Hey everybody,
I have been immersed in TMF all week, having discovered it thanks to a recommendation from my boss (a man who read TMF and spurred himself into creating a company that's on pace to top €16MM ARR by the end of the year). It feels like a life-changing read for me, the latest in a cascade of things I've read that are pushing me and stoking up a fire to make something of myself that had guttered somewhat in the last while. Unscripted is on pre-order from Amazon, and I can't wait to devour it, though I might save it for a point in the future when I feel my motivation starting to drop.
I'm 28, a web developer for a remote company based in the EU while I myself live in Ireland. I like my job a lot (being remote it comes with more freedom than most people get to enjoy), and I like what I do. That said, like most others here I don't want to live my life in the Slowlane forever.
Ever since graduation I've worked in small startups, even giving one of my own a go in the hopes of hitting the Fastlane early (before I'd ever read this). It didn't work out, largely due to my own lack of drive for the sales side of things, and a poor attempt at idea validation in the first place.
I took my first real Slowlane job at the start of the year (my first job that didn't come with equity) without a huge amount of money to show for it all. I save hard and have my pension and some investments and all that - I'm a good little Slowlaner in a country whose government does not make that easy (punitive taxes on investments are a highlight, bizarrely worse for Irish citizens compared to the rest of the EU despite our country being the place most US funds domicile their EU access points) - but I'm not hugely better off than the average 28-year-old and TMF is not the first thing to make me question the whole idea of the Slowlane approach and its lack of usable (timely) potency.
As I near 30, I'm realising that if I really want to transcend my current life situation I need to get back on the horse and do a better job of learning to ride it.
My dream right now is to make enough that I can comfortably pay off my parents' mortgage (as well as support my own family). This might sound cheesy, but I'd like for my dad to be able to retire and enjoy life a little before the stress of his job kills him. I have this vision of giving my parents the gift of a weekend away somewhere in a 5-star hotel and them finding an envelope on the bed when they get there. Inside would be a note from me telling them to sit down before reading the rest of it, and giving them the pleasant shock of a lifetime. I realise this level of success is probably a long way away, if ever, and I need to focus more short term or it'll remain an idle dream until long past the time it could be useful.
So, for now, I'm in idea generation and validation mode.
I worry a little that Ireland is a very small market, so many of the more real-world-focused ideas that could fly in the US don't really apply here. The EU as a whole is quite a fragmented market with a lot of barriers - notably language and culture - but on the other hand, those barriers can be useful if I can hit on an idea big enough to overcome them. It's also occurred to me that with the time difference, a US-focused business could work well as customer support would likely come in around the time I'd be finishing day job work.
Nonetheless, for now, I'm trying to think of more global, web-based ideas that leverage my development skillset and can be sold in a relatively low-touch, automatable way. As is most frequently recommended here, I intend to start something while keeping my day job, as that's also a place I can learn a lot - my boss is, as mentioned, a guy who's really making this stuff happen, and my co-workers are excellent at their respective jobs. Once I can replace my current income with the business, and it has proven its ability to scale, then I'll go all-in.
I've got a long way to go, and an awful lot to learn. Time to find a need I can provide for!
I also have a tendency to write too much - thanks for reading this far, anyone who manages to get here.
EDIT: And thank you @MJ DeMarco for the book. It's incredible. As someone who also loves to write, I love the idea of buying the freedom from caring (financially) if what I write does well, and then killing it and making it a success in every way anyway!
I have been immersed in TMF all week, having discovered it thanks to a recommendation from my boss (a man who read TMF and spurred himself into creating a company that's on pace to top €16MM ARR by the end of the year). It feels like a life-changing read for me, the latest in a cascade of things I've read that are pushing me and stoking up a fire to make something of myself that had guttered somewhat in the last while. Unscripted is on pre-order from Amazon, and I can't wait to devour it, though I might save it for a point in the future when I feel my motivation starting to drop.
I'm 28, a web developer for a remote company based in the EU while I myself live in Ireland. I like my job a lot (being remote it comes with more freedom than most people get to enjoy), and I like what I do. That said, like most others here I don't want to live my life in the Slowlane forever.
Ever since graduation I've worked in small startups, even giving one of my own a go in the hopes of hitting the Fastlane early (before I'd ever read this). It didn't work out, largely due to my own lack of drive for the sales side of things, and a poor attempt at idea validation in the first place.
I took my first real Slowlane job at the start of the year (my first job that didn't come with equity) without a huge amount of money to show for it all. I save hard and have my pension and some investments and all that - I'm a good little Slowlaner in a country whose government does not make that easy (punitive taxes on investments are a highlight, bizarrely worse for Irish citizens compared to the rest of the EU despite our country being the place most US funds domicile their EU access points) - but I'm not hugely better off than the average 28-year-old and TMF is not the first thing to make me question the whole idea of the Slowlane approach and its lack of usable (timely) potency.
As I near 30, I'm realising that if I really want to transcend my current life situation I need to get back on the horse and do a better job of learning to ride it.
My dream right now is to make enough that I can comfortably pay off my parents' mortgage (as well as support my own family). This might sound cheesy, but I'd like for my dad to be able to retire and enjoy life a little before the stress of his job kills him. I have this vision of giving my parents the gift of a weekend away somewhere in a 5-star hotel and them finding an envelope on the bed when they get there. Inside would be a note from me telling them to sit down before reading the rest of it, and giving them the pleasant shock of a lifetime. I realise this level of success is probably a long way away, if ever, and I need to focus more short term or it'll remain an idle dream until long past the time it could be useful.
So, for now, I'm in idea generation and validation mode.
I worry a little that Ireland is a very small market, so many of the more real-world-focused ideas that could fly in the US don't really apply here. The EU as a whole is quite a fragmented market with a lot of barriers - notably language and culture - but on the other hand, those barriers can be useful if I can hit on an idea big enough to overcome them. It's also occurred to me that with the time difference, a US-focused business could work well as customer support would likely come in around the time I'd be finishing day job work.
Nonetheless, for now, I'm trying to think of more global, web-based ideas that leverage my development skillset and can be sold in a relatively low-touch, automatable way. As is most frequently recommended here, I intend to start something while keeping my day job, as that's also a place I can learn a lot - my boss is, as mentioned, a guy who's really making this stuff happen, and my co-workers are excellent at their respective jobs. Once I can replace my current income with the business, and it has proven its ability to scale, then I'll go all-in.
I've got a long way to go, and an awful lot to learn. Time to find a need I can provide for!
I also have a tendency to write too much - thanks for reading this far, anyone who manages to get here.
EDIT: And thank you @MJ DeMarco for the book. It's incredible. As someone who also loves to write, I love the idea of buying the freedom from caring (financially) if what I write does well, and then killing it and making it a success in every way anyway!
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