The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

I'm Looking To Join The Fastlane

WTF

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
127%
Jun 24, 2018
22
28
San Diego, CA
Hey everyone!

I'd prefer to keep myself anonymous, so I'll just refer to myself as WTF. I live in southern California, and the reason I'm here is overall just to build some of my wealth/acquire connections/help and be helped. I'm 21 years old. I've failed on three start-ups and have lost over $15,000 total (I'm pretty sure I've learnt from my mistakes though).

Hopefully I can learn a lot from MJ and his community of like-minded entrepreneurs and millionaires. Perhaps I'll even be able to find some advice/mentorship on the e-commerce business I'd like to start!

Who knows...

Glad to be a part of the FLF community. Cheers.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,083
169,512
Utah
Welcome to the forum.

I've failed on three start-ups and have lost over $15,000 total

What happened here?
 

WTF

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
127%
Jun 24, 2018
22
28
San Diego, CA
What happened here?

Here's a private message I wrote out to one of the FLF members who asked me the same question concerning my failures:
Initially, after having graduated high-school I tried starting my own web-development business. This was my first business. I did plenty of cold calls, coded my own site, and made sure everything looked pretty. I ended up spending about $4,000 and only making about $2,000 before quitting out of discouragement (and due to having my mom slander me for wasting so much money and not having a real job). I have since forgot most of my coding knowledge as I haven't really done much coding in the past 4-5 years? I still remember some of it though...

The second business I tried to build was through a blog (terrible mistake and definitely not fastlane). I actually built up a lot of traffic with this one, and I think I might have been able to monetize better in hindsight, though I ended up quitting this one out of discouragement as well -- because despite having a lot of traffic -- I still didn't really make sales (I was trying to sell e-books and supplements -- it was the Men's Self-Improvement niche). I ended up losing about $10,000 on this one in total (due to paying for traffic in some cases, hiring out people to type posts, buying supplements to sell with private labels before even having people buy them, other foolish mistakes). Many many many entrepreneurial lessons were learnt from this blunder of mine -- I definitely wish I had learned them from someone else but I now know I will never repeat the same mistakes again.

Then lastly, and most recently, I moved away from my family in Florida and moved to a metro city in California. I've been trying to put some cogs together for a business here and it's still not going so well. I've wasted about $3,000 - 4,000 so far...

Overall it's just my own stupidity -- I fess up to it. Discouragement and quitting early and attempting to cater to a market that isn't there are my largest faults. I'm hoping to do better, and I'm willing to work to do better.

I've learned from my mistakes.

Hopefully I can start a profitable eCommerce business soon; currently trying to absorb as much information concerning products as I can before I dive in head-first -- I really don't want to fail/quit another business.

Also MJ, thank you for responding. Respect to you and the FLF Empire you've built. You're a large inspiration for me and all other entrepreneurs alike -- keep doing you.

Cheers.
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,083
169,512
Utah
Overall it's just my own stupidity

Learning and wisdom is not stupidity. You're fine.

Also there is a large group here that does web-design as a great hustle and cash-flow generator.

Web Design as a Hustle

It does work, maybe you just weren't doing it right.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

WTF

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
127%
Jun 24, 2018
22
28
San Diego, CA
Also there is a large group here that does web-design as a great hustle and cash-flow generator.

Web Design as a Hustle

I'll look into it a little more. Perhaps I could get into it again -- it'd definitely be far better than the job I'm currently working. Then perhaps, sometime in the future, I could automate it.

We'll see...

Thank you for linking me. Cheers. :)
 

Rich Wood

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
258%
Jun 17, 2018
31
80
Salt Lake City, UT
Welcome!
Congrats on taking risk early in your career. Don't worry, $15k will seem like a deposit for the greatness you will achieve.

I recommend a couple of things to help you in your journey to freedom.
1. Look for a mentor or someone that can help you in your path. Meet with them quarterly to get advice and provide updates.
2. Find a position in a company for a bit, to learn from other experts, or go to school specifically for the area that you want to exceed in.
3. You can be successful with either proper use of capital, intelligence, hard work, or hustle. To be really successful, you'll need to use all of these.
4. Consider seeking education that is akin to what you may want to pursue.
5. Seek out sales opportunities where income potential is not capped.
6. Learn and grow off of someone else dime. For example, I worked for a company for three years and they paid for a chunk of my MBA. I provided valuable service while there, and they helped me move into the lane where I wanted to be in life.
7. Learn skills that are attributable to what you really want to do in life. And if you want to be a fastlane member - financial freedom, then consistently pivot and take steps to be successful.
8. Read or listen to unscripted - it is a great book, that can provide lots of valuable advice. I wish I would have read it at your age.
Best of luck!
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

More Intros...

Top