The pinguin
PARKED
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Value/Post Ratio
0% - New User
- May 17, 2023
- 1
- 0
Here is my story.
I am 31, and slowly but surely, I see 32 arriving. What have I done all these years ?
I come from a quite wealthy -quasi-fastlaned- family. For all my life, I greatly benefited from this, in the form of the numerous activities I enjoy doing (horse riding, boating, music, etc…). However, this is not to say that I lived care free and happily.
The one thing that, even to this day I can’t fathom, is school. As soon as this whole travesty started, which in France is at 3, I could not stand it. I vividly remember my first entrance at the “école maternelle” and many other key moments that were full of crying and panic attacks. My parents tried different schools on me, and at different stages of my youth, but nothing ever changed. The problem was not any school in particular, but the fact that I ‘had to’ go to such a place, instead of just be free. Why did I have so little to say about my own person, that I could not even decide how to spend most of my awaken lifetime? “How will you have a good job and a good life if you don’t go to school”, I would then be told by pretty much all authority figures (especially my parents). My only escape were all my other activities, which I thoroughly enjoyed and, to this day, feel very lucky for.
As the years went on, I resigned myself to go on with the school system, but my grades were degrading, as did my attendance. I took refuge on the internet and soon discovered online gaming, which then was at its infancy. It completely changed my life and allowed me to cope with a reality I despised.
In the mean time, fellow classmates would applaud when I finally entered a classroom, after weeks of not showing up, while teachers would pick on me in front of everyone. My parents, whom status and money is solely due to their academic success, could not understand what was wrong with me (as did I).
Regardless, without knowing any better, and after failing it a first time (quite on purpose), I obtained my Baccalauréat and moved on to university, which in France is, at least, (almost) free. From there, things started to change as I discovered a strong taste for Physics. I worked countless hours, by passion, but also by fear of failing something that I was finally strongly identifying with. Fast forward a few years, and to the great satisfaction of my parents, I actually integrated one of the best engineering school in France, which considerably increased my value on the job market. However, more than anything else, it just showed me that I am not made for holding a corporate job and climbing some ladder, which was what most of my classmates were longing for (and what such schools are actively promoting), so I went back to academia and did a PhD in theoretical Physics instead.
These were the three best years of my life, as I had the unique opportunity to do whatever I’d like, as much regarding my topics of research as for my personal schedule (no 9 to 5). I worked my a$$ off though, but I worked for me, to satisfy my own curiosity. These were truly amazing times where I discovered that I had a very high degree of inner-accountability. I think that this trait was finally allowed to surface as I was not getting schooled, and thus put in a childish position anymore, where all I was allowed to do is what was asked of me without questioning a damn thing. I went on to find many things, and I would literally not exchange the intense joy and satisfaction produced by these discoveries against hundreds of millions.
At this point, you may wonder why am I here. I could simply pursue the academic route which appears so fulfilling, right? I am still greatly arguing with myself about it, but I have come to the conclusion that doing so would come at a dire opportunity cost.
To put things in context, I defended my phd more than 2 years ago and I am currently holding a post doctoral contract, which is a temporary researcher position. Doing so, I benefit from the exact same freedom I had during my PhD, and am getting paid ~25k a year for doing so. To get a more stable position (but not a better wage), I have some options, but am only considering the hardest one: a pure research position (i.e. no teaching involved). However, to have that you have to be selected from a wide pool of researcher trying to get it too, and you are judged on your academic track record, as well as on your research project. Of course, everybody has a very different track record and project so, after a little bit a obvious skimming, to select someone over someone else is necessarily done on quite an arbitrary basis, and you have to accept to jump through hoops and loops to get it. For me it would mean to sacrifice years of my life trying to check the right, arbitrary boxes, to satisfy the lords of academia. To be clear, I am not whining about this process, as I honestly don’t know how one could do better than this (in fact, I am questioning the legitimacy of such a system altogether, but this is a topic for another day). I am nonetheless evaluating the fact of spending more time and energy to enter such a system.
Cherry on top: I finally took some time to live a life that does not only revolve around physics, and it hit me like a truck that my income is way below the ones of my parents. I then realized that I could not possibly provide for the same experiences I benefited from for my own children, even in the best scenario possible, so here I am.
For a little bit less than two years now, I have been trying to make an escape from academia, or at least to cultivate another source of income that would allow me to quit playing the fool, just to end up in a position that I do not really envy, but without ending up in a 9 to 5.
My first attempts were made on YT, where I wanted to start a channel about science. However, for some reason, I do not manage to communicate my passion for physics easily, and coming up with a good topic along with a proper way to convey it takes me a disproportionate amount of time and effort. I ended up never posting anything.
On the other hand, I started a YT channel about the scammy nature of the banking system and many other things pissing me off a great deal. There, I posted a few videos and made some “shorts” of them and saw some traction (new subscribers, likes etc…), but still, I did not push through as it seems that the whole process of doing such videos is something I dread quite a lot.
