Typical swabian father on the path to leave the rat race

[Mirkonik]

Hey there Fastlane Community,

my name is Mirko and I am incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to become a part of this awesome community.
In the next few lines I'm going to describe where I come from, show my motivations and what my future plans are. It will be some kind of self analysis. So I hope that it's not to boring...

Where I come from​

First some random facts about me:

• Used to be quiet sporty due to gymnastics, judo and beach volleyball <-- nearly all lost since working in a corporate job...
• I'm the typical tech-guy, relatives and friends come to when they have problems with their Macs, PCs or smartphones. First action on Christmas Eve is to sort out all the PC problems my father collected over the year...
• Making music in a Coverband (little Side Hustle <-- now completely on hold due to Covid...)

If you would ask my friends or coworkers, they would describe me as a typical swabian father age 33, living in the southern areas of Germany.
Now you might ask, what are the characteristics of a swabian father? Here are some of them:

• Small family with two kids (age 3 and 1 in my case).
• Mother at home, managing the Kids. Father working to bring in the money.
• Living in the "own" house in a quiet Area, paying mortgage until forever...
• Typical 40 hour workweek, with approximately 10 hours overtime each week...
• Extreme saving attitude --> save every cent possible.
• Don't go on vacation (in my case, I don't even like to go elsewhere...).
• Neither poor nor rich, just in the middle where mediocrity keeps you in place.

Smells pretty slow lane isn't it?

When I look back at my life so far, I must admit that I am a perfect example of a M.O.D.E.L.-Citizen.
After leaving school I went to a university, studying renewable resources and bionergy (even did my Master of Science...) focusing on bioenergy, which lead to a job in a small engineering office (working there since 2013). Of course, nothing I learned during my studying days is of any relevance, cause the german state decided to cut all subsidies to bioenergy facilities, leaving the whole industry to die...

But lucky for me, I didn't get fired, cause my company has different working areas. So I switched to building technologies (involving CAD-Work) to energy systems (batteries and fuel cells) to research and development to ICA engineering. At the moment I am responsible for HMI Interfaces and been just promoted to a project manager for a complex energy system for a couple of production halls of our mother company...

As you can see, I've been thrown around a lot, which makes me feel exposed to the will of my bosses.
Do I like my job? At the beginning, yes. Right now? I absolutely hate it due to the fact, that my bosses are unable to focus. It happened too often, that I worked over hours for a project that just got canceled in a blink of an eye without any comprehensible reasons.
Do I hate the job enough? Obviously not enough to quit just yet. The thing is, that my coworkers are all nice people, I can work from home most of the time and I need the money to pay the bills.
So I did not have a real FTE so far, but I think that I smelled it a few times...

The realization​

It must have been in 2016 I guess, when my company got kicked out of a project from our mother company (weird senior boss vs junior boss disputes), when I realized that working for other people is a really bad use of time and health. So I started to read books about self development and entrepreneurship (entry book: The 4-Hour-Workweek).
My Journey than went to a bunch of different books from Tony Robbins over to Russle Brunson and other authors about self development, different books about Stocks and possible income streams. I stoped listening to music while driving to work and started to hear business podcasts excessively. But for the most part, it was a long period of just soaking in more or less relevant Information.

Than one day, a distant friend came to me with a very very good opportunity called GetMyAds <-- smells fishy? Yes it is. I invested about 500 €, what turned out to be a moderate learning expenses... Ponzi's are obviously not there to make the guy on the bottom filthy rich...

I then went on to crypto currencies, which despite controversial was quiet profitable for me. Fun fact: the company I'm working at is building specialized cooling systems for mining servers. I do still hold some cryptocurrencies, but on a buy and hold strategy.

To be honest with myself, most of those encounters where just action faking without the anticipated get rich quick effect. So, while incredible information flew around my brain, I was not able/willing to use that knowledge to do anything meaningful.

