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From Indecision to Commitment

Ampatch

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Hey Everyone,

I’m structuring this post so that I can both introduce myself and hopefully provide some value to someone who may have faced problems similar to mine.

Life Before TMF

I enrolled in college for Mechanical Engineering with no direction other than wanting to be an inventor from a young age. I was always told I was smart, and because of it I never developed proper discipline and work ethic. I eventually graduated college with a decent GPA, but didn’t take advantage of the opportunities to discover something I enjoyed.

I fell into the path of least resistance, taking jobs because they would hire me, rather than work hard and develop a skill in something I enjoyed. As defined by Napoleon Hill, I was a drifter.

I decided to stop numbing my discontent in video games and TV, which I was deeply addicted to. This put me on the path of self-improvement, looking for alternative means of income, and dreaming of a better life.

I tried and failed at being a day-trader in my year leading up to graduation. Even though I ran out of money and stopped three feet from gold, I learned the mechanics of the financial system, and had my first experience being completely obsessed with something.

I took an engineering job after graduation with optimism, and even enjoyed it for a while. It wasn’t long before I realized that senior engineers I was supposed to look up to were not as wealthy (family, fitness, freedom) as I assumed. I was starting to have doubts again.

The Red Pill

I was recommended the Millionaire Fastlane by John Sonmez of Simple programmer. I don’t need to tell you all what that was like, but it was nothing short of the red pill from the matrix. Not only did it confirm my suspicions, but it gave me a blueprint for how I could take my life into my own hands. I was empowered.

A New Direction

I was fully bought into entrepreneurship, but like many of you I was frozen in indecision. I knew I just had to find a need, but I was conveniently short of ideas. I’ve read TMF twice, and Unscripted 4-5 times over. I understood the concepts, but I couldn’t shake the “play it safe” mentality I had been raised on.

I left my job, my relationship, and moved, which left me a lot of time alone to think. I was terrified of committing to a path and wasting time if I failed, until I realized I was already wasting time doing nothing. The pain of inaction became stronger than the fear of failure, so I made a decision.

I thought about what I had enjoyed in the past, and decided that my Fastlane would be to build and sell software. I settled on Android development, because it was something I could teach myself, build myself, and quickly get experience interacting with customers. Having little experience coding , I taught myself Java by working through an intro book. I learned just enough until I felt comfortable diving into Android. Then I bought a beginner android book and set a schedule to finish the 650 pages in three months.

I blocked off time every evening and weekend to learn as quickly as possible, and hit my goal on the exact day I planned to finish. Learning to code was not easy, so this was a huge confidence boost.

You may think, as I did, that all this time could be considered “confusing preparation for busywork” (The Hunger Games for business). I see it as building a highly valuable skill that I will need for any type of software product or service I want create. I also now love to code.

Where I am now

I finished the book two months ago. My day job is unrelated to coding, so I’m currently building up my CV to start applying for a company that builds apps for clients. This will allow me to accelerate my development skills and learn the industry.

My Two Cents

I’m just starting my journey, but I can still share some things I have found valuable.
  • Commit to something valuable and then get good at it. I speak to so many smart people who bounce from interest to interest, never finishing anything.
  • Don’t read books, study them. If MJ spent three years writing a book that could change your life, would you just read it once? Book aren’t achievements, more isn’t always better.
  • Do less. If you’re like most people, you have "no time" and get distracted easily. Cut out activities from your life that are not contributing to your goals
  • Block off time and defend it aggressively.
  • Failing to plan is planning to fail. Load yourself up on things you need to do so that you stay focused during your blocked off time. And set deadlines.
My Questions for you:

1. I’ve been building an app to learn but it’s not solving any substantial need. I would like to work with real people and their problems. I have been suggested to reach out to nearby professors for work. At what point do you feel ready to take on real clients?

2. I have no experience selling or marketing. I have a technical mind. Does anyone have any resources that could help me develop these skills and mindset?

