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Staying on the Fastlane

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
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120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Hi guys,

After reading "The Fastlane Millionaire" 2 years ago I joined this forum and ever since did not achieve anything of major significance.

In those 2 years, I did some freelance work which was the most entrepreneurial thing I have done besides the online skateboards shop I ran as a teenager. I also finished Computer Science degree at the top of my class which got me a steady corporate job at a well-respected company where each new day has become the most miserable day of my life. That pretty much sums the last 2 years.

After this experience there is nothing in the world I am more terrified of than being stuck in a job I hate, doing work I find meaningless, earning enough to keep me comfortable but still enslaved, and never having the guts to do anything about it.

I decided this is no way to live and did two things. First, I quit my job. Second, I rejected an offer to study Master's degree at one of the top universities in the world where I used to only dream about studying.

Now my only goal is to stay on the Fastlane trajectory and not chicken out and get sucked back into the comfort of Slowlane.

Since I quit my job with only a couple months worth of savings, I am now back into freelance full-swing mode. I am already doing one freelance job for a client from the past. The job is supposed to take 40 hours and pay more than what I earned during the entire month at my corporate job. During couple last weeks I also built a connection with another guy where it seems like we may have a long-lasting relationship. I am also applying to Toptal which is similar to Upwork but more exclusive. I will use it as a safety net in case things get too quiet and I can't get clients from elsewhere.

Freelancing will pay the bills for now but I am also trying to figure out ways of working smart, not just hard. In this case, it refers to doing work that enables to decouple time from money. No concrete plans about that yet but it's coming. I will be documenting my journey here and give biweekly updates to make sure I am not spiraling back into the type of thinking and actions which brought me to a miserable life.

This will be a long journey and I do not expect this thread to be super interesting, at least in the beginning. But we'll see, let's just trust the process for now, be brave and keep on trucking!
 
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zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Update as promised. The past two weeks were spent working on Toptal application. I didn't want to fail at it and overall spent over 50 Pomodoris on creating a mock-up web app (1 Pomodoro is 25 minutes of real work). Glad to say I got in! I can't say my hourly rate as it's against T&C but suffice to say that it's not the highest on the site but still 4x more than what I had at a previous corporate job. So if I need extra income, I can now get a good freelance gig fairly quickly which was unavailable to me before.

I have also made a verbal agreement with a startup owner to work with him as a developer for 20 hours/week and get paid in BTC/ETH (it's a project related to cryptocurrencies and the guy holds his assets there too). The project looks promising, the founder is smart and is in the niche I feel strongly passionate about. I tried negotiating a stake in the company but so far unsuccessfully. Anyhow, for now, I am happy with the overall arrangement as it leaves plenty of time for my own Fastlane pursuits and at the same time pays more than the full-time job I left. Plus, I get to learn a lot both in terms of development and business creation.

I also keep reading UNSCRIPTED whenever I can. I like the way M.J. DeMarco writes and thus decided to give the book a shot. Having said that, my initial hopes were not super high (still high) as I thought it would be the type of content that I have already seen many times here on this forum and TMF book. However, my expectations were soon crushed and really I am not even sure which book is more influential to me - UNSCRIPTED or TMF .

In particular, this quote has helped me change the entire perspective on how I look at the world now - "As a producer, start thinking of "money" as value-vouchers - a store of perceived value produced, communicated, and delivered to the world.". Also, I like the analogy of money to a cat - "money like a cat cannot be chased, it can only be attracted".

I now realize that so many of my past decisions were the wrong ones as I was simply a money-chaser. Now I keep forcing myself to think not in terms of euros and dollars but units-of-value I create. 1 euro = 1 unit of value.

In fact, the quote above resonated so much that the next day I started creating a free short programming course on Udemy which I have been delaying for months and even years. Focusing on how much money I would earn from such a course prevented me from actually doing it. Since I like educating, I want to get experience in creating courses of such type and learn how to give value in this way. So far I spent 4 Pomodoris on it and can see that the process is challenging. Creating the structure for the course and the content itself that is coherent and helpful for students is hard. Thus, I find it hard to estimate how much time creating the course will take, we will see in the future updates.

