained above, I will create another post on the self-promotion thread for the reason of following and respecting the Fastlane Forum rules. It seems it will be post #91 unless someone else posts before me.
Thank y'all for reading, and feel free to leave any questions.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION (March 2022)
CHAPTER II: IT’S ALIVE!!! (April 2022)
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