Your Entrepreneurial "Come to Jesus" Moment? (FTE!)

[MJ DeMarco]

Question for the New Year!?

What was your entrepreneurial "come to Jesus?" moment?

For those who need the phrase "come to Jesus" defined in urban vernacular, here it is:

Originally an emotional experience that is life changing, it has evolved to mean a serious argument, one that better result in a change of action or else.

For example, in Dan's great story listed here:

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/ge...cc-debt-now-biz-averages-170k-month-amaa.html

... he cites his "entrepreneurial moment" here:

5 years ago I was broke, desperate for more freedom, and felt bad when I had to ask my boss to let me leave the office to get a dentist appointment. I said F*ck that, dedicated every moment in my life since then to fixing the situation and now I can be anywhere, make way more money than a freakin' dentist, and get to do what I want.

For me, it was my teenage encounter with a Lambo.

What was your entrepreneurial "come to Jesus?" moment?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Amail]

The president of our company asking me if I'd heard of "The Peter Principle".

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The president of our company asking me if I'd heard of "The Peter Principle".

Elaborate? Haven't heard of it.

 

[Vick]

I always have to think about this answer for some reason. I can never pin point a direct turning point for me. I guess it was multiple reasons, over a period of time.

If I had to pick one, I think it was when I finally got into my 'supposed' dream job. Spent years and years, pursuing this career, then finally made it after a long struggle. Once I got here I started to realize very quickly that it was just a job working for someone else, telling me what to do all the time for very little money. I didn't like the long hours. I hated having to commute 2 hours every day. I barely got any vacation time. The factors kept piling up till it got to a point where I couldn't handle it anymore. I needed to change. Because I knew I was gonna have a mental break down if I didn't.

So I guess my main turning point was when I noticed my freedom was actually being taken away from me. It was an illusion, something that I had no control over. I wanted to make my own rules.

And, I also realized something else. I battled for years trying to get into the video game industry, it was very hard. I figured, If I could do that, then maybe I can be a millionaire too, by trying just as hard or even harder.

Since then, I've never looked back. And, my future gets brighter and clearer everyday

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Amail]

Elaborate? Haven't heard of it.

From wikipedia:

The Peter Principle is a belief that, in an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success, and merit, that organization's members will eventually be promoted beyond their level of ability. The principle is commonly phrased, "employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence."

My president told me I have finally been elevated to a position wherein I am no longer competent. No matter how hard I try, what more value I bring to that table, my situation here is stagnant.

This is no way to spend my days. Shit's real now.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

From wikipedia:

Duh. Sorry for being lazy. My bad.

My president told me I have finally been elevated to a position wherein I am no longer competent.

This is your current situation? And he actually said something like this to you? Wow.

 

[ewH]

From wikipedia:
The Peter Principle is a belief that, in an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success, and merit, that organization's members will eventually be promoted beyond their level of ability. The principle is commonly phrased, "employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence."

I am quite familiar with this brilliant principal. Sadly, it's very true. Employees will get pushed higher "up the ladder" until they suck and then live out the rest of their corporate days being miserable and making those around them miserable as well. Such is the corporate life.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[mayana]

This is your current situation? And he actually said something like this to you? Wow.

Wikipedia is right where I went to look this up, and "Wow" is the EXACT reaction that I had. Talk about a wake-up call!!

What was your entrepreneurial "come to Jesus?" moment?

I've always been "entrepreneurial minded", but after I got my MBA, I thought I really wanted a job. Unfortunately, I graduated exactly when the recession started (Dec 2008), and a job was tough to come by. I am not lazy at all, so I got my old job back at a restaurant I had worked at previously. I ended up working as a grill cook for a couple of years. Believe it or not, I was getting paid significantly more at that job than some of the other "professional" offers I got during that period. I was good at the job, and it was kind of a fun challenge for a while. I worked really physically hard there, and lifted heavy boxes, burned myself, cut myself, etc. I remember thinking to myself that if I could work this hard, SACRIFICE like I was sacrificing myself for this job that I had, imagine the kind of success I could have?