Summary:

- The transition from corporate world to freelance has been smooth and the stream of work is steady.
- Creating programming courses is far from easy but a doable process that takes time and effort, not magic.
- Money can only be attracted, not chased. Thinking of money as value units is really powerful perspective that forces you to see business in an entirely new way.

Plans for the next two weeks:

- Meet an accountant to find the most effective way to pay taxes for my contracting activities and a rental property.
- Spent time creating the programming course on Udemy.
- Have a meeting with the mentioned startup owner and get some work in before my trip to Spain.
- Get the most out of my trip to Spain where I will be going to an official Burning Man event in Europe. I have been to one similar event like this and found it really powerful in shaping my thinking about the world in a positive way. Having said that, I realize I should be 100% focused on my Fastlane efforts but since I bought the flights, tickets and everything else several months prior to this thread, I do not want to let it go to waste.
 

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Apologies for the delayed update. Just came back to civilization after a week in a dessert full of heat, wind, and dust. The festival was hard on the body and sometimes on the mind, it's a constant survival. It's funny that people including myself pay for this 'privilege'. But it was cool to be in the other world. It gives you space to think about things from a new angle.

One thing that became entirely clear during the trip is that I remembered why I learned to program in the first place. It's so I can build apps, websites or other cool shit that others find useful. I do not like programming just for the sake of it. Building the product is what keeps me going, not the activity of programming. Thus, it's also clear that quitting the corporate job was the right decision as I can still earn the living from freelancing and have more freedom to pursue projects of my own.

However, the unpredictability of where another paycheck will come from can cause extra anxiety. But somehow it doesn't bother me anymore. I know that as long as I keep my expenses low, do good work for others, all will be just fine. The main goal for now is to keep on doing good contract work to pay the bills, finish the programming mini-course and look for other avenues to provide value.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Met with an accountant. Managed to find a way to save taxes on rental property. Also, send my income/expense projections for freelance activities and accountant will find the best way to set up myself as a legal entity.
- Created first 5 minutes of material for a programming course. The initial start of coming up with the course structure, slides, etc. is super hard. But I feel it's a learnable skill where it gets easier with time. Will get more results over the upcoming weeks.
- Did a few hours of freelance work in a form of getting familiar with client's huge codebase.

Plans for the next two weeks:
- Keep on producing programming course. Spend 2 Pomodori on it daily.
- Keep on doing freelance work.
- Organize and host the upcoming monthly programmers meetup (been doing it for past 5 months).
- Write a blog post telling others how to get into Toptal.
 
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zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Hey, last two weeks were ok but I am still disappointed in myself. I was not able to record any of the programming course I was planning to. At first, it's because all the dust and so on got to my voice and I was too sore to do any recording. But during the second week I just kept on going to bed late, feeling sluggish and not taking care of myself properly.

From others feedback and my observations, I am pretty sure I have too much of an underlying anxiety to work effectively. I am always restless but it doesn't lead to productive work, only unnecessary waste of energy thinking about things and not doing them. I realized that while I could improve my work ethic for sure, what really needs to be improved first are simple daily habits like getting proper rest and learning to calm down. Anyhow, even if I go to bed early, I have difficulty falling asleep. So I started this evidence-based insomnia program Sleepio which if you follow the guidelines is supposed to work just as effective as sleeping pills. That is my #1 goal for now which may sound easy for most of you but for me sleep issues have become a real hindrance. I'll follow the program to the point and see what happens.

