For those who have "made it", If you had to restart today, with no money and no skills, what would you do and how would you do it?

[FirstLawMotion]

For those who have "made it", If you had to restart today, with no money and no skills, what would you do and how would you do it?

Some other circumstances to keep in mind:
- You are young so you have plenty of time.
- You live alone and are in charge of paying for your rent and living expenses.
- You are currently working a full-time job to support yourself.

How would you go about making it out of this situation and becoming successful in the fastlane? I'd be interested to hear about your strategy, the skills you would focus on developing, the project you would choose as your first one, etc.

 

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[Jeix]

I apologize for this massive wall of text, I hope it helps.

First off, I think "making it" can be very subjective. To you, it could mean being a millionaire. To me, it could mean having the freedom to live the life I want without worries, a lifestyle that can be achieved way before becoming a millionaire in the country I'm from (the one percenters are worth $1.2M on average, if you consider that's total assets, they don't have millions in liquidity).

So if you are only looking for the opinion of the people that made it in the former way I've described, I'm not your guy.

However, I do feel like my life has improved exponentially since following fastlane advice. I went from a shitty job that paid me €750/month for 40+ hours a week to a content creator that brings in €2000+/mo by posting once or twice a month. After securing that, I had all the time and the money I needed to start a real fastlane business, one that could really fulfill all five commandments. So I opened a hobby store that I'm trying to scale.
If you ask me, I've never been better. But did I "make it"? Not quite, from another point of view, I'm just starting out (my store is very new).
I've made all this progress in 4 years and 8 months so I would say I was very young at the time (24 then, turning 29 this July).

If I were to go back, I would have a similar situation from you but not an exact one. I had the luxury of being able to quit my job to pursue what is now my side income financing my lifestyle and my store. You don't seem to be in the same position.

So what would I do? I would do it again for sure and I'd probably do it a lot faster with everything I know now.
This is what I did:
1) find something you are interested or passionate about. Usually that's what competence stems from (ask a friend what you're good at, sometimes we judge ourselves too much and can't see it).
2) start talking about it online and gather around you like-minded individuals and people with similar interests (this could take years, for me it took 2-3 of consistent hard work like 8 uploads a month vs the 1-2 I'm doing now, usually for little to no money in return, unlike now)
3) monetize the audience (this you can start as early as the first follower but you obviously won't make much money)

This forum is an example of the above. MJ was a great entrepreneur, millionaire even, and knew what he was talking about. So he wrote a book and gathered a following in this forum. Now he gains ad revenue from it and charges for premium membership and exclusive events.
With this stream of income secured and only requiring minimum effort and maintenance, he's free to live his life or pursue other interests, just like I did with my new store.

Another important detail is that I chose a hobby store because I've been living and breathing card games my whole life, I could write articles and videos (and I have) on the topic for days, I play every game and I know them well. Over the years people in my niche have regarded me as an expert and I'm taking advantage of that.

Remember that it doesn't play out exactly like that for everyone, each of our stories will be different and that's the spice of life, but I hope I was able to help out a little bit despite not having exactly made it yet.

Cheers!

 

[savefox]

I apologize for this massive wall of text, I hope it helps.

First off, I think "making it" can be very subjective. To you, it could mean being a millionaire. To me, it could mean having the freedom to live the life I want without worries, a lifestyle that can be achieved way before becoming a millionaire in the country I'm from (the one percenters are worth $1.2M on average, if you consider that's total assets, they don't have millions in liquidity).

So if you are only looking for the opinion of the people that made it in the former way I've described, I'm not your guy.

However, I do feel like my life has improved exponentially since following fastlane advice. I went from a shitty job that paid me €750/month for 40+ hours a week to a content creator that brings in €2000+/mo by posting once or twice a month. After securing that, I had all the time and the money I needed to start a real fastlane business, one that could really fulfill all five commandments. So I opened a hobby store that I'm trying to scale.
If you ask me, I've never been better. But did I "make it"? Not quite, from another point of view, I'm just starting out (my store is very new).
I've made all this progress in 4 years and 8 months so I would say I was very young at the time (24 then, turning 29 this July).

