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.

Just When I Thought I Had it all Figured Out....

A post of a ranting nature...

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Welp.

I guess I have to make my bed and lie in it.

I need to get this off my chest. Never in my life have I been so frustrated.

I decided not to drop out of my tertiary studies.

I would develop my business as I continued studying. Once the business could sustain me, I would drop out immediately.

If I had the free roam of too much time, I stand the risk of action faking.

I attended the briefings on arranging my timetable of lessons and whatever else I need to do throughout this week.

Did my best to arrange the classes to have me some liberty. Some days would only have two or one classes. Others had multiple classes stacked up, but at least had two hours to either use to clear off assignments or do Fastlane stuff.

All fine and dandy?

Not really.

I looked at the module outlines they sent me online (the school is tech savvy).

One of them was accounting.

I read it. Mandatory pre-class reading.

I tried to write some notes.

Then, my pen snapped.

Full of theoretical bullshit.

Why on earth do I need to know the full bloody definition of what accounting is? Roles of accounting? Financial vs managerial accounting?

I'm not saying these topics are useless.

I'm saying that I don't need to waste five months of a semester to push that shit down my brain for a measely exam that doesn't free my life. I may or may not use that stuff.

I won't know until enough action has hit the mark.

Earlier, I picked up a non-academic book titled Financial Statements by Thomas R. Ittelson. I found it to be surprisingly comprehensive. Even had an entire story of a business startup to illustrate points.

As of now, it is my go-to for accounting matters.

With the help of Quickbooks and recently, Wave, I can just jump to work without wasting time to learn all that crap. When it comes to the legals, I can get a formal accountant to help me.

As of now though, my freelance gig just operates like a piggy bank thing though as it is still small and takes time to meet clients.

@healthstatus's debate on whether coding was stupid gave me some insights. He compared hiring coders with hiring accountants, and that was what hit the mark.

Here's the very post:
GOLD - Learning to Program is STUPID! (or SMART?!)

I looked at the other modules quickly, and found that I would have to write essays and all that academic lingo.

Something in me screams 'action fake'!

Will this essay even provide real-market value? It's not even a bloody product you can sell on the market, unless you want to do a tutor business. How am I helping people in business by going for a 3-year course?


It's pretty maddening to waste my time learning business in the wrong way, rather than earn and learn at the same time.

Sure, I could go for a job instead of college.

But I suppose that even jobs can provide similar suckages of time that you have to manage. And I still get 'paid' for my time in study by my parents, so although I hate this route, it still involves 'trading time for money' like a job, industry experience aside.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
I just got off the Upwork channel with a potential client.

The guy basically raved about my opinions and suggestions on some sample work he asked me to edit. I'm doing Microsoft paperwork.

I worked my a$$ off even though he was just testing me and seeing if I was a fit for his paid tasks later. I went the extra mile, added a video clip or two to boring presentations, carefully wittled down long paragraphs. Went late night, but I'm used to it already.

Basically, I am confident that even if I'm not going to go Upwork superstar or millionaire overnight, at least I have fired actual value into the world.


I talked to some folks from my course and other seniors.

Not one of them was interested in beginning to fire value into the world or community at large.

In fact, when I was waiting for a briefing to start, I overheard this conversation between two Business School girls.

Girl A: What? You were saying that your sister got this job? Such an easy and relaxing job!
Girl B: Yes! That job is so nice! Wish I can have one like that?

Are you F*cking kidding me???

While I like easy and relaxing myself, that kind of attitude stinks of zero-value providence.

With that attitude, how do you expect to make it big in life, never mind earning a living?

I guess not everyone should be in business...
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Alright, enough complaining....
As a Fastlaner, I must solve problems.

Here's what I am going to do.

1. I'll have to limit my Upwork clients. As of now, I have two active gigs, but both are on-call, and I can negotiate raises after the first tasks.

I'm not sure if I have anymore hours to give to freelancing. But even if I can earn a few hundred bucks with what gigs I have the time to afford, it's fine.

I also saved heavily last year, so I have some decent capital. Doesn't need to be a lot either.