This is when I knew that I had to do something for myself - that it was a matter of WHEN, not IF.

Granted, I am still working towards that goal of having a really successful business. But this was definitely the moment that propelled me down the path I'm on now.

 

[lookingahead]

It was about 6 months into a new job I had started. I was waking up at 3 a.m. to go stock Home Depot. One day I realized while stocking pesticides that this was what my life has come to. Waking up to in the wee hours of the morning to making $8.85 an hour working my tail off for no recognition or chance of promotion. Working two jobs and going to college to make something of my life. I realized that if I wanted to make myself happy and be able to do what I want to do. Instead of listening to someone tell me what to do that I had to grab the bull by the horns and take control of my life. Since then I've been learning as much as possible, now my current job is the driving force to keep me going. Cause it is nearly as bad.

 

[tchandy]

When I was 9 or 10 years old, I saw my dad lose his job and possibly his dignity. The next 2-3 years were tough and one Christmas I received one Christmas present and that was a friend of the family. My younger brother and I received the game Battleship. So for me the game, divorce, parents losing their house, and the years when I couldn't understand why my mom couldn't afford stuff, that was my Jesus moment. I was reminded again in Iraq in 2007 when I was operated on after a rocket attack. Life is too short and this year I'm going Big. Plus I work for Uncle Sam and the way the government mishandles money and manages a budget scares me. My goal is to help 12 people, increase our wealth, as well as our cashflow. Yesterday was an incredible day to start the New Year as I had 5 people express interest in my new business and I had another person inquire today.

BTW, my wife and I made Money magazine Jan/Feb '12 issue for a money makeover. The financial planner said I was too weighted in real estate and said I should lighten my IRA portfolio which along with my properties made it look unbalanced. She had no knowledge of real estate and I told her the market hadn't even recovered and I wasn't planning to rebalance my real estate portion of my IRA.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Amail]

This is your current situation? And he actually said something like this to you? Wow.

Yes, this is the current situation. The way it played out was I told him I was interested in moving into senior management with the mid-term view to get into a vice president position. He said "Are you familiar with the Peter Principle?", which I was and which took me completely by surprise. He said "As long as the company is the size it is I don't see much opportunity for your advancement. As the company grows, that will change. A rising tide lifts all boats".

I've been putting in long hours (in early, but leave at 5:00 dammit!) for years. Hard work and overdelivering has always given good results throughout my career. At this stage of the game, it's not paying off.

Thinking about where I'd be now if I'd been putting that hard work and energy into my own business is what fuels my desire to break out of this. It's been a good ride, but there's so much better on offer.

 

[Graham Chong]

This is a great question.

I'm a state-sponsored medical student, and all these while I thought I will be content (notice I didn't use the word "happy", as I'm never happy and interested in this path even before my realization) working for the government till I retire.

It changes when I had a bit of struggle with the government 2.5 years ago.
My parents, who are both government servants, told me not to "fight with the government, as we are just poor powerless people".
I was like, what?! So does that mean I'm going to be another "poor powerless people" if I follow my parents' route?

After some research and studying I discovered that the entrepreneurial path would be the best way to gain freedom, control and success. The path that will allow me and my kids to break the "cycle".

I still get asked, "why are you even thinking about entrepreneurship when you have been in the college + medical school for 8 years." "Isn't it a waste of time if you don't practice?" I sometimes reply, "the true waste of time is doing what you don't love doing for another 35 years, especially after realizing your true inclination/passion." Most of the time, I just couldn't be bothered to say a thing about the fastlane.

 

[The-J]

This is a silly one, I guess, because there was never really a 'moment'. I had read Art of the Deal when I was 12 and RDPD when I was 14 (RDPD really stuck with me). I started doing math with hypothetical money and realized that I would never become rich doing a job. Retire early? Sure. Rich? Never.

