Greetings from Romania!
After shadowing the forum for about a year and extracting some valuable information, I decided it was time to give value back to the community and discuss ideas with like-minded individuals! ( I encourage others to come to light, too )
Here goes my story:
Early Life
From the early stages of my life, I dreamt of having my own business which will produce plenty of money so I can afford anything I want. I didn't have a clear picture, it was more of a sensation that I felt when I closed my eyes and thought about the future. Being raised in an average hard-working family, with no entrepreneur in sight, it was definitely a challenge but I knew that there is a fire inside me waiting to be started!
The spark came in my adolescence when I saw a Build your Website magazine + CD in the window of a newspaper stand. I remember clear as yesterday how I stood there amazed for a couple of moments and then run to my mother to ask for money. I was the happiest kid in the world when I took that magazine and read it inside-out a couple of times. At that point, we only had dial-up internet so I would stay up during the night to find solutions for the scripts I was learning to create.
That was the event after which I realized what path to take next ( and I'm grateful for it today! )
Higher Education
After I discovered the online world and how to create a website, I knew there was money to be made, but I just had no idea how! So I searched on Google and tried everything from PPC to creating websites and monetizing them via AdSense until I discovered a freelancing platform ( I think it was rentacoder.com ) - where people would pay me to help them with their website work. I was jubilating, the fact that I could work for a lot of money and enjoy great student life with all the perks I wanted it felt great, even though I was missing classes.
This went on for a couple of years until the dean of our Computer Engineering faculty came to our class and hold a lecture. It was something along: "Don't stop now and be trapped by building websites for several hundred euros, focus on your future and the reward will be bigger!" - I froze! After that speech, I questioned my future - I didn't really like school and freelancing was a fun and great way to earn money, but I felt that I still have a lot to learn in the IT world.
So I stayed in school and decided to take a corporate job once I finish Uni.
Adulthood
Working in an IT corporation felt great at the beginning, I learned a lot of stuff, met some great people and I didn't have anything against trading 5 for 2, especially when the weekends were wild! I rented an apartment alone and I was making good money, so I was very satisfied with my life and kind of forgot of the fire that was burning less and less inside me.
FTE
All of that changed one evening after work when I was sitting exhausted on my couch with my eyes closed - a thought appeared - I saw how my future will be: Wake up early -> Go To Office -> Work -> Spend time with the same people -> Eat -> Sleep and repeat for the next 30+ years. I was shocked! My life was on repeat and it was very predictable: my salary will be raised by x% per year, I could climb one position/period of time on the corporate ladder, but I would never stop going to work!!
I was too scared to quit at the time and it took me another 7 months and a job change to finally make the leap.
The Millionaire Fastlane
It was a hard period in my life and a friend of mine suggested I should start working on self-development to get back on track. So I started reading books (Kiyosaki, Carnegie, Duhigg) and watching youtube videos. I remember seeing a video review for a book called "The Millionaire Fastlane " and I was very intrigued by it, but unfortunately at the time, the book wasn't available here so I bought it in my first trip abroad.
When I started to read the book I immediately resonate with the author - he unmasked all the guru BS that are preaching things they don't follow. This book was different, it contained some of my business ideas, but organized clearly and using logic and mathematics to prove them. I really enjoyed reading chapter after chapter, the author was really sincere and the information inside - mind-blowing! ( thank you, MJ!) After reading the book I didn't feel I needed to read another life-business related book again - although I'm reading Unscripted at the moment 😀
Follow-up period
I was very pumped at the time and started to read the forums on a regular basis and inspired by you, guys, I began creating some courses/blog around the freelancing area ( how to start, submit proposals, etc ) but I had mixed feelings - I was trying to make money by teaching others how to start in a domain that I was trying to get out - stop exchanging time for money. Although I had good intentions, it didn't feel right, so I stopped.
Because I needed money, I temporary returned to do freelancing work, but the freelancing work evolved into bigger and lengthier contracts, and I found myself doing contracting/consulting for more than 8hrs/day - I felt like an employee again. Back to the drawing board!
Near Past & Present
Inspired by some of the threads in the forum and leveraging the situation I was in - I had web development projects and contacts - I tested a system at the beginning of the year where I would bring in projects and outsource the coding work to other freelancers while supervising the code quality and architecture, so the clients will receive a valuable and scalable product. Now I'm in the process of developing/optimizing the system and create a sustainable business plan, but more info about this maybe in a progress thread 😀
At the moment I feel the fire inside me burning bigger and bigger and I have a positive feeling that I'm heading in the right way! Thanks for reading so far and looking forward to chatting with you!
