Hi,
I am Martin a 30 year old practical business philosopher (and engineer) from Germany.
I am about to start a company to help students to do the same. If you want to know more about me and my idea read this.
Let’s start with the question:
Why do I want to become an entrepreneur?
One reason you already know: The cool thing about doing your own stuff and founding your own company is that you can call yourself everything you want and give yourself every title you want.
But why does this matter to you? What do I even mean with practical business philosophy?
A philosopher is by definition “a lover of wisdom”, a person who offers views or theories on profound questions in ethics, metaphysics, logic, and other related fields (like business).
Because I really like to read a lot of books and I have grown up in the internet I started to study business models that are
I found that most successful people take business models that already work and and just tweak them a little bit in order to a make them a better or just target a different audience.
Because of that I am currently writing a book (my first own product) and will publish it till the 7th of December on Amazon Kindle and donate the profit of least 1000€ to a good cause till 31.12.2014. My target audience will be students (from Europe) who want to start their own company but don’t have any clue where to start.
My story - The slowlane and being a professional poker player
When I studied business engineering and management in Paderborn Germany I worked for a traditional manufacturing company for 6 years. During that time I got to know every department you can think of. Many people consider my education as the perfect start to a career in the corporate world. And it was true. It was exactly what I wanted to do at that time. (and I today I even have the kind of job that I wanted to do achieve then). All my my friends and class mates did the same. Because my parents had never been to university it was the only way I could think of because everyone around me was doing it.
During that time I joined the student organization of ESTIEM which stands for “European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management”. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. I met so many great people and made great friendships. I travelled through Europe, worked a lot and and enjoyed was is was doing.
Then it got even better: I started to play poker on the internet and became really good at it. I was even able to quit my job because I made decent money on the internet. Finally I even decided to play fulltime as a professional poker player.
I had everything you could think of:
I come from a small village and people were not used to this kind of “job”. I think being a professional poker player is probably even worse than trying to start an online business because most of the people do not know how much work and learning is necessary to make a living. But making the decision to play poker was the best decision, I could do during that time. If I had just finished my studies and got a job I would probably wondered if I could have made it.
Of course it was the first time I completely failed. But that does not matter anymore. I took action and made a decision. Even though I failed I’m glad I tried.
That’s one lesson I learned. The biggest mistake you can make in life is to try to avoid making mistakes. Wayne Gretzky once said: “You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don't Take.” That is why you need to start shooting at your goals.
But in hindsight focusing on poker was the biggest mistake I made as well. And I want you to avoid this mistake by any means. You might say: “But Martin how could that be? Lots of time and lots of money. I would love to have that as well. And you even said: ‘You don’t regret that you tried’.
The biggest mistake I want you to avoid
Playing poker was hard work like every other job. Every successful poker player has to study a lot and work on his game all the time. You do not see the hours I had to spend to calculate odds just to see that I still lost the coin flip for 400$ for the 6th time in a row. You do not see the the countless hours I spend alone on my computer not to mention the frustration other people had when they lost their money to me. But it was not even the moral implications although they play a big role.
I got more and more lazy and travelled less and less even though I had the time and the money. I was just wasting my time staring at a screen playing 12 tables at once and trying to steal other’s people’s money. I lost my passion for the game (and have not played for more than two years now).
But the most important thing was: I was just focusing on getting money.
Focusing on money was the biggest mistake I made. It’s like looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The more I focused on the money the harder I was for me to get. That’s the whole point of the story.
“Do not focus on the money. Focus on the skills you have to learn and provide as much value as possible. “ Unfortunately playing poker did not provide that much value to other people.
Fortunately (!!!) I lost most of my money in 2012 when Fulltilt-Poker declared bankruptcy . I woke up and realised I had wasted my time starring on a screen.
What I learned from playing Poker
During that time playing was the best decision I could make. That’s why I do not regret trying to become a professional poker player. This experience set me up for my entrepreneurial journey that lies ahead of me.
At least I got started and pursued what I loved during that time. Starting is scary. Starting meant I had to put myself - and my money and my reputation - out there and at risk.
