Everything Fell Apart And Lost Everything

[DeletedUser9]

Back in June I was on top of the world I was 18 making thousands per month from privately selling ads on a website I created and ran from my parents house.

Here is a thread which will let you in on my background https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/showthread.php/46782-Intro-And-Awkward-Success-Story

Anyways the website fell apart after a theme update and took months to fix and readers and advertisers lost interest during this maintenance period, traffic is 5% of what it used to be.

I recently started a thread where I made 710$ in one day trading commodities, and then 550$ the next.

Today I lost over 4000$ hoping the price would jump back up.

Im a college failure with an apartment with a monthly rent of around 600$ and a wifi connection.

I have 1507$ left.......




Just goes to show if you get too cocky life will teach you hard lesson and you better learn from it.

 

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[throttleforward]

"I saved every penny I could, I stole from my mothers purse, ATM card, I took foreign currency from the family safe and had it converted to Euro just to fund my business. I justified all these wrongs by the fact that someday I would be so rich that I could write them a cheque for 1,000,000$ and it would be nothing but a couple of days pay to me."

Did you ever pay your mom back?

 

[Mike Kavanagh]

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/showthread.php/27474-Broke-Try-Ebay

Or

Start flipping on craigslist.

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

Looks like stealing came back to bite you.

Sympathy level = 0

 

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[Tom.V]

Just goes to show if you get too cocky life will teach you hard lesson and you better learn from it.

This a lesson that everyone should learn very early on. Don't let your ego get too big, because once you have that thought that you cannot do wrong in your head, that is when everything can come crashing down in an instant. Humble yourself and get the F*ck back up. It's only money.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

So you have a legitimate site/business that somehow dies after a theme update (how does that even happen? makes me think that your site was probably something blackhat and you probably got Google smashed - although that's just speculation), that you admittedly funded with stolen funds.

Then, you jump headfirst into a ferocious market with little/no knowledge and get your a$$ handed to you.

Now, you have $1500 and are trying to figure out what to do next...

Why not start applying principals from TMF instead of looking for the next quick buck? Find a niche, fill a need, provide value and I don't think you'll have these problems every few months.

 

[LOYD]

All of this won't mean anything if you don't learn from this. Moving forward, you need to keep a few things in mind:

1. There's no excuse for stealing from someone to fund your business. When your business is built around shadyness and bad behavior like that, it's almost guaranteed to come back and bite you (as it appears it did).

2. Learn to manage your money better. If you were making thousands a month and have almost nothing left now, this indicates a huge lack of financial discipline. I speak from experience. Earlier in the year I was wholesaling houses and making a couple grand on each deal. By the end of the summer, all of that money was gone. It was just a result of being young and cocky and wanting to show out.

3. Go back and read TMF . Then if you have time, re-read it again.

The best thing you have going for you is that you're only 18. Better to learn this kind of lesson early and move forward.

 

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[Luke12321]

If I were you, I would go find a job first. If all you have his $1,500 with no cash flow coming in and a rent payment of $600 or whatever, it isn't going to last you but two months. So go ahead, bit the bullet and get a job. You don't have much room for error before you will be broke (and evicted).

Lastly, if you did steal money from your mom as the one post suggest. I wouldn't invest in any business until that money is paid back (plus some). That money that you have currently, is your families/moms. If I were in your shoes, I would go get a job (or two) and pay that money back asap. Hell, pay her back double because she is giving you a heck of a break by NOT reporting you for stealing it. So that is my advice, get a job, pay your mom back double whatever you stole, apologize to her and take it as a life lesson that stealing is never the way to ahead in life.

 

[1PercentStreet]

Great, you learned this lesson early in life.
Everyone has the opportunity to become an a**hole, don't.

Don't F*cking lie, cheat, or steal.

Go out and hustle, provide a need and minimize all expenses. You don't need a phone. Get a prepaid, go live in a basement, sell everything you own, and stop thinking the world owes you anything. You've done it once, now do it again and save/invest.

 

[dknise]

Looks like stealing came back to bite you.

Sympathy level = 0

Why's everyone saying he stole?



