Have you had your "FTE"? (Or Was it an FTM?!)

[mike24601]

Serving in the military gave me an awful hatred of authority figures. Once I finished my time and went back to school I was free to live life on my own terms again. I was pretty poor, but for a few years I didn't *have* to work, as I lived on scholarships and things. Now I work a job with virtually zero supervision, I just have to show up when I'm scheduled and I don't have to hear anything from anyone. This sealed the deal for me, I would never be happy in another situation so going Fastlane is the only solution.

 

[Hai]

FTE #1: Employed in a warehouse. I was sick and my body was weak as F*ck, coughing all day.
I couldn´t be absent for more than 2 days or they would fire me. So, while sick, I went to work. Waking up at 4am to go to work, even though my body is almost collapsing. Manual labor forced my back to hurt. There is no place to sit. 2 hours of commuting every day and "1 hour" of breaks, leaving just 4h of time every day.
When I was at work, they asked me if I wanted to work on saturday, because I was missing.
It´s work alike with slavery.

I resigned shortly after.

 

[EvanOkanagan]

My FTE... about 7 years ago being so broke I had to pay for gas in quarters.

 

[Dan1el]

Losing my first love who I shared my life with for 9 years (at 20 years old!) because she couldnt stand my shit anymore.
That wake-up call created a fire within me that is still burning to this date, leading me to change and improve every single area of my life.

 

[Longinus]

A few years ago, we got terrible year results (again) in the company I work for. My boss told me: "You know what to do. Cut more working hours of the employees."

In his opinion it wasn't because we weren't looking for new clients and making shitty prices (which was partly his job). I argued with him and almost lost my job.

Since then I'm stigmatized in the entire group, while I was actually thinking in their favor.

 

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[WinTheDay]

I've had plenty of FTM's over the past 2 years.

Many being from jobs and past relationships but none of them seemed to last much longer than a few days or weeks at best.

Then finally a FTE happened at 20 years old, a few months ago actually. While I was working as a valet driver ironically enough and our manager had just ran off with a week and a halfs worth of pay, about $350 for me. Then one of the workers who was supposedly a friend of mine took over and took all of the hours and started treating us like pieces of shit all while giving himself a pay raise. Nothing pissed me off so bad than to be literally taken advantage of by someone I was just on the same level as.

So I did what anyone who was wired the same as us would do. I tried to start my own F*cking Valet company with one of the workers who is a good buddy of mine, pitched my idea to the local barbershop and was able to get started made $70 bucks the first day but that ultimately failed relatively quickly. My buddy went back to work for the Valet spot but I said no way in hell I am going back there so I am currently on my 6th attempt on my Entrepreneur journey with 5 failures on my belt. The difference is that I don't have a choice, my FTE put me in a do or die situation, I've been working hard daily and just keep "turning the gumball machine" until my gold one comes out. Since my event I stopped dabbling, I stopped taking daily/weekly breaks from business, I've gone all in.

 

[G-Man]

My F*ck this event was not a single event but an amalgamation of thoughts and experiences which ended up tilting the scale away from conventional beliefs and action. I had been a little piece of shit that says "F*ck this" to everything long before I started my journey to the Fastlane. But I have to say that before I knew about the fastlane my rebellious perspective and contrarian attitude always led me to inaction because I simply did not see a path that I found agreeable. I'll try and condense some of the relevant information so that you guys can get a feel for how my life took shape.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd start out by saying that I had an extremely privileged upbringing. My father made tons of money so I grew up with all of the nice things that I could have wanted. We stayed at our beach house when we weren't at school - which I always made sure to get just good enough grades in to appease my parents. Essentially I would do the bare minimum and then just F*ck around in my off time like most kids do.

While my parents had money covered, this didn't mean that I was raised in a nurturing environment as far as emotions went. My parents always fought and my father was quite... I don't want to say abusive... but a real dick. The man worked all day and when he was back home it just didn't seem like he wanted to be putting up with kids (which I can understand).

Well - the reason why I am saying this is because it instilled within me the idea that money and happiness weren't necessarily interchangeable. My father manifested the exact figure of someone who had material success handled without all of the qualities that made it worthwhile. Because of this and many other complicated things I became somewhat of a spiritual hippy and one of those rich snobs that everyone on this forum would find reprehensible - someone who thinks money doesn't matter.

I simply lived without any concerns for the future. Full F*ckboi status. At this time my parents were already divorced and my mom was permanently bed-ridden with depression.

As I got older my mother's financial situation became worse and worse and my brother's drug abuse became worse and worse. I already had my head very well on my shoulders at this point, but the missing piece in my life was responsibility which I never had. Trying to support them both is what really lead me to this path. Before, I just wanted to "follow my passion" and all of that shit, but seeing what I could have done to help them if I had money changed things. At the same time I didn't want to let money drive my life like it did my father's.

I wanted to enjoy my life and have money, which seemed like a contradiction (because of what my upbringing and society had engrained within me) so it was always a black and white dichotomy of either do what you love and probably be broke or or be rich and have little opportunity to enjoy it.

I don't remember what brought me across The Millionaire Fastlane , but after I read the book it finally solidified a goal in an otherwise aimless life.

MJ, I don't think that I have ever said this properly, but your words turned me from a vagabond to a crusader. Like a father you unbuckled me, took me out of the back seat, sat me down behind the wheel, looked me in the eyes and said "it's time for you to drive."

For that I will always be grateful.

I know this is going to sound crazy, but I actually feel bad for the vast majority of "rich kids" I've met in my life. As a group, they are some of the most ill-adjusted and ill-prepared people I've ever met, and almost every one has at least one sibling that's in the basement popping pills.

Good on you, though @MrSterlock for trying to be the "man of the house" so to speak.

 

[Supa]

It was a hot summer day.
3 months after graduation.
3 months of freedom. Happy to be done with school. Great weather. Spending most days on the lake. Playing volleyball. Staying up until late at night. Sleeping in.
3 months without any worries at all.
Just 3 or 4 more days until I'd start my very first job.
Wasn't 18 at that time, so a friend was driving me home after another day at the lake. Probably one of the last that summer.

"Damn, just a few more days, then I have to start at that job" I said to him.
"Yeah, that's life man" he said, "as soon as you're done with school this is how life looks like"
"What you mean?" I asked him.
"You're living from weekend to weekend" he said, "and on week days, you are looking forward to your weekend".
The days following this short conversation, there were questions running through my head.

