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

[ewH]

As I watched my first child play with big eyes, big heart, and big dreams, I had a vision of him graduating college, getting a decent job, and then telling me, "Well Dad, I did it. The job is just so-so, but in 35 years, I will be able to live my life the way I want to." Seeing how much fun a child has with his whole life ahead of him, made me extremely sick to think of him being bound to mediocrity because of what society defines as the right thing to do.

This was the first part of my ah-ha moment, but the confirmation was when I thought about what my response would be. Would it be "Son, don't settle, you can do whatever you want in life as long as you take care of your responsibilities" or would it be "well, that's what I did, so I guess I can't blame you." Not only would I be a terrible role model, but also I pondered why would I settle for anything less for myself than I dream for my own children?

 

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[Likwid24]

For me it wasn't one moment. It was more like a series of moments that built up over time. I've always had it in me to be an entrepreneur. I was never really good with authority and did not like the idea of working for somebody.

When I got onto the FDNY, I was at a time in my life where there was a lot of stuff going on. A lot of crazy things with my family and relationships. I figured it was the safe thing to do. It was also after 9/11 and after witnessing the towers go down right in front of my eyes, It kind of motivated me a little more.

After a couple years on the job, even though I loved it, I realized that it's not what I was destined to do. There were a million things I loved, but just as many that I didn't. I started my own business about a year in, thinking that it will lead me to my dream being successful after having a pretty messed up childhood. That business turned into a job, and even though I was making good money, I had no time to enjoy life.

Somewhere around 3 years ago, I started to do some thinking. Everyday I was evaluating what I was doing with my life and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

I guess the series started like this. I was getting sick of working according to other peoples rules, and schedules. That I had to call in sick, then go to see their doctors, and continue to see their doctors until they felt I could go back to work. Dealing with all the petty BS that goes on in the firehouse.

Wasting hours of my day on things that I felt had absolutely nothing to do with my job, such as 3 hours a day inspecting buildings (Should be a job for fire prevention or department of building). I was getting sick of going a few nights a week with hardly any sleep. It was starting to wear on me. Seeing videos and seeing first hand all the crazy forms of cancer that firemen get (We get the rarest cancers in the world from all the garbage we breathe in). Looking at studies about how our adrenaline goes through the roof every time the alarm bell rings,whether its for a cat in a tree, or a third alarm fire (It goes up the same for both).

Not sleeping next to me wife a couple nights a week. Working weekends, including nights, as well as holidays, while everyone else is enjoying theirs. Thinking that I won't be there half the time to watch my kids grow up. That I will be working a side job, putting in crazy hours every week, just so I can enjoy life (But then I really won't be enjoying much). Waking up and realizing what my 401k was really about. Dealing with annoying customers in my side business (Painting residential hoses can be extremely stressful). Seeing that this pattern was going to last me another 15-20+ years.

Everything came at me slowly. Then one day I just said "THAT'S ENOUGH!". It's time to take control of my life!!! And that's how I got started with The Paint Brush Cover! =)

I'm still living most of that today, but at least I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know if I continue to work just as hard as I have been working, things will pan out, and I will be living the life of my dreams!

 

[mabuie]

My moment would have to be when I was up for a raise and was denied by my manager. I really had busted my a$$ that whole year and to just be denied hurt. That let me know that the only way to become wealth is to control your own worth by owning your own business.

 

[dknise]

Sorry I haven't been posting much guys, trying to get on here there's just not 36 hours in a day and 9 days a week.

My entrepreneurial "come to jesus" moment was when I was 12. My dad wasn't making enough money to feed our family and we were going to lose our house. He said some stuff to my brother and I about how we were a huge burden consuming a ton of cash (he was making like $20k for a family of four, I mean c'mon) so I took it upon myself to figure out how to raise the funds. I ended up ebay powerselling for a couple months before everyone figured it out. Ever since then, I've always been an entrepreneur.

Great thread idea. It's cool going through and reading people's aha moments.