ChaseLA:

1) As I have a hard on for software, the problems you had with upgrading the website should show you the importance of knowing software while trying to run a software based business. It sounds like your website was the product. Next time around, keep two copies of the website, one that is hosted through your web provider and the other locally on your personal computer using IIS. Any changes you want to make should be done offline (or on a separate copy online), and then merged once all the bugs are figured out.

2) Please please please paaaleeeeasseeee tell me the trading mistake was unrelated to what was talked about in your trading thread... haha There's some guy on here loops who thinks I'm a**hole cause I told him his guesswork would fail him, but that big loss is why I speak up! I don't wanna see that happen to anyone!


You'll pull through this.

 

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[RHL]

Real talk time, so put on your big boy pants.

First, I don't feel that sympathetic if you were stealing form people, so I'm terribly inclined to offer suggestions, but I'll give you a sound piece of advice for the sake of eventually paying back the people you ripped off.

Casinos since forever have traded on a psychological phenomenon of desperation: The more you loose, the more insane your investment strategies become to try and get it back. You keep going double or nothing, triple or nothing, and beyond until you're flat busted. You flail around in markets you don't understand just to try to recoup any scintilla of the losses you suffered. Stop.

Your a$$ got beat. You need to take time to regroup so that you come at it with a clear head. At this point, you need something that looks more slow lane, like the Ebay stuff that people are suggesting or a normal job: Something where time invested leads to a pretty dependable linear profit. Don't go for big, risky flips on CraigsList or Ebay, that's the temptation. Small, slow, methodical. When you're behaving rationally again, you can slowly deal yourself back into the game.

Going from $18,000 a month to broke months later is leveraging yourself too hard or neglecting your business or sidewalking or all three. Get straight what it was that ruined you and cut it off at the knees, and do it while making safe money. If you can't, then it was just a fluke.

 

[brandonrush]

Why's everyone saying he stole?

In the thread he linked to in his original post he mentioned that he stole money from his mothers purse to help "fund" his business.

 

[mayana]

I'm not buying the story that all of the money got reinvested into the business, which means that serious money-management education needs to take place before you start thinking about your next step.

No matter how much money you have (and how you earn it - whether it be through a bad job, good job, or a Fastlane business), you'll always be low on funds if you don't learn how to manage your finances responsibly.

As far as the stealing goes, I definitely think you should take a grand of that $1500 and give it to your mother. Tell her why you took it... she's your mother, and she'll forgive you. It's WAY better to do things the honest way.

 

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[FastLearner]

I recently started a thread where I made 710$ in one day trading commodities, and then 550$ the next.

Today I lost over 4000$ hoping the price would jump back up.

Im a college failure with an apartment with a monthly rent of around 600$ and a wifi connection.

I have 1507$ left.......

You should be cruising job postings and not the forum in hopes that someone will give you million dollar advice on how to get that money back. It's not going to happen.

 

[DeletedUser9]

"I saved every penny I could, I stole from my mothers purse, ATM card, I took foreign currency from the family safe and had it converted to Euro just to fund my business. I justified all these wrongs by the fact that someday I would be so rich that I could write them a cheque for 1,000,000$ and it would be nothing but a couple of days pay to me."

Did you ever pay your mom back?

I think most of you are overestimating how much i took, it was about 600$ over the year I have put about 1000-2000$ back into that account

 

[johnp]

wow, I just looked at that thread that you posted awhile back. I apparently commented. Look at what I said.

Your story seemed great until i read this part. Did you ever tell your parents about this? If not, then I think you should. Be honest with people. Nobody likes someone who lies, cheats, and steals. Investors hate it, and customers hate it even more. Success isn't all about the money...

Man up and start being honest with people.

Good luck with everything

Your response

Over the course of the year I probably took around 1000$ and I never took large amounts at once. I will probably confess when the above "short term plan" is complete.

My Question...

Did you ever confess?


This really makes me wonder about the true power of a decision. Most people think that a decision is a singular event. You make the decision and then you experience the result of the decision.

The decision - I have decided that I'm going to sleep in past 11am.

The result - I physically slept in.

But...I think that is where most people have it wrong.

Your decision is actually linked to every decision that you make thereafter. For example: I made the decision to sleep in. I overslept. Now my homework is late. My teacher gave me a bad grade. This bad grade may just impacted my self-image as a student, probably on a subconscious level. .......all of this seems to connect back to the decision to sleep in.