If I were to go back, I would have a similar situation from you but not an exact one. I had the luxury of being able to quit my job to pursue what is now my side income financing my lifestyle and my store. You don't seem to be in the same position.

So what would I do? I would do it again for sure and I'd probably do it a lot faster with everything I know now.
This is what I did:
1) find something you are interested or passionate about. Usually that's what competence stems from (ask a friend what you're good at, sometimes we judge ourselves too much and can't see it).
2) start talking about it online and gather around you like-minded individuals and people with similar interests (this could take years, for me it took 2-3 of consistent hard work like 8 uploads a month vs the 1-2 I'm doing now, usually for little to no money in return, unlike now)
3) monetize the audience (this you can start as early as the first follower but you obviously won't make much money)

This forum is an example of the above. MJ was a great entrepreneur, millionaire even, and knew what he was talking about. So he wrote a book and gathered a following in this forum. Now he gains ad revenue from it and charges for premium membership and exclusive events.
With this stream of income secured and only requiring minimum effort and maintenance, he's free to live his life or pursue other interests, just like I did with my new store.

Another important detail is that I chose a hobby store because I've been living and breathing card games my whole life, I could write articles and videos (and I have) on the topic for days, I play every game and I know them well. Over the years people in my niche have regarded me as an expert and I'm taking advantage of that.

Remember that it doesn't play out exactly like that for everyone, each of our stories will be different and that's the spice of life, but I hope I was able to help out a little bit despite not having exactly made it yet.

Cheers!

Mj wrote the book because he didn't care if it would sell or not. He was already free and not because he followed his passion. You need to start a business that solves a problem for someone or fills a gap in the market. Did you choose to open a hobby store just because it was your passion or there was a real need for it in your market? Was it difficult for people to find products that you sell before you started the store?

 

[ProcessPro]

For those who have "made it", If you had to restart today, with no money and no skills, what would you do and how would you do it?

Some other circumstances to keep in mind:
- You are young so you have plenty of time.
- You live alone and are in charge of paying for your rent and living expenses.
- You are currently working a full-time job to support yourself.

How would you go about making it out of this situation and becoming successful in the fastlane? I'd be interested to hear about your strategy, the skills you would focus on developing, the project you would choose as your first one, etc.

I haven't made it yet but trying. The step I'm working on, which I think makes a solid first step, as you seem to know per your question, is to learn a skill.

A few pointers:
a-Charge based on value, not time or not even effort
b-The closer you are to the sale, the easier it is to justify your price
c-Per b, the easier it is to justify a commission arrangement as well

Anything in sales or marketing might come close to meeting those criteria.

What do you think? And what are you working on?

 

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[Jeix]

Mj wrote the book because he didn't care if it would sell or not. He was already free and not because he followed his passion. You need to start a business that solves a problem for someone or fills a gap in the market. Did you choose to open a hobby store just because it was your passion or there was a real need for it in your market? Was it difficult for people to find products that you sell before you started the store?

Never said he cared to sell it, I was using it as an example to compare with what I did. The end result was the same, regardless if it had been his main goal or not.
The idea is that a problem you have is also a problem other people similar to you will have and you can be the one solving it.
About my store, I talked about this in my progress thread, we were both competent about it & found a market we thought needed it (a town with almost 100k people where the only store was a tiny one run by a bitter old woman everyone hated).
However, when you are making content online aimed at people like yourself, there's always a market (the internet is too big for there not to be and the content industry just keeps growing), the main deciding factor will be quality and expertise. If you can nail those, you'll get an audience.

 

[heavy_industry]

If you have the growth mindset, you will never get to a point in your life where you could say "I've made it". You will always want to do more, and be more.

You can become successful at almost anything. It's much more important how you do things, rather than what is the specific niche that you've chosen.

Learning the right strategy and approach to life can't be summarized in a single answer. There is a lot of wisdom to be found on this forum. Reading the #gold threads is a great start:

Gold Threads

The Best of The Fastlane Forum

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Lex DeVille]

When I was young, living on my own, and had a full-time job, I learned a skill first. I learned how to make people's faces from Lego. Had around $2k saved.

So I quit my job to go sell my product.

