My name is Tyler, which doesn’t matter. I’m a thirty something auto mechanic with a wife, a mortgage, a dog and a 4K TV with an overactive Netflix account. I have an education history in coding, but no degrees or employment history. I do have a small side business doing rudimentary property maintenance, but it’s more a necessity than anything. I've considered attempting to grow it, but the numbers aren't great.
I spent my early twenties in restaurants, my mid twenties in home improvement, and my late twenties early thirties as a mechanic. I have failed (given up!) as a self employed handyman. I became a full time mechanic a week after making the decision to go back to school full time to pursue a CS bachelors. That was my first big F*ck This Moment of my adult life, but then I opted to take the job over the gamble of investing in myself.
Being formerly self employed, there is a certain difficulty I face working for someone else when I know the value of the work I do. But I also don’t take the risk and own the building, business, assets and liabilities, etc. I earn a meager salary with bonuses for productivity, and come out with a pretty average income at the end of the year. My annual raises significantly do beat inflation.
Working for someone else is a trade off: low risk and low reward. And NO, I do not want to be a self employed mechanic. I would consider owning a profitable shop, but not to work the floor. Manual labor is not my goal. Knees don’t last forever.
Where I am at today:
The F*ck this moments are getting more frequent. I still have my day job, so clearly they haven’t become an event yet.
But something needs to change.
Scaling my side business doesn’t seem particularly practical. I could grow my income, but at the significant expense of time. Money is infinite, time is not.
My short term goal is a career change, knocking out the debt. My longer term goal is separating my time from my income.
Technology podcasts and videos have led me to the works of Seth Godin and MJ DeMarco, which are inspiring and empowering. My perspective has definitely evolved over the last few years.
Growth wise: I am certainly at the lower rungs. My prospective projects all involve using technology to improve or scale business fields I am already familiar with. Ways to capitalize on needs that either aren’t being filled, or aren’t being filled well. There are solutions out there that sometimes fall short in advertising! Can’t buy a perfect product/service if you don’t know it exists!
Anyway. I’m here to learn, to build, to thrive, and eventually to teach (that’s the goal).
I spent my early twenties in restaurants, my mid twenties in home improvement, and my late twenties early thirties as a mechanic. I have failed (given up!) as a self employed handyman. I became a full time mechanic a week after making the decision to go back to school full time to pursue a CS bachelors. That was my first big F*ck This Moment of my adult life, but then I opted to take the job over the gamble of investing in myself.
Being formerly self employed, there is a certain difficulty I face working for someone else when I know the value of the work I do. But I also don’t take the risk and own the building, business, assets and liabilities, etc. I earn a meager salary with bonuses for productivity, and come out with a pretty average income at the end of the year. My annual raises significantly do beat inflation.
Working for someone else is a trade off: low risk and low reward. And NO, I do not want to be a self employed mechanic. I would consider owning a profitable shop, but not to work the floor. Manual labor is not my goal. Knees don’t last forever.
Where I am at today:
The F*ck this moments are getting more frequent. I still have my day job, so clearly they haven’t become an event yet.
But something needs to change.
Scaling my side business doesn’t seem particularly practical. I could grow my income, but at the significant expense of time. Money is infinite, time is not.
My short term goal is a career change, knocking out the debt. My longer term goal is separating my time from my income.
Technology podcasts and videos have led me to the works of Seth Godin and MJ DeMarco, which are inspiring and empowering. My perspective has definitely evolved over the last few years.
Growth wise: I am certainly at the lower rungs. My prospective projects all involve using technology to improve or scale business fields I am already familiar with. Ways to capitalize on needs that either aren’t being filled, or aren’t being filled well. There are solutions out there that sometimes fall short in advertising! Can’t buy a perfect product/service if you don’t know it exists!
Anyway. I’m here to learn, to build, to thrive, and eventually to teach (that’s the goal).
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