The light at the end of the tunnel​

In 2018 I finally discovered The Millionaire Fastlane through a self help Podcast. Probably most of the people reading this book got their minds blown. I was no different. Unscripted further pushed my mind in a new direction that was both exciting, but also frightening. For the first time I really realized, that the way I am doing things and the way I think about things really needs to change, cause otherwise I will be trapped in a life I am not happy with. Big thanks to @MJ DeMarco for bringing much needed clarity to my path.

While the realization was there, I still wasn't able to start something meaningful for another year. It's a lame excuse, but I simply didn't find something I was willing to invest my precious time in. So my mind tried to find those get rich quick shit again. I considered a T-Shirt businesses, Amazon FBA and other stuff hot at the time, but didn't come over the idea phase <-- action faking at best...

But than in June 2019, while lurking the FastlaneForum, I stumbled upon @Fox 's Thread about starting as a web developer. Due to my tech-affinity, it immediately caught my attention. I rushed through the recommended courses and started building my first website for the gardener who was making our garden, who didn't have a website at all (was an easy sell, cause I did it for free). The whole experience was so fascinating, that I then started to make websites for my band and my stepmother (Artist and book author for children). Those where all free projects to grab experience and a bit of needed self-confidence.
The next project was a lucky coincidence, cause the girlfriend of one of my best friends was working for a real estate agent at the time, who had a really shitty website. Shortly before she introduced me, they interviewed another developer who just claimed 5,000 € just to update the given website (No redesign, no additional functionality, just updating the shitty website...). So I took the chance and closed the deal for 3,950.00 € ;-). As you can guess, I was hooked like never before, when I finally saw the money on my bank account, cause for the first time I provided value on my own for a company and got rewarded for my work.

Up until I registered my one man Webdesign company in march 2020 I made about 6,900 €. I know that this is nothing to turn a head around, but for me it means a lot.

Moving forward​

I saw a clips of lite at the end of the rat race tunnel and will go forward to leave as soon as possible.
To achive that, I set myself the following targets:

• Replace my 9-to-5 income with Webdesign income in the next 6 Months (about 30,000 € net income)<-- I know that Webdesign does not fulfill all C.E.N.T.S commandments, but I see it as a payed way to gain insights into business strategies.
• In the next two years, take what I have learned from Webdesign and create a product or service that really brings value to a decent amount of people.
• By 40 (that would be 2027) I will finally be financially independent and a happy owner of a productocracy that changes peoples life.

Inner Motivation​

This is probably going to be a little egoistic on one or the other points, but this reflects my actual inner motivations (without specific order):

• Stop being some one else's tool to make them rich
• Release the burden of my entire Family and enable them a good and fulfilling live
• Do something of meaning
• Don't have to worry about money and other social dependencies
• Be the owner of my own time
• Pay my mortgage before 40

Why have I joined the Fastlaneforum?​

I was the typical lurker trying to get as much value out of this forum without ever participating. My inner excuses where always no time, nothing to show for, pure laziness, ... every other generic excuse you can think of.
That sucks, and I'm fed up with all my inner excuses. Thats why I am committed to be part of this community. I hope to bring in some value, make good friends and be able to learn and implement the wisdom provided by the likeminded people in this forum.

Again, sorry for the long introduction.
I wish you all the best.

Mirko

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome Mirko, thanks for the intro!

 

[Mirkonik]

Welcome Mirko, thanks for the intro!

It’s really nice to be here. The general vibe of this forum is outstanding. Thank you for building this rear gem of wisdom in an ocean of infotainment bs.

 

[Bekit]

Hey there Fastlane Community,

my name is Mirko and I am incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to become a part of this awesome community.
In the next few lines I'm going to describe where I come from, show my motivations and what my future plans are. It will be some kind of self analysis. So I hope that it's not to boring...

Where I come from​

First some random facts about me:

• Used to be quiet sporty due to gymnastics, judo and beach volleyball <-- nearly all lost since working in a corporate job...
• I'm the typical tech-guy, relatives and friends come to when they have problems with their Macs, PCs or smartphones. First action on Christmas Eve is to sort out all the PC problems my father collected over the year...
• Making music in a Coverband (little Side Hustle <-- now completely on hold due to Covid...)