I went back to a previous employer to pitch my product and made my first sale. Then I bought a tent and took my products to local festivals to increase exposure. The product attracted local news outlets and got me in the papers and on television. That gave me additional exposure which lead to more sales.

After a few months, and due to my lack of experience, I ran out of money, was forced to vacate my apartment, moved in with my parents, then got kicked out, and finally found myself living with my girlfriend's parents.

After ALL of that, I wasn't even close to making it...

So I started over and tried again, and again, and again, and again.

Eventually, more and more of the things I tried worked instead of failing.

Twelve years later, I own my life, but I would just be another $13/hr employee right now if I hadn't taken that first chance. It was a hard road, and I'll be forever grateful to my younger self for having the courage to walk it.

If I could change one thing, I would've kept my job longer until initial sales were more stable. It's hard to build a business when you can't even keep a roof over your head.

 

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[Andy Black]

For those who have "made it", If you had to restart today, with no money and no skills, what would you do and how would you do it?

Some other circumstances to keep in mind:
- You are young so you have plenty of time.
- You live alone and are in charge of paying for your rent and living expenses.
- You are currently working a full-time job to support yourself.

How would you go about making it out of this situation and becoming successful in the fastlane? I'd be interested to hear about your strategy, the skills you would focus on developing, the project you would choose as your first one, etc.

I'm not sure it was helpful to prefix your question by only asking people who've "made it" to respond. As you can see, it's started a conversation about what defines "making it", and it may exclude people from responding who might have great advice for you but don't feel they've made it yet.

Anyway...

You're young, have a job, live alone, and have plenty of time.

You've internet access, can use a computer, have excellent written English, and are keen to no longer work for other people.

What's your job? What skills and experience do you have that people have paid you for or that you help people regularly with?

What's your ideal lifestyle?

If it was New Years Eve 2023 and you looked back on this year, what needs to have happened for you to be happy with progress?

 

[Kak]

This is a good question.

I believe made-it implies that the journey is done. Mine will likely never be done. It’s not my personality type to be done. But, I believe I have some unique wisdom to share on the topic.

To summarize an entire thread I did on the topic five years ago, I would do something so incredibly big and audacious that I had no choice but to reach out of my own skill set, financial resources, and time availability. I wouldn’t touch something that wasn’t bigger than me.

AMA - What I would do if I started today... And Why...

This message is in response to a private message from @inputchip but it will likely be valuable in the open... It is short and sweet. Let me start with what I do... I own 4 individual businesses in 3 very different industries, at least one of each B2C, B2B and B2G. I own a few cash-flowing...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Antifragile]

I am more like @Kak - never expect to “make it”. So I echo the post above.

But if I could travel back in time and tell myself something, it’d be:

Less of:

• Expecting
• Hoping
• Wishing

More of:

• Doing
• Being
• Becoming

Step 1 - cover your basic needs. Get a job if you have to etc.
Step 2 - find a way to turn $1 into $2
Step 3 - learn to do that on massive scale. Do bigger, be better, become the best you can.

 

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[FirstLawMotion]

I apologize for this massive wall of text, I hope it helps.

First off, I think "making it" can be very subjective. To you, it could mean being a millionaire. To me, it could mean having the freedom to live the life I want without worries, a lifestyle that can be achieved way before becoming a millionaire in the country I'm from (the one percenters are worth $1.2M on average, if you consider that's total assets, they don't have millions in liquidity).

So if you are only looking for the opinion of the people that made it in the former way I've described, I'm not your guy.

However, I do feel like my life has improved exponentially since following fastlane advice. I went from a shitty job that paid me €750/month for 40+ hours a week to a content creator that brings in €2000+/mo by posting once or twice a month. After securing that, I had all the time and the money I needed to start a real fastlane business, one that could really fulfill all five commandments. So I opened a hobby store that I'm trying to scale.
If you ask me, I've never been better. But did I "make it"? Not quite, from another point of view, I'm just starting out (my store is very new).
I've made all this progress in 4 years and 8 months so I would say I was very young at the time (24 then, turning 29 this July).