Is this everything?
That's what life is about?
Doing the same boring shit for 40 years? And then what? I mean 40 years is 40 years.
40 years of doing shit you don't enjoy?
What the F*ck is this?

Those questions didn't lead to anything big back then.
But it was the first time I felt like there's something wrong with this job-working-lifestyle.
I never got rid of that attitude.
Then I found TMF .

 

[gatorgus]

My FTE happened last year after I, through some hard and ingenuity, landed a $300k a year account for the company I work for. I am a Senior Manager and have no responsibility for sales, but the company has long touted rewarding those who go above and beyond and find new business. Not only was I not rewarded for my achievement, I wasn't even given a thank you by the owner of the company. Eff this. Related to this event, I can no longer work for spoiled second generation owners who are more interested in everything else than running the business. In fact, I don't want to work for anyone else, period. A regular job doesn't carry meaning for me anymore. I want to make a difference and make people's lives better in some way, not help make other, unappreciative people richer in jobs that have no real upside or meaning. Lastly, on a closing note, I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I'm also way smarter than the owners of our company, and dog gonnit I deserve to be paid like it.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I was 20 years old.
Working as a parking valet.
It is raining so hard I can barely see... and I have to run through this rain to pickup some lady's shitty 20 year old Toyota Corolla.
Door won't open.
Window is rolled down so I climb through it to get into the car.
Car is full of roaches, half eaten McDonald's food, and smells like shit.
Return the car and the lady yells at me for getting her car wet.

F*ck that event.

Now that's an FTE. The more vivid, the more poignant. Featured+

 

[G-Man]

And they told me that nothing was wrong. And maybe I wouldn't be in this pickle if I made a few more calls each day and did an educational dinner.

You know you're screwed when a 5 figure bonus disappears and they say it's because you're not making enough phone calls. My guess is you have a supervisor that doesn't like seeing his salesmen make more than him.

I started off poor so even being able to pay rent felt good.

@SteveO I always like your often 180 other direction take on things. You might be the most positive dude on the internet.

 

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[TonyStark]

My FTE was when I was 19 and in college. I had already lazily enrolled in a subpar university in a city away from home, and decided it wasn't for me.

 

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[ZF Lee]

@MJ DeMarco , I really waited for such a thread!
Thank you...I'm in a mood for a rant.

What was my 'F*ck this event'?

I have major and minor FTEs which put me into the UNSCRIPTED arenas...

My MAJOR event would be seeing my girl go through the SCRIPTED framework of college education and eventually a job.
Not only did her choice of subject didn't reflect her (even for 'do what you love'), but I knew the degree and eventually the line of work she would pursue would SUCK the life out of her.

She would be put into an environment where she would be faced with mediocrity, unproductive peer pressure, energy wasting endeavours and dreams with no chance of success, or worse, borrowed from the so-called 'experts'.

She would live far from those who really cared about her, and she would find her time slowly sapping away, until she had no time at all to spend!

She would be killed in failure in jobs or projects that never had a chance of success in the beginning. As Fastlaners, we evaluate failure and go to places with less chances of failure and higher chances of success, or we manipulate the forces. But she will have NO control over them all!

Sure, a college degree would earn her a decent salary, a qualification to be admired at. Not everyone can go for a degree. But if that move will kill the best of her, leaving her to be nothing but a SCRIPTED drone, I will not let it happen to her.

I was furious when I realised it in the months after she left. I started blaming everyone. Blaming her parents, our society, her, myself, everyone on the streets, then I realised nothing would happen if I continued blaming.

I went through much agony. I read books like crazy, I asked help from friends and strangers. I started crazy things that even now I don't believe I had done. I got heckled, mocked, jeered.

I became an outcast. But I don't care.It's been a year and a half now.....

It feels like a battle sometimes. Not for my own salvation. But for another's. Some of you fear failing. But I think I would rather die than let my beloved to be harmed, or made into a mindless drone controlled by societal controls! Five years of 'dying' in making a Fastlane or fifty years of regret and destruction on the Slowlane/SCRIPTED track?

No brainer choice.

All I want for my girl is to be given the time and financial resources that far exceeds the capacities of the SCRIPTED framework to pursue her greatest dreams, in the prime of her life. I want her to know that she does not need to sacrifice horribly even for security. That is not security. That is extortion. Besides, I want her to spend her life growing and living to the fullest, a wealth that so few people get to enjoy.

As for minor events, after the UNSCRIPTED / Fastlane framework opened my eyes to detect needs, the pet peeves of crappy websites, scam identifications and bad business practices have motivated me to pursue an UNSCRIPTED business building that will not carry on these parasitic sins. I got a bit tired of seeing ordinary consumers go to hell with crappy goods and services, and being ripped off too. But that is still minor, as there are always alternative services around.

 

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[JWelch]

I don't consider my FTE to be a single event but a hodgepodge of FTM's over a few years of working for the company I am currently employed with.

They were bought out about 8 years ago by a global corporation and for the last 5 years everything from wages to benefits to work schedules to bonuses has been slashed. You name it, it's worse than it was.

For example, recently a man retired who worked for the company for 40 years. Instead of hiring a new guy, management decided they could save more by having a few of us learn his job and do it on top of doing our own job. No extra pay for the extra work or anything.

We also received a cost of living raise in January of a whole 16¢ per hour... you read that right.
As it were the company would also pay for 15 minutes of wash up time at the end of the day. These guys would get an extra .5 hours of overtime per day adding up to 2.5 hours per week because we had a 15 minute meeting before start time every day as well. Well they took that wash up time away and the meeting away at the same time as the raise which actually equated to about a 30-50 dollar per week pay cut. Peanuts I know, but that's how the SCRIPT reads.
The list of bullshit like this over the years is very long it's almost like bad news every day you walk in.

Had I not had a wife and two kids I would've quit a long time ago but as of now we are currently working on our house and it will be listed for sale next month.
After we sell we are relocating from Michigan to Texas and I'm following through with my entrepreneurial goals. I'll have enough money to live on for about 2 years whether or not I earn a dime during that time.

Nothing like holding a gun to your own head to say "get your a$$ to work"!

 

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[Waspy]

Not sure it's my FTE. But sure has kicked me into overdrive.

I'm really sick of my slowlane job at the moment. So I thought "I'll take a week off and make some serious progress on my fastlane" you know for a bit of re-motivation.

Approach my boss.

"Sorry, no availability until November"

I have voluntarily put myself in prison.

Someone has the entire control over my time, where I have to be, and when.

