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- Apr 6, 2014
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Life Without a Job
Let me start off by saying that hard doesn't even begin to describe it. And not just from a financial standpoint. Mentally, it was very tough. Perhaps it was the looming financial disaster my family was facing that raised the pressure level, but even without it I think it would have still been very tough. If anything, my family's situation only pushed me even harder to make something work.
The hardest part for me was dealing with friends, other family members and failure.
(Btw, I'm extremely thankful that my parents supported me through this. It was a huge, huge help)
I was always used to having money, going out, not being dependent, ect.. That all came to a screeching halt very quickly.
Dealing with my friends for example became very tough. They sincerely wanted to help me, and (naturally) thought what I was doing was very stupid. But in my mind, I knew that continuing what I was doing was inevitably going to lead me and my family where we didn't want to go. And taking this risk, although a longshot, gave me a chance. I had faith that it would somehow work out -- I had to, otherwise I should have just caved.
But I remember them taking me out to dinner numerous times (I couldn't afford to pay for myself) and being told by them how stupid what I was doing was, and I should just go back to get a job. For me, that was incredibly tough to go through, while still sticking to my guns. My personality has always been more submissive when regarding friends, and so I would always do what they did or wanted to do. I would feel more comfortable following their lead, than making my own decisions. They're incredible friends whom I've known for years and we're still just as close, which is why it made the situation that much harder for me.
But that had to stop.
Even though it seemed that the more I tried to be strong the more they pushed, I had to stick by my faith and what I thought I needed to do. And I did that. What originally made it even tougher was that I wasn't even seeing success at what I was doing. So my confidence was very low, and I doubted ever seeing any success at all sometimes. But I couldn't quit -- going back to what I was doing before scared me more than pushing forward. so, I kept grinding.
Eventually, I stopped fearing hanging out with them and started feeling their respect for my decisions. I might not have known it initially, but those uncomfortable experiences totally changed my personality. My mindset changed. My confidence grew, and the fear became easier to control. This translated into me making better business decisions and actually seeing some progress.
Fast forward another year and a half..
During this whole time, I failed a lot. The majority of the things I tried failed or never delivered anywhere near what I had planned. But each failure was a learning experience. In my mind, I had just found another method that didn't work. But the great thing about working 12 to 16 hours a day, every day, is that you try so many things that eventually something does end up working.
Thanks to these little successes I was able to get into other things. Eventually, I quit the blogging/SEO/commenting methods I had been doing and got into paid ads. This was another intense learning experience altogether, and one with countless failures as well. But like I had learned before, failure is only temporary.
Today
It's been about 6 months since I got into paid ads and am really happy with my progress. I was very fortunate to begin working with the right people, which has helped my progress significantly. I recently set up a company to start doing this to save some money on taxes. Thankfully, I've been able to improve every month, and while I'm not where I want to be, I'm definitely a lot closer than I used to be. I still learn a lot every single day, and still have to deal with things not working the way I want, and projects failing sometimes. But that doesn't scare me anymore.
I'm now making more than I was making working at the bank, and am even able to help my family out. My goal is to have their debt erased by the end of this year, and then some.
A good friend (@wade1mil) I met in this industry recommended I join the forum, and here I am. I've been lurking around for a bit and can see there are a lot of you on here that are the real deal. Looking forward to learning a lot from you all, and giving back where I can. My main focus is still on my primary advertising business, but I'd like to branch out into something else as well to diversify and gain a bit more stability.
Expect a progress thread from me when I figure out what new project I will take on.
See you guys then.
Let me start off by saying that hard doesn't even begin to describe it. And not just from a financial standpoint. Mentally, it was very tough. Perhaps it was the looming financial disaster my family was facing that raised the pressure level, but even without it I think it would have still been very tough. If anything, my family's situation only pushed me even harder to make something work.
The hardest part for me was dealing with friends, other family members and failure.
(Btw, I'm extremely thankful that my parents supported me through this. It was a huge, huge help)
I was always used to having money, going out, not being dependent, ect.. That all came to a screeching halt very quickly.
Dealing with my friends for example became very tough. They sincerely wanted to help me, and (naturally) thought what I was doing was very stupid. But in my mind, I knew that continuing what I was doing was inevitably going to lead me and my family where we didn't want to go. And taking this risk, although a longshot, gave me a chance. I had faith that it would somehow work out -- I had to, otherwise I should have just caved.
But I remember them taking me out to dinner numerous times (I couldn't afford to pay for myself) and being told by them how stupid what I was doing was, and I should just go back to get a job. For me, that was incredibly tough to go through, while still sticking to my guns. My personality has always been more submissive when regarding friends, and so I would always do what they did or wanted to do. I would feel more comfortable following their lead, than making my own decisions. They're incredible friends whom I've known for years and we're still just as close, which is why it made the situation that much harder for me.
But that had to stop.
Even though it seemed that the more I tried to be strong the more they pushed, I had to stick by my faith and what I thought I needed to do. And I did that. What originally made it even tougher was that I wasn't even seeing success at what I was doing. So my confidence was very low, and I doubted ever seeing any success at all sometimes. But I couldn't quit -- going back to what I was doing before scared me more than pushing forward. so, I kept grinding.
Eventually, I stopped fearing hanging out with them and started feeling their respect for my decisions. I might not have known it initially, but those uncomfortable experiences totally changed my personality. My mindset changed. My confidence grew, and the fear became easier to control. This translated into me making better business decisions and actually seeing some progress.
Fast forward another year and a half..
During this whole time, I failed a lot. The majority of the things I tried failed or never delivered anywhere near what I had planned. But each failure was a learning experience. In my mind, I had just found another method that didn't work. But the great thing about working 12 to 16 hours a day, every day, is that you try so many things that eventually something does end up working.
Thanks to these little successes I was able to get into other things. Eventually, I quit the blogging/SEO/commenting methods I had been doing and got into paid ads. This was another intense learning experience altogether, and one with countless failures as well. But like I had learned before, failure is only temporary.
Today
It's been about 6 months since I got into paid ads and am really happy with my progress. I was very fortunate to begin working with the right people, which has helped my progress significantly. I recently set up a company to start doing this to save some money on taxes. Thankfully, I've been able to improve every month, and while I'm not where I want to be, I'm definitely a lot closer than I used to be. I still learn a lot every single day, and still have to deal with things not working the way I want, and projects failing sometimes. But that doesn't scare me anymore.
I'm now making more than I was making working at the bank, and am even able to help my family out. My goal is to have their debt erased by the end of this year, and then some.
A good friend (@wade1mil) I met in this industry recommended I join the forum, and here I am. I've been lurking around for a bit and can see there are a lot of you on here that are the real deal. Looking forward to learning a lot from you all, and giving back where I can. My main focus is still on my primary advertising business, but I'd like to branch out into something else as well to diversify and gain a bit more stability.
Expect a progress thread from me when I figure out what new project I will take on.
See you guys then.
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