If I were to go back, I would have a similar situation from you but not an exact one. I had the luxury of being able to quit my job to pursue what is now my side income financing my lifestyle and my store. You don't seem to be in the same position.

So what would I do? I would do it again for sure and I'd probably do it a lot faster with everything I know now.
This is what I did:
1) find something you are interested or passionate about. Usually that's what competence stems from (ask a friend what you're good at, sometimes we judge ourselves too much and can't see it).
2) start talking about it online and gather around you like-minded individuals and people with similar interests (this could take years, for me it took 2-3 of consistent hard work like 8 uploads a month vs the 1-2 I'm doing now, usually for little to no money in return, unlike now)
3) monetize the audience (this you can start as early as the first follower but you obviously won't make much money)

This forum is an example of the above. MJ was a great entrepreneur, millionaire even, and knew what he was talking about. So he wrote a book and gathered a following in this forum. Now he gains ad revenue from it and charges for premium membership and exclusive events.
With this stream of income secured and only requiring minimum effort and maintenance, he's free to live his life or pursue other interests, just like I did with my new store.

Another important detail is that I chose a hobby store because I've been living and breathing card games my whole life, I could write articles and videos (and I have) on the topic for days, I play every game and I know them well. Over the years people in my niche have regarded me as an expert and I'm taking advantage of that.

Remember that it doesn't play out exactly like that for everyone, each of our stories will be different and that's the spice of life, but I hope I was able to help out a little bit despite not having exactly made it yet.

Cheers!

Congratulations on your success. This is great advice thanks.

 

[FirstLawMotion]

When I was young, living on my own, and had a full-time job, I learned a skill first. I learned how to make people's faces from Lego. Had around $2k saved.

So I quit my job to go sell my product.

I went back to a previous employer to pitch my product and made my first sale. Then I bought a tent and took my products to local festivals to increase exposure. The product attracted local news outlets and got me in the papers and on television. That gave me additional exposure which lead to more sales.

After a few months, and due to my lack of experience, I ran out of money, was forced to vacate my apartment, moved in with my parents, then got kicked out, and finally found myself living with my girlfriend's parents.

After ALL of that, I wasn't even close to making it...

So I started over and tried again, and again, and again, and again.

Eventually, more and more of the things I tried worked instead of failing.

Twelve years later, I own my life, but I would just be another $13/hr employee right now if I hadn't taken that first chance. It was a hard road, and I'll be forever grateful to my younger self for having the courage to walk it.

If I could change one thing, I would've kept my job longer until initial sales were more stable. It's hard to build a business when you can't even keep a roof over your head.

Awesome story, thanks for sharing.

 

[FirstLawMotion]

I'm not sure it was helpful to prefix your question by only asking people who've "made it" to respond. As you can see, it's started a conversation about what defines "making it", and it may exclude people from responding who might have great advice for you but don't feel they've made it yet.

Anyway...

You're young, have a job, live alone, and have plenty of time.

You've internet access, can use a computer, have excellent written English, and are keen to no longer work for other people.

What's your job? What skills and experience do you have that people have paid you for or that you help people regularly with?

What's your ideal lifestyle?

If it was New Years Eve 2023 and you looked back on this year, what needs to have happened for you to be happy with progress?

What's my job:
- I work in technical support.

What skills and experiences do I have that I help people with regularly:
- More than anything, people often ask for my help when it comes to writing. Either editing/proofreading or helping with creative ideas in subjects such as philosophy.

If it was New Year's Eve 2023 and I looked back on this year, what would need to have happened for me to be happy with my progress?
- Hundreds of hours of "deep work" put into creating a Fastlane business. Whether I succeed or fail is not of utmost importance. What's most important is that I try.
- Elimination of bad habits and implementation of good habits.

 

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[redcrimson]

I apologize for this massive wall of text, I hope it helps.

First off, I think "making it" can be very subjective. To you, it could mean being a millionaire. To me, it could mean having the freedom to live the life I want without worries, a lifestyle that can be achieved way before becoming a millionaire in the country I'm from (the one percenters are worth $1.2M on average, if you consider that's total assets, they don't have millions in liquidity).

So if you are only looking for the opinion of the people that made it in the former way I've described, I'm not your guy.