2. Allocate the minimum amount of time to study and complete assignments. Maybe two hours a day realistically.

I won't be scoring like a badass, but I will be getting by. Apparently the uni has an intervention policy....don't want wasteful meetings to blow good time that can be spent on a Fastlane.

3. Hit up meetups and the business innovation centre in college.
I'll have to do due diligence on potential mentors and investors. And on the latter, I'm fearing that they might have students who want to follow activities rather than create their own.

I have nothing against students attending speeches, fancy events and doing fun fairs. But if that does not solve critical problems in the marketplace, it's action faking.

Sure, such entrepreneural exposure activities can be a good time to 'get my feet wet'.

Then my BS sensors said, 'Why get your feet wet, when you can get ALL WET?'

Again, I shall not depend on these things as 'silver bullets' although they may be.

I want to solve the next crucial problem......

4. Rework my current Fastlane.
Several of my plans had to be trashed after the market basically said 'no', or if they would consume more time and resources than I could afford.

I am still researching my product. I will take something old, and give it a new spin. Or improve its delivery method.

That's all for now. Time to sleep....2am....and I have to wake up at 8 or 9am to do Fastlane.

Thank goodness I can still do something about my problems...
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Breathe Z.
We need employees and customers.
Thank you, @jon.a.

Managing anger is not really my strong point.

I won't blow up on people, but I find myself bottling it up.

That statement is pretty sad though. The old me would think that sounded like a conspiracy scheme, but it really isn't.

People choose what they want, and support what is safe for them.

Was it once said somewhere here that you cannot overcome 10,000 years of indoctrination?
 

jon.a

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
329%
Sep 29, 2012
4,306
14,175
Near San Diego
Thank you, @jon.a.

Managing anger is not really my strong point.

I won't blow up on people, but I find myself bottling it up.

That statement is pretty sad though. The old me would think that sounded like a conspiracy scheme, but it really isn't.

People choose what they want, and support what is safe for them.

Was it once said somewhere here that you cannot overcome 10,000 years of indoctrination?

It's okay you are among friends here.
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
It's okay you are among friends here.
Yes. Thank you.

I have been thinking about putting my progress on INSIDERS later after I achieved the first sales.

Now, I will have to push it forward so that I can get feedback.

Today, I will have to finish planning for my university study time and finalise how many hours I have. I couldn't finish it yesterday as I had an Upwork call.

Feels like trying to pay off debt, but that 'debt' is in time, not money.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Dunkafelics

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
229%
Jun 12, 2015
318
729
Vancouver, Canada
@ZF Lee

How much time do you have left in school?

Where do you want to be three months from now with regards to your business?


It sounds like you are in a position where you are either not earning your worth on Upwork or you are frustrated with the types of clients that you are getting. What is the end goal here?
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
@ZF Lee

It sounds like you are in a position where you are either not earning your worth on Upwork or you are frustrated with the types of clients that you are getting. What is the end goal here?
Thank you. Great questions!

I'm not frustrated with my clients at all.

Some of them are actually very likable to work with, and the tasks they give are still manageable.

A few are new to the platform, and have actually expressed worry in hiring the best freelancers to me. I couldn't really help them in that department, so all I could was to assure them to do what they can do, and that I would continue to help them in their present tasks.

I'll consider this as a small income stream.

I do have a small income from my parents. Not much, but enough.

I am working to at least have an income that replaces it via freelancing. I can do it within three months, with consistent effort.

And I won't be spinning my wheels while waiting for that to take shape. I will be finding other means of getting capital.

Takes like 2-3 hours to communicate and do my present tasks for Upwork. A bit long...but I want to put in the extra effort.

As of now, I'm doing merely Microsoft paperwork or writing. I came in originally to do copywriting, but it would take considerable time.

On the exit, I'll get out of it when my business can support my simple expenses lol, and needs more of my attention.
How much time do you have left in school?
I just came in this week.

Takes three years.

I can defer or go for internship in second year...which can give me some time, but I need to apply early.