Even though I was not able to record any of the course, I started an educational/inspirational/news Instagram channel about blockchain, Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies. While there aren't going to be any immediate returns, if the channel becomes successful I can see it becoming one of the marketing channels for the Bitcoin-based start-up I am currently working with. Plus, I find the process of distilling information into smaller tidbits enjoyable. But I am not sure how valuable the information in the channel is since each post on average has only been gathering 2 new followers. Keeping in mind the questionable marketing value of the channel I am starting to question whether it is worth the effort. I have been doing one post a day for 10 days, and will keep on doing so for at least next two weeks. However, to keep the channel going I am going to have to automate part of content-creation which will be fun. If it goes well, I will give an update about it here.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Organized and hosted programmers meetup, 25 people attended. Not many but it's ok since it's summer.
- Wrote a blog post about getting into Toptal with a referral link at the end and an offer to give guidance about how to get into the network. So far 0 sign-ups through the article and only 14 views. The post failed miserably in my opinion. The most popular article I wrote has 31k views. I still don't really understand what made it stand out so much and how to reproduce the same kind of success consistently.
- Kept on doing freelance work consistently.
- Created Instagram channel where I post daily educational/inspirational/news posts about Bitcoin. Have been doing it for 10 days straight. 2 followers per post on average.

Plans for the next two weeks:
- Try to automate parts of content-creation for Instagram channel.
- Keep on doing freelance work.
- Write an educational blog post about using neural networks for new content generation i.e. teaching a computer to generate new random tweets that make sense, etc..
- And most important of all, stick to Sleepio.com program. I must sort out my sleep or else I can forget achieving my other goals.
 

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Yesterday was away in nature and could not write an update. Just got from work. Got my sleep sorted quite fast somehow so now back to productive work. Also, broke up with my first serious girlfriend of 2 years as I just did not see the future with her and she started pressuring to get married and so on. It feels sad but gives lots of free room for self-growth and so on which I am taking full opportunity of by going to sleep at decent times, exercising, picking up meditation again.

In regards to work, things are going to steady but in a way that is probably boring to read. The main change that happened is that I took up a full-time position with the startup I am working with. I get paid a bit less than now than as a freelancer but I got some equity and get a say in the direction in which the company is going as we are just 4 people now with no hierarchy everyone pulling their weight equally. In general, I am skeptical about owning start-up equity as it usually turns to dust. But this time after spending time with the founder I am confident that with disciplined work we can make it happen. I am responsible for coding but am also involving myself in product development like organizing user testing, collaborating with designers and so on. I may share more details about the project and what I learn as we go along. So that's it for today.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Took full-time position at start-up and got equity. Not the plan I had in the beginning but I still treat it as fastlane as the success of the company is largely determined by my own contributions and I will get a pie of the success if we reach it.
- Kept on posting on Instagram channel. Now reached 125 followers. To automate the process I created a bot that creates daily graphs of Bitcoin price. Then if there is anything interesting happening with the price, I post it. On other days I come up with something else. It got tedious by now and I am really not sure about its value anymore as most of the followers are just bots I think. I will talk with guys from the company and ask whether they have any ideas what to do with the account. Potentially content creation could be outsourced to someone if we see it could be used as a good marketing channel. Anyhow, I kind of learnt by now how marketing on Instagram works and am no longer surprised by how my friend got 100k followers on one of his accounts related to logo design.
- FAILED to write post about neural networks. Let's do it in the next two weeks.
- Sorted out sleep, productivity is now back to over overall 80% according to RescueTime, that's good.

Plans for the next two weeks:
- Keep on working at building the new product at the start-up, find out ways I can bring more value.
- Write post about neural networks. Like Instagram, it has no real value other than self-learning mostly. I am starting to see a clear pattern where I keep myself busy just for the sake of it sometimes without a clear plan of how it would benefit myself or others.
- Keep on trying to grow as a person by keeping up with good habits i.e. sleep hygiene, eating well, exercise, meditation. Not always easy once you are absorbed into work but I heard a saying once that success is a by-product of all-around health and I totally believe it.
 