But the real moment came when I was sending resumes at places. And the job interviews that followed. Rejection after rejection after rejection. I was definitely OVERqualified for the jobs I was applying for (that sounds haughty for someone who was 17 at the time, but yes I was overqualified!). I had done 80% of the jobs that they required in previous volunteer positions, as well as my own little side gig fixing computers. Even though I told them that in the phone calls and the interviews, I still kept getting rejected.

I still have no idea why they didn't want me. I figured that I'll never be a good enough employee, so I said 'F*ck it, I'll make money on my own'.

This belief was reinforced about a year and a half later when I moved to Canada and started applying for work-study positions. You guessed it, rejected from them all, even after interviews that I believe went pretty well. Also, that blog post where they said I was 'underqualified' for an IT assistant position when I've built and managed networks myself, as well as fixed IT problems going on in my high school, in personal computers, in my home, etc.

By running my own business, people can judge my product or service for itself, instead of looking at me and saying that it's not worthy, which is basically what I've gotten every time I'd walk into an interview.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[andviv]

Growing up in a third-world country, nice middle class neighborhood, I did not know we weren't rich. In fact, I thought everybody had the same lifestyle.

When I got to college I noticed I was the poor kid there. The smartest one, they said, but I was there thanks to a half-scholarship I got when finishing high school.

Started working hard and making less than the 'less-smart' classmates. Suddenly realized something was wrong but was not sure what.

In 2002 my roommate, a Spanish newspaper, got a free copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad in Spanish, they were asking him to review it. He couldn't care less about it but I found the book and was bored, so read it in one day (couldn't even take a bathroom break, wanted to keep reading). This made all the pieces connect.

 

[Steve37]

Mine was a series of things, but the one that sticks out is a wealthy family member who would talk to me with an mixture of disdain and amusement when i'd talk about work. You could tell he found it utterly ridiculous that I sat in a shitty little cubicle every day working on things that nobody cared about to collect a little paycheck every two weeks. Coming from parents who were in corporate positions I really didn't even seriously think that owning a business was an option, but after spending a few days with him on a vacation I couldn't stop thinking about leaving the corporate world. Planned my exit a few months later and haven't seen a cubicle in a decade.

I think i'm still having those same come to Jesus moments now, probably stronger than ever. I have lost all interest in what i've been doing and and cant imagine doing it for the next ten years. This is a large reason why this forum is so fascinating. There are so many different ways to generate wealth and it's eye opening to see all of the different ventures people are involved in.

 

[smarty]

It was last month (on Deceber 7-th exactly) when my boss FIRED me over a Skype conversation for no reason at all, just because he was in a BAD MOOD when I asked for a salary increase!

But believe me when I say that it was the happiest day in my last 2 years since I started that job, because I could finally breathe the freedom-air.
On that day evening and the next day I lunched a new blog and a week later started monetizing it with AdSense by sending traffic from facebook. I already made about $800 with AdSense in (19 days) and since I'm a programmer and love to build apps/software solutions, I'm working t launch m app/products company in 2013.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Graham Chong]

In 2002 my roommate, a Spanish newspaper, got a free copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad in Spanish, they were asking him to review it. He couldn't care less about it but I found the book and was bored, so read it in one day (couldn't even take a bathroom break, wanted to keep reading). This made all the pieces connect.

I know a Yankee entrepreneur who changed his life after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and now owns a networks of over 5,000 vending machines in Japan, mainly selling gumballs and stickers. Funny enough, he was virtually the first guy who brought SpongeBob Squarepants into Japan.

Just found this 6-year-old article if you are interested to know a bit more about his story
Brian Tannura, Pioneer of the Vending Machine Nation | Japan -- Business People Technology | www.japaninc.com

Not the most glamorous business you can have, but he is one of the most inspiring figures I've personally met.

To stay aligned to the thread, I guess reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, is most probably his entrepreneurial "Come to Jesus" Moment.

 

[MrDavis]

It happened to me while reading "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss.

Was then reinforced when I read "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker.

My life was never the same...

