Hi Guys, it was orginally written in parts so now when I look at it it's pretty long. If you read it I hope you can take something of benefit away...enjoy 
Thanks guys, I know everyone on here has a story...the similarities are sometimes unreal. It's satisfying when you come across a pic or something that reminds you of the journey and you think...damb I wouldn't want to start that again.
Funny thing was I had to borrow the money to buy that car, I didn't even own it. Before that I took a job driving a delivery truck so I could use it as personal transport on the sly after work lol.gif I'd pull up for a pint of milk in a huge delivery truck lol.gif
I didn't have furniture, we had our bed in the living room, we used an ironing board as the dinner table and sat on the edge of the bed lol.gif
Anyway enough of that shit - memories just started coming back and thought those of you chasing the lambo dream would take heart that where ever you are now, it can still be done.
I'm not into myself enough to think that what I have done is any more than what anyone could do and literally thousands of people could dwarf my achievements...but I'll give you the story if you think you can draw some positives from it.
I'll give you the key blocks that made up the final result because that's really where the skills and experiences came from to get it done...
Lesson 1: Learnt how to sell
My working journey began with selling Kirby vacuum cleaners, it was hard, grass roots, no where to hide type selling. You were in someone’s home trying to convince them to buy something they already had...not only that but pay $3,500 for it...that takes some selling.
My manager while being a real cheap used car salesman type personality could sell like nothing I had ever seen. He taught me the sales skills that would lace my movements in future years. At this point I was 19 and doing pretty well selling these badboys, money was coming in and it was enough to repel any derogatory comments because you sold vacuum cleaners for a living. (If you haven't already noticed I can't spell for shit icon_mrgreen.gif )
I was motivated to succeed like a mother F*cker and was selling like there was no tomorrow, but it was all about to come crashing down.
One night when we were having a celebration at a colleagues house after a good sales month for the office things started to go bad. We were all young 17-22yrs and our manger (the kirby franchise owner) was 28. We were all drinking and let's just say there were a lot of illegal substances going around wink.gif The manager (lets call him John) arrived to get in on the party.
The night moves on and we see John taking one of the girls into a bedroom, no body thinks twice until 5 minutes later we hear this screaming and she comes running out clothes hanging off saying John was trying to rape her...John comes out and she starts screaming at him and gives him a slap that made the windows shutter.
Then John just starts to lay into this girl and we all jump him, I have his arms wrapped up and I am standing right in front of him...he lets fly with an almighty head but and connects square on the middle of my face - just for my troubles.
The girl files charges. John hires a high powered lawyer. They argue we were under the influence of various things and got the story wrong. I say if need be I will go at him with assault to help her cause. Lawyer says he anticipated me hitting him so was self defense. I among others leave.
While some ups and downs in that period of my life, I'm now armed with some bad a$$ sales skills and once you've knocked on someone’s door, invited yourself in and left one hour later with an old vacuum cleaner and 3.5k...not much intimidates you... so I move on...
<Replies to posts in between chapters>
so true...I remember litterally dozens of people would never come back after one day lol.gif
Yes infinity definately love or hate...
You have to be either extremely self motivated, or need money really badly, otherwise most people will find more reasons to leave than to stay. Preferably you'll have both and can do well...
It's like anything - your comfort zone is your number one enemy to accumulating high level wealth.
In short, no. I'm a private guy but no-one knows me so I don't mind sharing the journey if some of you young guys want an insight into what one path looks like to lambo ownership. I'll break it up into the major lessons I think have been relevant in my life in respect to gaining wealth and if you guys can take something from it, that's great.
</end of replies to chapter 1>
Lesson 2: Hard work, Respect, Focus, and Profits before Politics
Once I left Kirby my Mother pointed an ad out in the paper for a sales rep position with a major FMCG company, I new that I could sell anything so I applied for the role. I was still 19 about to turn 20 and younger than they would typically recruit but managed to sell myself into the position. It was a tough role because other sales reps didn't take kindly to some young punk coming in and pushing the envelope.
Regardless I worked hard and treated the company as if it was my own...I was progressing fast and moving from city to city accepting roles no-one else wanted and moving to towns and cities no-one else wanted to live in. While others were picking and choosing enjoying their comfort zones I was making a name for myself and starting to make things happen. I would transform the market as best I could before moving on to a new role and new city, I worked in 5 locations across the country in 3 years.
The second to last role I had with the company was managing a large geographical area, the manager there was pushed to a side role reporting to me at half his age. Infact every one of my staff was older than I was. So you have to quickly learn how to be respectful and lead people gently while minimising confrontation, another skill that would help me in the years to come.