3. Any other suggestions from people who have followed a similar path?

Thanks for reading, I hope you got something out of this.
-Aaron
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Welcome to the forum. Awesome intro my friend, great to have ya.

2. I have no experience selling or marketing. I have a technical mind. Does anyone have any resources that could help me develop these skills and mindset?

When you have a product you believe in, it's pretty easy. I think people have a hard time selling when the product is just "meh" and isn't distinctive with value skew.
 

Ampatch

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Welcome to the forum. Awesome intro my friend, great to have ya.

When you have a product you believe in, it's pretty easy. I think people have a hard time selling when the product is just "meh" and isn't distinctive with value skew.

Thanks MJ!

Unscripted is a masterpiece. I reference it often and recommend it to anyone wanting financial freedom. Audio-book is great too.
 

Andy Black

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Welcome. Great intro.

I’m a techie too. I’ve done a braindump on sales in my signature.
 
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Ernman

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Great intro Ampatch and welcome aboard. You've got a wonderful journey ahead and there's a lot of folks here ready and willing to assist.
 

Hyperion

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Welcome Aaron! Your intro really resonated with me. I also obtained a degree in mechical engineering due to my love for inventing and creating. I also discovered that the wealth potential for an engineer employee was not as great as I previously thought. I identified strongly with being frozen with indecision and fear of committing to something not "safe" and wasting time.

I am now kicking myself for not focusing on software develpment in college. I have a few software ideas I'm pretty excited about, but I also have no knowledge or experience there (except C programing (arduino)).

Sorry I didn't help you with your questions, but I was just excited another person here that has such a similar background and interests as me. I wish you the best in your endeavors man!
 

Ampatch

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Welcome Aaron! Your intro really resonated with me. I also obtained a degree in mechical engineering due to my love for inventing and creating. I also discovered that the wealth potential for an engineer employee was not as great as I previously thought. I identified strongly with being frozen with indecision and fear of committing to something not "safe" and wasting time.

I am now kicking myself for not focusing on software develpment in college. I have a few software ideas I'm pretty excited about, but I also have no knowledge or experience there (except C programing (arduino)).

Sorry I didn't help you with your questions, but I was just excited another person here that has such a similar background and interests as me. I wish you the best in your endeavors man!

Hey Hyperion, thanks for your response.

Few kids really know what their doing when they graduate high school and go straight into college. I spent a lot of time wishing I had done things differently, but ultimately this is just more wasted time and energy.

If you have something you would like to try in software, my advice is to start right away with something very simple. Learn through production, and read / research as you come across problems you can't figure out. In a year will be glad you started when you did. You can learn really quickly on your own, there are plenty of resources out there. Don't stress over things like the best books or the best courses, just do a quick search and dive in.

Looking forward to seeing what you produce.
 
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Ampatch

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Here is my progress update a year later.

June 2019 - October 2019
I built a few small apps for practice and put them up on my GitHub. Nothing that was very impressive, but I improved my skills a lot. I applied for an internship type program and was waitlisted.

November 2019
I was laid off from my day job. Started applying to full-time paid Android developer positions.

December 2019
Interviewed again for the same internship, only to get denied again. I also started doing some volunteer development for a friend's tech startup.

January 2020 - April 2020
I began building another application, basing my design off an existing application. This one was much better than the previous few apps. This took about 2 months. Continued to apply to more jobs.

May 2020 - Now
After about 50 applications and a handful of interviews, I was finally able to land a great remote job as an Android Developer in my city.


What I've learned from trying to get this job:
  • Learning software development takes much more time and commitment than I expected, and the real experts will make you feel wildly incompetent in comparison.
  • Having solid teamwork, communication skills, and confidence will make you stand out in the software industry, and can partially make up for a lack of technical knowledge.
  • For getting your first job in the tech industry, social proof will prove the most valuable (jobs, freelancing, internships), then projects and education. If I were to do it over, I would find unpaid work as soon as possible instead of just doing solo projects.
  • Don't let relationships with friends and family deteriorate while you grind away at your goals.
 

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