Where do you want to be three months from now with regards to your business?
TBH, I haven't really put a number on that in terms of sales and revenue.

I am going to go for a local meetup to gauge some realistic opinions from people already in the field.

I'm more concerned about the first 10 sales that validate a productocracy. I can do it by next month end, if all goes well.

I'll worry about the things closest to me first, and take one thing at a time.;)
 

Dunkafelics

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
229%
Jun 12, 2015
318
729
Vancouver, Canada
Takes like 2-3 hours to communicate and do my present tasks for Upwork. A bit long...but I want to put in the extra effort.

Hats off you on this! This will pave the path well for you going forward if you treat every project like this WHILE getting compensated at a level that you feel is sufficient for the time being.

@ZF Lee it sounds like you are doing pretty well.

As @MJ DeMarco and @Andy Black have basically pounded in my head, as long as you are pursuing your business ventures and have the right CENTS in place, you are winning the Fastlane journey.

Be kind to yourself and remember that you are wearing a bunch of different hats right now. It sounds like you have structured a pretty good timeline for how you are going to handle your projects/schooling.

Make sure to schedule some fun and relaxing time as well. ;)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Hats off you on this! This will pave the path well for you going forward if you treat every project like this WHILE getting compensated at a level that you feel is sufficient for the time being.

@ZF Lee it sounds like you are doing pretty well.

As @MJ DeMarco and @Andy Black have basically pounded in my head, as long as you are pursuing your business ventures and have the right CENTS in place, you are winning the Fastlane journey.

Be kind to yourself and remember that you are wearing a bunch of different hats right now. It sounds like you have structured a pretty good timeline for how you are going to handle your projects/schooling.

Make sure to schedule some fun and relaxing time as well. ;)
Thank you for your concerns and compliments.

I'll get some leisure books and find time for gym or swimming.

And eat well...I would stock up on fruits.

On hats, eventually I'll have to narrow them down to a few more important and winning ones.

On my projects in school, I was provided with the outline of lessons and assignments and their due dates. I won't delay on the assignments.

If it can be done today, it gets done. Simple as that.

Again, this feels like clearing money debt.
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
UPDATE

Before I put up a RANT, I'm going to stay organised about what happened.

Good Things
- One of my first clients bumped me up to $15 per task. Not much, but anyway, that task is just paperwork, not any higher-spec skill like programming.
- Got a few more invites to be a VA. Currently considering taking up the job, but I am running out of hours to spend. I'll have to formally declare myself open to only gigs that pay by the task, not the hour.

BAD Things
- Much of my time was leached unexpectedly by university group presentation projects.

I'll explain it in detail here.
1. 'I DON'T WANT TO BE A LEADER'
My first plan was to just get by as a team member, doing just whatever duties that the leader provided me with. Leading a team would need me to work on delegation and monitoring quality controls.

I was wrong. Worst of all, the professors didn't specifically assigned anyone as leaders. They just said, 'Here's the list of team members, go find your mates.'
I supposed that's a test of people management.

But it didn't favour my present Fastlane plans, in terms of the time trade-off.

So, I decided to jump into it. Made Whatsapp groups, delegated, told them that they could holler if they need help, etc.

So much for Fastlane principles of accountability.

2. DYSFUNCTIONAL MEMBERS

I'll save this for my RANT later...


SOLUTIONS
- I apologised severely to my Upwork clients for letting them down. They were quite accepting, and they mentioned that they did have similar problems with other freelancers too, or having team workers pulling the plug on them and leaving without a trace.

-I set up additional deadlines to provide a bigger share of the workpile to make up for the loss time.

-I decided that I had to go with 'workable' instead of 'perfect', since the work from defunct members was going to be sub-standard. I took whatever presentation slides they sent me, looked through them and added additional things to 'sweeten ' them up. Not too much, though.

This obviously took more time away from my own personal activities, in terms of researching material for add content, and doesn't make me a good manager in terms of delegation, but these would be just a one-off projects. In the later courses, I would have different members and different course materials to work with. The later semesters would have filtered out most of the junk students, giving me better people to work with.