People still left. I hired more. Some liked me, others didn't. Regardless the job got done and I was offered a promotion to head office.
Now 22/23 I was flying high...my salary package was $100k+ and I had a budget to buy any car I chose. I pretty much had as much money as I could spend in those days...times were good and the world seemed at my feet – I was roughing it with the best of them in the corporate world.
Unfortunately though things again would start to unravel...I've never been one for the corporate boys clubs and copier room politics, I treat the company as if it was my own and try to deliver the result. The problem was when I hit the head office, to most, the company was a distant second and it was all about who you knew, who's a$$ you kissed, and the boys club you could muster into. It looked as if I had gone as far as ability alone would get me, I was being stone walled on new ideas due to internal politics. I thought to myself, If I was the MD tomorrow would that satisfy me? The answer was no, so I resigned, it was time to be 100% in control of my own progression.
I had saved up a significant wad of cash over my time moving from city to city with nothing to spend it on and was now going to venture over to the UK and start a business, what, I wasn't sure...but I new business was where I was meant to be so within 6 weeks of resigning I was on a plane, destination - Heathrow, London....I didn't know it yet but my life was about to check in to crazy town and I was running for mayor...
<posts between chapters>
I have been giving this next post some thought as I wasn’t sure I really wanted to continue this thread…the next couple of chapters in my life are pretty dark to me and there is an underlying anticipation that writing this on an internet forum could come back to bite me in the future…
I’ve thought about it and decided that my journey is just that, mine. It’s brought me to where I am and that’s somewhere that I’m intensely proud of, so everything to this point has been an experience and a learning curve, it’s real, it’s life, and something I won’t falter away from if ever challenged about it in the future. The reason I write it is because gaining wealth is often about attitude and when things are bad, you need to find the mental strength to turn things around…this is my journey of self discovery.
<end posts between chapters>
Lesson #3 – Drugs have Consequences
After 37hrs of continuous travel (the cheapest route from NZ to London, via LAX and Munich, throw in a 2hr tube ride) Myself and my lady arrived at our accommodation which had been prearranged with some friends of mine. There was anywhere from 6-9 of us living in a 3 bedroom house at any given time…this wasn’t unusual for travelers so added to the atmosphere.
On the night of arriving I honestly wondered what the hell I had done, it felt like the worst decision ever however upon waking the next day I was refreshed and ready to start looking into some business opportunities.
I was running the numbers on various options…internet cafes, traveling books which detailed the various scams present in different countries, recruitment companies and more…
I was feeling good because I had money in my pocket and a dream in my head, I wanted to be a millionaire by the time I was 25 and was going to make it happen.
Friday night arrives and of course we as well as my flatmates are ready to party…we take the tube about 45 minutes from where we were living (close to Wimbledon), I forget where we were actually heading as we hadn’t long arrived.
I am being introduced quickly to the custom of snake bite pints they are going down smooth and fast, the music is pumping and we’re all catching up on old times. By this time I’m really charging and up to the bar for another round…â€How ya going bro†I happily blurt out to a random guy waiting for a drink next to me…he’s bouncing around obviously having a good time and welcomes the small talk. Then comes a line that would set off a chain of events that I would never have thought would be part of my life.
“you riding the e buzz?†were his exact words. “Na bro, not tonight†obviously not drawing attention to the fact I had never ridden this e buzz he spoke of.
“I’ll hook you up, come with meâ€â€¦5 pound later I was riding the e buzz and I liked it! 40 minutes later and I had my shirt of and was carving up that dance floor like there was no tomorrow.
And that’s how it started…it grew quickly from there and starting a business started to slip further and further to the back of my mind. I made new friends and Wednesday through Sunday week after week became one party merging into another.
I’m not preaching whether this or that is wrong, you make your own decisions but one way or another drugs have consequences.
The first for me was my girl of 4 years had seen enough and to a degree I had had enough because now my kiwi accent was starting to pay dividends in the night life so she left me and headed to the Netherlands.
As the months rolled on it had got to the point where I liaised directly with a significant dealer. Every two or three weeks I would catch 3 connecting tubes on what was a 2 hour journey to the roughest neighbourhood I had ever come across, in movies or otherwise. I would walk a couple of blocks and then knock on this door with mixed anxiety and excitement.
“ Howz it brew†he would mellowly roll out in his Sth African accent, “Good bro, you?†I suppose our native slangs reminded us of the worlds we had left behind.
