Forrest Light
New Contributor
Hello,
My name is Forrest. It is very nice to "meet" you all here. I am a 27-year old male living in SoCal. I experienced my first major "financial healing" at 20 years old when I learned extensively about slowlane methodologies (they were very useful to me at that time) from Dave Ramsey (who I now think offers a lot of horrible advice for those of us with fastlane entrepreneurship emphasis -- albeit also teaching some basic, sound financial principles like budgeting, saving, and giving). I also learned a lot from other Slowlane teachers.
After awakening to foundational financial responsibility by learning Slowlane methodologies, I waited seven years -- until now -- to finally make the decision to throw the Slowlane books out the window and virtually only focus on the Fastlane (while remaining committed to some intelligent slowlane principles for personal money management, as well). Part of the reason why I waited so long is because, this year, I wanted to brush up on my financial house before moving into a full-force Fastlane focus. However, the other part of why I waited so long is because my concentration in life went elsewhere.
Four and a half years ago, I founded a local not-for-profit organization (my first venture) which provided educational, transformative, and community-building experiences for my community and assisted them in creating a greater quality of life physically, emotionally, socially, relationally, spiritually, and financially. Soon, we began attracting thousands of people to our programs, received years of consistent, county-wide media coverage, clothed thousands of needy individuals throughout Southern California through the clothing drives attached to the events, and hosted world-renowned personal development speakers and talent such as Jack Canfield, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks, Dr. Dan Siegel, Deva Premal & Miten, et al.
It was an extraordinary journey, starting with "nothing". I learned so much, developed a lot of skills, met all kinds of interesting individuals and change-makers, and allowed it to become my life's primary mission and purpose. Unfortunately, when the C0VlD-19 lockdowns occurred, our business model was destroyed (we are live event based), and I just do not have any interest in creating a digital "event" business for this organization. My mission was to create real, in-person community in a context of shared values.
While I plan to return to hosting events and programs when the lockdowns lift, I foresee that it will simply be for the love and joy of adding something beautiful to our community as a passion project, and not as a full-time vocation. This is perfectly okay with me. However, it leaves me searching for a new purpose and direction.
That is what brought me back to Mr. DeMarco's books and the Fastlane Forum -- I read his book many years ago, but my focus went more to starting and growing a philanthropic/charitable organization. However, now that I have the terrific opportunity of "pivoting" my career entirely (thank you, lockdowns!), I am ready to forge a path ahead on the Fastlane road of entrepreneurship. As someone born with the desire to serve as a healer, my overarching purpose and mission in life is to help alleviate suffering on a national and/or international scale. I have no clue what that looks like right now or what forms of "suffering" I will eventually focus on alleviating over the next decades of my life, but I view Fastlane entrepreneurship as a stepping stone of growth on that path.
The specific "need" I will meet via my next entrepreneurial venture (this time, for-profit!) is not known to me yet; I have many ideas, such as composing music (I have no passion for it but people enjoy it), writing and speaking, real estate investing, securities trading, consulting, and/or focusing on meeting some other important needs via entrepreneurship. I'm reading both of Mr. DeMarco's books again in order to develop greater clarity about which path has the highest probability of being the best choice.
That's all for now. I look forward to meeting more of you, participating in the forum, learning about you and also being supportive of your needs!
My name is Forrest. It is very nice to "meet" you all here. I am a 27-year old male living in SoCal. I experienced my first major "financial healing" at 20 years old when I learned extensively about slowlane methodologies (they were very useful to me at that time) from Dave Ramsey (who I now think offers a lot of horrible advice for those of us with fastlane entrepreneurship emphasis -- albeit also teaching some basic, sound financial principles like budgeting, saving, and giving). I also learned a lot from other Slowlane teachers.
After awakening to foundational financial responsibility by learning Slowlane methodologies, I waited seven years -- until now -- to finally make the decision to throw the Slowlane books out the window and virtually only focus on the Fastlane (while remaining committed to some intelligent slowlane principles for personal money management, as well). Part of the reason why I waited so long is because, this year, I wanted to brush up on my financial house before moving into a full-force Fastlane focus. However, the other part of why I waited so long is because my concentration in life went elsewhere.
Four and a half years ago, I founded a local not-for-profit organization (my first venture) which provided educational, transformative, and community-building experiences for my community and assisted them in creating a greater quality of life physically, emotionally, socially, relationally, spiritually, and financially. Soon, we began attracting thousands of people to our programs, received years of consistent, county-wide media coverage, clothed thousands of needy individuals throughout Southern California through the clothing drives attached to the events, and hosted world-renowned personal development speakers and talent such as Jack Canfield, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks, Dr. Dan Siegel, Deva Premal & Miten, et al.
It was an extraordinary journey, starting with "nothing". I learned so much, developed a lot of skills, met all kinds of interesting individuals and change-makers, and allowed it to become my life's primary mission and purpose. Unfortunately, when the C0VlD-19 lockdowns occurred, our business model was destroyed (we are live event based), and I just do not have any interest in creating a digital "event" business for this organization. My mission was to create real, in-person community in a context of shared values.
While I plan to return to hosting events and programs when the lockdowns lift, I foresee that it will simply be for the love and joy of adding something beautiful to our community as a passion project, and not as a full-time vocation. This is perfectly okay with me. However, it leaves me searching for a new purpose and direction.
That is what brought me back to Mr. DeMarco's books and the Fastlane Forum -- I read his book many years ago, but my focus went more to starting and growing a philanthropic/charitable organization. However, now that I have the terrific opportunity of "pivoting" my career entirely (thank you, lockdowns!), I am ready to forge a path ahead on the Fastlane road of entrepreneurship. As someone born with the desire to serve as a healer, my overarching purpose and mission in life is to help alleviate suffering on a national and/or international scale. I have no clue what that looks like right now or what forms of "suffering" I will eventually focus on alleviating over the next decades of my life, but I view Fastlane entrepreneurship as a stepping stone of growth on that path.
The specific "need" I will meet via my next entrepreneurial venture (this time, for-profit!) is not known to me yet; I have many ideas, such as composing music (I have no passion for it but people enjoy it), writing and speaking, real estate investing, securities trading, consulting, and/or focusing on meeting some other important needs via entrepreneurship. I'm reading both of Mr. DeMarco's books again in order to develop greater clarity about which path has the highest probability of being the best choice.
That's all for now. I look forward to meeting more of you, participating in the forum, learning about you and also being supportive of your needs!
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