And if I did try to make them ammend their parts of the project by themselves, they might either not do it at all, or make their part of the work worse.
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Oh, OK. I've put up the more productive stuff upfront already.

I shall be addressing this to my university peers who are somehow lazy, unmotivated, selfish and somehow prejudiced (not all of them are like that, thankfully)

RANT
Just tell me, folks, why in the F*ck did you join this business course?

I don't give a F*ck that you flunked science courses or other harder courses beforehand. I don't care that business degrees were your only last alternative. I don't give a F*ck that you chose business because it was an 'easier degree'. That doesn't mean that the industry has to take all your lackluster attitudes and practices!

Easy degrees doesn't mean that you can get by with shitty studying and work attitude!

On the contrary, you have to work just as hard, if not harder, like your STEM peers!

I generally love to mind my own business during lectures and tutorial sessions, but don't think that I am blind to your attitude. You may put up a nice orderly front during group meetings, but outside of that, your true attitude is shown!

Playing phones in class? Check.
Blue-ticking my whatsapp advice, idea suggestions and reminders? Check.
Providing me with content that doesn't follow SIMPLE academic standards, that a F*cking high-schooler can do? Check.

When I tell you that we need to get things done quickly, I want you to give your own opinions on how we can do the project, and do it well! Not sit there with dead eyes, with a thumb up your a$$, expecting me to spoonfeed you with my wonderful insights. Seriously, I don't intend to give all the ideas and answers....it wouldn't be called a group project that way.

And you all think I am smarter than you all?! I'm not. I'm just a slightly overworked chap.

Back to the question...WHY did you join this business course?

If your answer is anything like:
'I joined because my parents made me...'

'I joined because of my friends....'

'I joined because it's 'easier' ..."

'I joined because of 'textbook reason' ...."

I think you might know why you are F*cked.


END RANT before I go out of control. And yes, I did tell these things to them, and they 'blue-ticked' it.


Lessons Learned
1. Hiring and firing

'Firing fast and hiring slow' is the mantra for us Fastlaners.
Unfortunately, I was not allowed to do so conveniently in university.

If I were to do that, I would need to collect evidence, report to lecturers, have meetings both with the folks and the tutors, and all that moddly-coddly bullshit that comes with treating snowflakes nicely.

Not to be political, but if feels rather socialist in nature.

I would very much like to exercise the principle of 'KILL OFF THOSE WHO DON'T SERVE', having in mind that I would be also doing my other more productive team members a favour as well. Trade-offs here.

I made the mistake of starting late in coordinating the team members for real. Starting early would have helped me to identify potential troublemakers and weed them out through the lecturer channels, with time on my side. But anyway, that could have backfired too.


2. Have low expectations of people

I didn't really understand why MJ DeMarco said that he gives opportunity for everyone to prove themselves, but TRUSTS NO ONE. I do now.

I had assumed that I would be meeting more Slowlaners. Slowlaners do have good work ethics and knowledge, with some discipline.

Lazy, free-loading Sidewalkers somehow came in the disguise of Slowlaners. Let us keep it at that, for my case.

That is not to say we cannot be open-minded or optimistic about people. It would depend on the terrain of our task. There are 2 sides to the coin: Optimism and pessimism about people.

In TFLF, I would be more optimistic, as I know that we have higher achievers here. I would still practice some pessimism about people here, what with MLM drive-bys and potential scammers, but they are quite far in the minority to worry about.

However, in my general world of young adults, here in Malaysia, I'm facing a generation that is materialistic, bigoted, selfish, shallow-minded and cowardly. I have already taken measures to avoid them by joining good business and investment clubs, where the more successful people work on their projects, but even then, the bad eggs may dress in nice eggshells as well, in there.



 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
On a side note, young guys,

1.Answer the damn phone
2. Answer the damn email or WhatsApp
3. Make F*cking time for face-to-face meetings and classes, regardless of how busy or tired you are!
4. Have your own opinions on how to perceive or execute a project.

The idiots that I worked with didn't do all these things, so it gave me headaches and lost me loads of precious time.

