Hi all, just finished reading the book last night and decided to jump on this forum because I never give up a chance to learn about this stuff (entrepreneurship, business, money, leading, etc), and the book really spoke to my beliefs about how an exceptional life should be lived.
I'd really like this post to be short, but there's no way that's going to happen - I'm a talker and I love to share - two things you may recognize don't make for a short conversation.
About me
I'm 38, divorced, have 3 of the coolest kids ever that I get to see all the time, and one kid I haven't seen in 17 and a half years. I've owned and operated a few businesses in the past - from websites to traditional service-and-product based local businesses to pipe-dream MLMs. Oh, MLM, you wonderful bastard...
My fall-back profession has always been computer programming primarily because I've always had a very strong passion for everything software development. But let's be real and not ignore that 6-figure salary that's very attainable in this industry. Part of me hates that salary because it's like a vortex that so easily sucks me me back in every time I screw up a business opportunity and need time to regroup.
I do know myself, though, and even if I fail every single business venture I ever start from now until the day I die, I'll never stop trying. It's too exciting. I just love it too much! Besides, I can use those business skills in my professional life which sets me far apart from my peers.
The way I think
I'm the type of person that comes up with "unique solutions to difficult problems," as some people like to describe it. To me, they're just the obvious solutions. Those "unique" solutions are a thing that some people can't get their head around, though, because it involves changing the way they think.
I've lived my entire life with people telling me "no" and "can't do that" and "what's the point" and "too difficult" and all the other verbal anchors people use on one another. I've also lived my entire life proving people wrong simply because they let their Stage 1 thinking get the better of them. I will admit that it took me a long time to get past the need to say "I told you so!" when I did prove them wrong. Hey, I'm only human.
After a long enough time knowing me, people usually realize something about me; I'm often right about a lot of things I say, not because I know everything, but rather that I don't speak unless I know, or I have questions that will put me in the know. People find they have to have their facts straight before they say "can't" to me because I WILL deconstruct what they say to expose any inconsistencies or fallacies.
Prepubescent entrepreneur
My first entrepreneurial experience was at age 12 at a local golf course. No, I wasn't a caddy. Slogging around a heavy bag in hot weather, watching other people enjoy themselves...no thanks!
Instead, I figured out that if I waded into the swampy, messy, inaccessible-to-golfers, only-a-12-year-old-could-love mud that sat in the middle of the tree stands where a lot of golfers lost their balls, all I'd need to do is get the least decayed ones, clean them, and sell them back to the golfers. Since I was practically giving them away at 25% of what the clubhouse was selling them for, they sold like hotcakes.
Did I say I was an ignorant 12-year-old? Yeah, my only thought of what to do with the money was to buy comic books and candy.
Lessons
It did, however, teach me a few really good lessons about the world. I noticed that some of those lessons ran contrary to what I was taught by people around me, but they were all good lessons I use to this day.
I've given up too soon.
Something negative would happen in one of my businesses and I'd say "Ok, well that didn't work. Better cut my losses and go back to work while I think of the next thing." Looking back now I can see that if I kept with some of them, I definitely could have found a path to success. There is a shining light peeking over those dark clouds of stupidity, though - now that I know that about myself, I can make sure to not fall into that trap again.
Learning, failure and execution
I've learned so much from just trying things out and seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm learning, always learning. Learning from success, learning from failure. Learning from experts, learning from novices. Learning from those I love, learning from those I hate. I know that every experience has a lesson in it, no exceptions, and if I can't see the lesson then I'm not looking hard enough. Sometimes I think if I wasn't allowed to learn anymore, I'd shrivel up and die.
Failure. What a word. Like I tell my kids, there's no such thing as failure. The word "failure" is just another "can't." The inability to reach a goal is nothing more than a magnifying glass on a deficiency in knowledge. That excites me because that means all I need to do is get more knowledge and execute my vision again. That's what Bruce Wayne's father meant when he said "we fall so we can learn how to pick ourselves up."
Knowing myself and knowing that I like to start and run businesses, it's never really been a question of IF I would start another business, but WHEN. I've been in all kinds of bad situations with my businesses - partners taking all the money and disappearing, the leadership team imploding and taking the company with it, developing a kick-a$$ idea that is abandoned at the near-market spot only to see another company make millions doing the same thing less than a year later (ever hear of GameFly?) - but I would never, never, NEVER even think of stopping. Stopping equals death, or worse, mediocrity. Yech!
