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- Mar 30, 2014
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I originally went straight to the self publishing thread to post this but wanted to cross post this here with some more info on my other struggles/journeys?
The original post:
OK.
So I'm extremely excited to write all this and caution that it will be pretty long.
I think it's been just a matter of time until I found this exact forum and this exact path that I'm on. I've actually read the Secret and became Christian later but feel that something led me to posting this now and being where I am.
The Background: I grew up in a traditionally Chinese household. Has anyone heard of the tiger mom? I don't think I had it that bad but I did have parents that were entirely school, school, and more school! So let's say I was quintessential slowlane. I admired it because my parents came from sidewalk in Taiwan and now were doing very successful and providing me and my sister with a lot of the things they never had. I never knew any better though. I did grow up in a sheltered environment. My parents work for the government (did I mention quintessential slowlane or what) and my dad tried to start a restaurant business on the side along with actually doing horse racing. So I guess all along, as I type this, I did not have some entrepreneurship in my blood. BUT he always told me it was terrible decision and not worth it. Thinking about it now, it's because he didn't have the millionaire fastlane book at the time! He failed scale, time, and a need. He just did what he was interested and thought would get him the life he wanted!
In any case, I grew up the whole time being told I should go to college and ultimately medical school because being a doctor is a noble, respected, high paying field (raising intrinsic value). So guess where I am as a good Asian boy. Yes, I am in an MD/PhD program. I didn't really get to play around with any businesses or learn anything outside of biology really for college. I had my blinders on and definitely LOVED college but didn't learn about REAL life at all (outside of relationship stuff). SO when I got to my PhD, I suddenly found that I had some time, some money, and some interest in trying all this entrepreneur stuff I heard about.
The First Mistake and More: As my friends all went to their relatively high paying jobs or went on to graduate school also, I got sucked a bit into all these "get rich easy" schemes. I gambled in college and for a while did AMAZING but then got suckered into an SOB that took me for everything.
I got my first taste though of how easy money could come by if you have a good system. After I swore never to do that again, I had thought about affiliate marketing, blogging, and random other things. I felt I had tons of ideas and at the time thought that was all I needed. Again, where was the MFL book so I could learn about execution and all. So in college I just sat and tried to write down all the ideas I wanted to do ... eventually. All while I just studied and studied. I am lucky in some sense, because I am successful to get into a good program. A lot of people (who aren't FLers) would want to be where I am.
In the first year of my PhD, I signed up for Co-Founders hoping to learn about how these small time companies got sold for billions of dollars. I meet someone who sold me on their pitch, about how in 5 years we could sell the company for millions or franchise it and my even small 2.5% stake would be worth millions and I'd be called a co-founder. I was so freaking naive. Anyways, it ended up being a loss again. So at this point, I'd had two bad experiences.
Currently: After all that, I never really lost the belief that I could figure out something that would work and would be good for my life, career, and dreams. My current plan is to write. Those ideas I had before seemed to be a great fit for writing. They involved plots that I would love to share with the world.
I decided to put my inventions on hold (a new type of scooter), businesses (the company that I invested in and other ecommerce plans), and other random ideas. I'm striving for Monogamy here!
An aside: I guess this is as a good part as any after talking about monogamy. My wife is my love and I've struggled a bit because she has seen the failure I've gone through with businesses so now she is wary about my path and hope that with my first few successes I can convince her I'm on the right track.
The Plan: So back to the story. Right now I am finishing up a short story working with a co-author who is helping to edit and do a lot of rewriting on the 8000 word short story. The price was about 600 and we are planning on splitting future costs and profits. All profits go towards covering the initial fee. I'm actually extremely happy with the product and where it's at and know that without working with him it would not be as good as it is. I enjoy the creative process and editing and writing BUT I don't like editing my own work as much and have somewhat a hard time with focus.
While I'm finishing this up, I'm trying to find other ghostwriters or freelancers to help with my other ideas. I am sort of interested in writing myself but have my "full time PhD" job to tend to and would like to have a more automated system like GiroudJ.