If you would ask my friends or coworkers, they would describe me as a typical swabian father age 33, living in the southern areas of Germany.
Now you might ask, what are the characteristics of a swabian father? Here are some of them:

• Small family with two kids (age 3 and 1 in my case).
• Mother at home, managing the Kids. Father working to bring in the money.
• Living in the "own" house in a quiet Area, paying mortgage until forever...
• Typical 40 hour workweek, with approximately 10 hours overtime each week...
• Extreme saving attitude --> save every cent possible.
• Don't go on vacation (in my case, I don't even like to go elsewhere...).
• Neither poor nor rich, just in the middle where mediocrity keeps you in place.

Smells pretty slow lane isn't it?

When I look back at my life so far, I must admit that I am a perfect example of a M.O.D.E.L.-Citizen.
After leaving school I went to a university, studying renewable resources and bionergy (even did my Master of Science...) focusing on bioenergy, which lead to a job in a small engineering office (working there since 2013). Of course, nothing I learned during my studying days is of any relevance, cause the german state decided to cut all subsidies to bioenergy facilities, leaving the whole industry to die...

But lucky for me, I didn't get fired, cause my company has different working areas. So I switched to building technologies (involving CAD-Work) to energy systems (batteries and fuel cells) to research and development to ICA engineering. At the moment I am responsible for HMI Interfaces and been just promoted to a project manager for a complex energy system for a couple of production halls of our mother company...

As you can see, I've been thrown around a lot, which makes me feel exposed to the will of my bosses.
Do I like my job? At the beginning, yes. Right now? I absolutely hate it due to the fact, that my bosses are unable to focus. It happened too often, that I worked over hours for a project that just got canceled in a blink of an eye without any comprehensible reasons.
Do I hate the job enough? Obviously not enough to quit just yet. The thing is, that my coworkers are all nice people, I can work from home most of the time and I need the money to pay the bills.
So I did not have a real FTE so far, but I think that I smelled it a few times...

The realization​

It must have been in 2016 I guess, when my company got kicked out of a project from our mother company (weird senior boss vs junior boss disputes), when I realized that working for other people is a really bad use of time and health. So I started to read books about self development and entrepreneurship (entry book: The 4-Hour-Workweek).
My Journey than went to a bunch of different books from Tony Robbins over to Russle Brunson and other authors about self development, different books about Stocks and possible income streams. I stoped listening to music while driving to work and started to hear business podcasts excessively. But for the most part, it was a long period of just soaking in more or less relevant Information.

Than one day, a distant friend came to me with a very very good opportunity called GetMyAds <-- smells fishy? Yes it is. I invested about 500 €, what turned out to be a moderate learning expenses... Ponzi's are obviously not there to make the guy on the bottom filthy rich...

I then went on to crypto currencies, which despite controversial was quiet profitable for me. Fun fact: the company I'm working at is building specialized cooling systems for mining servers. I do still hold some cryptocurrencies, but on a buy and hold strategy.

To be honest with myself, most of those encounters where just action faking without the anticipated get rich quick effect. So, while incredible information flew around my brain, I was not able/willing to use that knowledge to do anything meaningful.

The light at the end of the tunnel​

In 2018 I finally discovered The Millionaire Fastlane through a self help Podcast. Probably most of the people reading this book got their minds blown. I was no different. Unscripted further pushed my mind in a new direction that was both exciting, but also frightening. For the first time I really realized, that the way I am doing things and the way I think about things really needs to change, cause otherwise I will be trapped in a life I am not happy with. Big thanks to @MJ DeMarco for bringing much needed clarity to my path.

While the realization was there, I still wasn't able to start something meaningful for another year. It's a lame excuse, but I simply didn't find something I was willing to invest my precious time in. So my mind tried to find those get rich quick shit again. I considered a T-Shirt businesses, Amazon FBA and other stuff hot at the time, but didn't come over the idea phase <-- action faking at best...