Execution and failure are just two of my many teachers in life.
Where I am and where I want to be
So here I am between businesses at the moment, developing two and researching opportunities for another with a friend. Another thing I've learned in life is that most people have terrible ideas about what constitutes a successful business, so I'm not hopeful about the one I'm researching, but I do it anyway because it sounds like it could be a halfway decent idea if planned correctly.
Where I want to be? Where I really want to be is remembered in the history books for doing something great for humanity. For leading huge swaths of people towards a better life. That age old question "why are we here?" We're here for other people! I can't help people on the scale I want to working 40, 50 hours a week, and the pittance of breadcrumbs they laughably call "raises" won't get me the necessary freedom I require, either.
Passion
I don't want to retire. I don't want to sit around doing nothing. I don't want to travel, I don't want to play video games all day and I'm not looking to volunteer. I'm the type of person that only follows passion - if I can't find a passion in an idea, I don't do it. I love being a force upon the world, shaping it in a way that amazes people.
For me the ultimate passion is being a leader. Being the person people look to for help and guidance. Helping people realize the potential every single person on this planet inherently possesses. Everyone needs leadership and since I can't stand government work, I see business as a good path to get me where I want to be. Since I never get tired of leading, and I can lead literally anywhere there's a group of people, I don't see that I'm going to retire any time soon, if ever.
Still awake?
Well, that's a good start at describing who I am and what I believe. Too long? I've been an entrepreneur geek for as long as I can remember and I have some strong views on the subject, so this is only the start.
I definitely want to devour all the information on this forum, but I often get busy between my first job (programming) and my real job (working on businesses) so my participation on forums like this is spotty at best. I usually do self- and business-development on the train to and from work, but the internet is so unstable there that I won't be able to use this site. I'll do my best to be a part of this community, though, because I know I can learn a lot from the successful people that inhabit this land.
"You are responsible for the generation of your own experience of reality."
I'd really like this post to be short, but there's no way that's going to happen - I'm a talker and I love to share - two things you may recognize don't make for a short conversation.
About me
I'm 38, divorced, have 3 of the coolest kids ever that I get to see all the time, and one kid I haven't seen in 17 and a half years. I've owned and operated a few businesses in the past - from websites to traditional service-and-product based local businesses to pipe-dream MLMs. Oh, MLM, you wonderful bastard...
My fall-back profession has always been computer programming primarily because I've always had a very strong passion for everything software development. But let's be real and not ignore that 6-figure salary that's very attainable in this industry. Part of me hates that salary because it's like a vortex that so easily sucks me me back in every time I screw up a business opportunity and need time to regroup.
I do know myself, though, and even if I fail every single business venture I ever start from now until the day I die, I'll never stop trying. It's too exciting. I just love it too much! Besides, I can use those business skills in my professional life which sets me far apart from my peers.
The way I think
I'm the type of person that comes up with "unique solutions to difficult problems," as some people like to describe it. To me, they're just the obvious solutions. Those "unique" solutions are a thing that some people can't get their head around, though, because it involves changing the way they think.
I've lived my entire life with people telling me "no" and "can't do that" and "what's the point" and "too difficult" and all the other verbal anchors people use on one another. I've also lived my entire life proving people wrong simply because they let their Stage 1 thinking get the better of them. I will admit that it took me a long time to get past the need to say "I told you so!" when I did prove them wrong. Hey, I'm only human.
After a long enough time knowing me, people usually realize something about me; I'm often right about a lot of things I say, not because I know everything, but rather that I don't speak unless I know, or I have questions that will put me in the know. People find they have to have their facts straight before they say "can't" to me because I WILL deconstruct what they say to expose any inconsistencies or fallacies.
Prepubescent entrepreneur
My first entrepreneurial experience was at age 12 at a local golf course. No, I wasn't a caddy. Slogging around a heavy bag in hot weather, watching other people enjoy themselves...no thanks!
Instead, I figured out that if I waded into the swampy, messy, inaccessible-to-golfers, only-a-12-year-old-could-love mud that sat in the middle of the tree stands where a lot of golfers lost their balls, all I'd need to do is get the least decayed ones, clean them, and sell them back to the golfers. Since I was practically giving them away at 25% of what the clubhouse was selling them for, they sold like hotcakes.