F*ck This.

 

[Aaron T]

I have had so many but one of the biggest happened to me back in 1993-94.

I had already made more than 7 figures. Was walking around with ~3-5k in my pockets at any point in time. Drove a 1991 ZR1 Corvette. Thought I was a big shot but still was a kid. Recently married, accidentally going to become a father sooner than ready only 22-23 years old. OK, so that wasn't the worst bit. But here is the reality.

My debt was through the roof. I wasn't using that money to pay things down the way I should have been. I was spending like crazy. I had 2 other cars in addition to the Corvette. All of them financed. The home, yep.. financed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had no health insurance to speak of. Turns out my wife's pregnancy was a very high risk one. She ended up being hospitalized the majority of it. 7 months. Those medical bills were fearful. IRS decided I hadn't been paying enough on top of it. The company I was working for got into some legal troubles and my job disappeared. Soon enough when I thought I had an abundance of money turned into a lack of money in a hurry.

Before my daughter was born I ended up ~180k in debt with nothing left. I ended up losing my home, cars I could no longer pay for but one of them. I put everything into storage that was left. Mostly books, and a single computer system of mine. Things I knew I could use to get myself out of my situation. I kept some clothing. My wife didn't know at the time. She was in the hospital. I hid it from her. I shouldn't have, but that is another story. I lived in the car. I didn't have a good relationship with my family so I couldn't go there. I showered when and where I could. Usually a public bathroom sink. Used the money I had left to eat and keep wife in the hospital.

This was the biggest FTE in my life!

I knew money was abundant. I knew how to earn it. I didn't want to go back to what I was doing to earn it so I knew I needed to find another way. I took a programming job at a developer sweatshop company. 80 hour weeks but paid well enough for me to get a small apartment, food, and wife out of the hospital with new daughter. I knew I needed to use my skills to form a company of my own. An ethical company. That could earn what I was earning without hurting people financially. The rest is history.

Yes I was fortunate to earn what I did so young. I earned and lost all my money, and it was substantial, twice from 18-24 basically. Hurricane Andrew took my home out even. I should have known better. I was reckless. But seeing my new family made me really change what I was doing. That was truly an FTE. Hiding this from my wife suffering alone, while she suffered in the hospital. Also an FTE for both of us. We vowed to never do that again. Life wasn't smooth sailing after this. But I love my life and I doubt without the FTE of seeing my new daughter I would have changed. I might have chased the easy money. The unethical money. So that is why I list this is the one true event of all the other smaller ones.

 

[The-J]

I've had several of these in my life. I look at my paths as stepping stones and at each hop to a new stone, I had a FTE that led to the hop.

Then I look at the different paths I had that had their hops:

• Relationships
• Job/Career
• Business
• Health
• several other small areas like family/being social, etc

The ones that stood out the most that really made my blood boil came down to job/career and business.

In a nutshell, I was working a job to make someone else rich. I was a loyal employee before I "opened my mind" and I would work with dedication and earnest for the employers I worked for. Some of my FTEs while being employed ( summarizing them ):

• Working on the weekends, not getting paid. Happened a lot while an hourly employee. Ended up getting a settlement check for this though years later from the employer in a class action lawsuit. Looks like I wasn't the only one.
  
  
• Asked to get rid of my current clients in order to work there, which I followed through with. Got laid off 3 months later. Which was after getting this employer to top 3 positions in Google for 1,000s of keywords they still enjoy to this day. Couldn't get my old clients back because they found someone else to help them when I couldn't. Was without money for me and my family of 5 for months. Had to request unemployment which I was denied ( never could figure this out ) for and to get my kids on passport health plan.
  
  
• Passed over for Director level position even though I was promised it and next in line... AND after I hand built the department I was in by myself over 3 years from $10,000 in annual billings to over $5m. Instead, they brought someone in they did not know at all, who lied on their resume, who was working remotely ( but I was denied this benefit 4 times the last 3 years ) and then this person fired me based on a lie for something they said I did on my approved day off. This person stayed on another year before they got canned. No one cared though, and now this company is hitting the shitter.
  
  
• Promised equity in a new business as part of lowered salary for a CMO role in a current business. New business canceled with 6 months of me coming on by the owner, but he wouldn't raise my salary in current business though to compensate for the broken promise. Wouldn't hire a CTO to handle tech issues which I then took on myself too just to get things rolling. Later laid off because the owner was too busy cheating on Ashley Madison and acting like a "gangsta with money" every month with new luxury cars, condos, and vacations that he hurt the cash-flow of the business and ended up getting rid of 60% of his employees.
  
  
• Was laid off due to VC money coming into company and VCs wanted no remote employees. I just helped this company earn $38m that year from $400,000 the year before though. While leaving the company, they asked me to turn over my FB account ( my personal one ) because attached to it was a highly successful ad campaign I created on my own spare time that was sending leads to them. I didn't turn it over and I was their #1 lead generator. They wanted the account instead of paying me for it afterward.
  
  
• Was promised a years worth of salary was ready for me at a new startup before I came on board. Left position I was at to join this company to find out they lied and ran out of month in month 4. They were so busy buying t-shirts and cell phones and other BS, they didn't make any sales.
  
  
• Promised 7 hour work days, paid for health/dental/401k benefits, and negotiated extra's ( cell phone, internet expenses ). Ended up working 9-12 hours days. Never got a dime for health or any benefit at all and never seen a penny for internet or cell phone expenses. Company was strict about filling out your timecard daily to make sure you put in 7 hours at least. Cared more about this then the fact they piled people with so much work that they worked 12 hours days instead of focusing on their benefit of "35 hours work week". They looked at your timecard during the day, they knew you already clocked 7 hours by 1pm but didn't cared and still piled you on with more work due by end of that day. When brought up, was told "sometimes you have to put in extra to get stuff done". What's the purpose of a 7 hour work day then as a benefit? They were so strict about this timecard BS that I stressed out about it and when I hit 7 hours, I stopped putting in more time just so I could focus on quality work. Many times I was so stressed I just got to 7 and anything over 7 I would bank for the next day so I wouldn't have to stress about it and had a little buffer so I could focus on work.
  
  
• After working a position that 12 people now do ( I visited the company a year later ), I asked for a raise from $26,000 a year to $30,000 on my 2 year anniversary. Was told, " we don't have the budget". I quit and went to work at another company where I did less work and was paid the $30k I wanted. 4 months later the old company calls me up wanting me back offering me less work and $32,000. Where'd the money come up in just 4 months? Hmmmmm. I actually went back to work for this company and negotiated remote work "when the numbers looked good". Well, I took their sister company from 0 sales to $1m in less than 12 months and on my yearly asked for my remote work benefit. Was told I could "maybe" get 1 day to work from home per week. I quit that week because it was known I wanted to work full time from home when I came back.
  