 

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[Amail]

I'm trying to think what circumstances would make me tell my 12 year olds they were a burden, unless it was normal for you to leave the water on, the doors open, the lights on, and throw all the food to the neighborhood dogs.

Way to go, taking a positive from that!

 

[dknise]

I'm trying to think what circumstances would make me tell my 12 year olds they were a burden, unless it was normal for you to leave the water on, the doors open, the lights on, and throw all the food to the neighborhood dogs.

Way to go, taking a positive from that!

Being the 6th of 6 illegitimate kids (4 of whom he never talked to), stressed on money, a drunk, and just being a complete a-hole all around haha. Some parents show you what to do and others show you what not to do. Either way it's a great experience.

 

[Hokoleskwa]

Mine came about two years ago, when I had been in my "dream job" as a software developer for a little over two years. I was making good money, great benefits, owned a house, cars, my life reflected the kind of life I had been raised to think was the ideal. I went on a vacation with my wife and in-laws and had a great time. Upon returning, I didn't feel refreshed and ready to get back to work. Instead, I found myself wondering why I was trading fifty weeks in a cubicle for two weeks of memorable time spent with my family. I started seeking out alternatives and found TMF , which was very in sync with what I was already thinking.

The most important realization I had there was that even a dream job still made for a pretty lousy dream. As far as working for someone else goes, I have an ideal situation - but it pales in comparison to the prospect of working for myself.

 

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[Kak]

I never really had a moment. I have had more businesses than jobs. I started mowing lawns at like 12 because I couldn't get a job yet and wanted a moped and a fishing boat. Well I made the money and bought them both.

The day I turned 16 i got a job at a golf course cleaning carts. Worked about 12-15 hours per week. I got my first 2 week paycheck for just over 200 dollars and I quit. From that point on I always knew that I am better off working for myself. I made 500 bucks a week mowing lawns 6-7 hours per week.

 

[Tommy92l]

These are some seriously amazing posts in this thread. Can't pull myself away!


Mine was probably when I started making money through youtube. At first people laughed at me, my friends who I had gotten contracts were scolded. I remember one of my friends brothers, saying "Look man, people laugh at you for doing this! Get a real job!", as he worked at dunkin donuts. Then it happened, my buddy made a video that received well over 3 million views and I remember playing on xbox live with him and him going "Oh hey man, my check came, wonder how much I made off that video.", Sure enough, it was around 7 grand. (Plus some smaller videos he upload). This is what kick started it for me.

What REALLY set it off, was when I was talking to my uncle with prostate cancer (Which he just recently beat!), he handed me "Psycho Cybernetics" and basically told me "Dude, you can do anything you want as long as you think the right way. That book is magic man. Look at me, I've got cancer..... I own one of the biggest news papers in the area, and in my spare time I make an extra 3k off of ebay, ontop of that, I'm not stressed at all. I'm tellin' ya dude, you can do anything you want."

I read that book and that just gave me a permanent natural high. I don't even want to think about where I'd be if I never had that conversation.

 

[Skys]

Not sure if it's about entrepreneurship for me.
What is true, is that I believe in freedom. As a young kid, I did not have a job. I searched for sea shells to sell them to tourists. We lived near sea, and before our house was a weekly market. So, I would learn from the painters, from the bakery people and everybody. I had my own shop. I sold sea shells. I made my own money, and had several 'companies' during my childhood years.
At the age of 14, I started to make music. We had to arrange our own gigs and got so far as doing atleast one every weekend.
After 10 years, my friends decided to get more serious... so did I. I learned on-line poker and made money for a couple of years.
In the meantime,
because everybody told me I need to get more serious about life... I tried several educations. Failing all of them. But I never gave up, although I hated school. I did not saw any use in it. But, everybody was so much older then me, people I looked up to (CEOs in families etc) and they told me to stay in school.. I could not think on my own. Now I realise how much power there really is in giving up. In saying no.

