Hi All
I'm a new member to the forum and recently self-employed. I've read TMF and I'm working on finishing UNSCRIPTED . In the short time I've been been a part of this forum I've played the role of a sponge, adsorbing as much as possible. Today I try to begin to tip the scale and start producing. MJs books and the valuable content left here by so many members has already done so much to change my mindset and force a bias for action. My goal in this post is to give some background on who I am and where I'm headed. I plan on following up with a progress thread on the inside to for continued accountability.
My background
College - as a strong STEM student and an indoctrinated member of the Slowlane - I headed to college for a Mechanical Engineering degree and a promise of a great career and lifelong wealth. Pushed by my family, I shouldered a decent amount of debt and headed to school (though it could have been much worse - I did have a decent amount of tuition accounted for with scholarship)
Beginning a professional career and money chasing
Hypnotized by a larger salary (was it really that big? - a few extra $K was so appealing at that age) and dreams of jetsetting in expensive suits, I skipped an engineering job for a job with a multi-national consulting firm. With no understanding of what I was getting myself into I went to work. I hated each and every day. I lived for the weekend and started to push myself onto the sidewalk. Looking for opportunities to dull my pain with nights out or new toys.
Doing something I loved and action faking...
Four years in and burnt out from the travel and long hours, I left to do something I loved - work on the internet. Dreams of entrepreneurship started here. I'd been learning to code in my spare time and I really enjoyed being heads down and creating. I'm a born introvert and developing had my name written all over it. I'm sure all of the news of unicorn tech startups also helped push me in that direction. I started an LLC and took two different contracting jobs developing for startups. At the time I thought I was an entrepreneur, but I was just an employee by a different name.
This is also where I began action-faking on multiple side business ventures. Starting to build apps that had no basis in CENTS and pitching ideas at startup meetups with no product or research behind it. I knew I wanted to run my own business but I was so lost. I wanted the event but was unwilling to leave my day job and commit to the process. I worked long and late hours on some of these projects but I also suffered from idea jumping - always on to the next shiny thing and never finishing what I started.
I still find this time very valuable. I picked up a lot of skills that I plan on leveraging to create a fastlane business - and I did it all by pushing myself to learn something I had no prior experience in. I proved to myself that continued learning was possible.
Money Chasing Again
My consulting gigs transformed into another full time position with one of my clients. I was unhappy almost immediately. Sure I liked the work, but I was unhappy with my pay and unhappy with my time and location being owned by someone else.
Again I wasn't ready to commit to entrepreneurial process and I had some friends doing really well in sales positions at another startup. Attracted by the money, I decided to go work with them telling myself that I would leave after I made a pile of cash and learned how to sell - a skill I would surely need to start my own business. The new job was fun at first. I was learning to sell and it felt great but it grew old quickly. Changes in commissions meant that pile of cash wasn't nearly as big as I'd imaged and I felt my dream of entrepreneurship and a life I controlled moving further and further away. Could I really do this for 25+ more years?
With stress mounting and afraid to make the move to quit, the decision was abruptly made for me. A shift in direction for the business and I was layed off.
Today
Today, I'm moving forward with a consulting business in website / app development. While it's far from Fastlane, it's a new direction for me. I'm unsure if I'll look back at this as my FTE, but there a lot of things I'm NOT doing today that slowlane me would have done on autopilot.
I am NOT updating my resume
I am NOT applying for jobs
I am NOT reaching out to old contacts for new job prospects
I am NOT taking projects on an hourly basis
F*ck ALL OF THAT.
I don't have any substantial debt, but I do have a good number of financial responsibilities that require me to generate some near term income. My plan is to work consulting projects while simultaneously looking for my fastlane idea. Provide value immediately while listening to the market for value I can provide that better aligns with CENTS.
I will be opening an execution thread on the INSIDE for my consulting business.
Thanks all for what you've given here. I'm hoping I can do the same some day.