I’d follow him past the living room where there was always anywhere from 3-10 people off their head sitting in there playing playstation or whatever with a bong making the rounds. We’d head up stairs and into his room where typically Jimmy Hendrix or similar would be playing quietly in what was surprisingly always a clean room.
We’d make some small talk but out of the corner of my eye the glock resting on the speaker was a subtle reminder that we weren’t buddies and this was simply business. I guess somehow the fact that this process was cloaked in civility seemed to normify the madness.
He would open his closet and pull out a large cardboard box, he’d fish through it like a kid through his toy box and then pull out small bags bursting with ‘x’ maybe 300 or so e’s in each bag, then he’d pull out large plastic bags full of weed divided carefully into various blends etc, mushrooms would follow and then there were options which would vary…acid, coke, whatever…it was like going to a supermarket for drugs, crazy.
I’d buy around 300pound worth of supplies and then seal the deal with a session from my newly acquired stash.
A little more small talk and I’d leave for the 2 hour journey home in hind sight stupidly weaving my way through these streets with my pockets literally busting with class A’s, despite this happy knowing the next few weeks would be good ones.
I had continued to do this until every last penny I had saved to start a business was gone…but not to worry, 3 years of high income and huge savings had given me lines of credit people of my age would only dream of…it was time to start on these.
I had lost a massive amount of weight due to loss of appetite and I started to realise that I was really in trouble, it was starting to get a little scary.
Something had to break this cycle, and it did…it came on September 11, 2001. The world trade centre was hit and the world looked like it was on the brink of war. I started thinking about what was really important in my life and all I could think of was the lady I had let get away.
I had to get her back, I had to protect her from whatever was going to come. But to do this I had to venture to the devils doorstep, I had been writing cheques my body couldn’t cash for months and now on what felt like my last legs I would have to face these demons on there home turf…I was on a plane – Destination - Amsterdam, Netherlands…
<posts between chapters>
DG, baby steps my friend, baby steps. You must begin, and every day keep doing something that takes you a little closer to your goals... you can never look at things in this perspective, to be a billionaire by 50yrs old I need to make $20,000,000 every year...orrr man I'm only making $30,000 a year. Keep moving and a little magical friend will help you along the way...the law of exponential growth. Good luck and I want box seats
<end posts between chapters>
Thanks guys, I know everyone on here has a story...the similarities are sometimes unreal. It's satisfying when you come across a pic or something that reminds you of the journey and you think...damb I wouldn't want to start that again.
Funny thing was I had to borrow the money to buy that car, I didn't even own it. Before that I took a job driving a delivery truck so I could use it as personal transport on the sly after work lol.gif I'd pull up for a pint of milk in a huge delivery truck lol.gif
I didn't have furniture, we had our bed in the living room, we used an ironing board as the dinner table and sat on the edge of the bed lol.gif
Anyway enough of that shit - memories just started coming back and thought those of you chasing the lambo dream would take heart that where ever you are now, it can still be done.
I'm not into myself enough to think that what I have done is any more than what anyone could do and literally thousands of people could dwarf my achievements...but I'll give you the story if you think you can draw some positives from it.
I'll give you the key blocks that made up the final result because that's really where the skills and experiences came from to get it done...
Lesson 1: Learnt how to sell
My working journey began with selling Kirby vacuum cleaners, it was hard, grass roots, no where to hide type selling. You were in someone’s home trying to convince them to buy something they already had...not only that but pay $3,500 for it...that takes some selling.
My manager while being a real cheap used car salesman type personality could sell like nothing I had ever seen. He taught me the sales skills that would lace my movements in future years. At this point I was 19 and doing pretty well selling these badboys, money was coming in and it was enough to repel any derogatory comments because you sold vacuum cleaners for a living. (If you haven't already noticed I can't spell for shit icon_mrgreen.gif )
I was motivated to succeed like a mother F*cker and was selling like there was no tomorrow, but it was all about to come crashing down.
One night when we were having a celebration at a colleagues house after a good sales month for the office things started to go bad. We were all young 17-22yrs and our manger (the kirby franchise owner) was 28. We were all drinking and let's just say there were a lot of illegal substances going around wink.gif The manager (lets call him John) arrived to get in on the party.
The night moves on and we see John taking one of the girls into a bedroom, no body thinks twice until 5 minutes later we hear this screaming and she comes running out clothes hanging off saying John was trying to rape her...John comes out and she starts screaming at him and gives him a slap that made the windows shutter.