  
• Boss intermingles in my company email inbox ( which I am fine with, its his company ) and jumps into convos I am having with clients routinely via email and I never know when this happens because I am not CC'd on it or it comes in after hours and is missing sections in the reply'd email.This happens daily, several times a day. Even though he is "trying" to help, it's basically micro-management and it confuses me, the client, and causes a ton of productivity loss to recoup and try to figure out what has been done and promised to the client and start back at zero again to resume work that is now added to my plate. In the end, it was a cluster F*ck daily and tons of stress to sort through. This process routinely delayed projects by more than week several times and caused errors in peoples ad accounts where he jumped in, misunderstood, and made changes in their account that I had to later undo and fix only after the client complained about it.
  
  
• Being told I need to do work that employee B, C, and D can't do or can't handle even though it's their assigned job function. Even though I technically know how to do it, it's not my job function and this is happening all the time daily. An example of this would be me being hired to managing multiple PPC campaigns at an agency. For some reason I am now told I have to write the copy for the website and also do the social media and SEO work. Employees B, C, and D can't do it for X reason or can't handle it, but now I am suppose to. I don't get paid their salaries though in combination with mine and I am also not allowed more hours to get the work done. I don't mind to help out in a time of need or crunch, but this is daily ongoing for months and isn't just 1 or 2 projects, but like multiple spread over 90 clients.
  
  
• Laid off from a startup because I wouldn't move to San Francisco so the company could be close to investors. Helped this company go from basically 0 sales to their first 50k customers and 500k in sales. This success helped them later get into Y Combinator and get funding from a Shark Tank investor. All wasn't lost, I did have some equity and was able to cash out on that, but being told you are getting let go because you don't live in X place even though the company was pretty much all remote was tough.
  
  
• Another agency I was at, they routinely could not pay me on time. They expected me to always meet deadlines and would be rather harsh if it wasn't on time. I'm cool with that, but then they would never meet their payroll. I would wait a week or 2 on check and was told, "it was sent" but it was ALWAYS late without fail. One time I waited 4 full weeks and the check didn't come. When I asked about it I was told, "oh we havent been paid yet by X,Y,Z client, so we can't process payroll". Hmmmm, ok. Could you have at least told your employees this before it happened? I had to contact you to find out about your failure to meet your obligations? I was then told they didn't know when they could process payment but I was "first on the list" to be paid. These people would also take lots of time ( 4-5 days ) to answer a simple email or voice mail which would delay my projects causing me to be late on them, which they would in turn be harsh to me about.. lol

Needless to say, I haven't been employed as a w-2 for a while now. People think it's a "safe" bet and it has never been that in my experience.

.

Holy shit

 

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[scottmsul]

I was a graduate student researching astrophysics. The work I was doing was quite esoteric - how do galaxies form? The timescales so far back that we can't observe anything, so the only approach is computer simulations. To me, the work felt speculative and unimportant, and I had no emotional investment. I left before publishing anything, but it felt like even if I did, maybe ten people would read it. Plus the pay was horrible, and I got the impression that academia was more about appearances/politics/connections than substance. There was no single FTE moment, I just felt more and more soul-crushed until I couldn't take it anymore.

 

[Andy Black]

I've had several of these in my life. I look at my paths as stepping stones and at each hop to a new stone, I had a FTE that led to the hop.

Then I look at the different paths I had that had their hops:

• Relationships
• Job/Career
• Business
• Health
• several other small areas like family/being social, etc

The ones that stood out the most that really made my blood boil came down to job/career and business.

In a nutshell, I was working a job to make someone else rich. I was a loyal employee before I "opened my mind" and I would work with dedication and earnest for the employers I worked for. Some of my FTEs while being employed ( summarizing them ):

• Working on the weekends, not getting paid. Happened a lot while an hourly employee. Ended up getting a settlement check for this though years later from the employer in a class action lawsuit. Looks like I wasn't the only one.
  
  
• Was asked at one of my jobs to get rid of my current freelance clients in order to work there, which I followed through with. I only had a few, but it barely paid the bills for me so I thought it wasn't much of a loss to land this full-time job that would make me more per month. Got laid off 3 months later. Which was after getting this employer to top 3 positions in Google for 1,000s of keywords they still enjoy to this day. Couldn't get my old clients back because they found someone else to help them when I couldn't. Was without money for me and my family of 5 for months. Had to request unemployment which I was denied ( never could figure this out ) for and to get my kids on passport health plan.
  
  
• Passed over for Director level position even though I was promised it and next in line... AND after I hand built the department I was in by myself over 3 years from $10,000 in annual billings to over $5m. Instead, they brought someone in they did not know at all, who lied on their resume, who was working remotely ( but I was denied this benefit 4 times the last 3 years ) and then this person fired me based on a lie for something they said I did on my approved day off. This person stayed on another year before they got canned. No one cared though, and now this company is hitting the shitter.
  
  
• Promised equity in a new business as part of lowered salary for a CMO role in a current business. New business canceled with 6 months of me coming on by the owner, but he wouldn't raise my salary in current business though to compensate for the broken promise. Wouldn't hire a CTO to handle tech issues which I then took on myself too just to get things rolling. Later laid off because the owner was too busy cheating on Ashley Madison and acting like a "gangsta with money" every month with new luxury cars, condos, and vacations that he hurt the cash-flow of the business and ended up getting rid of 60% of his employees.
  
  
• Was laid off due to VC money coming into company and VCs wanted no remote employees. I just helped this company earn $38m that year from $400,000 the year before though. While leaving the company, they asked me to turn over my FB account ( my personal one ) because attached to it was a highly successful ad campaign I created on my own spare time that was sending leads to them. I didn't turn it over and I was their #1 lead generator. They wanted the account instead of paying me for it afterward.
  
  
• Was promised a years worth of salary was ready for me at a new startup before I came on board. Left position I was at to join this company to find out they lied and ran out of month in month 4. They were so busy buying t-shirts and cell phones and other BS, they didn't make any sales.
  