I had to face the possibility that I would fail in front of family and friends. It would have been
easier and safer, to keep dreaming about the possibilities I had playing poker. It is the same now. I work only part time and put my corporate career at risk to start my own company. I like to play it safe (maybe to safe) but I am still taking risks of course.
A big mindset shift - and my first trial as an entrepreneur
If you never take any risk, you will never start anything. There will always be one more piece of information you need. One more thing you have to get right before starting.
The truth is that you can’t succeed unless you try. I always tried to take calculated risks. That’s the reason why I want to start my first company while still working. (And I want to help students to “Never get a 9-5 job and help them starting their own company before graduating.)
That was is a big mindset shift for me. I had to focus on providing great value and care about the money afterwards.
That’s what I am trying to do now (starting with my book).
During that time it happened that my relationship with my girlfriend went through a really serious crisis. My flatmate gave me “David De Angelos” video series “Man Transformation”. (I don’t know where he got it from and I never asked.)
But to make a long story short. The program was amazing and I was able to turn to turn my relationship around and we’re still a happy couple. My first contact with information products.
Then I finished all my courses at university and got my diploma degree. That I had my next “great business idea”. I wanted to start a site for dating ideas and make some money with affilate marketing. I signed up at Site Build It and put the site online (www.freizeitkreativ.com) The idea actually worked I got like 8.000 - 10.000 people on my site and making like 40€ per month with Google Adwords and Amazon.
But then reality kicked in. I got lazy again because I was just doing it on my own in my fathers house writing about having an amazing life but actually never using the tips I shared online. I started to play poker again to finance my life (Fultilt was bought by Pokerstars and I got my money back).
But I never made any serious money. Poker was more distracting than helping and I had no real goal. That was in the end of 2012. I set a deadline till February. But that still did not help. So I send applications and got a got job as an engineer.
I had to move to a different city and moved in together with my girlfriend. Every day life started and I lost track of my goals entrepreneurship goals completely not even working on my still running website.
Then I went through “Man Transformation” again and did some research. I found that David De Angelo was just a pen name and his real name was Eben Pagan. I really liked his philosophy and way of thinking.
Working part time and the next great idea
With the money I had left from poker I bought one of his 3000$ courses on online marketing along with some coaching. My ininal idea was in February 2014. I wanted to just copy his “Man transformation”-Series and translate it into German. But I never got around to do it because I lacked the passion for this topic, and no practical knowledge except my own relationship and did not like whole pick-up scene that much. So in the in end I did not take any action at all except reducing my workload to 30 hours per week and taking every Friday of.
Because many colleagues asked me about that model “my next great business idea” was to make a site for “Part time workers”. I even registered a name “teilzeittauglich.de” and hired someone on odesk to design a theme.
But then I went to a meeting for students from my old student organization ESTIEM (European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management). I realized that this are the people I want to work with. Open minded international students who want to start their own company.
I will use what I learned from Eben Pagan (and all the other internet marketers that I have studied in the meanwhile) and start my own online business.
That’s where I am know. I want to avoid the mistakes that I’ve made (that’s the main reason for this post and my reason to join the community).
My Goals
To make this work if have made a plan on what I want to accomplish the following tasks within in the next weeks:
My Book
The ebook will cost around 7€ and will be published on Amazon Kindle.
It will be an introduction to the following online business models:
PS:
If you already have a successful business (especially if you are still a student or started out as a student) and want to present your success story in my book then please contact me.
If you want to take a free look into my book (English is not my first language and I have never been abroad for more than two weeks in a row.) then
Please contact me
PPS:
Because I believe in good karma I will donate all the money that I make from this book till 31.12.2014 to the Red Cross. (if I make more than 900€, the rest will go into the charity project of my sister. She is currently helping to build a university in Benin, Africa).
I am Martin a 30 year old practical business philosopher (and engineer) from Germany.
I am about to start a company to help students to do the same. If you want to know more about me and my idea read this.
Let’s start with the question:
Why do I want to become an entrepreneur?
One reason you already know: The cool thing about doing your own stuff and founding your own company is that you can call yourself everything you want and give yourself every title you want.
But why does this matter to you? What do I even mean with practical business philosophy?
