Right now I'm 26, and I own what's classified as a small business in my country. But it's not actually because I run a real business, I had to open it to work as a contractor for a foreign company. I make about 3x more than the average salary where I live, $3,500. Most of my fellow countrymen would sell organs to be in my position, but I'm not satisfied.
The reason is simple: I'm not in the Fastlane. I'm still selling my time and I can't scale.
I first read The Millionaire Fastlane back when I was 21. My worldview has never been the same since. I never considered a job more than a stepping stone to owning a business.
How I got here
Right out of high school, I got my first job through my dad. It was a minimum-wage docker job at our local container port. It was awful and I got fired 3 months in because I barely showed signs of life from being so depressed.
I then spent about 2-3 years doing nothing. Playing video games, partying, etc. until it didn't feel right anymore and I had to find another job. This time my mom set me up with a job in a local supermarket. Right before that, I decided I would learn how to code. My decision was based mostly on the fact that I already spent most of my life sitting in front of a PC, so why not do something useful while I'm at it. Again, I knew this job was temporary and I didn't take it seriously. I got fired 4 months in.
Soon I was hit with a first stroke of luck. Since I was still focused on wanting to work in IT, my mom showed me an ad she saw while scrolling FB about a government-subsidized coding bootcamp. I got accepted and for the next 3 months I got involved in the world of IT and business. They had partnerships with some local companies, and a month after finishing the bootcamp I got accepted for my first IT role.
Here I slowly started to forget about the Fastlane because I finally got a cushy office job. It paid like shit and I didn't like the work, but at least I wasn't a blue-collar anymore. Still, I had this bug at the back of my mind. I knew I was a slave and I knew freedom was possible. On top of this, my manager was a control freak and if I hated one thing in this world it was someone trying to control me. We had a very tense relationship, I was a rebel the entire time, and in the end, I got fired after a year and a half.
This became my FTE. I knew in my heart of hearts I was not capable of holding a normal job for the rest of my adult life. I crave freedom.
So after stepping my foot into IT, instead of finding another coding job that would now be easier with some experience, I threw that opportunity away in favor of pursuing the Fastlane.
I started with the usual suspects, e-commerce and dropshipping. I won't go into too much detail here, but all my attempts failed.
The next attempt was copywriting. Found a niche, tried it out, and actually did some sales calls. Only managed to score one free gig for my portfolio that didn't end up getting used.
I didn't exactly quit here, while figuring out how to build my website I was frustrated with WordPress and through some research I found Webflow.
I fell in love with the tool and I learned it in and out.
From there I built my Webflow portfolio, found a few clients on UpWork, and then I was found by a startup that hired me as a full-time developer.
It's a pretty sweet gig because right now I'm writing this on their time, I have no work currently and if I did, I would choose how and when to do it. The only thing they do is bring me clients. But, my payout is fixed and I have no room to scale.
Where I want to go
So I'm in a decent situation, but I don't want to settle.
I want to triple my income, gain control over my time, and be able to scale my business to as much as I would like to.
My next goal is $10,000/month income by finding my own clients.
Web design
Since I have experience in design and I'm a full-time web developer, this is the most logical next step. I don't want to start from scratch again.
Coincidentally, when I signed up for the Fastlane newsletter again I saw the Fox Web School ad. Aligns perfectly with my current expertise.
I hope to learn the ins and outs of actually running a web design business here. I'm pretty much set on the technical side, but I know there is a lot more to it.
I think my #1 sticking point is my fear of criticism and bad people skills which kind of play off each other. If I beat this and start having an easy time just talking and selling to anyone I can 10x my income overnight.
Overall, I need to learn a lot more business and technical skills, scale my own business, and ultimately be capable of creating my own product that finally divorces time from money.
Crypto
I have a decent amount of disposable income, so I started investing in crypto. There is a lot of money to be made here in the next few years. I know this is not under my control though, and I have to do something in the meantime.
What stopped me so far
I found out about the Fastlane 6-7 years ago. I could have had my millions by now. I remember reading success stories by 22-year-olds years ago on this forum. I didn't take action because of fear, extremely low self-esteem, and a severe lack of confidence. I had no skills and no drive. I fueled my bad mental health with all the usual stuff - video games, porn, drugs, alcohol. I quit most of those now, but really I don't feel like myself if I'm not 100% clean from everything.
I'm not sure if everyone is like that, but if I'm not living a radically healthy lifestyle I have no chance. Coming from being an anxiety-riddled, extremely depressed dude I can't leave nothing to chance when I'm up against highly energetic people who can get smashed every weekend and still outhustle me. I'm talking 0 vices, working out at least 5 times a week, healthy eating, no sugar, sunlight, socializing, etc. If something is missing I start to fall apart.
