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Fresho

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Hello fellow freedomseekers,

I always had the feeling that the presented life of working 40 years and saving some money on the side is not the way to happiness and certainley not one to freedom. I saw it in close family. Working harder and harder and not getting rewared just getting exploited even better. I think I started working when I was 12, with the classic delivery of newspaper. I have always been told to work and work and always had jobs since, always selling my time.

My experiences include:
  1. Selling Bread from door to door.
  2. Working in a laundry service, lifting heavy things around.
  3. Working on exhibitions, setting up the fair stand and after that interacting with the customers during the exhibition.
  4. Building Software.

Through the work on the fairs which started as a small side job after school, I have gained experience with many different kinds of people. I would say this is my biggest strength. I have seen the lowest of the low people trying to get free pens at the fair but through my work ethic I have been chosen to represent luxury goods too. So I have also been interacting with many millionaires in a pretty relaxed environment through these jobs. One of the first things I asked was how they made so much money to be able to afford these luxuries. None answered that they started as an small employee at a company. Most have been entrepeneurs some even under 20 year olds.

So this experience and ultimatley TMF have shown me, what exactly has to be done to reach this freedom.

I am now almost 27 and working as a software-engineer (app-development) in a startup. But this is only temporarily and this is my last job. I will work this until I have 26 000€, after that I will not have to sell my time anymore and can dedicate all of my time to my mission.



My current sources of income:
  1. Selling my lifetime (I get 25€/hour) as a Softwareengineer in Germany. - Anybody know how I can get more per hour? Should I try upwork.com or do you have any other tips? I have a year experience in this field.
  2. Sidehustle: I will buy a car with my brother and sell it for a profit (He has done this multiple times and I will chip in) Problem: This is completely against the commandment of Control. But I trust my brother, for me this is a risk worth taking. At least I will make money without selling my time.
  3. My business: Building electronic devices which will be usefull for small businesses. I will stick around here and once I got this going I will reveal what I am doing. (I have no profit but I dedicate my time into this) My plan is to make at least 50€ with this business in november. And 200€ in december. After that we will see.

Edit:
I wanted to have something else but this comes of different than i want it to.
How I will boost my starting phase:

- Paying people under minimum wage and make them super happy at the same time to have this opportunity. -

How I want to find people interested in the same things I am:
Edit end

I bought five Raspberry pies and designed a poster which I will hang around campus. Studends can participate to win a small scholarship of 50€ a month (I would have done so much as a student to get this money). The idea is they will have to present their Idea, what they want to do with it then I will give them the computers and they will have to build the fanciest gadget they can imagine. The condition is that the product has to be open source. And the project is about IoT. The winner gets the scholarship.

What do I gain?
  • I will have intelligent, young people building software and start relationships with them while they are still hungry.
  • Cheap software
  • I do something good and GIVE VALUE to people. As a student I benefited from such programs myself.
  • I learn leading skills.
  • Tax benefits. (Anybody know something about this?)

I am still deciding about a specific topic or a specifc task the students will have to do. Generally the computers should be controlled through the internet.
I don’t care so much what they will do. Just something that will make me laugh or something unexpected will probably win. But I think there is much more possibilities. So please share your ideas. Or a topic they could be doing. I though also maybe smart homes. So they have to turn off and on lightswitches or other electronics in the house.

Please give me input into how I should organize this mini-scholarship.

Thank you for reading my introduction. I will learn a lot from you guys.

I edited my post to reflect what I intend better. As I said the project with the students is something, where the person who will make something funny wins.
 
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Haelios

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Hello, Fresho. I'm not even sure where to begin with your introduction...

I am now almost 27 and working as a software-engineer (app-development) in a startup. But this is only temporarily and this is my last job. I will work this until I have 26 000€, after that I will not have to sell my time anymore and can dedicate all of my time to my mission.

For starters, I wouldn't suggest quitting your job until you've got your business stable enough to the point where it earns more than you currently make. €25/hr isn't a bad rate that you can sustain yourself upon should the going get rough. If you wanted to make more on the side, you could try flipping things or freelance through Upwork.

  1. Sidehustle: I will buy a car with my brother and sell it for a profit (He has done this multiple times and I will chip in) Problem: This is completely against the commandment of Control. But I trust my brother, for me this is a risk worth taking. At least I will make money without selling my time.

I'm glad you get that you're losing control if you work with your brother, but you seem to be missing the fact that your business plan is sacrificing nearly all of your control. You're entrusting your success to college students that may or may not give you what you want.