A year ago things started to take a different turn. I was watching people creating brands and online stores that they bootstrapped through dropshipping, while simultaneously, and thanks to my wife, I got initiated to 3d printing. I saw on the internet that many were making nice chunks of money selling 3d printed objects so, 3 months ago, we launched our own brand of 3d printed home-deco.
Up to this date, we have not managed a single “real” sell, despite being on etsy, and now having our own website. However, we are seeing some traction on instagram, as we grew an account to now more than 600 followers, in a bit more than three months. We are even experiencing some “passive” growth, as I could not post anymore for the last three weeks due to an extremely busy schedule while the account still grew by 50 followers. Some reels where I am showcasing the building process of our products. now have more than 500 likes.
Here the issue I see is that, from all the reels we make, only the ones showcasing 3d printing in action and/or building objects are having traction. Because of it, we mainly attract people interested in 3d printing, and not in the product that we manufacture, so instead of converting potential buyers I ended up being asked a few times if my 3d models were available online.
We also have a good traction on FB reels, where some of the reels have got several thousands of views.
I also started to post one of the reels of YT short to see how it would work on this platform, but ended up getting banned for fraud and scamming, which I absolutely do not understand. I tried to appeal by send 2 mails already, but they are left unanswered to this day (more than one month later). As I was thinking about making longer form content on YT, I am wondering how I should approach this. Should I just create another account?
Regarding our value skew, I think that our 3d printer outputs a better quality than most of our competitors. Because of this we can showcase nice, smooth surfaces, which our largest competitor avoids. It seems however that the perceived quality of some of their products, which may partially be due to higher quality photos than ours. On the bright side, they have been in business for 7 years now, and I don’t think that our photos really are the issue here, as we got complimented a lot of time on them.
Still about our largest competitor, he “only” managed ~25k sales in this whole time (7 years), so I am also wondering if after all the demand for such products is really that high.
What’s next? I am thinking about making a post in “Execution”, where I would go in more details and update our progress on a regular basis.
For now, in the next few weeks I plan on launching a new type of home-deco product, which is already being sold by a few 3d printing workshops. However I think that our spin on it is quite unique but, and seems to be appreciated on social networks, but as usual, the market will decide.
I will also completely rebrand our website with my newly acquired understanding of branding and copywriting.
I am also wondering if we have too many products already, even if we did not make a single sell yet.
Anyway, I confess that I am quite lost as we do not have had any positive feedback loop on what we are doing so far, but we are not quitting any time soon.
If you got this far in my story, thanks a lot for your dedication. I hope you got something out of it and would love to hear your opinion/comments on it.
Finally, I just want to thank MJ DeMarco for his books. They were quite eye opening and gave us a much needed hope while being in the middle of this apparent desert crossing.
I am 31, and slowly but surely, I see 32 arriving. What have I done all these years ?
I come from a quite wealthy -quasi-fastlaned- family. For all my life, I greatly benefited from this, in the form of the numerous activities I enjoy doing (horse riding, boating, music, etc…). However, this is not to say that I lived care free and happily.
The one thing that, even to this day I can’t fathom, is school. As soon as this whole travesty started, which in France is at 3, I could not stand it. I vividly remember my first entrance at the “école maternelle” and many other key moments that were full of crying and panic attacks. My parents tried different schools on me, and at different stages of my youth, but nothing ever changed. The problem was not any school in particular, but the fact that I ‘had to’ go to such a place, instead of just be free. Why did I have so little to say about my own person, that I could not even decide how to spend most of my awaken lifetime? “How will you have a good job and a good life if you don’t go to school”, I would then be told by pretty much all authority figures (especially my parents). My only escape were all my other activities, which I thoroughly enjoyed and, to this day, feel very lucky for.
As the years went on, I resigned myself to go on with the school system, but my grades were degrading, as did my attendance. I took refuge on the internet and soon discovered online gaming, which then was at its infancy. It completely changed my life and allowed me to cope with a reality I despised.
In the mean time, fellow classmates would applaud when I finally entered a classroom, after weeks of not showing up, while teachers would pick on me in front of everyone. My parents, whom status and money is solely due to their academic success, could not understand what was wrong with me (as did I).
Regardless, without knowing any better, and after failing it a first time (quite on purpose), I obtained my Baccalauréat and moved on to university, which in France is, at least, (almost) free. From there, things started to change as I discovered a strong taste for Physics. I worked countless hours, by passion, but also by fear of failing something that I was finally strongly identifying with. Fast forward a few years, and to the great satisfaction of my parents, I actually integrated one of the best engineering school in France, which considerably increased my value on the job market. However, more than anything else, it just showed me that I am not made for holding a corporate job and climbing some ladder, which was what most of my classmates were longing for (and what such schools are actively promoting), so I went back to academia and did a PhD in theoretical Physics instead.
These were the three best years of my life, as I had the unique opportunity to do whatever I’d like, as much regarding my topics of research as for my personal schedule (no 9 to 5). I worked my a$$ off though, but I worked for me, to satisfy my own curiosity. These were truly amazing times where I discovered that I had a very high degree of inner-accountability. I think that this trait was finally allowed to surface as I was not getting schooled, and thus put in a childish position anymore, where all I was allowed to do is what was asked of me without questioning a damn thing. I went on to find many things, and I would literally not exchange the intense joy and satisfaction produced by these discoveries against hundreds of millions.
