I've been staring at this white box for about 15 minutes not sure how to introduce myself. MJ might remember me as the guy who downloaded his book off a "free e-book" site, only to be so thoroughly blown away like never before that after reading it cover to cover (or rather PDF page 1 to PDF page 300-something) twice, I immediately purchased it off the iBooks store to compensate him for this incredible wealth of knowledge.
I guess you could say I'm the epitome of cognitive dissonance. My favorite genres of music are hip-hop and classical piano. I got a 1400 on my SATs, yet spent 3 months in jail senior year during what was supposed to be a semester abroad for passing 100,000 German Marks in counterfeit bills. I read voraciously, devouring knowledge like my cats inhaling their cat food, but due to smoking copious amounts of weed during my formative years I sometimes can't remember what I read ten minutes ago. I have always been told that I have great potential (if I would just focus), am intelligent, and good-looking (the first two I heard alot from teachers, the last one from my mom), and yet after working random jobs basically all my life, from mowing lawns as a kid, to being a dishwasher at a cafe when I was 15, to waiting tables, to working in customer service and sales (being the youngest person at the multinational publishing company and also getting three promotions within a span of nine months), to building trade fair booths, to being a paid musician, to selling Confirmation photos, to selling weed and ecstasy, to doing PC repair, to my current job as a freelance translator, I have an incredible 7-year old daughter, about 13,000 bucks in the bank (not kidding), a 60-inch TV on my wall in the living room and a leased BMW 318i out in front of my building (again, not kidding (for all those that read the book)). :smx4:
I have always been "a renaissance man," interested in basically everything, sometimes I wish I could live 100 lifetimes just to be able to learn about so many different things, yet I feel like I already have so much random knowledge in my brain (and am unsure of what to do with it) that I sometimes think my head is gonna explode. I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and have come up with numerous different business ideas, some of which have actually been turned into successful businesses by others (who had the idea themselves but also did what I didn't - they implemented it).
Anyway, I think the birth of my daughter really jolted me to wake up and change direction, and it's taken about 7 years to go from being flat broke, living an unhealthy lifestyle full of alcohol and weed, going to bed at 5 am and sleeping until 1, being depressed about the fact that I supposedly have all this potential but have done jack squat with it, and blaming others for my lot in life to the place I am now, earning about 60K a year after taxes working from home, eating and living healthy, and most importantly being a good role model for my daughter. But obviously I still have a ways to go, and I still have many unanswered questions and fears (which I will be sharing with you all soon), yet thanks to MJ I now know the basic highway to get on. The question is finding the on-ramp.
I just turned 31, and have set an ambitious goal of having the ability to retire by the time I'm 40 (whether or not I will retire once I accomplish this is another question), and I sincerely hope that my participation in this forum will get me closer to this goal. I have already learned quite a bit more just lurking around the forum for the past month or so, but now it's time to get active! So that's my story, thanks for having me.
I guess you could say I'm the epitome of cognitive dissonance. My favorite genres of music are hip-hop and classical piano. I got a 1400 on my SATs, yet spent 3 months in jail senior year during what was supposed to be a semester abroad for passing 100,000 German Marks in counterfeit bills. I read voraciously, devouring knowledge like my cats inhaling their cat food, but due to smoking copious amounts of weed during my formative years I sometimes can't remember what I read ten minutes ago. I have always been told that I have great potential (if I would just focus), am intelligent, and good-looking (the first two I heard alot from teachers, the last one from my mom), and yet after working random jobs basically all my life, from mowing lawns as a kid, to being a dishwasher at a cafe when I was 15, to waiting tables, to working in customer service and sales (being the youngest person at the multinational publishing company and also getting three promotions within a span of nine months), to building trade fair booths, to being a paid musician, to selling Confirmation photos, to selling weed and ecstasy, to doing PC repair, to my current job as a freelance translator, I have an incredible 7-year old daughter, about 13,000 bucks in the bank (not kidding), a 60-inch TV on my wall in the living room and a leased BMW 318i out in front of my building (again, not kidding (for all those that read the book)). :smx4:
I have always been "a renaissance man," interested in basically everything, sometimes I wish I could live 100 lifetimes just to be able to learn about so many different things, yet I feel like I already have so much random knowledge in my brain (and am unsure of what to do with it) that I sometimes think my head is gonna explode. I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and have come up with numerous different business ideas, some of which have actually been turned into successful businesses by others (who had the idea themselves but also did what I didn't - they implemented it).
Anyway, I think the birth of my daughter really jolted me to wake up and change direction, and it's taken about 7 years to go from being flat broke, living an unhealthy lifestyle full of alcohol and weed, going to bed at 5 am and sleeping until 1, being depressed about the fact that I supposedly have all this potential but have done jack squat with it, and blaming others for my lot in life to the place I am now, earning about 60K a year after taxes working from home, eating and living healthy, and most importantly being a good role model for my daughter. But obviously I still have a ways to go, and I still have many unanswered questions and fears (which I will be sharing with you all soon), yet thanks to MJ I now know the basic highway to get on. The question is finding the on-ramp.
I just turned 31, and have set an ambitious goal of having the ability to retire by the time I'm 40 (whether or not I will retire once I accomplish this is another question), and I sincerely hope that my participation in this forum will get me closer to this goal. I have already learned quite a bit more just lurking around the forum for the past month or so, but now it's time to get active! So that's my story, thanks for having me.
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