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A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

vladikcm

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MY ROAD TRIP TO UNSCRIPTED



WHAT IS MY FTE
This is what I consider the most important part of the process since its value (1 or 0) will determine if the TUNEF model will work or if I will be stuck forever in the rat race.
I have actually graduated as an aerospace engineer and I am currently doing my master's in space engineering. So in the eyes of the people, I have done what most people can't do, but don't get intimidated, being an engineer is not more than a constant life of stress. I see my parents work every day, especially my mother, consumed by work all the time (a lot of times she works 24h at the hospital) and I never wanted to have that life. Getting your a$$ patted just to get a paycheck and a happy sleep since after working you are too consumed to do any kind of stuff.

I can't handle the idea of tomorrow going to work where they will exploit me in all the ways to get the company maximum profit in exchange for a 20$/h salary. I would take all the responsibility if something goes wrong (even with the repercussions of going to jail). I would have no control and I would take all the judicial pressure if something goes wrong. I don't want a life of servility just for a nice car and a weekend.
I have always wanted to know what do millionaires do to have that much money. School never taught me how to make a bunch of money and I knew I would not find the answer easily out there (who wants to reveal the principles so that the rest of the people can be millionaires?).

Actually, in the master's, I see people working part-time or even full-time while they do the master's. They don't even have time to go for 45 minutes to swim or to the gym. WTH that is not the life I want. I don't want to go to my house every day consumed, without the chance to spend time with my wife, and my kids, without having control of my life, and probably being limited in my creativity in work because I have to follow the standards. This idea of getting that life won't be out of my head until the point it makes me execute business ideas. I know I will fail and I start now because I want to fail as soon as possible to learn from my mistakes.
MJ opened the door and showed me the path, it is now my time to take action and cross the door. Will you follow my road trip?




MY 1/5/10 Planasy

The first step toward achieving my business goals is to define the goals. That is why following MJ DeMarco's "The great rat race escape " I will write here my monthly goals and I will try to update them as much as I can as months pass by.

1 MONTH
  • What actions do I need to take in order to get closer to my 10-year goals?
    • Save enough money to buy a hosting service (not very urgent since I can start designing the web locally).:check:
    • Create a first draft of how the business will work (its features).:check:
    • Compare that the business follows the CENTS commandments and write a report following Unscripted book guidelines (this will be published here).:check:
    • Compare that the business follows the TUNEF model (key ideas of the TUNEF model will be written here for me to remember).
    • Keep reading MJ books and take notes for later quick reference when doing my business (that way I can find guidance in some things about my new business).
    • Use each moment I can to develop my business.

  • What action do I have to stop doing?
    • I have to stop making excuses for not doing things (I can always find time for my business, it just depends on how bad you want it).​
    • Instead of watching TV shows in my free time, I will keep working on my business.​
 
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Last edited:

c23r

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Save enough money to buy a hosting service (not very urgent since I can start designing the web locally).
Really? It's 20€/Year. More important is to find a name for your business and register the domain.
 

arguino

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I can't handle the idea of tomorrow going to work where they will exploit me in all the ways to get the company maximum profit in exchange for a 20$/h salary.
You're in a good position, an aerospace engineer makes good money, this is a very good start, you can use the money you earn to start your business.


I have always wanted to know what do millionaires do to have that much money. School never taught me how to make a bunch of money and I knew I would not find the answer easily out there (who wants to reveal the principles so that the rest of the people can be millionaires?).
It's about making money, but it's not only about making money, I suggest you read this post by @IceCreamKid GOLD! - MINDSET - The "Astonishing Secrets" Thread


Actually, in the master's, I see people working part-time or even full-time while they do the master. They don't even have time to go for 45 minutes to swim or to the gym. WTH that is not the life I want. I don't want to go to my house every day consumed, without the chance to spend time with my wife, and my kids, without having control of my life.
Building a business is gonna take all your life for a while, it can take 10 years or even more, and you're not gonna have much time to give to anything else.

Working 9-5 isn't as bad as you make it out to be, I had a very similar mindset to yours when I was in school but I found a company that I wanted to work for and realized 9-5 can be quite fun, yet as you say quite limited. I'm earning a good wage now, I can work on my business in my spare time, and I learn stuff on the job that I can reuse to build my business.

My reply might seem negative, but I'm just hoping you realize you're in a good position right now and that your dream of running a business is within your grasp, but it's gonna take a lot of hard work, a lot more than working 9-5.
 
