TL😀R : I'm new. See journey below.
I didn't really want to do an introduction because I've always been a dreamer and a talker, but not an executer, and I fear that I get enough of a kick from dreaming and talking that I never had to execute... and that if I talk without action, I'm not really helping anyone and just another wantrepreneur or something, but here goes:
Like many others, I stumbled over here after reading The Millionaire Fastlane . I don't really remember how I found the book, but had just finished reading The Four Hour Work Week and I think this was suggested by Amazon.
At first I was a little dubious about the title, as it seemed just like a million other get rich quick schemes I've been pitched in the past, but one day I had finished all my other unread Kindle books so picked it up.
It was such a relief that this was not just the same as a million other schemes, but actually put words to ideas and thoughts I've had... Like Neo feeling like he was in a dream that he was ready to wake up from, I was desperately tired and frustrated with my string of dead end jobs. It seemed I had settled without really deciding to, and I'm not sure when that happened.
You see, I've had moments of clarity where I awoke from the stupor, only to slip back in. When I was 18-24 I was determined to start something on my own, but being completely paralysed by indecision I just took jobs to pay the bills in the meantime while I figured things out.
I always talked big. I've had some of the biggest ideas, but I couldn't work out why I had no success. Friends and family always doubted my ideas and told me they were impossible or no good, but over the years I noticed that other people often managed to implement my ideas a few years later with huge success, so maybe I wasn't wrong and my friends and family were? But I guess my self doubt meant that as soon as one person told me an idea was no good, I would just drop it and move on to the next idea... while never actually trying!
Well that's not exactly true. A few years back I came up with an idea for a dating app that plugs into Facebook and lets you anonymously match with friends you like... I hired a developer on Elance.com and paid him... we got the product almost completed, but then he started insisting on me paying for the next piece of work up front. In my trust and excitement I did this, only for him to disappear completely, ignoring my calls/emails/skype messages. In the end I gave up on him and took what I had to a friend who does web apps and had him check, and he basically said the work I'd paid for was rubbish and I would be better off starting from scratch, so I just dropped it (although it turns out that the Facebook API's have been useful for a friend who's been doing some work on another Facebook app in his spare time so he has some stuff to copy).
I was on holiday a few years back and read TFHWW... it seemed that when I was on holiday I was energised with ideas and very motivated, but as soon as I got back to work that imagination and motivation left me. Rinse and repeat for the past 6 years... Stuck in a job I hated, where my skills and talents are not put to good use, completely undervalued and treated very poorly, it was only a matter of time before something broke, and last year I was at home one night and started getting chest pains, dizzy, irregular heartbeat etc. and thought I was having a heart attack. As a reasonably active/healthy 38 year old this was major, but it turned out it was actually a panic attack. I didn't know what caused it, but then a few months ago I met someone who had done some life and relationship coaching and we got talking about life and something he said stuck with me. He could see that I was waiting for an opportunity to be handed to me on a gold platter.
I'm a Christian and we're taught to believe that God has good things in store for those that love Him, however in this discussion it turned out that I was misreading this to absolve me of responsibility for my life. I've always played by the rules, no sex before marriage, no drugs, etc. and expected that God would do it all so I didn't have to put any effort in (obviously I didn't consciously think this, but I lived as if this were true); but then I'd see people who don't follow any of these rules doing very well for themselves and it really messed me up to the point where I started to question my beliefs. This was also the cause of my anxiety.
My friend explained that I'm the only one responsible for my life, and that God never built us to be robots (now I don't expect everyone to agree with these points, but I believe the underlying belief of taking responsibility for your own life is key whether you believe in God or not).
This was a bit of a wake up call, and I'm still getting to terms with it - I always talk about head knowledge and heart knowledge. Head knowledge is something you know, but heart knowledge is so ingrained that you live from that place without having to think about it.
In the last 3 weeks a few significant things happened that made taking the plunge a whole lot easier for me.
1. Work started to suck really badly. We had a meeting one day where we discussed our processes and making sure we're communicating any changes and the next day the boss made a change without telling anyone, only to swear at me when I told him I was frustrated at him making changes without communicating... And then did it 2 more times straight after, each time being caught out only to do it again.