Attitude is everything. Everything!

Damn...maybe I should have posted this instead of the ramble in the previous post.

And guys, claiming that your national culture involves you sleeping your a$$ off until 2pm isn't going to make me turn a blind eye to your lacklustre work habits. The F*cking world doesn't care that laziness may be your family background. It just want things to be finished effectively!

Yes, I'm not kidding. One of my team mates told me that. What a disease.
 
Last edited:

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Just a brief update on a little of my personal life, which is a motivator for my Fastlane....

I heard word from my peers that my girl had found someone else in her university.

I asked for pics from my peers, and I saw her having a meal with the boy.

One half of me felt like an exploding volcano.

The other half said, 'She's just having a friend. It's fine as long they don't touch each other or do immature things.'

I did these things:
1. Deleted Instagram and the photos.
It is useless to find reasons to hate and limit my girl. I want to build a relationship, not an Instagram photo and a candlelight dinner. She need friends, girls and boys...and to learn from their life experiences.

I realised that I was using Insta as an excuse for experimenting with marketing...when it was not. In the future, I will hire Fiverr or Upwork people, and use some of the social media central control platforms for data analysis, given that I stand a huge risk of getting SCRIPTED by Instagram.

I'll keep FB for contacts and networking.

2. Decided to plan a birthday party for her.
She'll be back from uni this month, so might as well make her happy. I went to buy some gifts that could be assets to her. Some clothes and a scarf might do.

Now to think of it, I am growing tired of the trend of boys dropping girls, girls dropping boys, similar to moneychasing in business. It is a never-ending chase that wastes time and resources. I even hate the notion of calling someone my 'girlfriend'...it feels like a forced tag. I want to call my loved ones by their names, the ones given to them from birth.

3. Booked some groundwork to go to.

I realised that I didn't look into the sustainability issues like general supplier cycles and local marketing for my Fastlane, which can be a lot different than this American-based forum. I couldn't find anything to read on online, so I decided to get boots on the ground.

I found some books that I had difficulty looking for last year, and one of it was Purple Cow. It briefly talked about an 'ideavirus' ,which is a concept for the spreading of word of mouth rapidly to garner attention for a product. It needs a small, but LOUD group of people to begin spreading it.

My country's online scene doesn't seem very vocal enough to my satisfaction, so I'll be making some trips to select shopping malls and shops to talk and observe. I will 'pretend' to be a business student doing research for a project (I am a business student lol), so I could gain some sympathetic access.

I should have done it long ago, but it's not too late, is it?

I might eventually open an INSIDERS thread to recount my tales lol.

4. Change focus of Upwork skill
I should switch from copywriting and VA paperwork to Excel data analysis. I picked up some skills from uni classes, which my lecturer revealed to be in use by PHD folks.

I found it difficult and very time consuming to master email, e-commerce or other fields of copy specifically, even with feedback from clients and books.

Somehow some clients don't judge the copy you sent based on whether they sell. They might just look and see whether its for their subjective liking or compare it with a sample benchmark of sample copy, which might as well be obsolete.

I suppose I could find ways around it, but something tells me its time to move on.
 

GravyBoat

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
267%
Nov 25, 2013
763
2,041
28
San Diego
The other half said, 'She's just having a friend. It's fine as long they don't touch each other or do immature things.'

It seems to me like your maturity levels aren't where they need to be with this situation.

Keep yourself busy with other business related things, and you won't have time to dwell on petty shit.

If your girl posts something on her IG, you should be proud to tell people that you're with her instead of shaming her for what she decides to post.

I mean this in the best way for everyone in the situation.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
the anti career stuff on this forum is so stupid.

im sure there are people with long careers that are happy in life with what they're doing, there is fulfilling work out there that exists.

and why are you wasting time in school? you are stuck in the script yourself and judge others, yet you get money from your parents? you are literally worse than any one ''stuck in the slow lane''

leaching off parents & judging others in a condescending way. get real bud
 

Ninjakid

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
217%
Jun 23, 2014
1,936
4,206
Buddy Guy Eh
Just a brief update on a little of my personal life, which is a motivator for my Fastlane....