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vladikcm

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Just curious where do you live that an aerospace engineer makes only $20 per hour?
I live in Spain, and most internship/junior engineers win around 35k/year before tax (which in Spain it is high). The concept is not the $ per hour but the concept of putting a price for your time (it does not matter if 20-30-40 or 50$ an hour). Time is an asset that you lose as soon as you consume it.
 

vladikcm

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You're in a good position, an aerospace engineer makes good money, this is a very good start, you can use the money you earn to start your business.



It's about making money, but it's not only about making money, I suggest you read this post by @IceCreamKid GOLD! - MINDSET - The "Astonishing Secrets" Thread



Building a business is gonna take all your life for a while, it can take 10 years or even more, and you're not gonna have much time to give to anything else.

Working 9-5 isn't as bad as you make it out to be, I had a very similar mindset to yours when I was in school but I found a company that I wanted to work for and realized 9-5 can be quite fun, yet as you say quite limited. I'm earning a good wage now, I can work on my business in my spare time, and I learn stuff on the job that I can reuse to build my business.

My reply might seem negative, but I'm just hoping you realize you're in a good position right now and that your dream of running a business is within your grasp, but it's gonna take a lot of hard work, a lot more than working 9-5.
Thank you for your feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post.
I know I am not in a bad position and I can win good money, but I don't want to fall into that trap and I want to convince myself that I have to build a business to be financially free. I will use my job as a hustle to pay my rent and all that stuff.
I want to start as soon as possible because is when I have the most time and because I want to fail as much as I can to learn from my mistakes.

I know a business will take all my time (more than a 9-5 job) but I can't wait to live that process of daily growth and challenges.
I would rather spend my time in this than watching TV shows all the time.
I will keep people updated on my progress!
 

vladikcm

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UPDATE
DOES MY BUSINESS FOLLOW THE CENTS PRINCIPLES?
I am going to answer all the questions made by MJ in the book "Unscripted " of each of the CENTS commandments in the TUNEF model.

C - CONTROL
  • Is there one person or entity that can instantly kill your business with one decision?
Since it will be a website hosted online, unless the hosting provider plays wrong by the rules, my webpage can be exposed to be closed for some time (not much since I will have backup copies and I can go to other hosting services). If my business is successful I will probably pay an IT guy to keep my web up and running.
  • Are you fishing in a pond controlled by someone else?
There are no big companies controlling a huge share of the business profits, which means, there are not big companies like Apple or Microsoft are to computers.


E - ENTRY

There are quite some companies that offer the same product I will offer, the problem is that they offer it very bad and final user experience is very bad (I have felt this directly). This business profits enormously since they delegate their activities to other companies sending the snowball to other people. Since they are subcontracting the service the client gets is much cheaper than the one bought. If the service costs you 3k, you are really getting a 1k service (because of all the responsibilities and delegations). The objective is to offer a much simpler, cheaper and better service with a peer-to-peer communication between customer and contractor.

N - NEED

The market has a need for these services (this is proven because there is a lot of business that provides it). The idea is to make a service so simple, and easy to use that people will choose our option instead of the other ones in the market. The objective is to use as little marketing as possible, create awesome customer service and listen to the complaints of our customers to modify what is wrong or people don't like.

T - TIME

For the first stages, I will need to put a huge amount of time into the design of the web and the creation of the tools for the automatization of the service. After everything is set up I will only need to take care occasionally that everything goes right and that customers are being listened to and taken care of.

S - SCALE

I can sell this service to one person or to one million. That will only depend on the geographic expansion of the service (to which countries I am allowing to use my website). The objective is that as soon as the business is scaling, try to sell it looking for my escape number (this will be treated lately).

 
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arguino

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Thank you for your feedback! I really appreciate you taking the time to read my post.
I know I am not in a bad position and I can win good money, but I don't want to fall into that trap and I want to convince myself that I have to build a business to be financially free. I will use my job as a hustle to pay my rent and all that stuff.
I want to start as soon as possible because is when I have the most time and because I want to fail as much as I can to learn from my mistakes.

I know a business will take all my time (more than a 9-5 job) but I can't wait to live that process of daily growth and challenges.
I would rather spend my time in this than watching TV shows all the time.
I will keep people updated on my progress!
Love the mindset!

Are you planning on learning to code to start your business?
 

vladikcm

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Love the mindset!

Are you planning on learning to code to start your business?
Sorry for the late reply! Yes, I will code the webpage I need to launch my business, I will start learning how to do it locally first and then I will launch it online. I also have to learn how to patent the idea (because I think it is a new concept) and register the brand.
 

vladikcm

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WHAT IS MY ESCAPE NUMBER?

I have calculated following the 10/5/1 Planasy what is my escape number. Without getting into details (because I really think people don't care about the details) I can divide as:

PTEA before tax: 6.909.000 euros
MONEY SYSTEM: 5.165.000 euros (this is the money I need inside a safe investment to pay my yearly expenses - I will follow MJ chapter on money systems)
POM: 10.330.000 euros (I calculated this coefficient with a 200% value to be very sure - I took this advice from MJ).