The end
That's it for my first post. Thanks if you read the whole thing I guess. I hope to ask a lot of questions, and one day post a lot of useful answers on this forum.
English is not my first language so let me know if my writing sucks.
The reason is simple: I'm not in the Fastlane. I'm still selling my time and I can't scale.
I first read The Millionaire Fastlane back when I was 21. My worldview has never been the same since. I never considered a job more than a stepping stone to owning a business.
How I got here
Right out of high school, I got my first job through my dad. It was a minimum-wage docker job at our local container port. It was awful and I got fired 3 months in because I barely showed signs of life from being so depressed.
I then spent about 2-3 years doing nothing. Playing video games, partying, etc. until it didn't feel right anymore and I had to find another job. This time my mom set me up with a job in a local supermarket. Right before that, I decided I would learn how to code. My decision was based mostly on the fact that I already spent most of my life sitting in front of a PC, so why not do something useful while I'm at it. Again, I knew this job was temporary and I didn't take it seriously. I got fired 4 months in.
Soon I was hit with a first stroke of luck. Since I was still focused on wanting to work in IT, my mom showed me an ad she saw while scrolling FB about a government-subsidized coding bootcamp. I got accepted and for the next 3 months I got involved in the world of IT and business. They had partnerships with some local companies, and a month after finishing the bootcamp I got accepted for my first IT role.
Here I slowly started to forget about the Fastlane because I finally got a cushy office job. It paid like shit and I didn't like the work, but at least I wasn't a blue-collar anymore. Still, I had this bug at the back of my mind. I knew I was a slave and I knew freedom was possible. On top of this, my manager was a control freak and if I hated one thing in this world it was someone trying to control me. We had a very tense relationship, I was a rebel the entire time, and in the end, I got fired after a year and a half.
This became my FTE. I knew in my heart of hearts I was not capable of holding a normal job for the rest of my adult life. I crave freedom.
So after stepping my foot into IT, instead of finding another coding job that would now be easier with some experience, I threw that opportunity away in favor of pursuing the Fastlane.
I started with the usual suspects, e-commerce and dropshipping. I won't go into too much detail here, but all my attempts failed.
The next attempt was copywriting. Found a niche, tried it out, and actually did some sales calls. Only managed to score one free gig for my portfolio that didn't end up getting used.
I didn't exactly quit here, while figuring out how to build my website I was frustrated with WordPress and through some research I found Webflow.
I fell in love with the tool and I learned it in and out.
From there I built my Webflow portfolio, found a few clients on UpWork, and then I was found by a startup that hired me as a full-time developer.
It's a pretty sweet gig because right now I'm writing this on their time, I have no work currently and if I did, I would choose how and when to do it. The only thing they do is bring me clients. But, my payout is fixed and I have no room to scale.
Where I want to go
So I'm in a decent situation, but I don't want to settle.
I want to triple my income, gain control over my time, and be able to scale my business to as much as I would like to.
My next goal is $10,000/month income by finding my own clients.
Web design
Since I have experience in design and I'm a full-time web developer, this is the most logical next step. I don't want to start from scratch again.
Coincidentally, when I signed up for the Fastlane newsletter again I saw the Fox Web School ad. Aligns perfectly with my current expertise.
I hope to learn the ins and outs of actually running a web design business here. I'm pretty much set on the technical side, but I know there is a lot more to it.
I think my #1 sticking point is my fear of criticism and bad people skills which kind of play off each other. If I beat this and start having an easy time just talking and selling to anyone I can 10x my income overnight.
Overall, I need to learn a lot more business and technical skills, scale my own business, and ultimately be capable of creating my own product that finally divorces time from money.
Crypto
I have a decent amount of disposable income, so I started investing in crypto. There is a lot of money to be made here in the next few years. I know this is not under my control though, and I have to do something in the meantime.
What stopped me so far
I found out about the Fastlane 6-7 years ago. I could have had my millions by now. I remember reading success stories by 22-year-olds years ago on this forum. I didn't take action because of fear, extremely low self-esteem, and a severe lack of confidence. I had no skills and no drive. I fueled my bad mental health with all the usual stuff - video games, porn, drugs, alcohol. I quit most of those now, but really I don't feel like myself if I'm not 100% clean from everything.
I'm not sure if everyone is like that, but if I'm not living a radically healthy lifestyle I have no chance. Coming from being an anxiety-riddled, extremely depressed dude I can't leave nothing to chance when I'm up against highly energetic people who can get smashed every weekend and still outhustle me. I'm talking 0 vices, working out at least 5 times a week, healthy eating, no sugar, sunlight, socializing, etc. If something is missing I start to fall apart.
The end
That's it for my first post. Thanks if you read the whole thing I guess. I hope to ask a lot of questions, and one day post a lot of useful answers on this forum.
English is not my first language so let me know if my writing sucks.
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