Hi Everyone
It’s a pleasure to join you all here!
After years of lurking in the forum, I thought it would be nice to introduce myself and ask for your advice too.
-
Background
My name is Taku, I’m 36, and I’m based in Berlin (Germany).
My academic background is in international business, I have made a career in the last 12 years mostly in the area of Project Management, and over the years I’ve switched jobs in different industries (banking, supply chain, logistics, fashion, education, marketing research, e-commerce) but most of my work has been in the PM area. In the last 3-4 years, my role has been evolving fast and now I do lots of automation and process optimisation using AI.
I have had a good and stable professional career so far, but deep within me, I’ve always enjoyed working on my own projects more. I love working on projects that are unique, creative or innovative. It fuels me with excitement!
The entrepreneurial spirit has always been there. I remember being 7 and playing supermarket. While my cousins argued over who would be the customer or the cashier, I always chose to be the shop owner and direct how everything went. Since my teens, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make money online and offline. I’ve tried everything from affiliate marketing and social media content creation to dropshipping, selling crafts, print-on-demand, digital products, MLM, and even flipping stuff on eBay.
Since the start of the year, I’ve been learning and researching ideas for launching an app using Flutterflow/Supabase (or a similar stack), so I would like to keep exploring this path further and perhaps develop something.
Some of my projects did make me a bit of money, but they never made me rich and looking back, I realized they weren’t really fulfilling either. Others were total failures, but I still value every single one of them because they taught me many lessons and gave me valuable skills I’ve been able to build on.
Current Situation
I’ve been at my current job for the last 3 years, mostly doing project management and process improvement. Inspired by MJ’s philosophy of wealth = more time, since the beginning of the year I began experimenting with AI how much of my own job I could automate and optimize in order to reduce my 40 hours/week. It turns out, quite a lot! - I was able to reduce my actual work to around 10-15 hours per week, liberating lots of time for me.
At my job, the main focus is delivering projects on time, and since I earn the same salary every month no matter the hourly effort, that ended up being a real game changer for me.
I was able to reinvest my newly free time into other areas that needed my attention like my health, my wedding, family issues, financial planning, travelling, etc. Money-wise, things are ok, but I still have to manage some ongoing family situations and take care of paying off a few debts.
The Crossroad
Well, life happened… and last week a major layoff was announced including my entire department. Although I’m somehow sad for the situation, I’m also glad that it’s happening now because I feel it’s time to move on. I’ve already mastered that job and I need the next challenge in life.
I’m currently interviewing for other jobs, but this week I have been presented with an interesting opportunity: I have been given the chance to receive my usual salary for the next four months without having to work at all and on top of it, I’ll receive a good severance payment. This means, it’s a rare moment when time + money + motivation are aligning to create the perfect opportunity to move forward.
While I’m sure I could try to optimize my time in my next job as well, I feel life is now giving me some turn signals to switch lanes here.
Dear fastlaners, how would you proceed if you were in my place? - We all come from different paths in life, that’s why I value your advice and unique perspective on this. I genuinely appreciate it!
Thanks a lot.
It’s a pleasure to join you all here!
After years of lurking in the forum, I thought it would be nice to introduce myself and ask for your advice too.
-
Background
My name is Taku, I’m 36, and I’m based in Berlin (Germany).
My academic background is in international business, I have made a career in the last 12 years mostly in the area of Project Management, and over the years I’ve switched jobs in different industries (banking, supply chain, logistics, fashion, education, marketing research, e-commerce) but most of my work has been in the PM area. In the last 3-4 years, my role has been evolving fast and now I do lots of automation and process optimisation using AI.
I have had a good and stable professional career so far, but deep within me, I’ve always enjoyed working on my own projects more. I love working on projects that are unique, creative or innovative. It fuels me with excitement!
The entrepreneurial spirit has always been there. I remember being 7 and playing supermarket. While my cousins argued over who would be the customer or the cashier, I always chose to be the shop owner and direct how everything went. Since my teens, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make money online and offline. I’ve tried everything from affiliate marketing and social media content creation to dropshipping, selling crafts, print-on-demand, digital products, MLM, and even flipping stuff on eBay.
Since the start of the year, I’ve been learning and researching ideas for launching an app using Flutterflow/Supabase (or a similar stack), so I would like to keep exploring this path further and perhaps develop something.
Some of my projects did make me a bit of money, but they never made me rich and looking back, I realized they weren’t really fulfilling either. Others were total failures, but I still value every single one of them because they taught me many lessons and gave me valuable skills I’ve been able to build on.
Current Situation
I’ve been at my current job for the last 3 years, mostly doing project management and process improvement. Inspired by MJ’s philosophy of wealth = more time, since the beginning of the year I began experimenting with AI how much of my own job I could automate and optimize in order to reduce my 40 hours/week. It turns out, quite a lot! - I was able to reduce my actual work to around 10-15 hours per week, liberating lots of time for me.
At my job, the main focus is delivering projects on time, and since I earn the same salary every month no matter the hourly effort, that ended up being a real game changer for me.
I was able to reinvest my newly free time into other areas that needed my attention like my health, my wedding, family issues, financial planning, travelling, etc. Money-wise, things are ok, but I still have to manage some ongoing family situations and take care of paying off a few debts.
The Crossroad
Well, life happened… and last week a major layoff was announced including my entire department. Although I’m somehow sad for the situation, I’m also glad that it’s happening now because I feel it’s time to move on. I’ve already mastered that job and I need the next challenge in life.
I’m currently interviewing for other jobs, but this week I have been presented with an interesting opportunity: I have been given the chance to receive my usual salary for the next four months without having to work at all and on top of it, I’ll receive a good severance payment. This means, it’s a rare moment when time + money + motivation are aligning to create the perfect opportunity to move forward.
While I’m sure I could try to optimize my time in my next job as well, I feel life is now giving me some turn signals to switch lanes here.
Dear fastlaners, how would you proceed if you were in my place? - We all come from different paths in life, that’s why I value your advice and unique perspective on this. I genuinely appreciate it!
Thanks a lot.
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