A philosopher is by definition “a lover of wisdom”, a person who offers views or theories on profound questions in ethics, metaphysics, logic, and other related fields (like business).
Because I really like to read a lot of books and I have grown up in the internet I started to study business models that are
- already really successful,
- worked for many different people,
- do not need a lot of money to get started and
- easy and fast to implement.
I found that most successful people take business models that already work and and just tweak them a little bit in order to a make them a better or just target a different audience.
Because of that I am currently writing a book (my first own product) and will publish it till the 7th of December on Amazon Kindle and donate the profit of least 1000€ to a good cause till 31.12.2014. My target audience will be students (from Europe) who want to start their own company but don’t have any clue where to start.
My story - The slowlane and being a professional poker player
When I studied business engineering and management in Paderborn Germany I worked for a traditional manufacturing company for 6 years. During that time I got to know every department you can think of. Many people consider my education as the perfect start to a career in the corporate world. And it was true. It was exactly what I wanted to do at that time. (and I today I even have the kind of job that I wanted to do achieve then). All my my friends and class mates did the same. Because my parents had never been to university it was the only way I could think of because everyone around me was doing it.
During that time I joined the student organization of ESTIEM which stands for “European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management”. That was one of the best decisions I ever made. I met so many great people and made great friendships. I travelled through Europe, worked a lot and and enjoyed was is was doing.
Then it got even better: I started to play poker on the internet and became really good at it. I was even able to quit my job because I made decent money on the internet. Finally I even decided to play fulltime as a professional poker player.
I had everything you could think of:
- lots of money (for a student)
- lots of time
I come from a small village and people were not used to this kind of “job”. I think being a professional poker player is probably even worse than trying to start an online business because most of the people do not know how much work and learning is necessary to make a living. But making the decision to play poker was the best decision, I could do during that time. If I had just finished my studies and got a job I would probably wondered if I could have made it.
Of course it was the first time I completely failed. But that does not matter anymore. I took action and made a decision. Even though I failed I’m glad I tried.
That’s one lesson I learned. The biggest mistake you can make in life is to try to avoid making mistakes. Wayne Gretzky once said: “You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don't Take.” That is why you need to start shooting at your goals.
But in hindsight focusing on poker was the biggest mistake I made as well. And I want you to avoid this mistake by any means. You might say: “But Martin how could that be? Lots of time and lots of money. I would love to have that as well. And you even said: ‘You don’t regret that you tried’.
The biggest mistake I want you to avoid
Playing poker was hard work like every other job. Every successful poker player has to study a lot and work on his game all the time. You do not see the hours I had to spend to calculate odds just to see that I still lost the coin flip for 400$ for the 6th time in a row. You do not see the the countless hours I spend alone on my computer not to mention the frustration other people had when they lost their money to me. But it was not even the moral implications although they play a big role.
I got more and more lazy and travelled less and less even though I had the time and the money. I was just wasting my time staring at a screen playing 12 tables at once and trying to steal other’s people’s money. I lost my passion for the game (and have not played for more than two years now).
But the most important thing was: I was just focusing on getting money.
Focusing on money was the biggest mistake I made. It’s like looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The more I focused on the money the harder I was for me to get. That’s the whole point of the story.
“Do not focus on the money. Focus on the skills you have to learn and provide as much value as possible. “ Unfortunately playing poker did not provide that much value to other people.
Fortunately (!!!) I lost most of my money in 2012 when Fulltilt-Poker declared bankruptcy . I woke up and realised I had wasted my time starring on a screen.
What I learned from playing Poker
During that time playing was the best decision I could make. That’s why I do not regret trying to become a professional poker player. This experience set me up for my entrepreneurial journey that lies ahead of me.
At least I got started and pursued what I loved during that time. Starting is scary. Starting meant I had to put myself - and my money and my reputation - out there and at risk.
I had to face the possibility that I would fail in front of family and friends. It would have been
easier and safer, to keep dreaming about the possibilities I had playing poker. It is the same now. I work only part time and put my corporate career at risk to start my own company. I like to play it safe (maybe to safe) but I am still taking risks of course.
A big mindset shift - and my first trial as an entrepreneur
If you never take any risk, you will never start anything. There will always be one more piece of information you need. One more thing you have to get right before starting.
