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

[MJ DeMarco]

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!"?



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

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

Winter.
It was a Friday.
It's snowing.
I had a fever high enough to cook bacon on my forehead and was puking my guts out.

So I called in sick.
My employer wanted me to work through the weekend so I could "maybe" take Monday off.
Wasn't the first "maybe" I've heard from that guy.

Have you ever carried out the newspaper at 3 in the morning,
with dangerously high fever, wading through the snow?

Me neither.
I quit right there on the spot.
F*ck THAT

 

[Carnage]

3 years ago, on a snowy day...... Despite exchanging emails the day before, My boss wanted me to come in to "meet with me" (I worked home that day because of the snow). I got into an accident, and spent a buttload getting my car fixed. So I risked my life, ended up broke as fuk for being told what to do, when and where to be...... for a job I didn't really care about. Glad it happened though...

Interesting....SNOW seems to be the common factor....

 

[eliquid]

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 clients, which 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 major top 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 for those 3 months. Was without money for me and my family of 5 for next 9 months. Had to request unemployment which I was denied ( never could figure this out ), and had to get my kids on passport health plan and food stamps and look like a total loser to my wife.
  
  
• 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 to be Director, who lied on their resume, who was working remotely ( but I was denied this benefit 4 times the last 3 years ) and then this new person ended up firing me based on a lie for something they said I did on my approved day off. This new person stayed on another year before they got canned. No one cared at the company though, and now this company is hitting the shitter.
  
  
• Promised equity in a new 2nd business as part of a negotiated lowered salary for a CMO role in a current business. New 2nd business was canceled within 6 months of me coming on by the owner, but he wouldn't raise my salary in the current business though to compensate for the broken promise and killed plans/expectations. He also wouldn't hire a CTO to handle tech issues which I then took on myself too just to get things rolling. Later on, I was 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 ended up hurting the cash-flow of the business and ended up getting rid of 60% of his employees. I was basically cheated out of a lot of pay.
  
  
• 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 highly successful ad campaigns 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 even though they also just laid me off for a BS reason ( no more remote employees ). They wanted to lay me off, take away my only source of income, ( my personal FB ad account ) and not compensate me for it.
  
  
• Was promised a years worth of salary was ready for me at a new startup before I came on board. Left the current position I was at to join this new company to find out they lied and ran out of money in month 4. They were so busy buying t-shirts, swag, cell phones and other BS, they didn't make any sales and had to let me go.
  
  
• 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 hour work week". They looked at your timecard during the day, they knew you already clocked 7 hours by 1pm but didn't care 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 just work.
  
  
• After working 1 position for 24 months ( that 12 people now do as indiv jobs - I visited the company a few years 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 even less work and $32,000. Where'd the money come up in just 4 months? Hmmmmm. I actually ended up going back to work for this company and negotiated remote work too "when the numbers looked good". Well, I took their sister company from 0 sales to $1m in less than 12 months once I came back on, and on my yearly ( now 3rd year total ) 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 ( all 5 days ) from home when I came back.
  
  
• Boss intermingles in my company email inbox ( which I am fine with, it's 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 a 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. In this role, I was the "only PPC guy" managing over 50 PPC clients weekly.
  
  
• 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 role and 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 manage 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 ( even though that is what they were hired for ), 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, EVERY SINGLE DAY for months on end.
  
  
• 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 I wasn't on time with the deadline. I'm OK with that, but then they would never meet their payroll. I would wait a week or 2 on the 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
  
  
• Another agency, would only pay me via Paypal. Seriously.
  I was told all of that normal " we're a family here", "we love our co-workers and will do anything for them", and "anything you need, we are all here for you" BS that companies try to tell you about culture and family work environment. I was told, upon first hire, if this ended up an issue for me ( because of fees ), they would work out another solution. I took the role thinking in 3-4 weeks I would bring it up as an issue. And I did bring it up... every month for a full year as Paypal was taking thousands of dollars in fees ( for the year, total ) on the pay I was getting. Was told every time nothing they could do as their "bank" doesn't do ACH wires. I gave up asking after 12 months of pleading, and 30 days AFTER I GAVE UP we hire a new person who has an issue with Paypal payments too. All of a sudden we start getting ACH wires because of the new hire, but I was out thousands of dollars in fee's from the last 12 months which never got recouped. I checked the bank info the money was sent from with Paypal, against the ACH info I was now getting and the info was the EXACT same bank.
  