I heard word from my peers that my girl had found someone else in her university.

I asked for pics from my peers, and I saw her having a meal with the boy.

One half of me felt like an exploding volcano.

The other half said, 'She's just having a friend. It's fine as long they don't touch each other or do immature things.'
Bro...

No.

Obviously she's seeing some other dude behind your back because you heard it from your friends and not from her.

You see the smoke, don't just pretend there ain't fire when you know what fire looks like.

And now you'e trying to rationalize it by saying:

'She's just having a friend. It's fine as long they don't touch each other or do immature things.'

Are you okay with it? I mean if you're cool with being the bf who she runs back to after she F*cks someone else, then by all means keep buying her gifts and rewarding her like you said you would do.

Trust me, this relationship is over. Set her free and let her live her life, and set yourself free and focus on what you need to do.

Sorry bro, but you needed to hear it.
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Wooah!

Thanks everyone for your replies and support.
I'll try to address your concerns.

the anti career stuff on this forum is so stupid.

im sure there are people with long careers that are happy in life with what they're doing, there is fulfilling work out there that exists.

and why are you wasting time in school? you are stuck in the script yourself and judge others, yet you get money from your parents? you are literally worse than any one ''stuck in the slow lane''

leaching off parents & judging others in a condescending way. get real bud
I used to think of it this way.

Now I am different. People do have good careers. But I'd like to see the business world as an orchestra, not as just one piece or one instrument.

Understanding how labour, marketing, demand, supply and everything comes into place would make any career much understandable. Being young, I decided it would be better to see the world that way, as systems.

However, I would like to remind you that if most of us didn't feel deprived or having an FTE in any way, we wouldn't have found any reason to be here at all!

I'll admit that I judged her and others a bit harshly. At least the 'judgement' mood lasted for just a few hours, and then back to Upwork.... :blush:

On leaching parents, I'm not sure what you are talking about. I don't ask for expensive things from them and I save up whatever they give me. In fact, I told them about my Fastlane plans, and they did disagree in the beginning until I told them it could be educational.

As for uni, I decided to do it to network with some individuals that outside meetups might not be able to provide and access facilities that are not easily reachable on the net. And as I have said earlier, to quit uni would be pretty stupid unless you had a running business. Even Bill Gates had some things going on before he quit. And yes, he did get some support from his family along the way.

It seems to me like your maturity levels aren't where they need to be with this situation.

Keep yourself busy with other business related things, and you won't have time to dwell on petty sh*t.

If your girl posts something on her IG, you should be proud to tell people that you're with her instead of shaming her for what she decides to post.

I mean this in the best way for everyone in the situation.
Agreed.

Yes, on the IG matter, I will still declare that I will be with her.
In fact, I told those same peers who reported it to me that I would be with her, no matter what.
I'll keep on encouraging her in whatever work she does.

Thanks @GravyBoat for your advice!:smile2:

Are you okay with it? I mean if you're cool with being the bf who she runs back to after she F*cks someone else, then by all means keep buying her gifts and rewarding her like you said you would do.

Trust me, this relationship is over. Set her free and let her live her life, and set yourself free and focus on what you need to do.

Sorry bro, but you needed to hear it.
She won't F*ck anyone.

This isn't the Western world. In our culture, this act is heavily looked down upon. Very criminal.
Not to say it doesn't happen here, but the odds will be against her if she does it.

I have set her free a long time ago. I could have gone to the same uni with her long ago. But where would we be? Would I be here? What would I learn? Would I get to serve Upwork clients? Meet business people? Loose some money and time in experiments? Would we be talking here, sharing our life experiences?

Earlier on, he did express her concerns to me that it really wasn't the time yet, but she still needed my support. So my stance is this: she can learn from people and gain new experiences to share with me. And the same for me. But both of us should not let others touch us.

My girl is not stupid. I was with her for five years, and I know her principles and work ethics. It would take a lot for her to trip into something very immoral. The same goes for me. I am not asking a lot of her. I am subjected to the same principles she has.