How I will boost my starting phase:
- Paying people under minimum wage and make them super happy at the same time to have this opportunity.

I... I'm not sure what to think about this, since it doesn't sound very legal or ethical in the slightest.

I am still deciding about a specific topic or a specifc task the students will have to do. Generally the computers should be controlled through the internet.
I don’t care so much what they will do. Just something that will make me laugh or something unexpected will probably win. But I think there is much more possibilities. So please share your ideas. Or a topic they could be doing. I though also maybe smart homes. So they have to turn off and on lightswitches or other electronics in the house.

The biggest problem that I can see right now, is that you're entrusting all of your success to an outside source. You NEED to be in control of your business plan if you hope to achieve the Fastlane. If you aren't in control, you're only going to be wasting your time and your €26,000 that you'll be accumulating.

I have seen the lowest of the low people trying to get free pens at the fair but through my work ethic I have been chosen to represent luxury goods too.

Do not be spiteful towards those who are less fortunate than you. If you read the Fastlane, MJ DeMarco himself was on the cusp of bankruptcy but he managed to pull through and thrive through execution and determination. I've nearly suffered bankruptcy myself as I've had my bank account down to $0.98 several times, it's not a fun experience at all.

There's a whole heap of things that you'll need to improve upon if you want to reach the Fastlane, but with the right steps and plenty of changes to your plan, I believe you can reach it.

Good luck.​
 

Fresho

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Jun 15, 2019
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Hello Haelios,
Thank you for your honest reply!
I'm not sure what to think about this, since it doesn't sound very legal or ethical in the slightest

Now that you say that and I read through it again. It sounds much more unethical and wrong, than I intended it to be. As a student I was very happy, that I could participate in such events and the primary reason I do this project is to do something good. I don't care too much about the results. That's why I wrote probably something which makes me laugh will win.


The biggest problem that I can see right now, is that you're entrusting all of your success to an outside source. You NEED to be in control of your business plan if you hope to achieve the Fastlane

I will dedicate 15 hours a week to my project, where I will design and build it. I need a server and a website. The electronical device is only one part of the solution. Which I want to completely build myself.


I don't intend to take what the students do and sell it.
 

PippoW

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Hi Fresho,

I am from Austria, so I knew lot of legal terms and circumstances.

I fully agree with Haelios about your income. You earn about 50.000 € per year (if I calculated right). That's more than enough to pay all bills and use the money to invest it in your company. Your biggest obstacle is your limited time, not the money.

Til the beginning of this year, I had the same experience. I worked full time in a big company and build my own websites in my freetime. Last year was the first time, when the income from my websites were high enough, so I could live from it. Only after some month of earning enough cash, it was time to quit my job. But never before! Today I expand my business and started eCommerce. A complete different world...

Back to you: Why do you want to underpay your worker?

Who do you attract with a low salary? I think only bad workers. Maybe you find a good worker or train the people to become one, but that's rare.

The better idea is, to find good people and overpay them. And try to get them happy, so they will overachieve everything. Like Elon Musk. He writes in his book, that good people cost 2 times, but their output is 3 times higher. That's the key for great companies
 
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Fresho

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Hello PippoW,
Thank you for your reply.

Back to you: Why do you want to underpay your worker?

I intend to build the business myself. I edited my post to reflect that better. The project with the students is primarily something to give back, as I have benefitted from such programs while studying.
I don't intend to underpay anybody.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Sounds like you want to start a charity or a foundation and not a business. Nothing wrong with that, just don't confuse the two. Also sounds like you're complicating something isn't that complicated. Create relative value, sell for profit.

Welcome to the forum.
 

Haelios

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Now that you've taken the time to edit your post to reflect what you really meant, things are much clearer than before. I see what you're trying to do with the Raspberry Pis and it's not that bad of an idea. Whoever completes the challenge could be a great connection to have down the line for your business.

As for your business idea, you should try to scope out the industry, especially around software engineering since you've got a background in it. Try to look for areas of improvement that can be done with certain products. Maybe the industry leader's customer service sucks, or maybe the product is outdated and could use a couple quality of life tweaks.

There's plenty of ideas that can be worked on but you'll have to do research into what is a good investment of your time. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, just improve upon whatever needs improving and sell it better than whoever's your competitor.
 
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Fresho

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Hello MJ, Thank you for the reply.


sounds like you're complicating something isn't that complicated. Create relative value, sell for profit.

I am working on it.
 

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