However, I do feel like my life has improved exponentially since following fastlane advice. I went from a shitty job that paid me €750/month for 40+ hours a week to a content creator that brings in €2000+/mo by posting once or twice a month. After securing that, I had all the time and the money I needed to start a real fastlane business, one that could really fulfill all five commandments. So I opened a hobby store that I'm trying to scale.
If you ask me, I've never been better. But did I "make it"? Not quite, from another point of view, I'm just starting out (my store is very new).
I've made all this progress in 4 years and 8 months so I would say I was very young at the time (24 then, turning 29 this July).

If I were to go back, I would have a similar situation from you but not an exact one. I had the luxury of being able to quit my job to pursue what is now my side income financing my lifestyle and my store. You don't seem to be in the same position.

So what would I do? I would do it again for sure and I'd probably do it a lot faster with everything I know now.
This is what I did:
1) find something you are interested or passionate about. Usually that's what competence stems from (ask a friend what you're good at, sometimes we judge ourselves too much and can't see it).
2) start talking about it online and gather around you like-minded individuals and people with similar interests (this could take years, for me it took 2-3 of consistent hard work like 8 uploads a month vs the 1-2 I'm doing now, usually for little to no money in return, unlike now)
3) monetize the audience (this you can start as early as the first follower but you obviously won't make much money)

This forum is an example of the above. MJ was a great entrepreneur, millionaire even, and knew what he was talking about. So he wrote a book and gathered a following in this forum. Now he gains ad revenue from it and charges for premium membership and exclusive events.
With this stream of income secured and only requiring minimum effort and maintenance, he's free to live his life or pursue other interests, just like I did with my new store.

Another important detail is that I chose a hobby store because I've been living and breathing card games my whole life, I could write articles and videos (and I have) on the topic for days, I play every game and I know them well. Over the years people in my niche have regarded me as an expert and I'm taking advantage of that.

Remember that it doesn't play out exactly like that for everyone, each of our stories will be different and that's the spice of life, but I hope I was able to help out a little bit despite not having exactly made it yet.

Cheers!

Congrats on all the success you have with your content creating! This lowkey is solid advice to start a youtube channel.

 

[Andy Black]

What's my job:
- I work in technical support.

What skills and experiences do I have that I help people with regularly:
- More than anything, people often ask for my help when it comes to writing. Either editing/proofreading or helping with creative ideas in subjects such as philosophy.

If it was New Year's Eve 2023 and I looked back on this year, what would need to have happened for me to be happy with my progress?
- Hundreds of hours of "deep work" put into creating a Fastlane business. Whether I succeed or fail is not of utmost importance. What's most important is that I try.
- Elimination of bad habits and implementation of good habits.

Technical support as in IT support? And you're good at writing? Pretty good combination.

While you're putting in hundreds of hours of deep work creating a business, see if you can focus on serving people somehow, and getting paid. The market isn't going to pay you to learn, put in hours, or build stuff - unless it helps them.

 

[DavidePaco00]

When I was young, living on my own, and had a full-time job, I learned a skill first. I learned how to make people's faces from Lego. Had around $2k saved.

So I quit my job to go sell my product.

I went back to a previous employer to pitch my product and made my first sale. Then I bought a tent and took my products to local festivals to increase exposure. The product attracted local news outlets and got me in the papers and on television. That gave me additional exposure which lead to more sales.

After a few months, and due to my lack of experience, I ran out of money, was forced to vacate my apartment, moved in with my parents, then got kicked out, and finally found myself living with my girlfriend's parents.

After ALL of that, I wasn't even close to making it...

So I started over and tried again, and again, and again, and again.

Eventually, more and more of the things I tried worked instead of failing.

Twelve years later, I own my life, but I would just be another $13/hr employee right now if I hadn't taken that first chance. It was a hard road, and I'll be forever grateful to my younger self for having the courage to walk it.

If I could change one thing, I would've kept my job longer until initial sales were more stable. It's hard to build a business when you can't even keep a roof over your head.

Hello!

Just out of curiosity, may I ask what did you tried after making poeple's faces with legos?

Thanks

 

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