[Fastlane Diary] Six Years to Six Figures ! (2011 -> 2017)

[Graves]

[Fastlane Diary] $4,000 a month by 2012

Welcome to my diary. I'm looking to make $10,000 a month by 2017 $4,000 a month by 2012.

I will keep the community updated every day of the week on my progress. I should set up a bank account so that I have to give $5 to the first person who calls me out when I forget to update
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Field : e-business
Ideas : Educational Browser&Facebook Game [dream project], Poker, Personal Finance, and/or Study Guide eBooks for french market -> advice appreciated on what I should prioritize on ! I'm leaning towards pers.finance eBook atm (The eBooks would be something I'd pay $50 for MYSELF, so I'll definitely put serious work into them)

Net worth as of this month : $50
Income in January : $0

Here is a list of short-term 'milestones' to keep me on track that I'll update frequently :
[] $250 in savings

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I think you should aim higher. In 2017, $100K will be worth about $50K in today's dollars. Why not aim higher? Like earning $10K/mo before the year is over? The Fastlane is about creating wealth exponentially -- your goal seems linear. Don't let your age distract you ... Also, you can blog here at Fastlane if you want to catalog your progress. Thanks!

 

[Graves]

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

What do I plan to do today/in the very near future ? (check box when finished)

Administrative
[] Sign up for a debit card tomorrow
[X] Fill out my paperwork

Income generation
[] Print ads for school tutoring and post them tomorrow (-> towards goal of $250 in savings)
[] Register a domain name + hosting account
[] Start copywriting for Personal Finance eBook

 

[Graves]

I think you should aim higher. In 2017, $100K will be worth about $50K in today's dollars. Why not aim higher? Like earning $10K/mo before the year is over? The Fastlane is about creating wealth exponentially -- your goal seems linear. Don't let your age distract you ... Also, you can blog here at Fastlane if you want to catalog your progress. Thanks!

Thank you for reading my post, I truly appreciate it

Can I, a total newbie to entrepreneurship&computer science, have a good enough chance to grow an e-business to $10K/mo before the year is over ? It just seems so unlikely to me. I've always read a business will bring little money during the first 1 or 2 years because it's in the "growth phase", just like a penny doubling over and over.

Do you really think it's likely (better chances than a coinflip) to grow to $10K/mo within one year or do you advise me to set that goal so that I aim as high as possible ?

Thanks again for your advice !

 

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[MikeC]

Thank you for reading my post, I truly appreciate it

Can I, a total newbie to entrepreneurship&computer science, really grow an e-business to $10K/mo before the year is over ? It just seems so unlikely to me. I've always read a business will bring little money during the first 1 or 2 years because it's in the "growth phase", just like a penny doubling over and over.

Do you really think it's possible&likely (better chances than a coinflip) to grow to $10K/mo within one year or do you advise me to set that goal so that I aim as high as possible ?

Thanks again !

It's definitely possible. I'm sure you've heard the quote "Aim for the moon, if you miss, you'll still land upon the stars" before. Basically, aim for $10,000 a month by 2012. Yeah, it's unlikely (definitely not impossible) that you'll reach that goal, but you might be making $2,000 a month, and know how to get to the $10,000 a month point.

I usually say that it'll take about a year for anyone to get completely knowledgeable in the field their looking at going into. For example, if you decided to promote a product online, it would take about a years worth of work before you could actually effectively promote that product online. During that year you might not make that much money, but after you'll know exactly what you need to do to get to the next step.

 

[snowbank]

It just seems so unlikely to me. I've always read a business will bring little money during the first 1 or 2 years because it's in the "growth phase"

I've read a lot of things but I only listen to people who've done what I'd like to do. If your goal is to struggle for the first 1-2 years and not make much money, listen to people who know how to do that.(most people in business could show you how to not make much money and struggle along) If your goal is to make a lot of money fast, those probably wouldn't be the best guys to listen to.

Do you really think it's likely (better chances than a coinflip) to grow to $10K/mo within one year or do you advise me to set that goal so that I aim as high as possible ?

Depends what kind of coin you have. Right now you have a coin that's weighted in a way that won't enable you to accomplish this. Your goal if you'd like to accomplish it should be to get the coin weighted in your direction.

Some factors that weight the coin against you:

You haven't read many posts on the forum.
Aiming very low.

Some factors that weight the coin in your favor:

You're at least asking questions.(although they're currently the wrong ones, because you haven't put in the work reading posts yet)
You've read MJ's book

The more work you put in to learn, and more importantly how you implement all that you learn when you put it into action, the more heavily weighted the coin becomes in your favor. If you are lazy about learning, you have a 0% chance to achieve $10k/month this year. If you went to B+P, read all the posts from successful people on the forum, were a workhorse, learned to ask the right questions, $10k/month within the year would be well within reach. It's up to you how good you make the coin you flip. Most people don't work hard and have shitty coins to flip, but the people that do realize that the more work they put in, and the more they play the game correctly, the coin becomes more and more weighted in their favor, and the game becomes very easy to play because they're playing with a coin that's rigged for them to win.

 

[Graves]

Thank you very much for the advice. I guess it's hard for me to aim for $10K/mo in one year because my mindset isn't used to think about such large amounts of money and I haven't seen enough examples of such explosive growth... but hey, no one ever became a billionaire aiming low. I've raised my dream goal to $4000/month (around $1000/week) by 2012 for the moment. It's already a huge number for me, and I won't be disappointed to make half of that as long as there is growth potential.

Thursday, February 4th 2011

What do I plan to do today/in the very near future ? (check box when finished)

1.Administrative
[X] Fill out my paperwork

2.Bootstrapping

3.Business creation
[] Register a domain name + hosting account ?