  
• Was working with an agency for 9 months doing plain PPC management and day to day as their Director. I came up with an idea to target customers no one else was doing online ( I researched it for months to make sure this was new ). As a new way to target customers, I came up with multiple use cases and tested it out on my own dime too. When confident, I approached the agency and pitched the idea as a partnership between me and them to start a new company doing this lucrative method exclusively . They agreed. I was to do the work in the new biz ( while still being employed in the old biz ), and they were to sell the product to their customer base. I was going to be 51% owner of the new venture. INSTEAD, they told the idea to another agency who ran with it and 3 weeks later I'm invited to a new call out of the blue with our "new partners" who would be selling it, and "us" would be working it ( meaning me by myself while my employer still retained 49% of the new company and did nothing ). I immediately went Bezerk as this was theft of my idea and method and had tons of phone calls back and forth with everyone. The other "new agency" decided to drop out and run it all on their own, by themselves, and is now the market leader for this new marketing I invented on my own as my employer told them how to do everything. I quit the company I was at after this and they blamed me for costing them "lost revenue" in the deal.
  
  
• I'm hired into a new role of PPC management for an agency to handle clients that they are picking up. My boss, for some odd reason, confuses information and doesn't bill our clients for 6 months because he thought someone in another department was doing that. When found out, it is decided to cut my position ( no longer needed ) and ditch trying to "have clients" as an income stream. My boss and the people in the other department keep their jobs for another 3 years though while I get let go. WTF?
  
  
• This next one might be a bit controversial, but I think it highlights the "bad deal" you get out of working for someone else as a w2 or even a 1099. I get why companies do this and how, but its still a bad deal for you in the end. Essentially, several companies I have worked for.. I brought with me certain copywriting and advertising techniques I've learned over the years. Think things like swipe files, ad formatting, use of certain images, certain emoji's, audiences, tricks/etc.. This is all fine and dandy while employed and getting a paycheck, but when you get laid off or let go and you find out that 9 months later the company is still using those assets you brought to the table ( that they never had prior or knew about ), it stings a bit to know they are still profiting from your work and ideas and using them today, while you might be still job hunting and trying to put food on your table. Right now today, I still see ad angles for at least 2 companies that were close to bankruptcy the day I signed on to them.. using my swipe file copy on the ads too.. that are making a ton of money on years later after they laid me off. However, I was left scrambling at the last minute and had to rebuild up for months after they let me go. Bad deal...

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.

.

 

[MitchM]

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.

 

[G-Man]

FTE #1: My first job in TX, I was engaged, and working probably 60 hrs a week. I worked for almost a year at the probationary rate that was supposed to increase after my first 90 days with the company. After watching the owner of the company misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars he'd borrowed from the bank, he tried to get me to commit fraud for him. I recorded him trying to bribe/coerce me on my phone as insurance, then called his lawyer and told him he could mail my checks from then on, but I wouldn't be coming in. Got about 8 weeks of pay before he finally cut me off the same day he saw me walking into the courthouse

FTE #2: Out of fear, because I was about to get married, and took the first job I got offered. It was a shitshow at least as bad as the first. After a year and a half, after one too many times of getting screamed at, I turned in my phone and keys and walked out. Boss man literally followed me into the parking lot and begged me to stay. Ever since then, my entire outlook on life has been different.

 

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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.

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[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

 

[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.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

The biggest one I remember was right after the May, 2011 Joplin tornado.

I worked in the collections dept. at the hospital that didn't get wiped out.

For maybe 2 weeks after the disaster we only collected on accounts outside of the "red" zone.

Then we resumed all collections.

Massive hospital debts people already couldn't afford.

I had to call and let them know, despite not having a home or a car or half their family .. the hospital still wanted its money.

A few days later I quit and started selling lego portraits.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I was born with the word "rebel" stamped on my forehead.

 

[maverick]

Worked at big consultancy firm and mainly worked in a particular industry. Came up with a great (software) product that we could build and sell across our clients. I set-up an offshore development team, created the product and organised a number of demo sessions. We went on and sold it to a number of clients.

This resulted into 6-figure revenues for our firm. They've further built out this IP and have gone on to make even more revenue.