At the age of 27 (!) I decided to try it one more time...university, here I come! School, suprisingly, was actually fun! The assignments where great and I loved the subjects. Until my internships.. Harsh reality check. This is it.
I hate(d) it so badly. No freedom at all and bullshit tasks I could have done without any degree at all, working from 8 to 5 and for what? Now, I have good reasons. I want that degree. But man, I will not give away my happiness and freedom for a shitty job.
So,

to bring it back. I am not sure if it's about entrepreneurship for me. But, I do love to make the lifes of people happier (selling products, giving an audience a great night to remember, giving gamblers the emotions they grave so badly), and I will never give in when it comes to my own happiness and freedom.
Maybe I will become one hell of a manager for a entrepreneur some day. Or maybe, a great salesman in the company of an entrepreneur. God knows, maybe I will be an entrepreneur.

But, my 'come to jesus' moment learned me that no F*cking way that I will live my life unhappy because of work and give away my precious time for some lousy pay check (by the way, also not for great pay check. Money is a very bad motivator).

 

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[ambition21]

Was busting my a$$ working at a warehouse 8-10 hours a day/5 days a week over the summer lifting heavy boxes, compacting trash, and taking orders from my two obese managers who didn't do shit. I was making about $80 a day. After about three weeks of this, I was driving home around 1 AM after a long day, ready for the weekend, no one on the road, clear conditions, doing ~10 mph over the speed limit...and I got pulled over. Stuck with a $100 ticket, making the past 10 hour shift counterproductive, I'd had enough. I knew at that moment I never wanted to trade my time for money EVER again. I didn't EVER again want something as insignificant as a speeding ticket to make me feel so cheated of my hard work. Above all else, I wanted a feeling of control.

I quit that job the next day and started my own affiliate marketing website in a fitness and health niche. This is, of course, before I read TFM; I know it's ironic that I got involved in affiliate marketing despite wanting control. Still, over the remainder of that summer, starting my first site, writing content, and selling affiliate products turned out to be INFINITELY more valuable than any job or internship I could have traded my time for.

 

[Tommy92l]

You guys seem like you just start businesses and within 2-3 months you are making profits that are large enough to take the palce of your previous job.. How the hell!?

 

[bclark85]

First off, I would like to say hello and thank you to all of the vets on this forum. I have been reading this forum for the past three months since I have found it, and have gained so much information and motivation from all of the great information on this site.

For me, my moment of wanting to become an entreprenuer was about 5 months ago when I was actually written up at my job for setting clear and defined performance goals and expectations for one of my employees. Let me rewind a bit and give you all a little back ground on myself. As a child, my family was fairly broke. I remember being that kid that always had friends with really nice bikes, clothes, dirtbikes, and living in nice houses, while we were that family that lived in the run down house or mobile home in the neighborhood. I remember my dad always working hard for people, we just never had much money. I decided to get my first job when I was 12 years old because I wanted nice clothes for the upcoming school year. I remember working an entire month every weekend (I was in school during the week) and getting my first pay check that totaled $200. I remember feeling so proud of myself for earning my own money that I actually ended up just saving the money to purchase my first dirtbike to ride to work so I didn't have to ride a bicycle. I have been working ever since.

I have been with my current company for 7 years now here in Phoenix, AZ. It is a sales job, and was once a commision type of pay structure where you would get a base salary, and depending on how well you performed in a six month period, you could earn up to a 20% raise (up to 40% each year). This facinated me because it was the first opportunity I had ever been presented with to have my raises in my control. I remember working 12 to 14 hour days just to capitalize on this potential earning ability. I did so well they ened up promoting me to manager within my first 8 months of being there and giving me a team of 12 people to train. Over the next 5 years I literally learned the business like the back of my hand and learned how to track/analyse data, as well as develop great leadership and management skills. I built one of the highest performing teams in my company. I really developed a passion for continual improvement. Even though I had the highest performing team in the comany, I loved finding ways to make my team even more efficent and productive. Through a lot of trial and error I learned what kind of people to hire, and when to cut those lose that were costing the company more than they were worth. Looking back, I have learned a lot of great skills and lessons about business.