[X] Choose business idea ! [make high school math and physics videos] (February 2011 -> May 2011. 4 months)
(Biggest advantage is combining my "studies" - ie school - with a business idea, as I need to go to a good college to keep getting financial support from parents. Probably harder to make this profitable than a facebook game or personal finance ebook, but there must be a way. )

**Mostly procrastinated today. Slept heavily, read old forum posts.

However, I found an idea that would actually make studying enjoyable ! I'll probably stick with this one, as covering the both syllabi is a major time commitment.

Trying to find the best way to monetize this. Already moderately high competition for math videos (but easily crushable - they're not very good marketers), no competition for physics. Maybe will make history & biology vids too. (EDIT : Actually I think I'm going combine studying & videomaking so I'll cover absolutely everything I have to study this year.)

Really pumped up about this ! Even if the project doesn't make me huge money, it can build massive "brand equity" for my future business ventures + nonprofit organization for education improvement (even though my education philosophy is the exact opposite of today's model ).
Making money seems preferable though. :>

 

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[Graves]

Friday, February 6th 2011

1. Administrative (about 15 minutes)

[] Call a university on Monday to confirm they recieved my application
[] Send a short but important (need to be done this month) call about high school diploma examination, also send a letter

2. Bootstrapping
On hold for the moment

3. Business Creation
[X] Open Youtube account
[] Make at least 15 minutes of physics video material using powerpoint + camtasia
[] Post the material on Youtube

Then :
[] Start planning how to complete the project within 4 months. Give details below

 

[Graves]

Did nothing the whole weekend. Felt bad about it. Decided the only way to break the cycle is to actually do something, so I'm firing up powerpoint now. Will do first chapter of senior year Physics (easiest).

 

[Graves]

Thursday, March 1st 2011

Wow, haven't posted in a long time.

So about 3 weeks ago I started feeling a sort of cognitive dissonance as I was studying. Since I think 'education' systems are flawed and have a deeply negative impact on society overall I felt like what I was doing (studying & sending apps for college, planning to do videos teaching useless trivia) was incongruent - which it is;

However, my parents, who think getting good grades and into a top college is the ONLY way to succeed EVER and people will think of them as deadbeat parents if I never get 'a top quality education' - despite the fact both never got a degree and we are living in a pretty nice neighboorhood - obviously expect me to make sure I get into college.
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This paralyzed me to no end and I went into deep procrastination again. So I've finally decided to do what I should've done as soon as I felt strange about this : use rational thinking.

Problem : I think schools and university programs are (not necessarily by intention) a disservice to humanity and hold back social progress by passing off useless trivia 'taught' by teachers who would rather do research as 'an education'. However, I will basically get disowned if I don't go to a decent college next year

Solution : Looks pretty simple now - make sure I get into college, I'll still have a lot of free time to educate myself, I might actually learn something, I'll have a lot of fun, and I can always drop out if I really need the extra money and time (although it will be hella difficult to convince my credential-obsessed parents, but I'll probably be able to cross that bridge when I come to it)

Action : finishing all this admnistrative stuff (letters, transcripts) for college apps, 1 essay to write about leadership. don't do anything else

[X] Called examination board to ask for official transcript. Woman on the other side of phone doesn't know much and isn't very cooperative; she's probably going to answer calls for rest of day, so going to call tomorrow morning and hope to get luckier. If fails, going down there in person.
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On a side note, it's amazing how my whole perception about career and life has changed over the last few years.

I went from (3 years ago) not knowing what the hell I'd do with my life to (2 years ago) wanting to get into a good college in France because I'd get a good job to (1 year ago) realizing higher education in France is REALLY REALLY BAD and that I'd get better employment opportunities studying abroad to (recently) realizing college degrees are meh investments.

And this is only the "career" part of what I learned.

I'm very grateful to be born in a generation where ideas can be spread easily and available at a very low cost.


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EDIT : Wow, I never thought writing about this would help but I now view college as a good thing again - although for completely different reasons. I see it as meeting lots of different persons, freedom from a meh family environment, fun, and a pretty long vacation abroad since I won't worry at all about grades.

 

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[Eos]

Akitoes. I am seem to be in a similar situation to you. Starting university in september and surrounded by family and friends who see gaining great wealth as an impossibility and unattainable dream. I am from the UK however.

In light of out similar situations - low capital, full time education etc perhaps we could help each other with regards ideas and tips. I am new to the forum but I will look out for your posts mate

David.

 

[austinjeff]

Akitoes, even though going to college may not be your ideal right now, and it's certainly not necessary to be successful, there is some good news. If you approach it the right way, the experience will be extremely valuable. You just have to understand where the real value is. It's not in the classes. Multiple studies have shown that the real value of a college education is the contacts you make.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Jerry Yang, David Filo (and more, I'm sure) all became billionaires by going to college, hooking up with brilliant people, and starting a business. I don't believe any of them ever graduated.

Anway, your idea for high school tutorial videos is excellent. Keep in mind the "pain points" that will virtually force your prospects to buy. In this market, I think that would be fear of not passing the state-mandated standardized tests that are required for graduation. (That's my hunch. You could get real data by doing keyword research.) But if that's the case, focus your videos on passing the tests.

I think that your idea of creating tutorials as you go along through your first year of college is excellent as well. (Though this is a very different market.) You could even do a membership site and market it to other first year students. Post your videos, and let them post their own. Have a discussion form. You could monetize if through ads, but if you charged a membership fee, you could justify more expensive marketing. You can buy mailing lists (Nextmark.com) of virtually all graduating seniors. Send them a postcard offering a month's free membership. It could be huge. Anyway, just some ideas.

I wish you the best of luck. You are on the right track.