My boss took all the credit.
I received an amazon gift voucher.

 

[amp0193]

I used to be a teacher. When my daughter was born, I realized that:

I'm going to be spending 40-50 hours a week, AWAY from my daughter, in order to teach things to OTHER PEOPLE'S kids, who don't want to be in my class, things they don't want to know, and won't remember.

And then having the staff meeting guilt trips laid on us monthly for not "putting in the work" to sacrifice even more for these kids, while ignoring the fact that every hour at school is sacrificing more time with my own.

I started a business when my daughter was 2 weeks old, and extended my brief maternity leave to 3 months (the full amount allowed by federal law), in order to work on it and support my wife. My principal was not happy with my "lack of concern" for my students.

That business I started will soon be sold for more than I would've been able to save after 2-3 decades of teaching.

 

[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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[MidwestLandlord]

16 years old, trying to sleep on a camping mat. My fat a$$ lodged between the furnace and boxes of my parents' stuff in my Grandparent's basement. My teenage sisters 10 feet away, bitching about not having any privacy.

Homeless. Living in a place with SNOW for the first time in my life. Took me about 5 seconds to realize that I HATE cold and snow!

4 adults
3 teenagers
5 cats
3 parakeets
1 dog

All crammed into a 900 square foot, 2 bedroom house with no shower. (only a bath)

My Dad out for hours everyday, trying like hell to find that one JOB that would support his family.

I decided right then that I would be the exact opposite of my parents. There HAD to be a better way!

I've been rejecting the Script ever since. (I never played by the rules anyway, even as a small child, so it wasn't hard)

Although until recently, I didn't really accept that I could own a business AND own my time.

All of the mistakes I've made the 19 years since have been related to me whoring out my time to businesses and people that don't deserve it. I'm changing that now though.

 

[juan917]

Highest performing member on the team by far

Was told "your not good enough"

Congrats, now you have a new competitor

 

[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.

 

[JAJT]

I've never had a traumatic experience but about every 2-3 years at my previous jobs I'd hit a "F*ck this" wall.

It was the point where I had learned about as much new information about my position and the company as I could, improved the broken things to the extent they would allow me to, and the job went from "learning" to "repetition". I can't stand mindless repetition at the best of times but for someone else's gain (and in a small cube no less!) is mental murder for me.

The best I can describe it is that feeling that keeps people from doing even one push-up. You look at the floor, tell yourself it's easy, that you just have to do it, it will take two seconds, the floor is like RIGHT THERE, you have nothing better to do.....but...... you can't. Your mind feels like a rider trying to tame a wild horse. Easy fella! Calm down! It's just a push up! We can do this! And then the horse kicks the rider off. Maybe tomorrow.

Usually this coincides with increased "sick" days, using up all my vacation in short order, coming into work late, a lack of focus and ultimately with me quitting the job within the coming days or weeks.

That's what that point in my working career always looks like. It's happened 3-4 times now in my life. The only way I can handle the 9-5 is like a drug user seeking their next "fix". Except the "fix" for me is novelty (learning) on the job. Once the novelty high wears thin I'm on the hunt for the next one.

All this is to say, I quit to be my own boss a few years back and I have no intentions of looking back.

 

[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.

 

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[ZF Lee]

The biggest one I remember was right after the May, 2011 Joplin tornado.

I worked in the collections dept. at the hospital that didn't get wiped out.

For maybe 2 weeks after the disaster we only collected on accounts outside of the "red" zone.

Then we resumed all collections.

Massive hospital debts people already couldn't afford.

I had to call and let them know, despite not having a home or a car or half their family .. the hospital still wanted its money.

A few days later I quit and started selling lego portraits.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure I was born with the word "rebel" stamped on my forehead.

I'm sure that was a terrible experience.
It's like in China, where they demand the families of death row prisoners to pay for the bullets that would kill their loved ones.
There is no compassion in this service. I can't imagine what would happen if there were families who really couldn't eke out a single dime?
Hopefully, there must be some charities that could help out....

My chinese name, means 'follower'. In other words, I might have excelled in a SCRIPTED world.
But I have found it's dues are horrible....and I rebelled. F*ck names...they don't matter. What we do does.

I used to be a teacher. When my daughter was born, I realized that:

I'm going to be spending 40-50 hours a week, AWAY from my daughter, in order to teach things to kids, who don't want to be in my class, things they don't want to know, and won't remember.

