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Fired Years Ago, Now Netting $22k/mo

biggeemac

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Yep, thats right, I was fired two hours ago. I WAS a senior systems administrator for a global managed services provider here in Dallas, TX. I am the first to accept personal responsibility for anything negligent I may have done, but we were at the tail end of migrating shitty hardware and software from one datacenter to another. The planning was shitty......everything was done wrong. I was putting out fires the entire time I worked there. We were COMPLETELY understaffed. There were frequent outages because of all this......the CEO was frequently getting his a$$ handed to him by our customer. I had been putting in 50-70 hour weeks and told that "it was just part of the job". I was just under my 6 month probationary period......no write-ups, never been talked to, perfect attendance and never heard ANYTHING but what a great job I was doing. The theory that my co-workers and I have is that the CEO needed someone to defer responsibility to. Someone that he could explain to the customer why there were so many outages.....and I was the chosen one.

I have been actively working on my project......you can see the details here . I guess I was too little too late.

For now, I will be attempting a PPC campaign this weekend. I have never done it before, so hopefully, it turns out well.

My warning to all of you is dont get caught with your pants down and stop running your mouth about your great ideas....take some action. Mine werent completely down, but they were down to my knees unfortunately. Most of our savings was spent on the startup products that we needed to get the vaporsphere going. I am a little scared and pretty stressed. I have a wife and three kids I am supporting and I am the breadwinner while we get the business off the ground. We were ok with being a single earner household, but the game just changed. I just wanted to do what I can to give some motivation to those who are contemplating getting started with SOMETHING.

TAKE ACTION TODAY !!
 
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nextgen

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I know the feeling being fired as I was recently fired two months ago and my probationary period was just supposed to end as well.

Try to keep your head up and keep working on your fastlane project. I know that when i got fired it made me work harder on my own project and it made me hungry in which I took action. Maybe its a good thing.
 

smarty

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Now you cannot go down anymore - only UP. So let this make you fearless on taking action. i was fired 8 months ago from a stupid CEO and in the same day i took some action on a project i didn't believe much. Since that day and now I'm earning 4 times more every month with that project than i was earning from that shitty salary.
 

Will B. Rich

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Keep your head up! I recently left my job on not so good terms too. Companies are really putting anyone with decision making power in terrible positions now with staffing.

All I could do was choose the lesser of two evils on a consistent basis and felt like I was dammed if I do and dammed if I don't all the time. Plus nobody gives credit or allowance for time spent putting out fires and it's become way too common for CEOs and bosses to deflect responsibility when it comes their way.

Moving forward is the best thing! I'm just getting back into my startup project I started as I was finishing college but abandoned during my time at work. Not trusting my gut and cost me a year and I'm lucky it didn't cost me more. Time to keep taking action and move forward with our goals!
 
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AmyQ

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I really appreciate the fact that you are using your rough experience to try and help/motivate others in the OP.

Having been in a bootstrapping household, I can empathize. Not having had children yet, I can't fully understand the level of pressure you are under.

I hope that your endeavors bring you great success!
 

biggeemac

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Thanks all.....not looking for any pity party, just trying to get over the fear at this point that has set in and not allow it to hinder my progress. Your well wishes are appreciated.
 

Era

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Being fired might be the best thing that ever happened happened to you. Now you can focus %110 of your time on your business. Get up early, stay up late. Always think about moving forward, one day you'll look back at this.
 
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Vigilante

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I hope everyone that reads this thread, whether you are 20 or 55, realizes that job security if you work for someone else is a myth. In most states, with most jobs... at will employment means you can be terminated at any time for any reason or no reason.

Does your husband or wife encourage you to "take a job because it is safer?" Have them read this thread. If you are an employee, at any level... you are dispensable.

Blaze your own path.
 

Thriftypreneur

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Yep, thats right, I was fired two hours ago. I WAS a senior systems administrator for a global managed services provider here in Dallas, TX.

Did you get fired from HostGator?
 

biggeemac

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Lol, no......my company was based out of Germany. Im a hostgator customer.
 
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AJ.

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As another IT guy... sorry dude.

We're plumbers.

As to getting fired to save the CEO's butt... wasn't there a story about a Chinese emperor, that didn't plan ahead correctly.
So his troops didn't have enough food supplies.
The emperor called his "supply dude in charge", and told him he was going to execute him.
The supply dude in charge complained that he had done nothing wrong.
The emperor said "I know... yet I need someone to blame. I'll take care of your family".

Or something of the sorts.
 

biggeemac

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Uh, yeah......I think I get it. Whatever......the CEO will only be able to pull the card he pulled today once....next time, his goose will be cooked. I'm fine, just had to get past the initial shock and hurt feelings. Tomorrow is kick-a$$ time.
 

Sir Ingenious

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Yup. Took a job in Manhattan NYC from midwestern Indiana a year and half ago.