 

[smarty]

It happened to me while reading "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss.

Was then reinforced when I read "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker.

My life was never the same...

I would suggest you "The Millionaire Fastlane " (audiobook) and/or
"Think and grow rich" (audiobook).

Your life will never be the same again

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[theDarkness]

I was just trying to figure out in detail the financials behind writing, since most writers live from advance to advance until/unless their work becomes popular enough that they significantly outearn their advances. I think this is naturally something of a "gateway drug" to fastlane because while most writers don't earn much at all once you average out their income year-by-year, they have to know how to deal with big lump payments. That got me thinking in terms of how you make that payment stretch, how many years you can afford to spend working on a book assuming an advance of X amount, etc. It took me a stupidly long time to start thinking in terms of investment, but for a long time I was just thinking OK you take x% per year and you figure y% inflation, an advance lasts you this long . . .

Eventually I started looking at some of the superstar advances some writers were earning and began to wonder whether you could live more or less indefinitely off an advance that size, and then have all the freedom to write your books the way you want. I focused on that for a long time until I realized that there had to be other ways besides landing a huge advance to generate capital fast, so I just started googling around, brushing up on the basics of investment stuff, just learning. Intuitively I think I began to understand that the soultion was going to involve a business--or a business-like system, for much of this I was still thinking in terms of the world of talent, selling your writing--that can operate at scale. Eventually I bumped into TMF on amazon and figured, what the hell, kind of a cheesy title but let's try it. So glad I read it. I come from a family of small mom-and-pop business owners, and they rarely ever earned above the average national income, and really in my mind I never thought of the family businesses as any different than a job--because really they weren't.

So for a few months I dithered and read a lot of business stuff, tried to cram my head with case studies and business models. Tried to figure out how to know when the numbers were right, when I'm doing something with much more opportunity than the things my parents trapped themselves into. Eventually I decided to stop reading shit and wasting time and just jumped into it.

I was actually asleep when I made my first sale, and that feeling I had when I woke up and saw that order confirmation email in my inbox was just so awesome. It was so cool to have a customer, and at the same time it felt very weird to have done it without even being conscious or seeing the customer. I still haven't even replaced a working income or anything yet, but it feels great to be out there making sales, and to be fully in control of the process. I was on a kind of high for about a day or so after that first sale; I drank an obscene amount of celebratory coffee.

 

[theag]

I had a few.

First was when I was about 5 years old and realized for the first time that the reason for our big nice house, cars etc was that my dad had his own company. I even remember playing "business" with my friends (I was the boss in one of the upper floors of our house and my female friend played my secretary in a bottom-floor room. We communicated via house-telephone. I gave out orders to arrange papers or something like that to my "secretary" while I played some other stuff upstairs. Really fun to look back to.)

I then had multiple reinforcements over the years leading up to my high school graduation (and still today, of course) during conversations with my dad about my future after school where he regularly told me that its great to run a business and I should do the same. He didn't directly tell me that having a job sucks though, but thats more because he couldn't speak from experience - because he never had one. Of course he always implied it.

Another one - which finally set me on the entrepreneurial route - was when I was in college aiming for a career in investment banking (with the goal of having an on-the-job education to ultimately start my own private equity fund). I spent a week in J.P. Morgan's London offices, mainly talking to young guys from the M&A department. They all looked so sick and unhappy, and seemed like they had empty souls. At the end of the week I decided that I never wanted to have a job.

Of course another "moment" comes quite often: the moment when I realize that I'm broke again or can't afford something. In this moments I'm happy that I have it in my own hands to earn/produce the money I need, instead of waiting it out and carving it out of a paycheck.

 

[Alana]

I had a bit of an awakening the other day when I learned that I was pregnant with my first. If that doesn’t knock you on your a$$, I don’t know what will (relax…it’s planned….super excited….but super nervous and panicking).

Here’s to raising a babe ‘Fastlane’ style!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

when I learned that I was pregnant with my first.

Congrats Alana!