And then having the staff meeting guilt trips laid on us monthly for not "putting in the work" to sacrifice even more for these kids, while ignoring the fact that every hour at school is sacrificing more time with my own.

I started a business when my daughter was 2 weeks old, and extended my brief maternity leave to 3 months (the full amount allowed by federal law), in order to work on it and support my wife. My principal was not happy with my "lack of concern" for my students.

That business I started will soon be sold for more than I would've been able to save after 2-3 decades of teaching.

As a student myself, such ungrateful pupils are also a pain in the a$$ to me. Parasites even to Slowlane sectors.
You did well to walk away for the future of your child.
Guilt trips don't work. They only offer useless negative reinforcement that only functions on robots. You are not a robot!

But what did you teach?

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.

.

I'm sorry for your failures.
The commandment of Control is really the most important of the CENTS....
Although we all learned from them, I'm going to have to say that you had some early tips that could have saved you early if you listened carefully.

Judging from all these TERRIBLE business practices, I'm predicting that we'll have a wipeout when an economic crash comes to reveal the crap from the ore.

@juan917, savage af! Become a new competitor? Go, give it to em! You already know their tricks, so hit them where it hurts!

 

[eliquid]

The commandment of Control is really the most important of the CENTS....
Although we all learned from them, I'm going to have to say that you had some early tips that could have saved you early if you listened carefully.

@juan917,

Yeah, but all of this happened at least a decade before the book came out. I was also running ( on the side ) my own freelance business. It just wasn't taking off

.

 

[Everyman]

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.

He probably told them something about you to get rid of you without paying severance or going to court. It sounds familiar.

One of my FTEs -

It wasn't unpleasant It was weird. The event. I was away with friends for a weekend. I had spent previous months on learning and working. I had worked Mon - Fri and then some weekends school Sat- Sun. I hadn't had a day off for a year and a half. Used it for learning.

Then this weekend. We were away in the mountains. Nothing special actually. Just hiking. Nice weather. Excellent scenery and environment. But after all that time it felt relieving. I felt a bit free. When I came back to work on Monday I had a huge hangover, and not after drinking. I didn't know what I was doing there.... I did change a lot in my life after that but I still remember that Monday in the office, where I couldn't get my mind together.

Another one:

I was 23 and working as a bookkeeper (data entry). I worked really hard and were 2-3x more productive than the rest of the team together. I continued for at least few months... I was a bit fed up for lack of recognition so I handed in my resignation without having other job after this. At my exit interview they asked me about my reasons and I asked about promotion/recognition. I heard "We will see. It should take at least another 6 months". SO what had they been doing the past 12 months?! And I was gone... Not to mentioned that I wasn't paid for productivity. Flat salary whatever you do. Do nothing and get paid then.

Another one:

Not long after (4 years) I had a position near C- level in a public company. The culture was so bad that I had enough after 3 months. I had to fight with everyone to make everything stick. WARZONE. I didn't understand why people were putting spokes in each other's wheel.... I was asking myself - why the hell should I do this, sacrifice my mental health, neglect my life outside of the company and 'the shareholders' will reap all the benefits... This was also the time I 'discovered' the Millionaire Fastlane book. I resigned after 5 months in total... Then my boss 'resigned'. Then many other people...

 

[amp0193]

But what did you teach?

Band.

So I had it WAY better than most other teachers.

 

[EvanOkanagan]

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

 

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[Coalission]

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Dude, I'd have that shit framed and put in your office.
(Love the signature line of "team leader")

 

[becks22]

Never had a full FTE but I have had several 'almost' moments. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was about 12-13. There was something about being my own boss that pulled me in the entrepreneurship direction, I hated hearing people talking about how much they hate their job. In fact, I still have a minor FTE moments regarding other people when I hear family and friends complaining about their jobs. Most of the time, I zone them out or leave the room if I can

 

[Bearcorp]

Had plenty over the years, being burnt by my former employer on extra pay and bonus's I was promised for managing a massive project that they had under quoted did me in, and the fact that people in the company, people I trusted and had to trust for my job to work, didn't have the balls to go into bat for myself or the others that were owed, after years of us doing anything and everything expected of us for him.
So called friends lost, money lost, but freedom gained, I'll take that every day of the week.