At this point, you may wonder why am I here. I could simply pursue the academic route which appears so fulfilling, right? I am still greatly arguing with myself about it, but I have come to the conclusion that doing so would come at a dire opportunity cost.
To put things in context, I defended my phd more than 2 years ago and I am currently holding a post doctoral contract, which is a temporary researcher position. Doing so, I benefit from the exact same freedom I had during my PhD, and am getting paid ~25k a year for doing so. To get a more stable position (but not a better wage), I have some options, but am only considering the hardest one: a pure research position (i.e. no teaching involved). However, to have that you have to be selected from a wide pool of researcher trying to get it too, and you are judged on your academic track record, as well as on your research project. Of course, everybody has a very different track record and project so, after a little bit a obvious skimming, to select someone over someone else is necessarily done on quite an arbitrary basis, and you have to accept to jump through hoops and loops to get it. For me it would mean to sacrifice years of my life trying to check the right, arbitrary boxes, to satisfy the lords of academia. To be clear, I am not whining about this process, as I honestly don’t know how one could do better than this (in fact, I am questioning the legitimacy of such a system altogether, but this is a topic for another day). I am nonetheless evaluating the fact of spending more time and energy to enter such a system.
Cherry on top: I finally took some time to live a life that does not only revolve around physics, and it hit me like a truck that my income is way below the ones of my parents. I then realized that I could not possibly provide for the same experiences I benefited from for my own children, even in the best scenario possible, so here I am.
For a little bit less than two years now, I have been trying to make an escape from academia, or at least to cultivate another source of income that would allow me to quit playing the fool, just to end up in a position that I do not really envy, but without ending up in a 9 to 5.
My first attempts were made on YT, where I wanted to start a channel about science. However, for some reason, I do not manage to communicate my passion for physics easily, and coming up with a good topic along with a proper way to convey it takes me a disproportionate amount of time and effort. I ended up never posting anything.
On the other hand, I started a YT channel about the scammy nature of the banking system and many other things pissing me off a great deal. There, I posted a few videos and made some “shorts” of them and saw some traction (new subscribers, likes etc…), but still, I did not push through as it seems that the whole process of doing such videos is something I dread quite a lot.
A year ago things started to take a different turn. I was watching people creating brands and online stores that they bootstrapped through dropshipping, while simultaneously, and thanks to my wife, I got initiated to 3d printing. I saw on the internet that many were making nice chunks of money selling 3d printed objects so, 3 months ago, we launched our own brand of 3d printed home-deco.
Up to this date, we have not managed a single “real” sell, despite being on etsy, and now having our own website. However, we are seeing some traction on instagram, as we grew an account to now more than 600 followers, in a bit more than three months. We are even experiencing some “passive” growth, as I could not post anymore for the last three weeks due to an extremely busy schedule while the account still grew by 50 followers. Some reels where I am showcasing the building process of our products. now have more than 500 likes.
Here the issue I see is that, from all the reels we make, only the ones showcasing 3d printing in action and/or building objects are having traction. Because of it, we mainly attract people interested in 3d printing, and not in the product that we manufacture, so instead of converting potential buyers I ended up being asked a few times if my 3d models were available online.
We also have a good traction on FB reels, where some of the reels have got several thousands of views.
I also started to post one of the reels of YT short to see how it would work on this platform, but ended up getting banned for fraud and scamming, which I absolutely do not understand. I tried to appeal by send 2 mails already, but they are left unanswered to this day (more than one month later). As I was thinking about making longer form content on YT, I am wondering how I should approach this. Should I just create another account?
Regarding our value skew, I think that our 3d printer outputs a better quality than most of our competitors. Because of this we can showcase nice, smooth surfaces, which our largest competitor avoids. It seems however that the perceived quality of some of their products, which may partially be due to higher quality photos than ours. On the bright side, they have been in business for 7 years now, and I don’t think that our photos really are the issue here, as we got complimented a lot of time on them.
Still about our largest competitor, he “only” managed ~25k sales in this whole time (7 years), so I am also wondering if after all the demand for such products is really that high.
What’s next? I am thinking about making a post in “Execution”, where I would go in more details and update our progress on a regular basis.
For now, in the next few weeks I plan on launching a new type of home-deco product, which is already being sold by a few 3d printing workshops. However I think that our spin on it is quite unique but, and seems to be appreciated on social networks, but as usual, the market will decide.
I will also completely rebrand our website with my newly acquired understanding of branding and copywriting.
I am also wondering if we have too many products already, even if we did not make a single sell yet.
Anyway, I confess that I am quite lost as we do not have had any positive feedback loop on what we are doing so far, but we are not quitting any time soon.
If you got this far in my story, thanks a lot for your dedication. I hope you got something out of it and would love to hear your opinion/comments on it.
Finally, I just want to thank MJ DeMarco for his books. They were quite eye opening and gave us a much needed hope while being in the middle of this apparent desert crossing.
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