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Last two weeks were full of crazy work hours, from 9am to at least 8pm and onwards. We are launching a new product at the startup I'm at, the plan is to ship it next month. I got equity in the company so now I'm super motivated to get thing off the ground. I do not have full control of where the venture will go but I do have a decent say and can steer the ship so that feels great. So not much this time, just gonna keep on working hard on this and we'll see what comes out of it. Perhaps a more interesting update is upcoming in 2 weeks.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Worked my a$$ off to get new product off the ground. Next week is the shipping week.
- Failed to do the rest. Ditched doing Instagram posting completely as all the followers are just bots. At least I know how the game is played now. Failed to write the neural networks blog post. Also failed to take good enough care of myself but overall still ok.

Plans for the next two weeks:
- Ship the new product.
 
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zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Last two weeks were same as previous two weeks. We did a lot of progress on our product and got featured on front page of Product Hunt which s always fun. That brought us a couple conversions. Our system is still buggy and some conversations failed to convert due to technical bugs which is disappointing. Anyway, the throttle is on and we'll see what's next. I am mostly working on the technical side of the project but am also thinking of how to position ourselves to be different than others. I realize now that in the industry we are in what we need most is to gain trust, be reliable and that by itself make us the winners. Let's try to get there! Sorry for keeping everything rather vague, not sure how much I can disclose at this point. Hope to make more interesting posts when the water settles and I can look back and understand better what I learnt. Right now just working as a horse.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Shipped new product

Plans for the next two weeks:

- Iterate on the product
 

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Long time no update, my fault. On the last few weeks kept on working on the product. Got another product ready for Product Hunt. Moderate success, 130 upvotes, got some traffic from it. It was just a tool for the purpose of marketing. Upcoming week going to Germany for an entrepreneurship conference where we are going to pitch our product, meet with investors, get feedback, will be interesting how that goes. Our turnover has reached around $5000 a day but we are a low margin business and in order to be profitable need much higher turnover, as crazy as it sounds, 100x as much. Gonna keep on pushing towards it by gaining exposure via paid marketing channels, growth marketing techniques like releasing a tool (a bot in this case) which I mentioned, making the product better, establishing partnerships. During the past month the most successful promotion was $5 referral programme where we pay user $5 for using us. However, there are ways to exploit the promotion and get same bonus many times. Some people seem to have done that. Will be interesting to see how our turnover and growth looks once the promotion is finished which is happening starting today.

Now, another note in regards to personal life and life balance in general. Well, there is none of it now. I try to exercise but recently caught a cold which threw me off my routine for a while. I meditate and eat healthy which helps, plus I do NoFap if any of you know what it is :D Anyway, I would say that having no significant other can be a real pain sometimes. I tried dating but the girl I was most interested in the end kind of rejected me because I spoke too much about work and was not as much interested at her. I feel like I dodged a bullet but still it stung. Finding more balance is important in order to not get burnt, I hope I'll manage to do it quick.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Released another product on Product Hunt, got 130 upvotes
- Kept on working on making the product better

Plans for the next two weeks:

- Go to entrepreneurship conference, meet with investors, pitch the product, get feedback.
- Keep on working on the product.
- Keep on thinking on new growth marketing techniques.
 
Last edited:

zerobrainwash

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
120%
Feb 20, 2015
71
85
Baltics
Alright guys, got the company up to $25,000 daily turnover. Also, went to great conference in Germany. One of very prominent German entrepeneurs was speaking how here in Europe we already have many great products at the equal or better level than Americans but are much worse at promoting ourselves and getting the word out there. For Europeans here, let's start doing a better job at putting the good word for European startups!

Now, the big news since last time is that I quit the company. Had a dispute with the boss and had to quit the relationship based on personal reasons. I am still doing consulting for the company but have no more shares. Although I saw a lot of potential in the company and put a lot of hard work into it, I am happy with the current arrangement as it leaves more time to take care of myself which I needed. Plus, having helped the company grow this much I am now a lot more confident I can achieve something similar by myself as well which I will do.

At the moment though I am still working for the company as a consultant making a video course about smart contracts. If anybody will need smart contract services i.e. Ethereum development, hit me up.

Things done from the last check-in:
- Reached $25,000 daily turnover.
- Quit the company, life is too short to deal with people you are not fond of.

Plans for the next two weeks:

- Do video course about smart contracts.
 
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