  
• Promised 7 hour work days, paid for health/dental/401k benefits, and negotiated extra's ( cell phone, internet expenses ). Ended up working 9-12 hours days. Never got a dime for health or any benefit at all and never seen a penny for internet or cell phone expenses. Company was strict about filling out your timecard daily to make sure you put in 7 hours at least. Cared more about this then the fact they piled people with so much work that they worked 12 hours days instead of focusing on their benefit of "35 hours work week". They looked at your timecard during the day, they knew you already clocked 7 hours by 1pm but didn't cared and still piled you on with more work due by end of that day. When brought up, was told "sometimes you have to put in extra to get stuff done". What's the purpose of a 7 hour work day then as a benefit? They were so strict about this timecard BS that I stressed out about it and when I hit 7 hours, I stopped putting in more time just so I could focus on quality work. Many times I was so stressed I just got to 7 and anything over 7 I would bank for the next day so I wouldn't have to stress about it and had a little buffer so I could focus on work.
  
  
• After working a position that 12 people now do ( I visited the company a year later ), I asked for a raise from $26,000 a year to $30,000 on my 2 year anniversary. Was told, " we don't have the budget". I quit and went to work at another company where I did less work and was paid the $30k I wanted. 4 months later the old company calls me up wanting me back offering me less work and $32,000. Where'd the money come up in just 4 months? Hmmmmm. I actually went back to work for this company and negotiated remote work "when the numbers looked good". Well, I took their sister company from 0 sales to $1m in less than 12 months and on my yearly asked for my remote work benefit. Was told I could "maybe" get 1 day to work from home per week. I quit that week because it was known I wanted to work full time from home when I came back.
  
  
• Boss intermingles in my company email inbox ( which I am fine with, its his company ) and jumps into convos I am having with clients routinely via email and I never know when this happens because I am not CC'd on it or it comes in after hours and is missing sections in the reply'd email.This happens daily, several times a day. Even though he is "trying" to help, it's basically micro-management and it confuses me, the client, and causes a ton of productivity loss to recoup and try to figure out what has been done and promised to the client and start back at zero again to resume work that is now added to my plate. In the end, it was a cluster F*ck daily and tons of stress to sort through. This process routinely delayed projects by more than week several times and caused errors in peoples ad accounts where he jumped in, misunderstood, and made changes in their account that I had to later undo and fix only after the client complained about it.
  
  
• Being told I need to do work that employee B, C, and D can't do or can't handle even though it's their assigned job function. Even though I technically know how to do it, it's not my job function and this is happening all the time daily. An example of this would be me being hired to managing multiple PPC campaigns at an agency. For some reason I am now told I have to write the copy for the website and also do the social media and SEO work. Employees B, C, and D can't do it for X reason or can't handle it, but now I am suppose to. I don't get paid their salaries though in combination with mine and I am also not allowed more hours to get the work done. I don't mind to help out in a time of need or crunch, but this is daily ongoing for months and isn't just 1 or 2 projects, but like multiple spread over 90 clients.
  
  
• Laid off from a startup because I wouldn't move to San Francisco so the company could be close to investors. Helped this company go from basically 0 sales to their first 50k customers and 500k in sales. This success helped them later get into Y Combinator and get funding from a Shark Tank investor. All wasn't lost, I did have some equity and was able to cash out on that, but being told you are getting let go because you don't live in X place even though the company was pretty much all remote was tough.
  
  
• Another agency I was at, they routinely could not pay me on time. They expected me to always meet deadlines and would be rather harsh if it wasn't on time. I'm cool with that, but then they would never meet their payroll. I would wait a week or 2 on check and was told, "it was sent" but it was ALWAYS late without fail. One time I waited 4 full weeks and the check didn't come. When I asked about it I was told, "oh we havent been paid yet by X,Y,Z client, so we can't process payroll". Hmmmm, ok. Could you have at least told your employees this before it happened? I had to contact you to find out about your failure to meet your obligations? I was then told they didn't know when they could process payment but I was "first on the list" to be paid. These people would also take lots of time ( 4-5 days ) to answer a simple email or voice mail which would delay my projects causing me to be late on them, which they would in turn be harsh to me about.. lol

Needless to say, I haven't been employed as a w-2 for a while now. People think it's a "safe" bet and it has never been that in my experience.

.

Bejesus. Each one of those is bad enough... but combined?

This post brought up some long forgotten wrongs that I'd thought I'd gotten over. I'd write my FTM but I think I'd get so annoyed it would set me back a few weeks, or months.

 

[LauraLou]

I was already thinking about leaving, but I had my first review for my PhD, and my external reviewer was less than kind to me.

For those who don't know, academics are very stuck in their ways. The bad review was because I was using a different method to the one that he was researching.

I got the results of my review half way through a training day with the company that sponsored me. Both of my supervisors, after an entire year of saying that I was doing fine and to just carry on with what I'm doing, had thrown me under the bus in an attempt to save their reputations by destroying mine. I left the training day mid-exercise and honestly it's the best decision I've ever made

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Working as a drug rep I celebrated my 30th birthday with a cancer diagnosis.

Off-topic, but I hope you are doing better.

One of many: Working 60 hours a week for a small salary, no benefits, and I had to use my car = less then minimum wage. Was running ghetto multifamily buildings (actually taking over vacant REOs, then throwing everybody out dope dealers and all, then busting my a$$ to get them stabilized) . The gangs were all at war and it was the height of the depression so people were desperate.

You would have thought I would have quit after:
Being assigned a building because my friend quit after getting chased out of it by a masked man with a gun who started shooting at him, or after kicking the door in to a unit in a new building we took over to find a body in the bath tub with a bullet hole in his head, or the countless death threats received, or after witnessing a double homicide in front of the building I was at collecting rent, or when me and my construction crew got held up by some crack heads who ended up putting one of my guys in the hospital after beating him with the but end of a pistol, or the cockroaches bed bugs & rats the size of small dogs, or when I was assaulted and robbed in broad daylight, or when my car window got shot out while I was driving that the company said they would reimburse me for but never did, or...

But I didn't. I kept showing up early and leaving late. I worked late nights doing collections and weekends for no pay. It got so bad down there my family offered to pay me just so I would quit.

But I never quit. I got fired after being thrown under the bus by an incompetent manager, who was eventually demoted, to save his own a$$.

The rest is history. One of these days I'll get around to sending him a thank you card.

Holy crap, if that doesn't compel a "FTE" what will? This is pretty scary stuff.

 

[pbellot]

So this is an open call for everyone to share their "FTE" story, otherwise known as their "F*ck This Event."