But than in June 2019, while lurking the FastlaneForum, I stumbled upon @Fox 's Thread about starting as a web developer. Due to my tech-affinity, it immediately caught my attention. I rushed through the recommended courses and started building my first website for the gardener who was making our garden, who didn't have a website at all (was an easy sell, cause I did it for free). The whole experience was so fascinating, that I then started to make websites for my band and my stepmother (Artist and book author for children). Those where all free projects to grab experience and a bit of needed self-confidence.
The next project was a lucky coincidence, cause the girlfriend of one of my best friends was working for a real estate agent at the time, who had a really shitty website. Shortly before she introduced me, they interviewed another developer who just claimed 5,000 € just to update the given website (No redesign, no additional functionality, just updating the shitty website...). So I took the chance and closed the deal for 3,950.00 € ;-). As you can guess, I was hooked like never before, when I finally saw the money on my bank account, cause for the first time I provided value on my own for a company and got rewarded for my work.

Up until I registered my one man Webdesign company in march 2020 I made about 6,900 €. I know that this is nothing to turn a head around, but for me it means a lot.

Moving forward​

I saw a clips of lite at the end of the rat race tunnel and will go forward to leave as soon as possible.
To achive that, I set myself the following targets:

• Replace my 9-to-5 income with Webdesign income in the next 6 Months (about 30,000 € net income)<-- I know that Webdesign does not fulfill all C.E.N.T.S commandments, but I see it as a payed way to gain insights into business strategies.
• In the next two years, take what I have learned from Webdesign and create a product or service that really brings value to a decent amount of people.
• By 40 (that would be 2027) I will finally be financially independent and a happy owner of a productocracy that changes peoples life.

Inner Motivation​

This is probably going to be a little egoistic on one or the other points, but this reflects my actual inner motivations (without specific order):

• Stop being some one else's tool to make them rich
• Release the burden of my entire Family and enable them a good and fulfilling live
• Do something of meaning
• Don't have to worry about money and other social dependencies
• Be the owner of my own time
• Pay my mortgage before 40

Why have I joined the Fastlaneforum?​

I was the typical lurker trying to get as much value out of this forum without ever participating. My inner excuses where always no time, nothing to show for, pure laziness, ... every other generic excuse you can think of.
That sucks, and I'm fed up with all my inner excuses. Thats why I am committed to be part of this community. I hope to bring in some value, make good friends and be able to learn and implement the wisdom provided by the likeminded people in this forum.

Again, sorry for the long introduction.
I wish you all the best.

Mirko

Great story! Thanks for the intro, and congrats on the success in web design.

I lurked for several months, too, before participating. I'm glad you've joined, and I think you'll find it a rewarding experience to participate.

Rooting for you!

 

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[sparechange]

Welcome, aim bigger! Let's make the goal of being independent by 2027 the end of 2021, maybe you'll fail or maybe you won't, have it as the target and take the actions to get there! Goodluck!

 

[Mirkonik]

Great story! Thanks for the intro, and congrats on the success in web design.

I lurked for several months, too, before participating. I'm glad you've joined, and I think you'll find it a rewarding experience to participate.

Rooting for you!

Thank you.
Yea, I really think that in order to receive, I first must be able to give. And what better place to practice and learn to provide value than the fastlanedorum?

 

[Mirkonik]

Welcome, aim bigger! Let's make the goal of being independent by 2027 the end of 2021, maybe you'll fail or maybe you won't, have it as the target and take the actions to get there! Goodluck!

Thank you for the important input.

To be honest: if I think about achieving this goal by 2021, my brain starts to output all kinds of (slowlane)reasons why this could not happen. It even causes some kind of fear of failure.

But I guess that’s part of the excercise.
You know what? Let’s do this.

My game plan to tackle this excercise:

1. List my doubts and fears
2. Draw Worst-Case-Scenarios
3. Articulate possible solutions to avoid the worst case
4. Plan to achieve the Goals by 2021

Might take a day or two to sort everything. But If I don't Post an answer by Sunday 11th October, feel free to call me out.