And as long we're both not dead or married to someone else, a relationship is always possible. Not easy, but we will do it.

I know that there is a time to work, and a time to build a formal relationship. But it doesn't mean that we don't prepare for them. Same way for business, we prepare what we can for the times ahead.

This is also why I decided to go the Fastlane route. It takes time to succeed, and if I am not confident that my girl will take care of herself in the meantime, would I go in?

Thanks @Ninjakid for the thoughts. You helped me find words to express myself.

Yes, focus is a good thing. I purposely went back to university even though my break was not yet over so that I could work alone. Home can be a distraction at times.

Very refreshing to work in an empty uni lol.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
You see the smoke, don't just pretend there ain't fire when you know what fire looks like.
I will discuss this personally with her. Break it down firmly but carefully.

It's the only 'peaceful way' besides marching in her uni and terrorizing her friends lol. I did it before and it was embarassing for her friends lol. But that is another story.
 

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
I don’t see the point of school if you are committed to the “fast lane” besides wasting money it is also a waste of time unless you are chasing a career you are interested, which would mean you are not interested in the fast lane. You don’t have a buisness? Why not, what’s stopping you from doing something now? Why later. Things to think about
 

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
I’m assuming you live with your parents, if so cool, have a fulltime or Parttime job, and dump 100% of your net worth In building a buisness, that would be the ideal approach, now would be the time in life to risk all the marbles
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
I’m assuming you live with your parents, if so cool, have a fulltime or Parttime job, and dump 100% of your net worth In building a buisness, that would be the ideal approach, now would be the time in life to risk all the marbles
Already have a part time job. Upwork.

I had to dump quite some clients though, in favour of tasks that pay based on work completed, not hours. So my income dropped by half.

I am ok with dumping 100% of my net worth on Fastlane, but just not aimlessly. I don't need to blow my capital in one day or even one week. I am also reserving a bit for transport to travel to shops and meetups to look deeper in the marketplace. Public transport is not exactly cheap, even with goodies like Grabcar.

I don’t see the point of school if you are committed to the “fast lane” besides wasting money it is also a waste of time unless you are chasing a career you are interested, which would mean you are not interested in the fast lane. You don’t have a buisness? Why not, what’s stopping you from doing something now? Why later. Things to think about
Eventually I will drop school once the business are up and about, producing income that settles my basic living expenses. It's not a straight-end path, so to speak.

And it doesn't mean that college is totally useless to my goals. Some of my classes like data analysis and accounting for non-financial managers were intro classes, but they taught me a lot and clarified some things that I was confused with from online self-learning.

So yes, some things might be better learned in college. And one does not need to strictly derive a career straight from college.
 

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
ok that makes sense
 

GravyBoat

Gold Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
267%
Nov 25, 2013
763
2,041
28
San Diego
@ZF Lee

We're rooting for you man. My only advice is to not dwell on situations and not think too hard. Especially significant other situations.

Smart people learn from other people's mistakes, so trust me, your time is more valuable than that. Keep yourself super busy and don't look back.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
@ZF Lee

We're rooting for you man. My only advice is to not dwell on situations and not think too hard. Especially significant other situations.

Smart people learn from other people's mistakes, so trust me, your time is more valuable than that. Keep yourself super busy and don't look back.
Thank you for your support. Agreed!
Marketing is already hard enough to think of. :smile:

I'm already super busy. Charted some appointments, more visits to shops, maybe a few emails to some leads and I'm not sure what else.

Found a few books to read that dig deep into specific problems, namely brand building and supply chain, and they aren't the usual rehash or intro books that one usually finds on business. I need second readings to fully comprehend the stuff.
 

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
I’ve been thinking of buying Mark cubans book, should be good, Richard Branson’s seem good to
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
I decided to test an idea by pretending to be the target customer of the intended product.
I went to Reddit, and poured out my 'troubles' and 'fears' like a regular Sidewalker lol, based on my idea. I signed up for Reddit just today.

Birds of the same feather flock together after all.

The response was overwhelming...I'll extend this experiment until tomorrow to see what I can rope out of it.

