Hey guys,
I figured it was probably time to introduce myself to this great community.
My name is Chris, I'm 34 and currently living in Vancouver WA (just outside of Portland OR).
I was born and raised in southern CA. I dropped out of high school because I hated it, lived with my mom and worked shit jobs the entire time I lived there. I was a total F*ck up as far as I was concerned.
CA was totally fine when I was a kid but once I became an adult and started to work, I was hating every minute of it. It seemed as though everything was a struggle, I was absolutely miserable.
One day I realized that I needed to do something to better my life and get my shit together.
In late 2012, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) and I decided to pack up our shit and leave, just like that. We drove both of our vehicles up to Camas WA (a small town east of Vancouver) and lived in a hotel for two weeks. We didn't know a soul, I was terrified (she was totally calm about everything).
A little less than two weeks later we got our keys to our first place. It was a little duplex that was supposedly a service station back in the thirties. As soon as we got those keys, we flew back to Anaheim and did the U-Haul thing.
Almost immediately, we both found jobs and started saving up for our first house.
We closed on our first home the day our lease was up in Camas. The timing couldn't have worked out any better.
Five months later, I was one of ten hired (over a thousand people at the hiring event) for a conductor position at a local railroad. I wanted a “good job” my entire life and it felt like my prayers had finally been answered.
A few months after I landed my job, I married my beautiful wife Stephanie. Without her, NONE of this would have been possible. She was the strong one the entire time and she made everything seem easy.
Generally speaking, we both felt great everyday. We accomplished more in a year and a half than we ever did back in CA. In that short time frame, we were home owners, we both had kick a$$ jobs and we got married. It felt like anything was possible.
Well, life slowed down a bit. We added to the family (dogs) and continued working and fixing up the house. Everything was fine and dandy until the winter of 2016...
So at this point I had been at the RR for a little less than three years. My seniority only allowed me to hold the shittiest yard job in the entire terminal. It was a dark dingy and quiet yard in Portland.
Working at the RR in general is a pain in the a$$. Everything about it was already wearing on me and I had only done three of my thirty year sentence.
That winter though... I was already fed up working nights in a dark and dingy yard. I'd walk miles a night on ballast in super cold weather while getting pissed on all night by the constant rain.
I was used to that to some extent but that winter it snowed quite a bit which I wasn't used too.
Between everything at the RR constantly being broken or out out of service, working at night when my wife was sleeping by her self, being in constant pain due to walking on ballast all night, freezing my dick off, getting pissed on all night and now slipping on snow and tripping on snow covered tracks, I was OVER IT.
You see, everyone there was just as miserable but they HAD to do it because they made them selves RR poor and had big families. Unlike them, I still lived like I did when I was making $11 and hour and we had no kids. I knew it would be stupid if I “made” myself stay there my whole life just because the money was great.
It was easily the best job I'd probably ever have but ultimately I was miserable and I was tired of making someone else rich.
I started spending every chance I had researching something else. I found a couple of YouTube videos about Amazon and that kinda kicked this whole thing off.
I really don't want to go too far into my whole Amazon experience but needless to say, it didn't work out great. With that being said, I don't regret doing it for a second. Steph and I learned SOOOOO much and ultimately it really opened up our eyes.
So fast forward to August of 2017. We're still trying to sell what products we have left from Amazon and one day I decide to type “entrepreneur forum” into google.
That was really the day my life changed. I found this great forum and found out that the forum owner had published two books. I purchased the first one and started reading.
The Millionaire Fastlane blew my mind. Part of me wished that I ran into it before I started the whole Amazon thing but at the same time, I learned so much from first hand experiences that I still don't regret doing it. More than anything, it proved that when I decided to do something, I actually did it. I didn't F*ck around.
After reading TMF , I read Unscripted . That book was also amazing but it didn't hit me like TMF did. It was definitely more relevant to what I was still doing (Amazon) but TMF was like nothing I had ever read before, if that makes any sense.
So since reading TMF and Unscripted , I've read a number of other books in the pursuit to better educate myself. Whether books outright say it or dance around it, it's become very clear to me the importance of copy writing, marketing and selling.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stuck in some kind of paralysis after reading so many books the last few months. I'm just so overwhelmed now and don't know which direction I want to move forward with.
In the mean time though, I've been working on myself as a person. I now realize that if you want to be successful, you need to live a successful life.
I've been reading every single day, eating healthier, working out, losing weight (was 240 lbs, now 215, goal is 175) and trying to change the way I view everything.
Near future plans consist of:
I will do WHATEVER it takes to become successful.
I WILL BE SUSSCESSFUL!
-Chris
I figured it was probably time to introduce myself to this great community.
My name is Chris, I'm 34 and currently living in Vancouver WA (just outside of Portland OR).