About 2 years ago the federal government came in an heavily regulated the industry that I am in. Without going into great detail, they basically said my company can no longer pay employees based off of their performance. As you can imagine, performance dropped tremendously, and company profits have been on a decline for the past two years straight. I have seen my company lay off over 2,100 people so far and I am sure I haven't seen the end yet. As a manager they told me I am no longer allowed to set performance expectations on goals for my employees, and to just "coach" them to get better (without tracking any data mind you). 6 months ago I got fed up and decided I needed to turn things around because I know what my team is capable of. I began tracking performance again and setting clear expecations and goals for my employees. Within the first month we were producing triple what any other team was. This apparently threw a "red flag" to our HR department and they looked into the sudden increase in performance. I explained to them what I have been doing with my team and the great results we were seeing. They proceeded to tell me that I am not allowed to set expectations, goals, or track any performance data for my employees moving forward or I would be terminated. I was shocked to say the least.

It was at that point that I decided that I want to put control in my own hands. I am tired of relying on the corporate world for a pay check and a sense of security for my family. I have been working so many 12 hour days to build up a solid producing team for my company, and in the end I am right back at square one. After reading this forum I can see that there is tons of opportunity in this world for those that are willing to work hard and think outside of the box. If there are two things that I have learned from this forum so far, they are 1. There is a difference between being rich and being wealthy 2. Surround yourself with people you want to be like.

So here I am trying to surround myself with people that I can learn so much from. I am literally amazed everytime I read through some of these threads by the information that is provided, so thank you everyone. I live here in Phoenix, A.Z., and have recently decided started looking into real-estate investing because I have a passion for negotiating and finding great deals. I am always looking to meet up with others that are entreprenuers themselves and listen to any info they can provide. Thanks again everyone!

 

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[FreeMan]

I grew up in a family that operated two restaurants. And I basically spent every day in one of the those restaurants from when I was 5 up to 21. Restaurant work involves long hours and working while others are going out. When my parent's were nearing retirement, they got screwed over by a cousin when one of the restaurants went bankrupt and the cousin bought out the profitable restaurant (including valuable property) for a couple thousand dollars. And that was after busting their asses for 18 hours a day for nearly 20 years for us and our other relatives (with maybe 8 weeks total holidays in that time).

So for me, running a business meant long hours and the potential to be screwed over.

It was not until my late 20's when I bought a new computer and had no money left over that it dawned upon me that I knew nothing about money. Then a friend, who was a bit of a 'hippie', introduced me to Rich Dad, Poor Dad where I discovered what passive income was.

I had always wanted this thing called "freedom" but didn't realise to truly get it, you needed control over your time. And working a job was never going to give me that.

And from there started my journey towards freedom - which is still in progress.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow, some really great stories/moments. Keep 'em coming!

About 2 years ago the federal government came in an heavily regulated the industry that I am in.

Lemme guess, medical sales?

First off, I would like to say hello and thank you to all of the vets on this forum. I have been reading this forum for the past three months since I have found it, and have gained so much information and motivation from all of the great information on this site.

Welcome to the forum and thx for the story - it truly is a travesty to watch an efficient market be destroyed by regulation where performance is not rewarded.

 

[bclark85]

Lemme guess, medical sales?

Good guess, but actually the education industry.

Welcome to the forum and thx for the story - it truly is a travesty to watch an efficient market be destroyed by regulation where performance is not rewarded.