The truth is that you can’t succeed unless you try. I always tried to take calculated risks. That’s the reason why I want to start my first company while still working. (And I want to help students to “Never get a 9-5 job and help them starting their own company before graduating.)
That was is a big mindset shift for me. I had to focus on providing great value and care about the money afterwards.
That’s what I am trying to do now (starting with my book).
During that time it happened that my relationship with my girlfriend went through a really serious crisis. My flatmate gave me “David De Angelos” video series “Man Transformation”. (I don’t know where he got it from and I never asked.)
But to make a long story short. The program was amazing and I was able to turn to turn my relationship around and we’re still a happy couple. My first contact with information products.
Then I finished all my courses at university and got my diploma degree. That I had my next “great business idea”. I wanted to start a site for dating ideas and make some money with affilate marketing. I signed up at Site Build It and put the site online (www.freizeitkreativ.com) The idea actually worked I got like 8.000 - 10.000 people on my site and making like 40€ per month with Google Adwords and Amazon.
But then reality kicked in. I got lazy again because I was just doing it on my own in my fathers house writing about having an amazing life but actually never using the tips I shared online. I started to play poker again to finance my life (Fultilt was bought by Pokerstars and I got my money back).
But I never made any serious money. Poker was more distracting than helping and I had no real goal. That was in the end of 2012. I set a deadline till February. But that still did not help. So I send applications and got a got job as an engineer.
I had to move to a different city and moved in together with my girlfriend. Every day life started and I lost track of my goals entrepreneurship goals completely not even working on my still running website.
Then I went through “Man Transformation” again and did some research. I found that David De Angelo was just a pen name and his real name was Eben Pagan. I really liked his philosophy and way of thinking.
Working part time and the next great idea
With the money I had left from poker I bought one of his 3000$ courses on online marketing along with some coaching. My ininal idea was in February 2014. I wanted to just copy his “Man transformation”-Series and translate it into German. But I never got around to do it because I lacked the passion for this topic, and no practical knowledge except my own relationship and did not like whole pick-up scene that much. So in the in end I did not take any action at all except reducing my workload to 30 hours per week and taking every Friday of.
Because many colleagues asked me about that model “my next great business idea” was to make a site for “Part time workers”. I even registered a name “teilzeittauglich.de” and hired someone on odesk to design a theme.
But then I went to a meeting for students from my old student organization ESTIEM (European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management). I realized that this are the people I want to work with. Open minded international students who want to start their own company.
I will use what I learned from Eben Pagan (and all the other internet marketers that I have studied in the meanwhile) and start my own online business.
That’s where I am know. I want to avoid the mistakes that I’ve made (that’s the main reason for this post and my reason to join the community).
My Goals
To make this work if have made a plan on what I want to accomplish the following tasks within in the next weeks:
- finish my book till 30.11.
- publish it till 07.12. on Amazon
- Setup my website till 03.12. (startupstudent.net)
- Create an autoresponder till 03.12.
- Generate more than 1000€ from the book till 31.12.2014 and donate all the money to a good cause
My Book
The ebook will cost around 7€ and will be published on Amazon Kindle.
It will be an introduction to the following online business models:
- Get Paid to Learn - Write Articles
- How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur Using the Virtual Assistant Model
- How to Get Rich Doing What You Love - Be a coach and help others succeed
- Online Information Products: eBooks, Audio and Video
- Become a Successful Internet Retailer
- Selling Arts and Crafts
- Affiliate marketing
- Application and website development
- Membership sites
PS:
If you already have a successful business (especially if you are still a student or started out as a student) and want to present your success story in my book then please contact me.
If you want to take a free look into my book (English is not my first language and I have never been abroad for more than two weeks in a row.) then
Please contact me
- via PM or
- leave a comment
- write an email at: startupstudent.net@gmail.com.
- and/or add me as a friend on facebook (Martin Boeddeker)
PPS:
Because I believe in good karma I will donate all the money that I make from this book till 31.12.2014 to the Red Cross. (if I make more than 900€, the rest will go into the charity project of my sister. She is currently helping to build a university in Benin, Africa).
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