How far down the rabbit hole does one decision really go?

So in your case. You stole. It wasn't a ton of money. But it was a bad decision.

The update that screwed you over may only be a result, which is connected to a long sequence of results, that all link to your original decision to steal.

So in conclusion, I don't think that the update screwed you over. I don't think that you lost money as a result of a sudden disinterest in your service. I believe that the true reason why you are in this position is because of you, and the bad decision that you made in the first place.

I guess the good news is that there is always time to make good decisions.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I think most of you are overestimating how much i took, it was about 600$ over the year I have put about 1000-2000$ back into that account

If you stab me in the back, it doesn't make a difference if it was a dagger or a wooden stake.

I have put about 1000-2000$ back into that account

I hope this means you put it back in your mother's purse.

Why not start applying principals from TMF instead of looking for the next quick buck? Find a niche, fill a need, provide value and I don't think you'll have these problems every few months.

This. IMO, it sounds like the OP is experiencing money chasing karma.

 

[EastWind]

I'm more curious to what happened to the $18k you were making a month, what did you spend it on? why didn't you save more?

 

[FastLearner]

I'm more curious to what happened to the $18k you were making a month, what did you spend it on? why didn't you save more?

I'm sure he went on a spending frenzy like his idol Jordan Belfort did. (In reference to the Intro and Awkward Success story link provided by ChaseLA)

 

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[Rawr]

Your lesson is you didn't know the rules of the game, got lucky and thought arrogance would carry your through to success. It won't. The road is paved with skeletons of people who thought this way. The goal is real knowledge, thorough understanding of the rules, wisdom through experience... and knowing with all of those things you will still face setbacks, that will need to be pushed through.

some advice - never borrow money to put in the market. And consider what happens if you are doing things unethically and it works..but just as you are making some money, it all stops? Would you want to be in this position again?

 

[amp0193]

Humble yourself and get the F*ck back up. It's only money.

Love it. God it feels good to think this way. Anything becomes possible with this mindset.

 

[100k]

You never had control.

Google had it. Man, never, ever depend on SEO. It's too risky... you spend thousands of dollars, countless hours and then in 1 swift move - google makes an update and its all gone.

I had to learn that the hard way....3 times haha

I'm done with SEO now.... if I do it, it's just to rank and bank or churn and burn as they call it where you build lots of spam...rank for a short period of time and wait for the deindex .... then you do it again....but thats not that easy since everyone and his mother started talking about it on forums.

My suggestion, learn PPV or PPC for instant traffic.

 

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[Mexanik]

Let's get back to basics:
What is wealth?
- Family, Fitness, Freedom

When you steal from and lie to your Family, you're nowhere close to being wealthy. A lesson learned, now time to get back on track and do the things the right way. Good luck!

Sent from my GT-I9100

 

[Brander]

You are chasing money, being broke is not an excuse to chase money - downsize and and start a real business, solving a real problem or at least providing better value than the next guy.

 

[Tom.V]

Google had it. Man, never, ever depend on SEO. It's too risky... you spend thousands of dollars, countless hours and then in 1 swift move - google makes an update and its all gone.

One less competitor, I love that mentality.

 

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[nextgen]

I have no sympathy for people that steal. Go get a job and I hope you learned your lesson. They should have you arrested for theft.

 

[Zetta]

Making money is a skill. You may lose everything and little bit more. But when you have the skill you don't need to worry about not having any.

 

[William]

"There is no failure, only results."

Look at this as a learning experience. Adjust your mindset and actions accordingly. ONE STEP AT A TIME. Take heed to the advice of others here and move forward.

NOW.

 

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[wilddog]

I have no sympathy for people that steal. Go get a job and I hope you learned your lesson. They should have you arrested for theft.

I wouldn't go that far. But I would say that any kind of theft is a Treasonous Choice, no matter how small. MJ wrecked his viper with a treasonous choice and learned his lesson as a result. Let this be a lesson to OP.

 

[nextgen]

No I completely disagree with you. Any person that steals because they convinced themselves they'd be able to pay it back is a person that has the potential to do it again and it typically takes being arrested for the first time for them to truly wake up.