Did I say I was an ignorant 12-year-old? Yeah, my only thought of what to do with the money was to buy comic books and candy.
Lessons
It did, however, teach me a few really good lessons about the world. I noticed that some of those lessons ran contrary to what I was taught by people around me, but they were all good lessons I use to this day.
- I can be my own boss
- I can make money doing almost anything as long as someone wanted what I was selling
- My time is worth what I say not what someone else assigns to it
- Adding friends to my money making enterprise multiplies efforts, and since I'm the boss I get a kickback
- It's so much FUN running my own show
- I can never get bored because there's always work that could be done
- Pricing matters. People love a deal but don't stab yourself in the back by pricing too low!
- There's no such thing as "too young" or "don't know" or "not enough experience," only "didn't want it bad enough"
- I can decide to do something and then just go ahead and do it
- Other people, with alarming regularity, don't know what the hell they're talking about
I've given up too soon.
Something negative would happen in one of my businesses and I'd say "Ok, well that didn't work. Better cut my losses and go back to work while I think of the next thing." Looking back now I can see that if I kept with some of them, I definitely could have found a path to success. There is a shining light peeking over those dark clouds of stupidity, though - now that I know that about myself, I can make sure to not fall into that trap again.
Learning, failure and execution
I've learned so much from just trying things out and seeing what works and what doesn't. I'm learning, always learning. Learning from success, learning from failure. Learning from experts, learning from novices. Learning from those I love, learning from those I hate. I know that every experience has a lesson in it, no exceptions, and if I can't see the lesson then I'm not looking hard enough. Sometimes I think if I wasn't allowed to learn anymore, I'd shrivel up and die.
Failure. What a word. Like I tell my kids, there's no such thing as failure. The word "failure" is just another "can't." The inability to reach a goal is nothing more than a magnifying glass on a deficiency in knowledge. That excites me because that means all I need to do is get more knowledge and execute my vision again. That's what Bruce Wayne's father meant when he said "we fall so we can learn how to pick ourselves up."
Knowing myself and knowing that I like to start and run businesses, it's never really been a question of IF I would start another business, but WHEN. I've been in all kinds of bad situations with my businesses - partners taking all the money and disappearing, the leadership team imploding and taking the company with it, developing a kick-a$$ idea that is abandoned at the near-market spot only to see another company make millions doing the same thing less than a year later (ever hear of GameFly?) - but I would never, never, NEVER even think of stopping. Stopping equals death, or worse, mediocrity. Yech!
Execution and failure are just two of my many teachers in life.
Where I am and where I want to be
So here I am between businesses at the moment, developing two and researching opportunities for another with a friend. Another thing I've learned in life is that most people have terrible ideas about what constitutes a successful business, so I'm not hopeful about the one I'm researching, but I do it anyway because it sounds like it could be a halfway decent idea if planned correctly.
Where I want to be? Where I really want to be is remembered in the history books for doing something great for humanity. For leading huge swaths of people towards a better life. That age old question "why are we here?" We're here for other people! I can't help people on the scale I want to working 40, 50 hours a week, and the pittance of breadcrumbs they laughably call "raises" won't get me the necessary freedom I require, either.
Passion
I don't want to retire. I don't want to sit around doing nothing. I don't want to travel, I don't want to play video games all day and I'm not looking to volunteer. I'm the type of person that only follows passion - if I can't find a passion in an idea, I don't do it. I love being a force upon the world, shaping it in a way that amazes people.
For me the ultimate passion is being a leader. Being the person people look to for help and guidance. Helping people realize the potential every single person on this planet inherently possesses. Everyone needs leadership and since I can't stand government work, I see business as a good path to get me where I want to be. Since I never get tired of leading, and I can lead literally anywhere there's a group of people, I don't see that I'm going to retire any time soon, if ever.
Still awake?
Well, that's a good start at describing who I am and what I believe. Too long? I've been an entrepreneur geek for as long as I can remember and I have some strong views on the subject, so this is only the start.
I definitely want to devour all the information on this forum, but I often get busy between my first job (programming) and my real job (working on businesses) so my participation on forums like this is spotty at best. I usually do self- and business-development on the train to and from work, but the internet is so unstable there that I won't be able to use this site. I'll do my best to be a part of this community, though, because I know I can learn a lot from the successful people that inhabit this land.
"You are responsible for the generation of your own experience of reality."
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