Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my intro.
@MJ DeMarco thank you for sharing your experiences in your books.
I’m 38, got a rough start in life. I have made the best of it and now I’m just trying to take what I’ve made and make it work without me there. I love my business (which is actually a job right now) and the Work makes me feel good.
I was the average “rags to rags” story for about 30 years of my life until a divorce rattled something loose in my head.
I grew up in the panhandle of Texas, nothing to do there but get into trouble. My parents were average meth dealers who pretty much neglected their 6 kids until I was 7 years old and they got busted. They were given the option to leave town or go to prison, so they started bouncing us from ghetto to ghetto.
After that I was pretty much ignored until I was 12 when my dad raised his hand at my mom and I cleaned his clock. At which point I was told to leave. From 12-14 I worked as a roofer, dope dealer and petty thug.
Did meth once, for four years. Been clean since the birth of my son at age 18. It was a real awakening seeing his little hands. I could never be the same criminal.
I was alienated from him by his mother, left my hometown and tried everything.
I worked (and spent)
I went to “college” (got some debt)
I mad a decent living as:
An artist, a computer technician, electronics technician (mostly amps and stage equipment), carpenter, handyman, network admin, burger flipper, taco slinger, delivery boy, oilfield hand, welders helper, and mostly general laborer.
I represented myself as attorney and got custody of my son at his age 8.
My “F*ck this event” was maybe different from others; I was one week into a divorce from my wife after being married from age 20-30. I met a contractor that put me to work and helped me with the emotional side of the divorce. He had been there.
After working for him for about 3 months ($13/hour, 80h weeks) I started meeting people and drinking heavily. I was hungover one week and the job we were on was particularly laborious.
The contractor never got out of his truck that week, he just yelled and pointed. We used no equipment beyond a shovel and rake. I worked 70 hours that week, and he argued that it was “more like 50”. Pays me $650.
I went to get my check from the HOA (my side job, but also his customer). There, on the desk next to my ($220) paycheck was his invoice for $14,000 for the job I had done single-handedly.
I knew right then that I could do better.
I had to keep working but I had a new thirst for knowledge. I put my eye to the keyhole and learned enough to start my own “contracting business”. It mostly amounted to me doing labor and submitting invoices, constantly searching for new customers.
I failed and was offered a job waiting tables, which was new to me so I accepted.
Fell into the life of waiting tables and drinking until the bar closed. I met many business owners this way and again, kept my eye to the keyhole.
I managed to get enough steady customers to leave that waiter job (upscale French place, $400 a night was hard to walls away from.
My business started as contracting but has since morphed into landscaping/mostly mowing. (Repeat business, predictable earnings, regularly upgrading equipment)
I now earn about 100k/year doing this, but I’m the guy with the trimmer in my hand, driving the truck with a small crew.
I work about 70-80 hours a week, and justify that by the usual means “best I’ve ever done” etc.
I want to take this to the next level. Lawn mowing is moving into digital area’s and I want my business to be in that area.
There are many companies that use the Internet and apps to schedule/sell/recruit and I’m now focusing on a stronger digital presence.
Sorry for the long post but I appreciate anyone who read this far.
TLDR; I was poor, neglected until age 7, ignored until 12, abandoned, drug addicted, recovered, high school drop out, college grad, underemployed, self employed, and looking for a way to escape the “my business is a job” trap.
Love the books by MJ, as well as Richest man in Babylon, and others. My favorite part of this book however, was not the slowlane principles, but the story of a slave who determined he had the heart of a free man and sought to live as such.
Looking forward to getting to know the forum, and sharing what I can with others. If you think my experience can help you avoid the pitfalls I overcame feel free to reach out any way you’d like.
@MJ DeMarco thank you for sharing your experiences in your books.
I’m 38, got a rough start in life. I have made the best of it and now I’m just trying to take what I’ve made and make it work without me there. I love my business (which is actually a job right now) and the Work makes me feel good.
I was the average “rags to rags” story for about 30 years of my life until a divorce rattled something loose in my head.
I grew up in the panhandle of Texas, nothing to do there but get into trouble. My parents were average meth dealers who pretty much neglected their 6 kids until I was 7 years old and they got busted. They were given the option to leave town or go to prison, so they started bouncing us from ghetto to ghetto.
After that I was pretty much ignored until I was 12 when my dad raised his hand at my mom and I cleaned his clock. At which point I was told to leave. From 12-14 I worked as a roofer, dope dealer and petty thug.
Did meth once, for four years. Been clean since the birth of my son at age 18. It was a real awakening seeing his little hands. I could never be the same criminal.
I was alienated from him by his mother, left my hometown and tried everything.
I worked (and spent)
I went to “college” (got some debt)
I mad a decent living as:
An artist, a computer technician, electronics technician (mostly amps and stage equipment), carpenter, handyman, network admin, burger flipper, taco slinger, delivery boy, oilfield hand, welders helper, and mostly general laborer.
I represented myself as attorney and got custody of my son at his age 8.
My “F*ck this event” was maybe different from others; I was one week into a divorce from my wife after being married from age 20-30. I met a contractor that put me to work and helped me with the emotional side of the divorce. He had been there.
After working for him for about 3 months ($13/hour, 80h weeks) I started meeting people and drinking heavily. I was hungover one week and the job we were on was particularly laborious.
The contractor never got out of his truck that week, he just yelled and pointed. We used no equipment beyond a shovel and rake. I worked 70 hours that week, and he argued that it was “more like 50”. Pays me $650.
I went to get my check from the HOA (my side job, but also his customer). There, on the desk next to my ($220) paycheck was his invoice for $14,000 for the job I had done single-handedly.
I knew right then that I could do better.
I had to keep working but I had a new thirst for knowledge. I put my eye to the keyhole and learned enough to start my own “contracting business”. It mostly amounted to me doing labor and submitting invoices, constantly searching for new customers.
I failed and was offered a job waiting tables, which was new to me so I accepted.
Fell into the life of waiting tables and drinking until the bar closed. I met many business owners this way and again, kept my eye to the keyhole.
I managed to get enough steady customers to leave that waiter job (upscale French place, $400 a night was hard to walls away from.
My business started as contracting but has since morphed into landscaping/mostly mowing. (Repeat business, predictable earnings, regularly upgrading equipment)
I now earn about 100k/year doing this, but I’m the guy with the trimmer in my hand, driving the truck with a small crew.
I work about 70-80 hours a week, and justify that by the usual means “best I’ve ever done” etc.
I want to take this to the next level. Lawn mowing is moving into digital area’s and I want my business to be in that area.
There are many companies that use the Internet and apps to schedule/sell/recruit and I’m now focusing on a stronger digital presence.
Sorry for the long post but I appreciate anyone who read this far.
TLDR; I was poor, neglected until age 7, ignored until 12, abandoned, drug addicted, recovered, high school drop out, college grad, underemployed, self employed, and looking for a way to escape the “my business is a job” trap.
Love the books by MJ, as well as Richest man in Babylon, and others. My favorite part of this book however, was not the slowlane principles, but the story of a slave who determined he had the heart of a free man and sought to live as such.
Looking forward to getting to know the forum, and sharing what I can with others. If you think my experience can help you avoid the pitfalls I overcame feel free to reach out any way you’d like.
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