Thanks MJ! It has been quite the experience watching such a large corporation crumble before my eyes. I have employees that are now producing less than 1/3 what they used too, and I can't do a thing about it as a manager. I used to thrive off of the success and levels of performance that I could lead my team to, and now I basically have to sit back and watch the company I work for deteriorate. The thing about it is, the regulations that were put in place for the most part only limit the industry from paying their employees based soley on sales (no more comission based off number of sales), but it doesn't say you can't set clear and defined expectations for your employees....hell even McDonalds has a clear quota you need to hit for the day. If you don't make enough fries per hour, you are out. My company took the extreme approach and took away all performance expectations and metrics. I litterally have some employees that make 90k a year sitting at their desk surfing the web making 2 sales for an entire month, when they used to make 25 sales a month because their salary depended on it. They are actually COSTING the company money just for being there.

I am done with the corporate world after this job. I don't recall who stated it in one of the other threads here, but he said to surround yourself with entreprenuers, or work for them as an apprentice because that is where you are going to get the best knowledge and advice....I plan to do just that. I am trying to network with many local entreprenuers here in AZ because I always seem to learn something new every time I talk to one. On a side note, I am not sure if anyone in this forum that lives in AZ does, but I saw that a few members from Cali meet up often. It would be interesting if some people from AZ did the same.

 

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[MissKeda]

For me it was a little after I was living on my own, struggling to pay my bills and realized that the biggest check I was writing each and every month without fail was to my landlord. I decided that one day I would be the one collecting rent checks. So I started buying rentals and formed a real estate rental company. This business is not quite fast lane so I'm currently working on one that will be. MJ's book put all the pieces together for me....Thank you MJ.

 

[stranger]

I'll answer when i make my 1st 10000000.
Really, I've never had a boss.

 

[Robert Zebala]

For me it was with my first business experience.I was running food concessions on special events during weekends.Like state fairs, city fairs, air shows, etc. I was working very hard and long hours where my customers were enjoying the weekend.But during the weekend I was probably making 1,5 times of their monthly salary. They were willing to spend a lot because it was their reward for 5 days of work.I was thinking it is the same like with big shopping malls jam packed with customers on weekends and shops owners happy faces when cashing in on them.
It was this enlightment that led me to a question: which group do I want to be in?
You guys guess what my answer was with no problem.
When I was reading TMF and the trading 2 free days for 5 days of slavery I recalled that realization.
Although this food concessions business was a failure in the longrun, it gave me my Come to Jesus moment.

Rob

 

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[liite]

I have had several and continue to have them now. My first 2 came at almost the same time. I had just turned 13 and was being picked up by my dad to take me to my birthday party. He had a "cool thing he wanted to show me" he rolled up in a Ferrari and was going to drive me to my party. I thought wow! This is so damn cool. A Ferrari?! You see my dad was a car salesman, he didn't own his own company. It was simply a car my dad had that his company wanted him to sell. Nothing more. I realised that he would never be able to enjoy the car for what it actually was. He would get to drive it for a few weeks and that's it. It didn't agree with me and much like you MJ seeing that Ferrari (although yours was a lambo) I said I was going to own one and drive it everyday forever.

A few days later I got a job delivering newspapers. 7 day a week with 2 days off per year. I was paid £40 a week. I thought I was rich. Compared to my £5 a month pocket money I was. For the first few months I loved it. Then inl started to realise that I couldn't stay up late at weekends. Couldn't go to friends houses etc and the fact I was sacrificing my freedom for this was frustrating. Soon after a few friends at school were talking about pocket money and I told them how much I was "earning" a friend of mine who lived down the road said he didn't get any and he would love to have a paper round. My brain went into over drive. Soon he was doing my round on a Friday saturday and Sunday and I was paying him £10 a week. I had my weekends back and he was happy. I had that paper round until I was 16. Saved up most of the money and when I turned 17 bought a car, insurance and paid for most of my driving lessons. I was the first of my friends to drive. Basically the only guy with a car in my school and it felt so good. (A bit big headed of me I know but I was nieve)

Since then I have been looking at ways to quench my entrepreneurial thirst. So yeah, my come to Jesus moment

 

[Lights]

Peer pressure from being on this forum, and after reading the book. It just floated to my mind like osmosis, like a horse to water, and it's all laid out in front of me. It took me a while to drink it up though.