A "F*ck this event" is an incident in your life that pushes you over the ledge of a SCRIPTED existence. It is a pejorative "I've had it!" or a "I can't live like this!" moment that screams it's time for you to change.

Interest moves to commitment. Thinking moves to action. Desire moves to obsession.

I described mine in both books -- getting stranded in a limousine on the side of the road in a blizzard.

What event in your life screamed to your soul, "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"?

View attachment 14851

Get Unscripted on Amazon
UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship by MJ DeMarco, international best-selling author of The Millionaire Fastlane

My FTE just happened last night (6/20/17). I was terminated from my employer for accidentally taking the pit keys home with me. I'm a Pit boss at one of the local casinos here in Mississippi. I'm a day one employee with a great work record and ethics. The keys were "controlled" and opened everything on the casino floor.

The alarm system that was supposed to go off, after passing a certain point, did not work. I blame myself for not doing what I was supposed to do every night. Termination was an excessive reaction.

I will have to return to the workforce because bills keep coming and my wife love's "stability" (she's a slowlaner). I must pay for the choices I've made in the past.

I won't have enough runway to learn and freelance/consult 100%, but as soon as I can, I will not have an employer. I will not be terminated again! I will not put the fate of my lifestyle in someone else's hands.

I have yet to out process to get my final check and 401k. Until I get all this together, I'll continue to learn front end web development and build polestar.tv

 

[unaided]

I can't put it on one event...consider it "An unfortunate series of F*ck You Events"

-my boss making multiple references to me being on "my [his] time"
-my boss constantly self-labeling himself as cheap; his big brag was a one-time $400 dinner in Vegas for a 4-member team that finally didn't involve a food court or Subway (we are a nutrition company btw) - which he was sure to brag about to each of our team members and mention multiple times after the conference. A new employee had suggested a round of drinks - which at Vegas prices shocked my boss. The boss gave subtle digs to the employee for 2 months following the dinner (while also bragging about him treating us). I was the 5th employee left out of the Vegas trip...to cut costs because it would mean a 3rd room even though I head education for the company and the intent of the conference was to evaluate product packaging for a new line. I was the 5th wheel left out...so I found it comical when he was bragging about the one-time $400 dinner with a 5 person team in a company making $2.5 mil a year. It also turned into a one-night trip for a 3 day conference for those that went....great...4.5 hour drive for one night in vegas, a $400 dinner you get to feel guilty about for 2 months, and a nice 4.5 hour drive home the next day with Subway sandwiches in hand for the car. Thanks boss! Guess you won't pay the $5k to get that last batch of samples tested so we can get a single product launched either!

-We spend 50K on trade shows a year that make us a trackable 3-5x return in 3-4 years. I have a system of evaluating trade shows - cutting out poor performers, adding new ones to consider...basically out of 12 we keep 8, cut out 4 and add 4 consistently. We get 100% of money back in 1-1.25 years - backed by sales data. He still sees it as spending 50K, cuts out trade shows for 2 years...costing the company 150K to 250K income added each year. Maybe you'll spend another 6 months finding a new bottler like last year when all you needed to do was take a flight to oversee the first batch (as 3 people independently suggested to you) and the problem would have been avoided in the first place.

-"I think we should launch 10 products" - no one can name more than 4 products that we're ready to "launch"....at least $300K in R&D on a new product line, and not 1 product ready for launch. Opportunity cost is greater. Let's spray and pray baby! Double down...heck Vegas is just a drive away!

-"We all need to be in the office X days of the week from here forward". Me and one other co-worker remain the only ones to ever be there. I have a 45 minute commute one-way, everyone else is 5-15 minutes away. With the open time it creates I work on my own business.

-I design, create, test and implement a CRM program that earns 65% open rate, I trigger and answer 125 customer issues per month and 12 15-30minute one-on-one scheduled trainings. I triggered a measureable $341,000 (does not account for referrals, word of mouth, etc) in added annual sales out of a group of 3000 customers based on average order data & creation of new leads from cold prospecting techniques and post-conference follow-up.

-I also designed it, managed it and automated it completely by myself using simple tools like trello, canned responses, Boomerang for gmail. I manually discovered the exact ordering data as to when reorders are triggered and ran statistical analysis out to 3 standard deviations as to when to send various triggers for ordering, product education and more. I influence my process with books by Dan Kennedy, Claude Hopkins, Perry Marshall, Ramit Sethi, Jay Abraham, & key topics like cold calling, surveying customers, getting referrals etc.

-Fast Foward.....I get the program taken away by a competitive & jealous colleague because I had too informal language in an email "I wanted to find out what's up" (which was getting responses because it sounded human, and was going to alter the wording to "You didn't order, how come?", and was testing customer deactivation sequence that had proved successful for those not ordering). Either way the project was given to the other employee more or less because he whined for it. I head education for the company. Since the transfer, I have had 0 trainings, 0 email responses, and new open rates are at 15%. My RESPONSE rate with my system was 15% (open rate >65%) meaning I was identifying specific issues that I was able to resolve & actively adapting templates that didn't work. My boss liked the idea of fancier software over actual trackable results. (more money, less results). I was in the process of transitioning to a more robust software program at the time of the project transfer - the project was transferred to the jealous colleague.

-The final straw (wrapped in seemingly generous packaging)? My boss bragging to us about how he gave us all 3% raises. "My accountant was telling me to give you 2%, but I made sure we stuck with 3% for you guys." Yeah, 3% annual raises will get me financially free real quick ;-).

It's nice, but btw, how are you liking that $500K the company earned thanks to my projects that you have effectively cancelled? yeah seems small because I have a decent salary and benefit package, but after reading Millioniare Fastlane and Unscripted ...it was an FTE for me.

-The silver lining? I took the skills and the CRM sequences and applied it to my own e-commerce business on the side. Also, when we cancelled the CRM software, we received a reactivation offer for 50% off the pro version of the software. I used the reactivation promotion for my personal business - cutting down my own overhead. Without the trade shows, I don't have the stress/wear & tear of travel; and my added effort to follow-up on leads, personalize messages, and adapt sequences is now applied to my own leads and customers. Now I frame different projects that the whining coworker is now fully responsible for - he is newer than me and still hopeful for some semblance of future performance-based pay/bonuses that will never come in anything more than a linear 3% fashion. I'll still get my 3% raises, but my future is no longer dependent on it.

