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Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
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33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
Hello Fastlane Forum members,

I have been reading @MJ DeMarco his works and have so far been blown away by how many pitfalls I've fallen for over the years. Throughout my discovery of Unscripted I am trying to implement and think about the knowledge on offer. While I do so I intend do remain active in this community so I may learn from its members and hopefully spark up some interesting conversations.

A short introduction into myself:

I am 23 years old and have been working with software development for a very long time. Three years ago while still attending college my girlfriend fell into a depression and her part-time income fell with it as a result. So I started working for an employer to compensate for the lack of income.

I absolutely hated my job as developer there, the mindset was positively fixed on my side as well as theirs and we could not see eye to eye. Eventually my aspirations as a developer started to lean more towards becoming a freelancer. I had already thought about this but hadn't acted on it at all.

It took me a while to realize that my efforts at my employer where already 90% of what a freelancer does with the exception of finding my own customers. I told myself that I could do this on my own and so I did, 19 months ago I started working as a freelance software developer.

Business is okay, however, it really still doesn't work the way I want it to. I currently developer made to order applications. So a customer has a specific idea and I create their software for them based on temporal prostitution I charge a fee. Since reading Unscripted (mind you I am not finished yet) I came to realize that there are many things mentioned in @MJ DeMarco 's works that I have fallen victim to. The script had worked it's way into my system over the years and M.O.D.E.L citizenship was the next stop for me.

Happily a friend of mine recommended both works to me (I intend to read Millionaire Fastlane after Unscripted ) which has pushed me to try and develop a CENTS based product together with him (he will be appearing on the forums soon I suspect).

In this thread I also really wanted to talk about things that aren't quite clear to me. To start with, I have the feeling that my FTE's have been fake so far (which may very well be the case). I was wondering how many of you share this feeling and are you still able to work as diligently on your businesses? I still get distracted more than I would like personally and I certainly am not working on full charge right now. Any answers are greatly appreciated.

Anyways, I hope to talk to many of you and share our experiences during these strange times!
 
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D

Deleted82046

Guest
Hello Fastlane Forum members,

I have been reading @MJ DeMarco his works and have so far been blown away by how many pitfalls I've fallen for over the years. Throughout my discovery of Unscripted I am trying to implement and think about the knowledge on offer. While I do so I intend do remain active in this community so I may learn from its members and hopefully spark up some interesting conversations.

A short introduction into myself:

I am 23 years old and have been working with software development for a very long time. Three years ago while still attending college my girlfriend fell into a depression and her part-time income fell with it as a result. So I started working for an employer to compensate for the lack of income.

I absolutely hated my job as developer there, the mindset was positively fixed on my side as well as theirs and we could not see eye to eye. Eventually my aspirations as a developer started to lean more towards becoming a freelancer. I had already thought about this but hadn't acted on it at all.

It took me a while to realize that my efforts at my employer where already 90% of what a freelancer does with the exception of finding my own customers. I told myself that I could do this on my own and so I did, 19 months ago I started working as a freelance software developer.

Business is okay, however, it really still doesn't work the way I want it to. I currently developer made to order applications. So a customer has a specific idea and I create their software for them based on temporal prostitution I charge a fee. Since reading Unscripted (mind you I am not finished yet) I came to realize that there are many things mentioned in @MJ DeMarco 's works that I have fallen victim to. The script had worked it's way into my system over the years and M.O.D.E.L citizenship was the next stop for me.

Happily a friend of mine recommended both works to me (I intend to read Millionaire Fastlane after Unscripted ) which has pushed me to try and develop a CENTS based product together with him (he will be appearing on the forums soon I suspect).

In this thread I also really wanted to talk about things that aren't quite clear to me. To start with, I have the feeling that my FTE's have been fake so far (which may very well be the case). I was wondering how many of you share this feeling and are you still able to work as diligently on your businesses? I still get distracted more than I would like personally and I certainly am not working on full charge right now. Any answers are greatly appreciated.

Anyways, I hope to talk to many of you and share our experiences during these strange times!
Welcome to the forum, glad you have something to get your teeth into. Pun intended. ;)
 

TheGreek

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
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Jul 27, 2020
36
45
Greece
To start with, I have the feeling that my FTE's have been fake so far (which may very well be the case). I was wondering how many of you share this feeling and are you still able to work as diligently on your businesses? I still get distracted more than I would like personally and I certainly am not working on full charge right now.

I get distracted more than I would like as well. There are good and bad days for me. I think it's a part of the process and try to improve my focus.
 
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Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
I get distracted more than I would like as well. There are good and bad days for me. I think it's a part of the process and try to improve my focus.
Yeah that's the case for me as well. Of course it also has its links to lifestyle, things like sleep and stress are definitely a factor for me.

What was your FTE?
 

TheGreek

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
125%
Jul 27, 2020
36
45
Greece
Yeah that's the case for me as well. Of course it also has its links to lifestyle, things like sleep and stress are definitely a factor for me.