 

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[sparechange]

Thank you for the important input.

To be honest: if I think about achieving this goal by 2021, my brain starts to output all kinds of (slowlane)reasons why this could not happen. It even causes some kind of fear of failure.

But I guess that’s part of the excercise.
You know what? Let’s do this.

My game plan to tackle this excercise:

1. List my doubts and fears
2. Draw Worst-Case-Scenarios
3. Articulate possible solutions to avoid the worst case
4. Plan to achieve the Goals by 2021

Might take a day or two to sort everything. But If I don't Post an answer by Sunday 11th October, feel free to call me out.

Awesome post!

 

[Tommo]

Welcome. You missed out that the Schwabisher dialect/accent is probably the hardest to understand in my experience living in Germany.I did have a great time though. Enjoy the forum Mirko.

 

[Mirkonik]

Welcome. You missed out that the Schwabisher dialect/accent is probably the hardest to understand in my experience living in Germany.I did have a great time though. Enjoy the forum Mirko.

Yes, it’s a little tricky for a “Neigschmeckter” to grasp the Swabian accent.

Where have you been in Baden-Württemberg?

 

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[Fox]

Hey @Mirkonik !

Thanks for the mention and great intro.

If you ever need more help on anything web related just tag me.

Mind sharing more details of those first few projects - that was some great progress!

 

[Mirkonik]

Hey @Mirkonik !

Thanks for the mention and great intro.

If you ever need more help on anything web related just tag me.

Mind sharing more details of those first few projects - that was some great progress!

Hey,

first of all, thank’s for everything you do for the community. For me personally your content on the forum and YouTube really gave me hope, where previously was just anger about my corporate situation. So thanks big time.

Sure, I will break down my projects so far in the following lines:

1. Free Project - Website for a gardening company. They did all the gardening work for my house. I recognized that they did not have a website at all, so it was quiet an easy sell;-). The Projekt itself was free, but they made me a very good deal for all the garden work.
2. Free Project - The website of our band was really terrible. Our former bassist made it in like 2006, so you can imagine that it got a lot of upward potential.
3. Free Project - Website for my mother-in-law. She is a painter and book author for children. Her former website was a Strato-Builder website made by sister-in-law. Was a bit tricky, cause I made a slider that shows the different pictures in relation to a sofa in the background image. The thought behind this —> visitor should get a more realistic impression how big the painting is gonna look in a living room.
4. 3,950.00 € Project - Real Estate website. I already referenced this project in my first post. Was quiet an easy project, cause I mainly talked to my friends girlfriend. Her boss wasn’t very involved in the process, but was really happy about the end result.
5. 500.00 € project - Website for a Useability Start Up. Remember the Friend who’s girlfriend got me the real estate gig? He’s one of the CEO’s of Useability Startup with a very basic website at the time. So after I finished the prior website, he ask if I can help him with their website. This was my first WordPress Project, where I really learned a lot about php, building a WordPress Theme and working with prototyping software like Adobe XD. It also was a pretty hard project, cause we needed to push the release several times due to different new wishes along the way... never the less I grew bigtime on this project.
6. 600.00 € - website for a systemic consultant/coach. The introduction for this project came from my brother who made the logo for the coach. This was again a WordPress Project with not much fuss. Easy going after the previous project.
7. 1,500.00 € project - WooCommerce store for a mask producer. This is the project I just finished. A former coworker had enough and just went on to build his own company. On his last day we talked a bit and he was directly interested in my offer to help him out on the Webdesign front. This was again a very hard and challenging project with lot’s of learning regarding theming Woocommerce and general business insight. I managed to make an hourly payment contract with them, cause the project morphed from basically a landing page to a full fledged e-commerce solution... never done that before, but knock on wood it works so far and the customer is happy about it ;-).
   
   
8. Next up - after the 7th project, it’s time to build my own website, cause I got asked a few times about my site...

 

[Mirkonik]

Thank you for the important input.