 

[Chin.Up]

1st post here, thought I'd chime in on what made me want to be on the fast lane.

I'm currently 20 years old in college in Edmonton, Canada. This summer made me realize if I kept going with the flow like what majority of population does, go to school, get a job and learn to work for money but not let money work for you. It all changed when I started to think of ways of how I can acquire wealth and meeting these business individuals made me think it's possible.

Being surrounded by business types and expensive toys like Lamborghini's almost every day most certainly gave me the business bug, I use to never think like this, always just thought of wealthy people as some mythical creatures but it started to change when I hanged around people that are successful. Surround yourself with people that are like minded, they will support and help push your boundries. Never be comfortable, always stay hungry, strive for more.

Even though I'm still enrolled in college, I will finish it and peruse my goals of achieving financial freedom, I won't go into details but I am already connected to the right individuals to work on something that will be potentially huge. Also competing in my 1st bodybuilding competition this summer has taught me a life lesson I will never forget, that is if you put in the hardwork, be persistent and most importantly never give up you will reach your destination.

So that's my small bit on how I saw the "light" haha

Cheers,

Jeff

 

[1PercentStreet]

Being near homeless with less then $10 to my family's name is what did it for me. I was 13 and not even 2 months later I was supporting a family of 5.

I'll NEVER be there again.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[maverick]

The president of our company asking me if I'd heard of "The Peter Principle".

I second that. Combine that with the 'Dunning-Kruger effect' and you've got quite an accurate view of 99% of the bigger corporations out there.

My moment came when I realised I was not actually learning any valuable (business) skills in my job and resorted to find myself a new job only to come to the conclusion that no job description fits what I want to do.

 

[FastNAwesome]

I always dreamed big, and never had a doubt my dreams will come true.

So there was never "the moment", but the closest thing to it was probably reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.

 

[MrDavis]

I would suggest you "The Millionaire Fastlane " (audiobook) and/or
"Think and grow rich" (audiobook).

Your life will never be the same again

Read those 2 books as well...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[yahdmon]

For me it has been a process, filled with many horrible and painful experiences.

It started a few years ago, about five or seven years -- cannot recall exactly, when my uncle visited us and while standing in the kitchen one day he began to tell the family's history. I had never heard this before. At any rate, I came to this country at 10 years old and thought we were rich. He threw a monkey wrench in that mindset however as he bagan to tell how we shared one room among six or so persons. He reminded me of what I had forgotten.

The universe let that simmer for a while then I began to ask some questions which lead to more questions then to more questions which led me to the Fastlane mindset and the consciousness of the rewards of hard work and tenacity that I have today.

Basically, it all began when I asked what this world would be/look like if God did what the pastor said He would do after giving Him/them 10 percent of my pay each week -- "...He will open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you will not have enough room to recieve." (Malachi 3: 8-12).

The answer came back that "He" will do that, just not in physical things per se, but in creative ideas and Fastlane ventures which required faith and hard work to bring to fruition and "then" the wealth comes. I had been lied to and had to go through a period of unlearning and then relearning to become who I am today. But it all started with the realization that I was middle class, not rich/wealthy and had come from worse-than poor beginnings. It was enlightening.

 

[million$$$smile]

When I was 14 I read "Think and Grow Rich" and by the time I was 16 had read everything Napolean Hill and W. Clement Stone wrote.
Ya, its a little dated but most of the principles are timeless. The biggest 'issue' it created for me was that I just couldn't be satisfied with the status quo. My parents just didn't understand why I didn't want to go out and get locked into a J.O.B. (Though, I tried a few different 'careers' before owning my own businesses) College? I just couldn't see how that would help me though I spent as much time going through the 'school of hard knocks' as anyone with a degree.
Now I'm learning how important processes are in the grand scheme of things. One will never be time independent without creating processes that anyone else can follow so that you do not have to be there to make it happen. IE. E-Myth Revisited by M. Gerber
Currently reading TMF . Excellent read.
BTW, I really enjoy this forum though I've been a lurker for awhile...