Was so very excited to have that "life" - NYC, recent college graduate, mobile gaming studio, etc.

Took me 3 months to get that job, took me 3 months to get laid off.

Never even got a chance to get an apartment there either. Or even tour the city.

Back home I went thanks to a single guy or a group of a select few that altered my reality!


So yeah, the lesson here is this: eat what you kill, it tastes better that way.
 
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Astral Explorer

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This is an opportunity...

Also inspiration for others to get going before external pressures force you to grow
 
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andyredsox

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Sometimes being fired is so devastating that we overlook the "good" side of it.

Don't get me wrong.

Sometimes it takes giving up something important to really push yourself to the top.

Yes, somebody said earlier in this post that you can not go down anymore.

So you're next action is going up.

There are no more disruptions, you see.

You can give your 100% to being in the Fastlane.

Sure it's scary but you can get passed it.
 

OzzieMan

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I got fired one hour ago! I used to work as a social media analyst in this company for the last 2.5 years. I've been wanting to resign since a long time but didn't have something else to fall back on...

Well, mixed feelings right now. Its exciting when i think about the possibilities, its embarrassing when i think about what people will think when they hear that i got fired... and it feels uncertainty when u think about the difficulties that lie ahead.

Fingers crossed. I have this tiny little voice in my head saying "You're gona rock"... so I'll trust that and march ahead! :)
 
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Gale4rc

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Just an outside perspective: The vape market is very saturated right now. I doubt you're going to make a profitable campaign, I would look for other potential strategies... Going to local vape shops and selling your product to them might work? I got no idea what product you got so can't really tell.
 

Ninjakid

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My first thought when I saw the title of this thread was:
"AWWWWW YEEEEEEAH!!"
 

biggeemac

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So.....I dug this historical post to provide an update of where we are today, several years later.

My wife and I started working on our business three years ago. Our services are contracted from the state of Oregon. This month, after all bills, mortgages, and salaries are paid to our 5 staff members, our business will net us about $22k (our highest month yet). We are currently at capacity. I can now afford to leave my job if I choose to, and there is nothing stopping us from scaling more facilities and staff. I am currently refinancing one of my properties so that I have enough cash to complete the build of our new house.

My advice is to simply keep trying things until you find what gives you the results you are after. There is more than enough information on this site to allow anyone with the will, to become successful.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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So.....I dug this historical post to provide an update of where we are today, several years later.

My wife and I started working on our business three years ago. Our services are contracted from the state of Oregon. This month, after all bills, mortgages, and salaries are paid to our 5 staff members, our business will net us about $22k (our highest month yet). We are currently at capacity. I can now afford to leave my job if I choose to, and there is nothing stopping us from scaling more facilities and staff. I am currently refinancing one of my properties so that I have enough cash to complete the build of our new house.

My advice is to simply keep trying things until you find what gives you the results you are after. There is more than enough information on this site to allow anyone with the will, to become successful.

Damn!! Congrats, thread upgraded to NOTABLE. So excited for you and the wife!!
 

ItsAJackal

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So.....I dug this historical post to provide an update of where we are today, several years later.

My wife and I started working on our business three years ago. Our services are contracted from the state of Oregon. This month, after all bills, mortgages, and salaries are paid to our 5 staff members, our business will net us about $22k (our highest month yet). We are currently at capacity. I can now afford to leave my job if I choose to, and there is nothing stopping us from scaling more facilities and staff. I am currently refinancing one of my properties so that I have enough cash to complete the build of our new house.

My advice is to simply keep trying things until you find what gives you the results you are after. There is more than enough information on this site to allow anyone with the will, to become successful.

Congrats! Is it the Vaporsphere project or something else?
 
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biggeemac

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Congrats! Is it the Vaporsphere project or something else?
Nope, we are contracted for public services to the State of Oregon. I might run an AMA one day.
 
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biggeemac

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Today was the day I handed in my resignation. Feeling anxious......touch of nausea, but I'm confident that its the right time. I had a 1:1 with my boss......he already knew that this day would come. We are now netting over 30k a month, and there is literally no glass ceiling and little competition. I was already mentally checked out before the pandemic arrived. I stayed on....just in case. Turns out that many others in our line of business collapsed and closed down, just because they couldn't handle the mental strain of keeping the customers happy, and keeping themselves sane. Between my employer ramping up on the projects, and just the sheer mental stress that keeping the doors of our business open brought me, seeing the effects on my kids, and all of the other mental aspects of dealing with Covid, I couldn't take any more and decided to call it quits.
 

Tiago

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Congratulations! On to a next chapter in life :)
 

TSM

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This is a great story. So good to go back and re-read the post you wrote after being fired. Once things start to turn around, it's too easy to forget how scary it was at the time to be under pressure from responsibilities in the face of a very uncertain future.
But there is, for us all to see.
 
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Raja

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congrats!
 

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