To be honest: if I think about achieving this goal by 2021, my brain starts to output all kinds of (slowlane)reasons why this could not happen. It even causes some kind of fear of failure.

But I guess that’s part of the excercise.
You know what? Let’s do this.

My game plan to tackle this excercise:

1. List my doubts and fears
2. Draw Worst-Case-Scenarios
3. Articulate possible solutions to avoid the worst case
4. Plan to achieve the Goals by 2021

Might take a day or two to sort everything. But If I don't Post an answer by Sunday 11th October, feel free to call me out.

So @sparechange here is my thought process so far (feel free to point out major flaws):

First of all, what does financial independence mean to me.​

We are actually quiet happy with our life and are not the kind of people who define themselves by the cool gadgets we have. So financial independence means to us that we can keep our actual standard. Our monthly fixed costs are about 2,000.00 €. As our children get bigger, the costs will definitely go up so let's say 3,500.00 € per month should be enough to feel safe. If I would like to earn this amount of money passively I would need about 840,000.00 € in etfs,reits and stuff on a conservative interest rate of 5% (after taxes) to be set.
Alternative: Sell a product or service for about 200.00 € per day (gross profit --> taxes are pretty heavy in Germany...). <-- Sure, this will not be entirely passive like having 840,000.00 € invested, but if I can make a valid productocracy that provides value to people, that should be way less stressful on a psychological level than my actual working conditions...

What are my fears and doubts if I think about achieving this by 2021 instead of 2027 (no specific order)?​

• Don't have an idea that would bring enough value to the table at the moment.
• Don't have enough time to build that system.
• My wife is gonna tell me, that this is way to much risk (she generally supports my entrepreneurial ideas, but would definitely call me insane if I would tell her to pull something that big in one year ;-))
• Should quit my job ASAP to work full-time on a productocracy. But that would dry out our main income source, and I am not that profitable in Webdesign right now to compensate for that.
• Fear of failing the process and ending up with less. Meaning to work an even shittier job with worse payment or even loosing our house.
• Not enough valuable skills and knowledge to pull this off.
• I am to shy and not talented enough to sell and market my service/product in an efficient way

What would be the Worst-Case-Scenario?​

I put every waking second I have in building a valuable product and service. Therefor I quit my job (resulting in drying out the major income stream). Family life is down to zero, cause I need to work on the product. Wife get's frustrated cause no more money is coming in and I don't have time for her and the kids. She kicks me out and leaves me accusing me to be a bad father and putting everything we build up so far at risk. Savings start drying out and I still don't have a running solution. Due to psychological stress and a huge sleep deficit I make dumb decisions and unnecessary mistakes. We/I am unable to pay the mortgage and we loose our house. Ultimately I give up, having lost everything, family house, job and dreams and therefor being completely crushed.

What can I do to avoid the Worst-Case-Scenario?​

I would first improve my sales and marketing skills, cause no matter what happens, this should be helpful skills in any situation. In case I lose or quit my job, I have the opportunity to improve my webdesign skills. Should be possible to be at least as profitable as my current job in a short time (and it's way more fun to do).
The Family and psychology stuff is a bit harder to defuse. The only thing I can come up right now is structuring my days and weeks so I can still make time for my family and myself (sports... that suffered pretty hard since I left university...). That should keep my family and my mind in a sane state, even if that means that I have less time to work on the goal.
I could also bring in another person (nobody comes to mind ;-)) to decrease some of the risks. But I guess the more people involved, the more time is needed for ordinary organization stuff...

What's the plan to achieve financial independence by 2021?​

1. Brainstorm and asses possible ideas for potential productocracies. Should take a week to really dive in.
2. Select the best option and make it as valuable as possible (even if it doesn't fit all CENTS-Commandments <-- guess it's better to start a product that misses one or two than to fall into analysis paralysis, which I'm definitely prone to...)
3. In the same time building an audience by posting free informations on YouTube, Facebook, instagram, Pinterest or what ever to provide value along the way, spread the word and test the need.
4. Building an email-list, so I can build own traffic and maybe presell the product or service.
5. Release the actual product or service.
6. If I have a real productocracy, stuff like google ppc or Facebook ads would not be necessary, but if not I will use these tools to accelerate the process.