Then John just starts to lay into this girl and we all jump him, I have his arms wrapped up and I am standing right in front of him...he lets fly with an almighty head but and connects square on the middle of my face - just for my troubles.
The girl files charges. John hires a high powered lawyer. They argue we were under the influence of various things and got the story wrong. I say if need be I will go at him with assault to help her cause. Lawyer says he anticipated me hitting him so was self defense. I among others leave.
While some ups and downs in that period of my life, I'm now armed with some bad a$$ sales skills and once you've knocked on someone’s door, invited yourself in and left one hour later with an old vacuum cleaner and 3.5k...not much intimidates you... so I move on...
<Replies to posts in between chapters>
so true...I remember litterally dozens of people would never come back after one day lol.gif
Yes infinity definately love or hate...
You have to be either extremely self motivated, or need money really badly, otherwise most people will find more reasons to leave than to stay. Preferably you'll have both and can do well...
It's like anything - your comfort zone is your number one enemy to accumulating high level wealth.
In short, no. I'm a private guy but no-one knows me so I don't mind sharing the journey if some of you young guys want an insight into what one path looks like to lambo ownership. I'll break it up into the major lessons I think have been relevant in my life in respect to gaining wealth and if you guys can take something from it, that's great.
</end of replies to chapter 1>
Lesson 2: Hard work, Respect, Focus, and Profits before Politics
Once I left Kirby my Mother pointed an ad out in the paper for a sales rep position with a major FMCG company, I new that I could sell anything so I applied for the role. I was still 19 about to turn 20 and younger than they would typically recruit but managed to sell myself into the position. It was a tough role because other sales reps didn't take kindly to some young punk coming in and pushing the envelope.
Regardless I worked hard and treated the company as if it was my own...I was progressing fast and moving from city to city accepting roles no-one else wanted and moving to towns and cities no-one else wanted to live in. While others were picking and choosing enjoying their comfort zones I was making a name for myself and starting to make things happen. I would transform the market as best I could before moving on to a new role and new city, I worked in 5 locations across the country in 3 years.
The second to last role I had with the company was managing a large geographical area, the manager there was pushed to a side role reporting to me at half his age. Infact every one of my staff was older than I was. So you have to quickly learn how to be respectful and lead people gently while minimising confrontation, another skill that would help me in the years to come.
People still left. I hired more. Some liked me, others didn't. Regardless the job got done and I was offered a promotion to head office.
Now 22/23 I was flying high...my salary package was $100k+ and I had a budget to buy any car I chose. I pretty much had as much money as I could spend in those days...times were good and the world seemed at my feet – I was roughing it with the best of them in the corporate world.
Unfortunately though things again would start to unravel...I've never been one for the corporate boys clubs and copier room politics, I treat the company as if it was my own and try to deliver the result. The problem was when I hit the head office, to most, the company was a distant second and it was all about who you knew, who's a$$ you kissed, and the boys club you could muster into. It looked as if I had gone as far as ability alone would get me, I was being stone walled on new ideas due to internal politics. I thought to myself, If I was the MD tomorrow would that satisfy me? The answer was no, so I resigned, it was time to be 100% in control of my own progression.
I had saved up a significant wad of cash over my time moving from city to city with nothing to spend it on and was now going to venture over to the UK and start a business, what, I wasn't sure...but I new business was where I was meant to be so within 6 weeks of resigning I was on a plane, destination - Heathrow, London....I didn't know it yet but my life was about to check in to crazy town and I was running for mayor...
<posts between chapters>
I have been giving this next post some thought as I wasn’t sure I really wanted to continue this thread…the next couple of chapters in my life are pretty dark to me and there is an underlying anticipation that writing this on an internet forum could come back to bite me in the future…
I’ve thought about it and decided that my journey is just that, mine. It’s brought me to where I am and that’s somewhere that I’m intensely proud of, so everything to this point has been an experience and a learning curve, it’s real, it’s life, and something I won’t falter away from if ever challenged about it in the future. The reason I write it is because gaining wealth is often about attitude and when things are bad, you need to find the mental strength to turn things around…this is my journey of self discovery.
<end posts between chapters>
Lesson #3 – Drugs have Consequences
After 37hrs of continuous travel (the cheapest route from NZ to London, via LAX and Munich, throw in a 2hr tube ride) Myself and my lady arrived at our accommodation which had been prearranged with some friends of mine. There was anywhere from 6-9 of us living in a 3 bedroom house at any given time…this wasn’t unusual for travelers so added to the atmosphere.