As I write this....In 3 months, the side income increased from $600/month to a current pace of $1950/month and on pace to potentially double that at least by the end of the year as I add auto-ship functionalities, upsells, new content, updated flows, and targeted promotions....-on top of my current salary and benefits that come out to a "true" 105K.

I now expect 130K this year, and as much as 150K+ in 2018. I am then taking that extra income and it is all entirely savings that are either being reinvested in the business or being added to my "5% paycheck income", or paying down my mortgage (4.375%).

Once my "paycheck income" surpasses my fixed expenses....I can have the option of quitting the salaried job to continue growing the ecommerce & consulting. I have turned my boss' stupidity & lack of basic business sense into my own exit strategy - and I can learn and hone skills on his time - apply the lessons to my business on my time....Ultimately, my goal is to buy time itself back with debt-free, income-producing assets. Game on!

 

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[JustKris]

"You're arguing about work you hate, with people you don't care about, at a place you don't even want to be."

That was the thought that ran through my head a few months ago. Just a dumb work argument. But everything crystallized in my mind. What the hell was I doing? How had I gotten here?

I'd spent several years helping build up SOMEONE ELSE'S DREAM, but I hadn't made any progress on my own. When was I ever going to work on my dream, if not now?

Seeing the default future---living in a city I don't want to live in, stressing about a "day job" that had become my whole life, never being free----scared the shit out of me.

 

[mtak.doc]

Since i could remember i was the kid on the block with every new toy being thrown at me from aunts, uncles and grandparents.Until the age of 9. Then the old house gets taken from us by an apartheid govt because 3 people in a 3 bedroom house is not lawful or whatever.. next I have 2 new siblings a year apart and my trust fund got used to purchase a new home. One day i see all my toys go into the ceiling in big plastic bags and thats what it looked like when my childhood ended. Next my dad breaks his arm, for which he receives zero support from his former employer and my moms home looking after a new born and a 1 year old. i resolve(FTE#1) i'm going to start a business selling sweets at school. I had bullies i got ripped off. Dad becomes self employed and preaches it is better to bring home a half a loaf of bread everyday than a loaf once a week

I wanted to become an ivy league graduate with an MBA so that i can help dad make more out his business at age 10. At 16 i was kicked out of school. I walk home calculating that if i find a way to look after my car(which i started doing by spending weekends in a mechanics home repair workshop to learn about cars)ill have transportation, Then find a way to pay for my groceries and my rent. i figured id have the basics covered and i can learn how to improve my life's conditions through entrepreneurship.

I become the first person to repair mobile phones in my neighbourhood the next year, outside the big brand HQ in my city. Highest sale in 1 day was 400 for a repair with a part taken from a broken phone. The big executive was shitting rainbows for me being able to help him recover his dead phone.

(FTE#2)I get ripped off by a familia member.

Had to get a job,Solid pine wood furniture frame making, get screamed at so much that the staff see me shaking from anger.(FTE#3) only i did'nt have capital. Even if was seeing business ops around me. Pay was soul sucking.

Get another job as a waiter, set a target to become kitchen staff management within a very large franchise. Become highest earning salesman within 3 months of knowing nothing about the industry, come in second place overall for the month by 5k less than the guy who is #1 every month. 3rd place person is 20k less than me. Get junior training kitchen manager position before i am 21. 2 guys get brought on to train under me in my 3rd month of initial training they allow for about 25k worth of stock to go bad on their shift i get roped in and blamed as well. On the date of my last day of training for which SOP dictates that a review of the previous 3 months is discussed and the 2nd 3 months is given for me to improve on the first 3 before i get a yay or nay from head office and every other trainee was treated this way. I was asked to sign my contract on that day and after i signed it gets added that the date of my "temporary employment" ends on that date by the operator.(FTE#4) #crickets from the franchise owner..

The list is longer. I follow the career of a person in property and when he gets here to teach, I have already known of him for 3 years but there was a post here about don't ever meet your hero's if i am correct.(FTE#5)The guy was teaching from a library of a another guru who i was currently reading. Chaaarging celebrity prices!

I have had the most recent FTE create whats made the resolve to find a way to help the person next to me even more important and i am finding reserves of capital as if i am creating it out of thin air, to fund this fast lane lab experiment of failing as fast as i can.

I am a salesman
If i do not have the answer i know where to go to find it
Life will not meet me halfway

That cold sweat i get when my heart starts beating outside of my chest is me on the edge of my comfort. Thats the moment making the leap and taking the next step has made me feel more alive and shown me a greater feeling of satisfaction than any amount of fb likes or "fitting in" could ever give me. Not a fastlaner or a big business owner yet but i'm coming for whats mine.

 

[LVMont]

FTE #1:
Got hired on as a maintenance tech for an apartment complex. Started me out at $9/hr the manager told me after 90 days I'll get bumped upto $12.50. Worked my a$$ off in the beginning; worked on the weekends, coming in early and leaving late. Then I realized that no one gave a damn about me busting my a$$. I was giving myself more work todo for peanuts, if that. My probation period ended and I was still making $9 dollars. Talked to the property manager and she told me she have to talk to HR about it. Never got my raise and didn't hear anything about it ever again.Yet somehow, I managed to stay there for two years. The only reason I stayed was because I was learning to fix shit. After two years I was still making $9/hr when I finally said F*ck this shit and quit.

FTE #2 I became a EMT for a ambulance company. It was great in the beginning I loved helping people and making their day better somehow. I was picking up extra shifts left and right. 10/12hr shifts. Pretty much working 7days a week straight. Until one day I had a slip up. Got placed on Admin leave pending investigation. I pretty much got fired for "being dishonest." it was devastating and scary this was the first job I ever got fired from. I'm locked out from being a EMT here in town because they own both ambulance companies that run the city. Luckily, I had money saved up to cover the bills for a couple months.

 

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[bigred]

My FTE happened last September.

The long story. tldr; at the bottom

My wife and I moved to a house behind her parents about 4 years ago. I get along great with my mother and father-in-law. Most days were like the movies, they would be over here eating and happy or we would be over there doing the same. While I hated my slowlane job (inventory management at a steel mill), it payed the bills and we were comfortable. This cycle continued for a couple years until I had to have a major orthopedic operation that forced me from my job.

While the operation was a smashing success, it started the "oh shit what am I going to do now" phase of my life. I have a degree in psychology with a minor in sociology. Employers weren't knocking at my door with my degree in underwater basket weaving. I knew that I wanted to pursue business, as I had previously owned and operated a couple service based businesses in the past. At this point though, it was about me and how much money I could make. The "I" was strong and I was hopelessly and utterly confused in life. I could not physically work like I had previously done and I couldn't use my degree without going further into debt for more education. My life was one giant question mark.