That's it for now. I'm pretty sure that there are still many flaws and slow lane biases within my thinking.

 

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[sparechange]

So @sparechange here is my thought process so far (feel free to point out major flaws):

First of all, what does financial independence mean to me.​

We are actually quiet happy with our life and are not the kind of people who define themselves by the cool gadgets we have. So financial independence means to us that we can keep our actual standard. Our monthly fixed costs are about 2,000.00 €. As our children get bigger, the costs will definitely go up so let's say 3,500.00 € per month should be enough to feel safe. If I would like to earn this amount of money passively I would need about 840,000.00 € in etfs,reits and stuff on a conservative interest rate of 5% (after taxes) to be set.
Alternative: Sell a product or service for about 200.00 € per day (gross profit --> taxes are pretty heavy in Germany...). <-- Sure, this will not be entirely passive like having 840,000.00 € invested, but if I can make a valid productocracy that provides value to people, that should be way less stressful on a psychological level than my actual working conditions...

What are my fears and doubts if I think about achieving this by 2021 instead of 2027 (no specific order)?​

• Don't have an idea that would bring enough value to the table at the moment.
• Don't have enough time to build that system.
• My wife is gonna tell me, that this is way to much risk (she generally supports my entrepreneurial ideas, but would definitely call me insane if I would tell her to pull something that big in one year ;-))
• Should quit my job ASAP to work full-time on a productocracy. But that would dry out our main income source, and I am not that profitable in Webdesign right now to compensate for that.
• Fear of failing the process and ending up with less. Meaning to work an even shittier job with worse payment or even loosing our house.
• Not enough valuable skills and knowledge to pull this off.
• I am to shy and not talented enough to sell and market my service/product in an efficient way

What would be the Worst-Case-Scenario?​

I put every waking second I have in building a valuable product and service. Therefor I quit my job (resulting in drying out the major income stream). Family life is down to zero, cause I need to work on the product. Wife get's frustrated cause no more money is coming in and I don't have time for her and the kids. She kicks me out and leaves me accusing me to be a bad father and putting everything we build up so far at risk. Savings start drying out and I still don't have a running solution. Due to psychological stress and a huge sleep deficit I make dumb decisions and unnecessary mistakes. We/I am unable to pay the mortgage and we loose our house. Ultimately I give up, having lost everything, family house, job and dreams and therefor being completely crushed.

What can I do to avoid the Worst-Case-Scenario?​

I would first improve my sales and marketing skills, cause no matter what happens, this should be helpful skills in any situation. In case I lose or quit my job, I have the opportunity to improve my webdesign skills. Should be possible to be at least as profitable as my current job in a short time (and it's way more fun to do).
The Family and psychology stuff is a bit harder to defuse. The only thing I can come up right now is structuring my days and weeks so I can still make time for my family and myself (sports... that suffered pretty hard since I left university...). That should keep my family and my mind in a sane state, even if that means that I have less time to work on the goal.
I could also bring in another person (nobody comes to mind ;-)) to decrease some of the risks. But I guess the more people involved, the more time is needed for ordinary organization stuff...

What's the plan to achieve financial independence by 2021?​

1. Brainstorm and asses possible ideas for potential productocracies. Should take a week to really dive in.
2. Select the best option and make it as valuable as possible (even if it doesn't fit all CENTS-Commandments <-- guess it's better to start a product that misses one or two than to fall into analysis paralysis, which I'm definitely prone to...)
3. In the same time building an audience by posting free informations on YouTube, Facebook, instagram, Pinterest or what ever to provide value along the way, spread the word and test the need.
4. Building an email-list, so I can build own traffic and maybe presell the product or service.
5. Release the actual product or service.
6. If I have a real productocracy, stuff like google ppc or Facebook ads would not be necessary, but if not I will use these tools to accelerate the process.