@MJ DeMarco
I'm a new member to the forum and recently self-employed. I've read TMF and I'm working on finishing UNSCRIPTED . In the short time I've been been a part of this forum I've played the role of a sponge, adsorbing as much as possible. Today I try to begin to tip the scale and start producing. MJs books and the valuable content left here by so many members has already done so much to change my mindset and force a bias for action. My goal in this post is to give some background on who I am and where I'm headed. I plan on following up with a progress thread on the inside to for continued accountability.
My background
College - as a strong STEM student and an indoctrinated member of the Slowlane - I headed to college for a Mechanical Engineering degree and a promise of a great career and lifelong wealth. Pushed by my family, I shouldered a decent amount of debt and headed to school (though it could have been much worse - I did have a decent amount of tuition accounted for with scholarship)
Beginning a professional career and money chasing
Hypnotized by a larger salary (was it really that big? - a few extra $K was so appealing at that age) and dreams of jetsetting in expensive suits, I skipped an engineering job for a job with a multi-national consulting firm. With no understanding of what I was getting myself into I went to work. I hated each and every day. I lived for the weekend and started to push myself onto the sidewalk. Looking for opportunities to dull my pain with nights out or new toys.
Doing something I loved and action faking...
Four years in and burnt out from the travel and long hours, I left to do something I loved - work on the internet. Dreams of entrepreneurship started here. I'd been learning to code in my spare time and I really enjoyed being heads down and creating. I'm a born introvert and developing had my name written all over it. I'm sure all of the news of unicorn tech startups also helped push me in that direction. I started an LLC and took two different contracting jobs developing for startups. At the time I thought I was an entrepreneur, but I was just an employee by a different name.
This is also where I began action-faking on multiple side business ventures. Starting to build apps that had no basis in CENTS and pitching ideas at startup meetups with no product or research behind it. I knew I wanted to run my own business but I was so lost. I wanted the event but was unwilling to leave my day job and commit to the process. I worked long and late hours on some of these projects but I also suffered from idea jumping - always on to the next shiny thing and never finishing what I started.
I still find this time very valuable. I picked up a lot of skills that I plan on leveraging to create a fastlane business - and I did it all by pushing myself to learn something I had no prior experience in. I proved to myself that continued learning was possible.
Money Chasing Again
My consulting gigs transformed into another full time position with one of my clients. I was unhappy almost immediately. Sure I liked the work, but I was unhappy with my pay and unhappy with my time and location being owned by someone else.
Again I wasn't ready to commit to entrepreneurial process and I had some friends doing really well in sales positions at another startup. Attracted by the money, I decided to go work with them telling myself that I would leave after I made a pile of cash and learned how to sell - a skill I would surely need to start my own business. The new job was fun at first. I was learning to sell and it felt great but it grew old quickly. Changes in commissions meant that pile of cash wasn't nearly as big as I'd imaged and I felt my dream of entrepreneurship and a life I controlled moving further and further away. Could I really do this for 25+ more years?
With stress mounting and afraid to make the move to quit, the decision was abruptly made for me. A shift in direction for the business and I was layed off.
Today
Today, I'm moving forward with a consulting business in website / app development. While it's far from Fastlane, it's a new direction for me. I'm unsure if I'll look back at this as my FTE, but there a lot of things I'm NOT doing today that slowlane me would have done on autopilot.
I am NOT updating my resume
I am NOT applying for jobs
I am NOT reaching out to old contacts for new job prospects
I am NOT taking projects on an hourly basis
F*ck ALL OF THAT.
I don't have any substantial debt, but I do have a good number of financial responsibilities that require me to generate some near term income. My plan is to work consulting projects while simultaneously looking for my fastlane idea. Provide value immediately while listening to the market for value I can provide that better aligns with CENTS.
I will be opening an execution thread on the INSIDE for my consulting business.
Thanks all for what you've given here. I'm hoping I can do the same some day.
@MJ DeMarco
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