This brings us to about two years ago.

Then the perfect storm of F*ckery happened. My wife's sister and her husband were going through the divorce of the century. She was an alcoholic and he was a complete douche-bag. Neither of them was capable of taking care of themselves, let alone the 4 kids they had. In steps my mother-in-law. She assumed complete responsibility of the kids (which was the right thing to do). But, it completely f*cked up my family. My wife was constantly stressed with the burden of helping and our daughter was not getting the right amount of attention.

In steps my wife's other sister and her husband to save us. While we were fine financially, we were F*cked mentally. We were sick of the bullshit and I was still completely confused on which direction to go in life. If Dave Ramsey need a poster family, they would fit the bill. My brother-in-law touted retirement, a good job for 40 years, and penny pinching. They also happened to own a small motel in the middle of nowhere with their house attached. If your still reading, you can probably guess what happened.

This brings us to March of last year. I talked myself into moving my family 6 hours away from our current location under the premise that I would work on a business venture while we recouped from the stress of the past year. I left a nice house, a neighborhood that I loved, and our family. They said that there weren't any conditions for living with them, just help out where we could.

We moved into a motel room. Even writing this is emotional. This was easily one of the worst decisions of my life.

This really started my FTE.

The first couple weeks, everything was good. I worked on a business that I had started before we left and it was slowly growing. I was excited to be going down a different path and pursuing a business again.

Things would only go downhill from there. I would talk with my brother-in-law about my plans to grow the business while we were there, but it fell on deaf ears. After the first month, he started asking me multiple times daily, if I was going to get a job. We would talk over and over about finding a career in something that I enjoyed. I was still mind F*cked and couldn't think for myself at this point. After awhile I eventually gave in and was following the script. I applied for a sales job and got the position. It didn't matter that the job was 2 1/2 hours away from my family, I was happy to be part of the script or so I thought.

Fast forward to last September and I was seriously contemplating suicide. I was working 70+ hours a week plus another 10-16 hours of commute time to reach my quotas. On top of that, my work was changing our payouts and quota for the worse. I would leave before my daughter woke up and come home after she was asleep. I never saw my wife and literally started to hate the family we were living with. It was bad! I mean really bad! I kept on drudging through though, this was the dream right!? Living in a motel room and away from my family 80-90 hours a week!

I can't remember the day before, but I will always remember the morning that I took control of my life. Unlike others stories, it was a beautiful sun filled morning without a cloud in the sky. I woke up and cursed my alarm clock. I was literally physically sick about the thought of driving the hour and 10 minutes down a desolate strip of highway. I had to force myself to put on clothes and drive to the office. I remember waving to the guy we were living with as I drove to hell. He had a good slowlane job working for a state agency. He managed his schedule and usually didn't leave until 9 or 10 o'clock after breakfast with his kids. I hated him in that moment, but I kept driving.

I F*cking snapped shortly down the road. I was living in a motel room with my wife and daughter, I worked at a job that I absolutely hated, I disliked the people I was around, I wasn't moving any closer to my goals, and I lived in a place that had population closer to Antarctica than anywhere I had ever lived.

I realized in that moment that I had put myself in that position. All of my past decisions led to this moment. It didn't matter what my past decisions were, I could now change my surroundings, job, or anything else I wanted in life. I had a choice and I could choose to change. I immediately called my wife and told her I was quitting and we were moving. I walked into my bosses office and quit that day. It took a couple weeks, but we moved.

I haven't worked in a traditional job since. I will do whatever it takes to not go back to that dark place of hopelessness. Since then I have grown our business from 1k in sales to 4-6k in sales per month, moved someone across the country, and done countless menial side jobs to make extra income. We don't have a lot of extra money, at times we barely have enough, but I am in control of my destiny. I am finding ways of adding value to peoples lives, how value vouchers are obtained, and why CENTS are so important. I am working towards my dream life.

tldr; Moved from our hometown to a motel room with my family, got a shitty job, thought about suicide, quit the shitty job and took control of my life.

 

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[Kak]

I had two (and only two jobs in my life)...

First one:
At 16 I Worked at a golf course for 2 weeks got a pay check for like $180 if I recall correctly... F*ck THIS... I quit and went back to mowing lawns.

Second one:
Worked at a sporting goods store selling guns while in college. Found out my dad was admitted to the hospital 3 hours away 1 hour before my shift. I called them not to ask, but to tell them I was going. (And I didn't know when I was going to be back) Boss was pissed... F*ck YOU... I never set foot in there again.

 

[Chris Franklin]

Love this post! I figured this would be a good way to expand on my FTE beyond my intro thread and really kick off the journey.

My event starts with a very comfortable life. I am married with 2 young children (2yo and 7mo). My wife stays home with the kids by choice. We just spent 50% of our savings account as a down payment on our first home and still have 6 months of salary in the bank. Life. Is. Comfortable.

A week before I had to travel to a conference for work, my wife, experiencing discomfort while breastfeeding for several days, went to the doctor to get it checked out. When examining her they found a lump that upon further investigation seemed to be a fibroadenoma (i.e. a benign growth), which she had previously had. To be safe they did a needle biopsy and sent her home.

Flash forward a week and a half. I am walking the show floor in Vegas and my phone starts going crazy. I look and see it is my wife. She has sent me close to a dozen text messages in 60 seconds. It wasn't benign.

It was a highly aggressive form of cancer. A genetic form that had actually killed her Aunt 15 years before, and her Grandmother 25 years before. Not only that, it was already spreading. We had a hell of a fight before us.

It is now 2 years later, and I am happy to say the cancer is in remission. If we are lucky, she has 20 more years before it comes back to finish the job. If we aren't... it can be back any day and she will have weeks to months left.

We spent close to $60k out of pocket for treatments. And we had to take out another $30k in personal loans. We are not comfortable anymore. And you know what? I. Am. Glad.

This experience has changed something inside me. I am no longer content to drive 2 hours a day to work. I am no longer happy working for someone else. I need a change. I am hungry. And I have already started my new journey.

I look forward to sharing the journey with you in my Execution thread.

 

[OldFaithful]

Some of my FTEs while being employed

Wow @eliquid that is an unfortunate tale, or a series of unfortunate tales. I'm impressed that you managed to keep your head up while dealing with people of such lousy character. Congratulations to you for moving on, and becoming W2 free!