Maybe my negative bias of reddit is BS after all...

If I get some valuable insights, I'll go to the Inside lol. To be continued....
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
UPDATES

On my Reddit test, for my intended product, people aren't exactly wanting a better alternative. They named all kinds of other products that were cheaper, with good quality and even a degree of loyalty to it.

However, maybe they haven't seen a better alternative yet to make a different choice. It's probably like people saying they will still use old Nokia phones when you try to sell them IPhones lol. I'll toss up a website with a pre-sell, but I'll prepare to iterate on to another idea if it doesn't bites the bait. I'm wondering if a week is long enough, even for a little A/B testing on different headlines.

Shouldn't be very expensive either to fire the website.

Just now, I heard MJ railing about folks thinking that they have to select a brand new idea to be immensely successful.

Funny, the product I am looking into:
a. Is boring as F*ck
b. Used by students and people with paperwork
c. Has ready demand
d. Has room for some change, as early marketing approaches of competitors look tired

I'm currently figuring out what to do this week, should the tests come positive. I'm feeling a bit nervous of meeting suppliers, getting samples, calling up an Upwork engineer to get me a redesign modification....well, I'll figure how to make them timely.


Last week, I spent some time on meetups to build up contacts and a local support group ....AND I ENDED UP IN A NETWORK MARKETING SCHEME

Here's how it happened:
I went to a small meetup at a coffee shop, courtesy of meetup.com.

Met an e-commerce guy and his older accountant friend.
Strange thing was that the guy kept REAL quiet throughout the session, although it was he that was organizing the event. His other friend did a lot of the talking. Mostly shared tales on his accounting career, informal tuition classes and small IT gigs that he did long ago.

Out of the blue, the e-commerce guy invited me to attend some 'business opportunity' coming up in the next few days.

I thought it might be something fishy, but I decided to go just to know about him more.

I was given the address to a nice hall, where I met his friend, Mr G.
Mr.G was very polite and ushered me to a seat. Oddly, the e-commerce guy didn't pop by.

The hall was filled with young working adults. The kind that struggles with job stress and challenges.

Speakers came up, and red flags starting waving in my head when I heard the words'Amway', 'Diamond' and 'passive income' peppered throughout the speeches. I thought of getting the hell out of there, but decided to have some respect for them.

So I stayed on until the end, which wasn't very long.

Mr. G took me aside and offered to help me learn more about this 'opportunity'. I decided to humour him, so he started talking about how the Amway business model worked

I used to think network marketing was wiped off the face of the earth, but now it seems it has put ONLINE BIZ into the equation with some scheme called Network 21. All other mechanisms like inviting (harassing?) friends to buy your stuff still apply. Then another guy, Mr.W and an accountant (lol), Ms. E popped in to chime in.

3 folks against 1? Huh?

Finally, I had to put my foot down.

I asked them 2 questions:
- How many products have you all sold PERIOD.
- Do you have control over your products? If a customer hates a product, can you do anything about it? Make it better?

Instead of giving me clear answers, the geezers got Ms. E to REPEAT the entire explanation of the model, with numbers that might as well as well be imaginary.

Then Ms.E popped out a form and asked me for my name.

'What's that form?' I asked. I looked at it, and to my horror, it was a registration form for me to join the network.

'I didn't say yes to it.' I said.

'But you seemed rather positive to it.' she said.

'I didn't say yes.' I repeated. Then I excused myself, bid them goodnight, and left briskly.

Later, the e-commerce guy called me up on it, and I told him it wasn't real entrepreneurship to rely on some company for your bread and butter. 'Noted.' he said. Queer guy.

Hopefully, I won't run into such shit again. A bit frightening to experience some of the MLM tales on this forum firsthand. Thank goodness I didn't pay for any if their upsells at the event (RM200-ish for an upcoming seminar and DVDs-enough to test my product lol?)- but the Grabride was surprisingly an eater.

EDIT: I should open a new thread lol. This thread was pretty negative ...let's have some fresh wind, shall we? :p
 
Last edited:

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

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

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top