Hey guys! Excited to be part of this community.
I'm currently 26 and have been working for VC backed startups for my entire career (minus one that didn't get funding which was my own startup). I have a bit of a strange background as I graduated in Business (intended to double major in software engineer) but ended up dropping the engineering major to work as a software engineer.
Currently I'm heading the engineering team for a VC backed 15 person startup (employee #2), however I'm realizing more and more that the VC world isn't the world I want to live in. My first job out of college, I worked all hours of the clock as the 4th employee and burnt out after a few years. They're successful having raised over $90 million and worth $300 million but as MJ mentions in the book, at the end of the day you're just along for the ride and my paper gains are enough for a down payment in SF (if I could cash them) but not much more. I used to often question why I let the companies dictate my life and freedom and if there wasn't a better path. The Freedom Fastlane really resonated with me and put words to things that I personally have been struggling with and identifying as things I need to work on but didn't quite have an eloquent way of putting it.
My main issue right now is a lack of focus. When I get frustrated with my job, I notice that I start building new businesses to wean myself off of the income from the job. Currently, I have a remote engineer building a SaaS application (what I've been doing for most of my career) and have a relatively hands off ecommerce business with around $3k/mo in revenue right now. I'm funding the whole thing (engineer's salary and inventory costs) with after hours software consulting. I feel that I need to buckle down on one business whether that is productizing my consulting services, pushing more product and adding more SKUs in ecommerce, or accelerating the SaaS product timeline.
I also feel like I have gone through all the other lanes and am still pushing to get back on track with my own Fastlane. I spent most of my years on the job (other than when working on my own startup a few years back) on the Slowlane track with startup equity as the only potential way to have a large event. However, I don't think I have been happy for much of the past five years which brings me close to the Sidewalk at times when I spend more money than I should partying and going out to drown out my frustration. I had a particularly hard brush against the "Sidewalk" in terms of spending last year, but it was good for me because I realized what was happening, reset my personal habits (processes) and re-affirmed my goals.
On the bright side, I have been a firm believer in maximizing freedom to the best that I know how while still working so I have negotiated some freedom into my work contract (3 months of remote work per year since immersion in other cultures is important to me). I currently track all the habits I want to build or get rid of and that has been going well and the Millionaire Fastlane book has just accelerated my focus on my "process" rather than aiming for an event. Going to grind on my business for awhile and hope to post an progress thread soon once I figure out the format/requirements for this forum.
I'm currently 26 and have been working for VC backed startups for my entire career (minus one that didn't get funding which was my own startup). I have a bit of a strange background as I graduated in Business (intended to double major in software engineer) but ended up dropping the engineering major to work as a software engineer.
Currently I'm heading the engineering team for a VC backed 15 person startup (employee #2), however I'm realizing more and more that the VC world isn't the world I want to live in. My first job out of college, I worked all hours of the clock as the 4th employee and burnt out after a few years. They're successful having raised over $90 million and worth $300 million but as MJ mentions in the book, at the end of the day you're just along for the ride and my paper gains are enough for a down payment in SF (if I could cash them) but not much more. I used to often question why I let the companies dictate my life and freedom and if there wasn't a better path. The Freedom Fastlane really resonated with me and put words to things that I personally have been struggling with and identifying as things I need to work on but didn't quite have an eloquent way of putting it.
My main issue right now is a lack of focus. When I get frustrated with my job, I notice that I start building new businesses to wean myself off of the income from the job. Currently, I have a remote engineer building a SaaS application (what I've been doing for most of my career) and have a relatively hands off ecommerce business with around $3k/mo in revenue right now. I'm funding the whole thing (engineer's salary and inventory costs) with after hours software consulting. I feel that I need to buckle down on one business whether that is productizing my consulting services, pushing more product and adding more SKUs in ecommerce, or accelerating the SaaS product timeline.
I also feel like I have gone through all the other lanes and am still pushing to get back on track with my own Fastlane. I spent most of my years on the job (other than when working on my own startup a few years back) on the Slowlane track with startup equity as the only potential way to have a large event. However, I don't think I have been happy for much of the past five years which brings me close to the Sidewalk at times when I spend more money than I should partying and going out to drown out my frustration. I had a particularly hard brush against the "Sidewalk" in terms of spending last year, but it was good for me because I realized what was happening, reset my personal habits (processes) and re-affirmed my goals.
On the bright side, I have been a firm believer in maximizing freedom to the best that I know how while still working so I have negotiated some freedom into my work contract (3 months of remote work per year since immersion in other cultures is important to me). I currently track all the habits I want to build or get rid of and that has been going well and the Millionaire Fastlane book has just accelerated my focus on my "process" rather than aiming for an event. Going to grind on my business for awhile and hope to post an progress thread soon once I figure out the format/requirements for this forum.
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