I'm struggling a bit with trying to pull the trigger and figuring out how I decide which freelancers to try to work with. I'm really struggling with deciding between price and quality and deciding if they'd be a good match. I am hesitant to put too much upfront without knowing there would be success.
I still need to learn about finalizing what to do after the product is done in terms of formatting, editing, publishing, and marketing. I know there are some write, publish, write thoughts but I do want to have some marketing aspect of email capture and a website.
I'm trying to work on medical ebooks for the masses, interview/personal statement help books, medical fiction, self-help positive fiction, and possibly Christian based works also.
The current successes: Part of the reason I'm excited to do this or that I have somewhat a system going on is that I also have a freelance writing business to generate some income also. One thing I do is advise current medical school applicants on editing, interviews, personal statements, etc. That brings in some side income and then I have ghostwriters for two of my current places I blog for. Together they may bring upwards of 2k a month which I'm allowed to use on "the plan."
The advice
This has been taken out for brevity)
I really appreciate the opportunity to even just write this page as it helps me focus and get a clear direction.
I don't know how I can help anyone out there but I'm always willing to try!
This thread is continued here if you are interested: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/finally-hoping-i-found-my-monogamy-path.51734/
However, I wanted to write some more about how I struggle with the idea that ideas are "a dime a dozen" and it's the process that is key. I am married and she's my great equalizer. So what tends to happen is that I get super excited for an idea (my ebooks, the startup company, even playing poker previously) and then a few setbacks come up and then I get demoralized, sulk a bit, and then either move on to the next thing or slowly go back to it. I know it's the process and it's overcoming these things. And I know there should be no excuses. But either because of my experiences, my job, my laziness, my lack of knowledge, I often get stuck.
My wife says that it'd be different if this was my "life" and that if I failed I wouldn't be able to eat. But I am somewhat in the slowlane with a foot in the fastlane life and it probably hurts me. I don't know exactly where I'm going (and I know I need focus) but at least it's been an enjoyable process and I've learned a lot of skills. Just thought to share my story for the new ones out there who are here with me.
And on a side note, if anyone has questions about graduate school or writing/editing personal statements/cover letters, I'd be happy to help how I can (although I can imagine that those doing the fastlane don't have to bother with these kind of things!)
The original post:
OK.
So I'm extremely excited to write all this and caution that it will be pretty long.
I think it's been just a matter of time until I found this exact forum and this exact path that I'm on. I've actually read the Secret and became Christian later but feel that something led me to posting this now and being where I am.
The Background: I grew up in a traditionally Chinese household. Has anyone heard of the tiger mom? I don't think I had it that bad but I did have parents that were entirely school, school, and more school! So let's say I was quintessential slowlane. I admired it because my parents came from sidewalk in Taiwan and now were doing very successful and providing me and my sister with a lot of the things they never had. I never knew any better though. I did grow up in a sheltered environment. My parents work for the government (did I mention quintessential slowlane or what) and my dad tried to start a restaurant business on the side along with actually doing horse racing. So I guess all along, as I type this, I did not have some entrepreneurship in my blood. BUT he always told me it was terrible decision and not worth it. Thinking about it now, it's because he didn't have the millionaire fastlane book at the time! He failed scale, time, and a need. He just did what he was interested and thought would get him the life he wanted!
In any case, I grew up the whole time being told I should go to college and ultimately medical school because being a doctor is a noble, respected, high paying field (raising intrinsic value). So guess where I am as a good Asian boy. Yes, I am in an MD/PhD program. I didn't really get to play around with any businesses or learn anything outside of biology really for college. I had my blinders on and definitely LOVED college but didn't learn about REAL life at all (outside of relationship stuff). SO when I got to my PhD, I suddenly found that I had some time, some money, and some interest in trying all this entrepreneur stuff I heard about.
The First Mistake and More: As my friends all went to their relatively high paying jobs or went on to graduate school also, I got sucked a bit into all these "get rich easy" schemes. I gambled in college and for a while did AMAZING but then got suckered into an SOB that took me for everything.