2. I was listening to a song on the radio that took me back 20 odd years and had a moment of reflection - what would 19yr old me think of the loser that is 39yr old me?
3. I've been saving for a holiday, and one part of that was cancelled which meant I have enough to cover me for 3 months when I get back from holiday, and have a race car I can sell which would pay for an additional 2-3 months.
4. I made some time to think about what I would do if I won the lottery... and then worked backwards from there (More about this later), along with input from The Millionaire Fastlane (and TFHWW if I'm honest) I came up with a plan.
Additionally I happened to bump into a friend of mine who runs his own successful business producing a product for sale, and it clicked that he actually has less imagination and less skills/intelligence to be able to succeed than I do (when I look at some of his decisions they're pretty dumb) - not to put him down, but just if he can make it work then so can I.
And so I resigned from my job. Much to everyone's surprise, but I have to do this - I know I won't actually get anything done without being in a place where I have to make it work, and have to take responsibility. I'm backing myself to win - I know I can do this.
The plan:
I've always been someone full of ideas. I love solving problems, and as a jack of all trades can jump from one sub-culture/genre/business to another very easily. I would love to work with people in all these different areas (one at a time), creating a product or solution, then move on to the next. This solves my problem of getting bored easily, and I've come to realise I actually have good ideas. The Fastlane part of this is to design once, move on whilst still taking royalties on previous ideas which are in the market. I worked backwards from there and realized I need to build credibility before anyone will work with me, so I need a track record. I stopped dreaming about the above goal at this point and from a list of ideas a mile long, picked one that I can get to prototype stage without external input.
It's a development of an item I made for my race car but is easy enough for me to design and 3d print a prototype of. I've already made one set of prototypes and begun testing if the idea is feasible, and on holiday intend to do some AB testing of the product, website, name, logo etc.
I will not be posting any more about this until I have my first sale (pre-order?) - I figure this is a good way to ensure I don't get any emotional validation without actually doing something!
Thanks for reading.
I didn't really want to do an introduction because I've always been a dreamer and a talker, but not an executer, and I fear that I get enough of a kick from dreaming and talking that I never had to execute... and that if I talk without action, I'm not really helping anyone and just another wantrepreneur or something, but here goes:
Like many others, I stumbled over here after reading The Millionaire Fastlane . I don't really remember how I found the book, but had just finished reading The Four Hour Work Week and I think this was suggested by Amazon.
At first I was a little dubious about the title, as it seemed just like a million other get rich quick schemes I've been pitched in the past, but one day I had finished all my other unread Kindle books so picked it up.
It was such a relief that this was not just the same as a million other schemes, but actually put words to ideas and thoughts I've had... Like Neo feeling like he was in a dream that he was ready to wake up from, I was desperately tired and frustrated with my string of dead end jobs. It seemed I had settled without really deciding to, and I'm not sure when that happened.
You see, I've had moments of clarity where I awoke from the stupor, only to slip back in. When I was 18-24 I was determined to start something on my own, but being completely paralysed by indecision I just took jobs to pay the bills in the meantime while I figured things out.
I always talked big. I've had some of the biggest ideas, but I couldn't work out why I had no success. Friends and family always doubted my ideas and told me they were impossible or no good, but over the years I noticed that other people often managed to implement my ideas a few years later with huge success, so maybe I wasn't wrong and my friends and family were? But I guess my self doubt meant that as soon as one person told me an idea was no good, I would just drop it and move on to the next idea... while never actually trying!
Well that's not exactly true. A few years back I came up with an idea for a dating app that plugs into Facebook and lets you anonymously match with friends you like... I hired a developer on Elance.com and paid him... we got the product almost completed, but then he started insisting on me paying for the next piece of work up front. In my trust and excitement I did this, only for him to disappear completely, ignoring my calls/emails/skype messages. In the end I gave up on him and took what I had to a friend who does web apps and had him check, and he basically said the work I'd paid for was rubbish and I would be better off starting from scratch, so I just dropped it (although it turns out that the Facebook API's have been useful for a friend who's been doing some work on another Facebook app in his spare time so he has some stuff to copy).