 

[Ivan]

The first time I bought something and then sold it for more. My fate was sealed at that moment.
No way you can go back to the matrix after taking the red pill.

Since then, its been
Books, forums, podcasts -> try -> fail -> learn -> try -> fail less badly -> learn -> try again

I've noticed once money stops being the primary motivator, though, finding needs to fill becomes magically easy.

 

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[Bigguns50]

It was really after I read MJ's book. I've been chasing money my whole life. Got my Bachelors Degree, worked in my field, hated it, fell into sales, then security, and about 25 jobs later I'm still not happy.

I'm even debt free after my wife and I busted our butts for 3 years. I thought it would be great.... Its not. I mean not having the pressure of owing someone is great, just not the oh so frugal lifestyle.

I swear, 2 days after reading MJ'S book, I found a problem to solve. My whole perspective changed and my wife is also
on board.... She didn't read the book.... She's just put up with me talking about it.
So here I go... On this journey. I live for challenges and I'm ready to drive in the fastlane.

 

[awkwardgenius]

I was hustling on craigslist, day in, day out...always trying to score better musical gear. Between the wheeling and dealing, and the grind of the day job, it kinda dawned on me that I was spending very little time enjoying the stuff I was getting, and I was also always broke.

I was swapping stuff out so often that I never got particularly good with any given piece of gear, and in all honesty, none of it was the stuff I really wanted. So I sold it all off (save for one guitar and amp) and decided it was time to invest in myself. I figured I was a relatively smart guy...I'd learn how to make money. Then I could build the studio I wanted and not even worry about how much it costs, not to mention, have all the time in the world to master my musical craft.

So I started the long journey that took me from internet marketing (affiliate, information, etc...), to Four Hour Work Week, to solid marketing and sales principles by the likes of Jay Abraham, Claude Hopkins, Robert Cialdini, Stephen Covey, Seth Godin, and so on...

I eventually enrolled in an online business course that turned out to be really solid, and it's looking like quitting the day job is just around the corner at this point. Took me a while to get any traction going because I worked nights, and we had a baby in the last year, but I decided it was time to make it happen.

In the last couple months, I took some of my vacation hours to really try and get things rolling, and that seems to have been the tipping point. I closed my first CPA (both directly as a client, and as a source of referrals into his client base) last week, and at the end of this month, I am meeting with the CEO of my current employer to introduce him to what we're doing. If that pans out, it should net me enough to quit the day job comfortably and work on my own business ventures full time.

I'm tired of not being home at night with my wife and kid, and sleeping through the day. I'm almost done with that life.

 

[Milkanic]

I graduated college, got a decent paying software job, and bought a house with my girlfriend at the time. Something didn’t feel right and I couldn’t put a ring on her finger. We broke up, leaving me to pay an underwater mortgage by myself. I was depressed and did a lot of self-reflection trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

My mortgage was a major pain point financially. I started looking at the 30 year amortization chart and it hit me - I was slaving away at work to pay the bank interest and line my boss’s pockets. I felt trapped and started looking at extra ways to earn income to get out of the rat race.

I busted my a$$ selling educational books door-to-door while in college and knew I had more earning potential than working for an hourly wage. I went on a self-improvement kick and began working out, reading nightly, etc.

I read several business books, but I had my eureka moment when I came across TMF and read the value * scale portion. For some reason, it never hit me the path to real wealth is a simple multiplication problem of providing value.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Some awesome stories guys, keep 'em coming!

 

[GuestUser8117]

I was working 50 hours a week in a very popular restaurant. I was washing the dishes. It was so dumb. 500 customers almost everyday. Washing all that shit. I was putting my health in danger. I couldn't take it anymore after one year in this garbage job. There was this arrogant bitch always complaining about me. One day I've had enough, I decided to quit. "I'm done" I said. That moment I knew I was free for a little while. However 2 weeks later I felt into depression. Deep depression. I would sleep all day long. So I've decided not to work for 3 years because of the depression. My parents understood that. I woke up whenever I want, did whatever I want. I was free from the rat race trap. Still am. It feels good to be free. But I will eventually have to go on my own which means it will be time to commit seriously to my ultimate life goal. Escape from the rat race for ever.