On the night of arriving I honestly wondered what the hell I had done, it felt like the worst decision ever however upon waking the next day I was refreshed and ready to start looking into some business opportunities.
I was running the numbers on various options…internet cafes, traveling books which detailed the various scams present in different countries, recruitment companies and more…
I was feeling good because I had money in my pocket and a dream in my head, I wanted to be a millionaire by the time I was 25 and was going to make it happen.
Friday night arrives and of course we as well as my flatmates are ready to party…we take the tube about 45 minutes from where we were living (close to Wimbledon), I forget where we were actually heading as we hadn’t long arrived.
I am being introduced quickly to the custom of snake bite pints they are going down smooth and fast, the music is pumping and we’re all catching up on old times. By this time I’m really charging and up to the bar for another round…â€How ya going bro†I happily blurt out to a random guy waiting for a drink next to me…he’s bouncing around obviously having a good time and welcomes the small talk. Then comes a line that would set off a chain of events that I would never have thought would be part of my life.
“you riding the e buzz?†were his exact words. “Na bro, not tonight†obviously not drawing attention to the fact I had never ridden this e buzz he spoke of.
“I’ll hook you up, come with meâ€â€¦5 pound later I was riding the e buzz and I liked it! 40 minutes later and I had my shirt of and was carving up that dance floor like there was no tomorrow.
And that’s how it started…it grew quickly from there and starting a business started to slip further and further to the back of my mind. I made new friends and Wednesday through Sunday week after week became one party merging into another.
I’m not preaching whether this or that is wrong, you make your own decisions but one way or another drugs have consequences.
The first for me was my girl of 4 years had seen enough and to a degree I had had enough because now my kiwi accent was starting to pay dividends in the night life so she left me and headed to the Netherlands.
As the months rolled on it had got to the point where I liaised directly with a significant dealer. Every two or three weeks I would catch 3 connecting tubes on what was a 2 hour journey to the roughest neighbourhood I had ever come across, in movies or otherwise. I would walk a couple of blocks and then knock on this door with mixed anxiety and excitement.
“ Howz it brew†he would mellowly roll out in his Sth African accent, “Good bro, you?†I suppose our native slangs reminded us of the worlds we had left behind.
I’d follow him past the living room where there was always anywhere from 3-10 people off their head sitting in there playing playstation or whatever with a bong making the rounds. We’d head up stairs and into his room where typically Jimmy Hendrix or similar would be playing quietly in what was surprisingly always a clean room.
We’d make some small talk but out of the corner of my eye the glock resting on the speaker was a subtle reminder that we weren’t buddies and this was simply business. I guess somehow the fact that this process was cloaked in civility seemed to normify the madness.
He would open his closet and pull out a large cardboard box, he’d fish through it like a kid through his toy box and then pull out small bags bursting with ‘x’ maybe 300 or so e’s in each bag, then he’d pull out large plastic bags full of weed divided carefully into various blends etc, mushrooms would follow and then there were options which would vary…acid, coke, whatever…it was like going to a supermarket for drugs, crazy.
I’d buy around 300pound worth of supplies and then seal the deal with a session from my newly acquired stash.
A little more small talk and I’d leave for the 2 hour journey home in hind sight stupidly weaving my way through these streets with my pockets literally busting with class A’s, despite this happy knowing the next few weeks would be good ones.
I had continued to do this until every last penny I had saved to start a business was gone…but not to worry, 3 years of high income and huge savings had given me lines of credit people of my age would only dream of…it was time to start on these.
I had lost a massive amount of weight due to loss of appetite and I started to realise that I was really in trouble, it was starting to get a little scary.
Something had to break this cycle, and it did…it came on September 11, 2001. The world trade centre was hit and the world looked like it was on the brink of war. I started thinking about what was really important in my life and all I could think of was the lady I had let get away.
I had to get her back, I had to protect her from whatever was going to come. But to do this I had to venture to the devils doorstep, I had been writing cheques my body couldn’t cash for months and now on what felt like my last legs I would have to face these demons on there home turf…I was on a plane – Destination - Amsterdam, Netherlands…
<posts between chapters>
DG, baby steps my friend, baby steps. You must begin, and every day keep doing something that takes you a little closer to your goals... you can never look at things in this perspective, to be a billionaire by 50yrs old I need to make $20,000,000 every year...orrr man I'm only making $30,000 a year. Keep moving and a little magical friend will help you along the way...the law of exponential growth. Good luck and I want box seats
<end posts between chapters>
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