I was on holiday a few years back and read TFHWW... it seemed that when I was on holiday I was energised with ideas and very motivated, but as soon as I got back to work that imagination and motivation left me. Rinse and repeat for the past 6 years... Stuck in a job I hated, where my skills and talents are not put to good use, completely undervalued and treated very poorly, it was only a matter of time before something broke, and last year I was at home one night and started getting chest pains, dizzy, irregular heartbeat etc. and thought I was having a heart attack. As a reasonably active/healthy 38 year old this was major, but it turned out it was actually a panic attack. I didn't know what caused it, but then a few months ago I met someone who had done some life and relationship coaching and we got talking about life and something he said stuck with me. He could see that I was waiting for an opportunity to be handed to me on a gold platter.
I'm a Christian and we're taught to believe that God has good things in store for those that love Him, however in this discussion it turned out that I was misreading this to absolve me of responsibility for my life. I've always played by the rules, no sex before marriage, no drugs, etc. and expected that God would do it all so I didn't have to put any effort in (obviously I didn't consciously think this, but I lived as if this were true); but then I'd see people who don't follow any of these rules doing very well for themselves and it really messed me up to the point where I started to question my beliefs. This was also the cause of my anxiety.
My friend explained that I'm the only one responsible for my life, and that God never built us to be robots (now I don't expect everyone to agree with these points, but I believe the underlying belief of taking responsibility for your own life is key whether you believe in God or not).
This was a bit of a wake up call, and I'm still getting to terms with it - I always talk about head knowledge and heart knowledge. Head knowledge is something you know, but heart knowledge is so ingrained that you live from that place without having to think about it.
In the last 3 weeks a few significant things happened that made taking the plunge a whole lot easier for me.
1. Work started to suck really badly. We had a meeting one day where we discussed our processes and making sure we're communicating any changes and the next day the boss made a change without telling anyone, only to swear at me when I told him I was frustrated at him making changes without communicating... And then did it 2 more times straight after, each time being caught out only to do it again.
2. I was listening to a song on the radio that took me back 20 odd years and had a moment of reflection - what would 19yr old me think of the loser that is 39yr old me?
3. I've been saving for a holiday, and one part of that was cancelled which meant I have enough to cover me for 3 months when I get back from holiday, and have a race car I can sell which would pay for an additional 2-3 months.
4. I made some time to think about what I would do if I won the lottery... and then worked backwards from there (More about this later), along with input from The Millionaire Fastlane (and TFHWW if I'm honest) I came up with a plan.
Additionally I happened to bump into a friend of mine who runs his own successful business producing a product for sale, and it clicked that he actually has less imagination and less skills/intelligence to be able to succeed than I do (when I look at some of his decisions they're pretty dumb) - not to put him down, but just if he can make it work then so can I.
And so I resigned from my job. Much to everyone's surprise, but I have to do this - I know I won't actually get anything done without being in a place where I have to make it work, and have to take responsibility. I'm backing myself to win - I know I can do this.
The plan:
I've always been someone full of ideas. I love solving problems, and as a jack of all trades can jump from one sub-culture/genre/business to another very easily. I would love to work with people in all these different areas (one at a time), creating a product or solution, then move on to the next. This solves my problem of getting bored easily, and I've come to realise I actually have good ideas. The Fastlane part of this is to design once, move on whilst still taking royalties on previous ideas which are in the market. I worked backwards from there and realized I need to build credibility before anyone will work with me, so I need a track record. I stopped dreaming about the above goal at this point and from a list of ideas a mile long, picked one that I can get to prototype stage without external input.
It's a development of an item I made for my race car but is easy enough for me to design and 3d print a prototype of. I've already made one set of prototypes and begun testing if the idea is feasible, and on holiday intend to do some AB testing of the product, website, name, logo etc.
I will not be posting any more about this until I have my first sale (pre-order?) - I figure this is a good way to ensure I don't get any emotional validation without actually doing something!
Thanks for reading.
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