 

[Michael Ten]

In my business, I need a come to Jesus moment. I'm still seeking that! I'm almost 7 years in. Lololol.

 

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[cdmedia]

While I'm not a true entrepreneur yet, I'll share my store because it's kinda funny. I'm still fighting to get something to stick as far as business goes (AKA failing, getting kicked real hard by reality and getting back up again to try it all over a little bit differently).

Anyway, I just graduated college and was immensely in debt. I mean ALOT. My loans payments were starting to kick in and I needed to get any job I could find. The only one I could get that would actually pay the bills was a job at a gas company. I was then hired as a "temporary" employee. Basically, the gas company was moving to electronic reading devices and they need labor to get the old meters removed.

My job was to remove the old meters and replace them with the new ones.

This job blew. I'd have to get up at the crack of dawn, work no matter if rain, snow, or sleet, crawl under jagger bushes, get stung by bees, get chased my dogs, go into creepy people's basements, get chased by creepy people. I'd have to change the damn meter no matter what.

So one miserable, cold, rainy morning I was walking my route in really run down neighborhood. I just installed one of those stupid boxes in some scary old man's basement where his "friendly dog that loves everyone" nearly bit my leg off. When I was leaving his house and going to the next, this crackhead man comes running up to me and says:

"HEY you seen any 'em empty houses wit any em dead people in em?"

Me: "What? No. Go away."

"I'm tryin' to get in there before the cops get in there, ya know get the stuff, ya know"
"HEY you know what I'm sayin"
"Tell me if you see any em, ya know"

At this point I turned around and paced swiftly in the opposite direction. I reflected on that crackhead looking for dead bodies for quite some time that day. That's when it hit me: I can't do this anymore. Not for the rest of my life. I don't want to be "temporary". I had no control over my fate.

 

[CEBenz]

I've had several smaller ones.

It began when I was 4 or 5. Don't recall why, but I was in the back of of the family car and we'd stopped at my dad's work to pick something up (could have been one if his tools as they seemed to be split between work and home. When he came back to the car, I remember telling him,"I'm going to buy a Lamborghini when I grow up." He laughed and said something about them being a lot of money. I had no idea what I was in for.

When I was 20, I was working graveyard at a manufacturing plant and clearly remember walking out to break one spring night and thinking,"40 F*cking hours a week of this shit? There HAS to be a better way." This is when the voracious nonfiction reading began.

Reading 4hww was another small notch. MJ's book helped me troubleshoot what was wrong with a close relative's business arrangements. That helped me see what I didn't want.

I started a small ecommerce business specializing in LED lighting for the marine industry. Never could get it above $300 a month profit and that was all to my friend's marine electrical business (he's self employed but enjoys what he does). Ultimately demand seemed to fizzle. So back to the drawing board.

I spent a year unemployed and struggling to get by. Gave up the fight for the most part ( I prefer to think of it as regrouping) and took another manufacturing job about a year ago. It was ok at first but now I realize it pays enough to survive and it ties me to one location both physically and financially.

I returned to the forum here after about a year's hiatus. A well known member if the board here sent me an email that resulted in a Skype IM chat where I basically was told to pull my head out of my a$$. I needed it. Sometimes hints don't work but a Gibbs-style smack upside the back of the head can have profound effects.

For me, it's been several smaller come to Jesus moments. But I feel closer now than ever before.

Today, I got dealer info from a company that, while not fastlane, makes me a few bucks here and there on a friend's table at local gun shows. Figured as long as it continues to generate something, I'll keep fanning the flame. Working on narrowing my field of choices on some Chinese made products for importation. With any luck, I'll make it out of the work force by July 4 2013.