I was born and raised in southern CA. I dropped out of high school because I hated it, lived with my mom and worked shit jobs the entire time I lived there. I was a total F*ck up as far as I was concerned.
CA was totally fine when I was a kid but once I became an adult and started to work, I was hating every minute of it. It seemed as though everything was a struggle, I was absolutely miserable.
One day I realized that I needed to do something to better my life and get my shit together.
In late 2012, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) and I decided to pack up our shit and leave, just like that. We drove both of our vehicles up to Camas WA (a small town east of Vancouver) and lived in a hotel for two weeks. We didn't know a soul, I was terrified (she was totally calm about everything).
A little less than two weeks later we got our keys to our first place. It was a little duplex that was supposedly a service station back in the thirties. As soon as we got those keys, we flew back to Anaheim and did the U-Haul thing.
Almost immediately, we both found jobs and started saving up for our first house.
We closed on our first home the day our lease was up in Camas. The timing couldn't have worked out any better.
Five months later, I was one of ten hired (over a thousand people at the hiring event) for a conductor position at a local railroad. I wanted a “good job” my entire life and it felt like my prayers had finally been answered.
A few months after I landed my job, I married my beautiful wife Stephanie. Without her, NONE of this would have been possible. She was the strong one the entire time and she made everything seem easy.
Generally speaking, we both felt great everyday. We accomplished more in a year and a half than we ever did back in CA. In that short time frame, we were home owners, we both had kick a$$ jobs and we got married. It felt like anything was possible.
Well, life slowed down a bit. We added to the family (dogs) and continued working and fixing up the house. Everything was fine and dandy until the winter of 2016...
So at this point I had been at the RR for a little less than three years. My seniority only allowed me to hold the shittiest yard job in the entire terminal. It was a dark dingy and quiet yard in Portland.
Working at the RR in general is a pain in the a$$. Everything about it was already wearing on me and I had only done three of my thirty year sentence.
That winter though... I was already fed up working nights in a dark and dingy yard. I'd walk miles a night on ballast in super cold weather while getting pissed on all night by the constant rain.
I was used to that to some extent but that winter it snowed quite a bit which I wasn't used too.
Between everything at the RR constantly being broken or out out of service, working at night when my wife was sleeping by her self, being in constant pain due to walking on ballast all night, freezing my dick off, getting pissed on all night and now slipping on snow and tripping on snow covered tracks, I was OVER IT.
You see, everyone there was just as miserable but they HAD to do it because they made them selves RR poor and had big families. Unlike them, I still lived like I did when I was making $11 and hour and we had no kids. I knew it would be stupid if I “made” myself stay there my whole life just because the money was great.
It was easily the best job I'd probably ever have but ultimately I was miserable and I was tired of making someone else rich.
I started spending every chance I had researching something else. I found a couple of YouTube videos about Amazon and that kinda kicked this whole thing off.
I really don't want to go too far into my whole Amazon experience but needless to say, it didn't work out great. With that being said, I don't regret doing it for a second. Steph and I learned SOOOOO much and ultimately it really opened up our eyes.
So fast forward to August of 2017. We're still trying to sell what products we have left from Amazon and one day I decide to type “entrepreneur forum” into google.
That was really the day my life changed. I found this great forum and found out that the forum owner had published two books. I purchased the first one and started reading.
The Millionaire Fastlane blew my mind. Part of me wished that I ran into it before I started the whole Amazon thing but at the same time, I learned so much from first hand experiences that I still don't regret doing it. More than anything, it proved that when I decided to do something, I actually did it. I didn't F*ck around.
After reading TMF , I read Unscripted . That book was also amazing but it didn't hit me like TMF did. It was definitely more relevant to what I was still doing (Amazon) but TMF was like nothing I had ever read before, if that makes any sense.
So since reading TMF and Unscripted , I've read a number of other books in the pursuit to better educate myself. Whether books outright say it or dance around it, it's become very clear to me the importance of copy writing, marketing and selling.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stuck in some kind of paralysis after reading so many books the last few months. I'm just so overwhelmed now and don't know which direction I want to move forward with.
In the mean time though, I've been working on myself as a person. I now realize that if you want to be successful, you need to live a successful life.
I've been reading every single day, eating healthier, working out, losing weight (was 240 lbs, now 215, goal is 175) and trying to change the way I view everything.
Near future plans consist of:
- Quit my job and find a sales job to help me communicate with people and learn how to sell.
- Get my sleeping schedule straight (very difficult after working graveyard for years)
- Whitening my teeth (I may even get braces but I'm still not sure yet)
- Learning how to dress for success.
- Learn how to write (I'm awful at it)
- Learn marketing
- Find a mentor
- Figure out how to add value to peoples lives.
I will do WHATEVER it takes to become successful.
I WILL BE SUSSCESSFUL!
-Chris
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