I got my first taste though of how easy money could come by if you have a good system. After I swore never to do that again, I had thought about affiliate marketing, blogging, and random other things. I felt I had tons of ideas and at the time thought that was all I needed. Again, where was the MFL book so I could learn about execution and all. So in college I just sat and tried to write down all the ideas I wanted to do ... eventually. All while I just studied and studied. I am lucky in some sense, because I am successful to get into a good program. A lot of people (who aren't FLers) would want to be where I am.
In the first year of my PhD, I signed up for Co-Founders hoping to learn about how these small time companies got sold for billions of dollars. I meet someone who sold me on their pitch, about how in 5 years we could sell the company for millions or franchise it and my even small 2.5% stake would be worth millions and I'd be called a co-founder. I was so freaking naive. Anyways, it ended up being a loss again. So at this point, I'd had two bad experiences.
Currently: After all that, I never really lost the belief that I could figure out something that would work and would be good for my life, career, and dreams. My current plan is to write. Those ideas I had before seemed to be a great fit for writing. They involved plots that I would love to share with the world.
I decided to put my inventions on hold (a new type of scooter), businesses (the company that I invested in and other ecommerce plans), and other random ideas. I'm striving for Monogamy here!
An aside: I guess this is as a good part as any after talking about monogamy. My wife is my love and I've struggled a bit because she has seen the failure I've gone through with businesses so now she is wary about my path and hope that with my first few successes I can convince her I'm on the right track.
The Plan: So back to the story. Right now I am finishing up a short story working with a co-author who is helping to edit and do a lot of rewriting on the 8000 word short story. The price was about 600 and we are planning on splitting future costs and profits. All profits go towards covering the initial fee. I'm actually extremely happy with the product and where it's at and know that without working with him it would not be as good as it is. I enjoy the creative process and editing and writing BUT I don't like editing my own work as much and have somewhat a hard time with focus.
While I'm finishing this up, I'm trying to find other ghostwriters or freelancers to help with my other ideas. I am sort of interested in writing myself but have my "full time PhD" job to tend to and would like to have a more automated system like GiroudJ.
I'm struggling a bit with trying to pull the trigger and figuring out how I decide which freelancers to try to work with. I'm really struggling with deciding between price and quality and deciding if they'd be a good match. I am hesitant to put too much upfront without knowing there would be success.
I still need to learn about finalizing what to do after the product is done in terms of formatting, editing, publishing, and marketing. I know there are some write, publish, write thoughts but I do want to have some marketing aspect of email capture and a website.
I'm trying to work on medical ebooks for the masses, interview/personal statement help books, medical fiction, self-help positive fiction, and possibly Christian based works also.
The current successes: Part of the reason I'm excited to do this or that I have somewhat a system going on is that I also have a freelance writing business to generate some income also. One thing I do is advise current medical school applicants on editing, interviews, personal statements, etc. That brings in some side income and then I have ghostwriters for two of my current places I blog for. Together they may bring upwards of 2k a month which I'm allowed to use on "the plan."
The advice
This has been taken out for brevity)I really appreciate the opportunity to even just write this page as it helps me focus and get a clear direction.
I don't know how I can help anyone out there but I'm always willing to try!
This thread is continued here if you are interested: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/finally-hoping-i-found-my-monogamy-path.51734/
However, I wanted to write some more about how I struggle with the idea that ideas are "a dime a dozen" and it's the process that is key. I am married and she's my great equalizer. So what tends to happen is that I get super excited for an idea (my ebooks, the startup company, even playing poker previously) and then a few setbacks come up and then I get demoralized, sulk a bit, and then either move on to the next thing or slowly go back to it. I know it's the process and it's overcoming these things. And I know there should be no excuses. But either because of my experiences, my job, my laziness, my lack of knowledge, I often get stuck.
My wife says that it'd be different if this was my "life" and that if I failed I wouldn't be able to eat. But I am somewhat in the slowlane with a foot in the fastlane life and it probably hurts me. I don't know exactly where I'm going (and I know I need focus) but at least it's been an enjoyable process and I've learned a lot of skills. Just thought to share my story for the new ones out there who are here with me.
And on a side note, if anyone has questions about graduate school or writing/editing personal statements/cover letters, I'd be happy to help how I can (although I can imagine that those doing the fastlane don't have to bother with these kind of things!)
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