After shadowing the forum for about a year and extracting some valuable information, I decided it was time to give value back to the community and discuss ideas with like-minded individuals! ( I encourage others to come to light, too )
Here goes my story:
Early Life
From the early stages of my life, I dreamt of having my own business which will produce plenty of money so I can afford anything I want. I didn't have a clear picture, it was more of a sensation that I felt when I closed my eyes and thought about the future. Being raised in an average hard-working family, with no entrepreneur in sight, it was definitely a challenge but I knew that there is a fire inside me waiting to be started!
The spark came in my adolescence when I saw a Build your Website magazine + CD in the window of a newspaper stand. I remember clear as yesterday how I stood there amazed for a couple of moments and then run to my mother to ask for money. I was the happiest kid in the world when I took that magazine and read it inside-out a couple of times. At that point, we only had dial-up internet so I would stay up during the night to find solutions for the scripts I was learning to create.
That was the event after which I realized what path to take next ( and I'm grateful for it today! )
Higher Education
After I discovered the online world and how to create a website, I knew there was money to be made, but I just had no idea how! So I searched on Google and tried everything from PPC to creating websites and monetizing them via AdSense until I discovered a freelancing platform ( I think it was rentacoder.com ) - where people would pay me to help them with their website work. I was jubilating, the fact that I could work for a lot of money and enjoy great student life with all the perks I wanted it felt great, even though I was missing classes.
This went on for a couple of years until the dean of our Computer Engineering faculty came to our class and hold a lecture. It was something along: "Don't stop now and be trapped by building websites for several hundred euros, focus on your future and the reward will be bigger!" - I froze! After that speech, I questioned my future - I didn't really like school and freelancing was a fun and great way to earn money, but I felt that I still have a lot to learn in the IT world.
So I stayed in school and decided to take a corporate job once I finish Uni.
Adulthood
Working in an IT corporation felt great at the beginning, I learned a lot of stuff, met some great people and I didn't have anything against trading 5 for 2, especially when the weekends were wild! I rented an apartment alone and I was making good money, so I was very satisfied with my life and kind of forgot of the fire that was burning less and less inside me.
FTE
All of that changed one evening after work when I was sitting exhausted on my couch with my eyes closed - a thought appeared - I saw how my future will be: Wake up early -> Go To Office -> Work -> Spend time with the same people -> Eat -> Sleep and repeat for the next 30+ years. I was shocked! My life was on repeat and it was very predictable: my salary will be raised by x% per year, I could climb one position/period of time on the corporate ladder, but I would never stop going to work!!
I was too scared to quit at the time and it took me another 7 months and a job change to finally make the leap.
The Millionaire Fastlane
It was a hard period in my life and a friend of mine suggested I should start working on self-development to get back on track. So I started reading books (Kiyosaki, Carnegie, Duhigg) and watching youtube videos. I remember seeing a video review for a book called "The Millionaire Fastlane " and I was very intrigued by it, but unfortunately at the time, the book wasn't available here so I bought it in my first trip abroad.
When I started to read the book I immediately resonate with the author - he unmasked all the guru BS that are preaching things they don't follow. This book was different, it contained some of my business ideas, but organized clearly and using logic and mathematics to prove them. I really enjoyed reading chapter after chapter, the author was really sincere and the information inside - mind-blowing! ( thank you, MJ!) After reading the book I didn't feel I needed to read another life-business related book again - although I'm reading Unscripted at the moment 😀
Follow-up period
I was very pumped at the time and started to read the forums on a regular basis and inspired by you, guys, I began creating some courses/blog around the freelancing area ( how to start, submit proposals, etc ) but I had mixed feelings - I was trying to make money by teaching others how to start in a domain that I was trying to get out - stop exchanging time for money. Although I had good intentions, it didn't feel right, so I stopped.
Because I needed money, I temporary returned to do freelancing work, but the freelancing work evolved into bigger and lengthier contracts, and I found myself doing contracting/consulting for more than 8hrs/day - I felt like an employee again. Back to the drawing board!
Near Past & Present
Inspired by some of the threads in the forum and leveraging the situation I was in - I had web development projects and contacts - I tested a system at the beginning of the year where I would bring in projects and outsource the coding work to other freelancers while supervising the code quality and architecture, so the clients will receive a valuable and scalable product. Now I'm in the process of developing/optimizing the system and create a sustainable business plan, but more info about this maybe in a progress thread 😀
At the moment I feel the fire inside me burning bigger and bigger and I have a positive feeling that I'm heading in the right way! Thanks for reading so far and looking forward to chatting with you!
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