My escape number goes to: 22.500.000 euros approx 22.5 million euros before taxes. This is the money I will need to sell my company for.


I AM USING FIRST OR SECOND-ORDER SPECIALIZED UNIT?

For the start of my project, I first need to teach myself a second-order specialized unit (since I have very little knowledge of the design of websites and since it all advances so fast). I will probably will need to teach myself how to code CSS, PHP, HTML, WordPress, etc. I am not worried that the webpage has to look perfect because I know a lot of web pages that are not and do sell products (it is more about the quality of the service). After I design my web locally, I will buy a hosted service and I will start cold-calling clients and making a client list. Once I have some clients interested in my service, I will launch officially the website. If the client or the view demand on my website is low (that is that maybe the market is not interested in my product and I will need to redefine the business idea - this will mean my first fail as an entrepreneur).

Once the website has clients and is running, I will try to make it a first-order unit with a business system. This will mean all the places I can think of where I can sell my product. I will try to automate all the operations inside the web (probably will pay an administrator to have it up and running). The objective is to obtain some commission for the services that the website offers (like Uber's owner, he does not have to drive the cars, he just gets a commission for each trip that is made making a CUL business).


NEXT STEPS ON MY JOURNEY:

I will now start the design of my web locally on my computer in the free time I have (I have some experience designing web services but I want to improve my abilities and learn really deep just in case in the future I have problems so that I know how to solve them).
After I have a preliminary design, I will buy a hosting service and make my webpage live.
After the website is live and running I will start the official register of the brand and the patent of the idea if it does not exist.
I will then create a mailing list for all the people interested in the service (even cold calling the clients).

In the meantime, I will keep reading the "Great Rat Race Escape " And "Unscripted ". My two favorite books. I can relate more to the first one because it is the way a normal person would think.
 
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vladikcm

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UPDATE ON THE PROCESS - 30/10/22

As for today, the updates are:
  • I have installed WordPress locally and watched over how to migrate the webpage live (when the time is right).
  • I have created the logo and the favicon design of my web.
  • I have installed the plugin Elementor and I am watching videos on how to edit my webpage.
  • I am creating the design of my homepage and configuring all the WordPress dashboard.
Next thing on the To-Do:
  • Create the landing page with an option to join the waitlist.
  • Read books about marketing on web design to know what really drives people into websites.
  • Patent? Copyright? I will have to watch deeply into that and the cost $$ (since I don't have a lot of money because I am a student and I don't work).
As for now, the process is boring. I don't know until which point all this time invested will be useful in some way. I guess that after designing my website, I will have more knowledge on how to it and that will compose a second-order specialized unit that I can maybe sell in the future.
The main fears I have now are:
  • Am I doing it right?
  • Is my product going to provide value to people?
  • Is my time investment worth it? (I would be watching TV shows if I wasn't doing my website so I guess it is better spent this way even if I fail).
There are a lot of questions I have that I will need to answer by myself. There is no guide on how to start the web and if my idea is going to work.

I will keep updating this thread. Thank you for reading!
 

vladikcm

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UPDATE 12/11/2022

I have completed the design on the home page, this includes:
  • The colors chosen for the webpage ( I used black and radioactive yellow since these colors grab the user's attention).
  • Design of the layout of the webpage.
  • Buttons colocation.
  • Gradients.
I can't continue with all the design of the webpage because I will use the content of the inside of the service to finish the design (I will need some pictures of how the system works inside to be able to complete my home page).

Next things that I have to focus about:

  • The interactivity of the webpage (since most users will join from their cell phones).
  • Log in and sign up pages.
  • Design of the user interface.
The process is slow, but I can dedicate more time since I finished my tests. People laugh at me that I design a website (I guess they don't have the same vision as me with this website) for my "business". I guess it is better to study for exams and then get an 8/5 job (Good luck with that!). A much "safer" alternative.

I think that in the long term I can create an app for both Android and IOs for my service.

Still, a long road to go, I will keep updating!
 
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vladikcm

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UPDATE 27/11/2022

I just write this short post because I am finding myself that I find "more important" things to do instead of working on my business. That is why I need some changes to make this happen.
I will dedicate 2h each day to sit down and work on my business even if I don't like to do it. I will make a reservation at my local library periodically to work on it. I will do it at the end of the day when I watch movies or series. I will try at the same time to include some method of accountability like bringing a friend with me or using Focusmate to have someone to tell what I am doing and then compromise myself to do it.
 

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