What was your FTE?
I have the same problems.

My FTE moment was in college. I did not like college and quit it to play poker for a few years. It was a shock to my family, girlfriend, and friends. Of course, I broke up with my girlfriend, but everything else was fine in the end. I made some money but got tired for many reasons. Today, the biggest part of my income is from freelance writing.
 
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Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
I have the same problems.

My FTE moment was in college. I did not like college and quit it to play poker for a few years. It was a shock to my family, girlfriend, and friends. Of course, I broke up with my girlfriend, but everything else was fine in the end. I made some money but got tired for many reasons. Today, the biggest part of my income is from freelance writing.
I see,

Freelance writing must be a difficult scene to get into considering how crowded it is? I myself have decided that I do want to create a product that follows the CENTS tenants.

I really like the idea of a succesful entry into the world of productocracy.
 

Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
Pardon me for saying, that just sounds like a word salad to get your mandibles around. Sorry, we're running with this pun now.

But to ensure my post isn't completely devoid of value, almost any business can be made Fastlane & virtually no business is Fastlane from the get go.

Case in point, my hot dog stand has a higher likelihood of going public before my educational software venture.
And it's got more control, higher barriers to entry & more need.

Who'd have thought that?
Good point however my mandibles have been firmly centered around an idea that does have more ground in reality than a simple ideal.

It's already currently in the making and while I think you make a fair point by the way, the tenant of control is a bit of a thorn in my eye concerning webhosting. All the other factors for a CENTS business are present and accounted for.

Besides that it's a product that will actually make a significant contribution to society, which I think is the most important part.

Nonetheless I think I'll just have to try, as promised if I fail you'll hear from me as well and it will serve the forums more knowledge as well.

Thanks!
 

Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
Pardon me for saying, that just sounds like a word salad to get your mandibles around. Sorry, we're running with this pun now.

But to ensure my post isn't completely devoid of value, almost any business can be made Fastlane & virtually no business is Fastlane from the get go.

Case in point, my hot dog stand has a higher likelihood of going public before my educational software venture.
And it's got more control, higher barriers to entry & more need.

Who'd have thought that?
Additionally what I can't get my mandibles around is this particular example. What about scalability? It can take a long time to get an ROI on everything required and more time to get enough to buy another stand.

Furthermore the commandment of time is violated unless you are able to hire a person to operate the stand right from the get go which is unlikely.

I'd say some ventures have more potential what that's concerned than others.
 
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TheGreek

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
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Jul 27, 2020
36
45
Greece
I see,

Freelance writing must be a difficult scene to get into considering how crowded it is? I myself have decided that I do want to create a product that follows the CENTS tenants.

I really like the idea of a succesful entry into the world of productocracy.
Executional excellence can overcome the Commandment of Entry. Many people make pizza but if your pizza is great, you will sell it.
 

TheGreek

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
125%
Jul 27, 2020
36
45
Greece
That's true, where can I find your work? Now I'm very intrigued.
I don't claim to be a great freelancer but use the words by Unscripted to mention that we can solve the problem of entry in crowded business models. Every business has some competition. Even if we find a unique idea, people will try to copy us sooner or later.
 
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Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
Name one business that you can set & forget from day one.

The hot dog stand can be franchised.
None, however when I compare these two

1. The time taken to sell enough hotdogs is seriously longer than maintaining a properly functioning web application. So standing in front of a hot grill all day versus making sure the servers are running and aren't overloaded and no bugs in the code rear their head.
2. The time it takes to franchise is significantly longer and more difficult. All I need to do to increase the capacity of customers is too upscale the hosting capacity instead of opening up multiple physical locations and all the bureaucratic mess that's involved like insurance and such.
3. The investment required to open physical locations is much greater and does not guarantee a proportional increase in income, whereas I can scale based on every additional customer reducing overhead greatly.

Once more I return to my initial statement that some ventures are more suitable than others for fastlane.
 

Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
I don't claim to be a great freelancer but use the words by Unscripted to mention that we can solve the problem of entry in crowded business models. Every business has some competition. Even if we find a unique idea, people will try to copy us sooner or later.
I didn't mean to imply anything by that I was just wondering how things have been going for you in the red sea.
 

Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
Correct, you win
I miss your old reply, that was really something I wanted to read again.

Regardless, I still very much appreciate your input and relentless questioning it keeps me on my toes and I appreciate that!
 
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Mandible

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
33%
Aug 10, 2020
15
5
Netherlands, Groningen
UPDATE

I started development on the service, so far so good, many resources have been finished in the meantime by my partner. I also found a pretty decent hosting partner in the form of A2 Hosting (anyone with experience please tell me whether you've been satisfied) .

The tool is coming together and during our vacation me and my partner talked a lot about the CENTS commandments and have critically evaluated whether the service would indeed honor them, and it does (according to us).

Sadly my freelancing has not been going great, one satisfied customer left and one left unsatisfied without paying so this month is going to really suck financially for me.
 

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