That's it for now. I'm pretty sure that there are still many flaws and slow lane biases within my thinking.

Good mindset & love the post. Keep in mind you can quit your job after you start making some money with a business, look for complaints in the market place, (I wish there was) (This would be better if) you could scout around somewhere online of current companies product complaints and maybe you could improve something, it's at least a start, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just make something better.

Or market it better, there are quite alot of products out there that were unsuccessfully executed, which is literally a goldmine (even though it looks like a landfill)

As for services you can look at bad reviews and maybe change things yourself. (I'm biased and prefer products as it's easier to disconnect your time) Doing landscaping and physical work is not my cup of my tea anymore And considering you have multiple jobs as a parent and employee, I think it would be quite difficult for you to manage.

 

[Mirkonik]

Good mindset & love the post. Keep in mind you can quit your job after you start making some money with a business, look for complaints in the market place, (I wish there was) (This would be better if) you could scout around somewhere online of current companies product complaints and maybe you could improve something, it's at least a start, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, just make something better.

Or market it better, there are quite alot of products out there that were unsuccessfully executed, which is literally a goldmine (even though it looks like a landfill)

As for services you can look at bad reviews and maybe change things yourself. (I'm biased and prefer products as it's easier to disconnect your time) Doing landscaping and physical work is not my cup of my tea anymore And considering you have multiple jobs as a parent and employee, I think it would be quite difficult for you to manage.

Thanks for the great input. I definitely going to check for different pain points on products and services. Starting with stuff I use myself.

If I'm able to choose, I would definitely go for some kind of hosting/website subscription thing where I could solve potential customers needs while getting a constant income stream. But I will consider other options like physical products and evaluate the potential (hoping to not get lost in analysis paralysis...)

Regarding my job: that's what I want to achieve with Webdesign. At the moment I'm working about 45 to 50 hours (getting payed for 40 hours...) a week for my job, and in the evenings and weekends I'm doing my webdesign thing. As soon as I can consistently subsidize my job-income with webdesign, I will either ditch the job completely, or I will do it in steps by asking to reduce my workload to 32 hours a week or something like that. I'm not there yet, but after finishing my last WooCommerce-Project, I should now have a nice little portfolio to increase the prices.

 

[B.Cotter]

Up until I registered my one man Webdesign company in march 2020 I made about 6,900 €. I know that this is nothing to turn a head around, but for me it means a lot.

Don't be negative about that amount, and don't care about what others may think about it. That's a great start. That's 6,900€ more than what most people on this planet will ever make working for themselves, because most people won't even try.

Congratulations.

 

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[Mirkonik]

Don't be negative about that amount, and don't care about what others may think about it. That's a great start. That's 6,900€ more than what most people on this planet will ever make working for themselves, because most people won't even try.

Congratulations.

Thank you. You are absolutely right. Despite not the biggest number in town, it's more of a symbol to me, that I finally started to leave action-faking-village and actually be able to help other people (and not just my boss to get even richer on my bag...).

 

[TimTonic]

Welcome Mirko – where are you exactly based in beautiful Baden–Württemberg? I am also living in BaWü near Ludwigsburg

 

[Mirkonik]

Welcome Mirko – where are you exactly based in beautiful Baden–Württemberg? I am also living in BaWü near Ludwigsburg

No kidding? I’m also living near Ludwigsburg. Sachsenheim to be precise. Where are you from?

 

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[TimTonic]

I am living in Asperg - Hence we obviously live not more than 20-30km away from each other. Really funny when you consider how big the chances are

 

[Mirkonik]

I am living in Asperg - Hence we obviously live not more than 20-30km away from each other. Really funny when you consider how big the chances are

The world is a small place. Three weeks ago we were in Asperg eating a nice ice-cup in Lorenzo’s ;-). Best ice in town.

 

[TimTonic]

Yes they definitely have the best ice cream in town. The world is indeed a very small place.

 

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