Better Late Than Never: Intro

[Jamie T]

Fastlane Introduction


Hey everyone,

I’ve been a part of the Fastlane community for a while now. I’ve even had the privilege to meet some great people from the forum:

@Vigilante @Kung Fu Steve @Silverhawk851 @ddzc @The-J @Allan Black @S. Brown @NoMess @Andy Black (not in person yet) and more!

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone at the Fastlane Summit!

I’m not sure where I’d be without the community.


The journey…


Part 1: Childhood

I’ve had entrepreneurship ingrained into my head from an early age.

You see, both of my parents are entrepreneurs (without scale/time). I grew up watching them run their own businesses and set their own schedules.

I still remember the day I found out that other parents had to work for someone else in a corporate job setting. I was shocked. I thought everyone worked for themselves.

My eyes started to open up to the real world.


My first business was in 2nd grade. I bought and sold the Warhead candies. I was making a decent profit and demand was increasing. Then…the teachers and principal shut me down.


When I was somewhere between 8-10 years old, my mom gave me the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. It had a major impact on my life at such a young age.

Since my mom owned hair salons, I decided to save my money and buy a triple vend gumball machine. I set one up and watched the money roll in (haha, a good $20 in quarters per month).

Within the next year, I expanded into a soda machine, learned how to sew to make unique hair bands, and even purchased some flexible band aid stuff to resale in the salons. Things were moving well.

Meanwhile…classmates, teachers, and just about everyone else outside of my immediate family just “didn’t get it.” I learned early in life that people will always have time to tear apart your dreams if you let them.


Part 2: Adolescence

It was eighth grade now and my home & career teacher wanted everyone to share what they wanted to be when they got older.

Naturally, everyone said the generic: fire fighter, police officer, doctor, lawyer, etc.

When it was my turn to speak, I simply said that I was going to own my own business.

Yes…everyone laughed. And of course, the teacher said, “you can’t do that! You have to pick a real job like everybody else.”

“No! Both my parents own their own businesses so that’s what I’m going to do,” I said. Silence in the room.


As my teenage years started out, I got into trading card games and the video game Runescape. They were fun, but my mind was always thinking about ways to profit from everything I did.

I started my eBay business and bought cases of booster boxes for Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I unpackaged them all, sold all the cards individually online and to people at the local trading card shops. Not bad.

I tried to get a contract with the main supplier in the US, but they turned me down because I wasn’t 18. It was rough because I always ahead of my time. I was trying to do things that was restricted by my age.

Luckily, my parents helped me out on most things that would have limited me. In this case, they didn’t want to sign the deal. Darn.

At the same time, I was getting into Runescape a bit too much. It consumed my life and I spent most of my time earning “gold” in the game and reselling it for money in real life.

Even though it consumed many years, it was a great time in my life. I taught myself programming and learned so much about markets.

From some reason, even though I was making decent money for my age (prior to age 16), my parents wanted me to get a job. I know why now haha (I was becoming lazy). But back then it didn’t make sense. I rolled into the KFC and worked my 4 hours on Sunday. It was hilarious. I had a lot of fun even though I’d rather do something else.

During the summers (after I was 16), I worked at my best friend’s mom’s business. She owned a medical supply company. I learned firsthand from her about running that kind of business. Fun fact…my non-compete agreement just ended this month! Hmm..

Then my life changed.

Coming from a computer nerd background, you’d never imagine that I’d become an athlete.

My friends wanted me to join the track team with them in 9th grade. I decided to take a chance and the rest was history.

By my senior year, I became #1 in NY State and #4 in the Nation in the 400m Hurdles. *I have other posts on the forum that goes into more detail.

I earned a scholarship to college (LSU) and went through those 4 years of brain washing.

Not to brag, but school came very easy to me. I didn’t have to apply myself and I could ace just about everything. However, I struggled the entire time because I couldn’t deal with the mindset of classmates and teachers.

It was driving me crazy.

The worse part of all was that I was spending so much time on my sport that I neglected my entrepreneur spirit. I still bought and sold stuff through Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon, but that was about it. I do my best not to dwell on the past (I could have done so much more with business back then, oh well… gotta keep moving forward now).

Luckily, I met a professor who understood entrepreneurship and what I was going through. He later helped me make my first trip to China!


Part 3: Adulthood

During my senior year of college, I was accepted into the LSU student incubator to develop my business idea for a software app. At the time, only about 20 students/businesses were accepted each year.

I was accepted and spent just about my entire senior year creating a massive business plan. Hmm…I learned quickly that a business plan isn’t exactly the best place to start haha.

I developed a prototype of the software (btw, my degree is information systems & decision sciences) and when I went to show my target audience…no one had any idea what I was talking about.

I created this software that made sense to me, but I found out that most people don’t think the same way I do. I trashed the idea (although I still think it’s a good one haha).

I’ll admit, after I graduated college I went through some of the roughest times of my life.

Constantly jumping around to the next business idea, taking on crappy jobs just to earn peanuts and feel bad about myself, and living in a world that nobody else seemed to understand (again my parents didn’t/don’t have time/scale).

That’s about the time I read the Millionaire Fastlane and came to this forum. MJ and the active members here gave me sanity. There really are others out there who see the world in this light.

I’m working on my physical product business and I do freelance web work.

I just recently got on FBA…Damn, that’s nice.


Lastly, I’ll share why I’m doing all this.

I can’t explain it, but being an entrepreneur is who I am. It’s one of those things you just know. No other thought required. I’ve always been this way and I love it.

After spending years figuring out exactly what I want, I realized its Freedom.

I don’t care about the cars and all that fancy stuff. Yes, they’re nice…but I enjoy living life on my own terms.

In addition to that...I look at what the Fastlane represents and I’m doing this for my future wife and family. Again, I can’t explain it, but I know my success with the Fastlane is for them. It's something I have to do.


With that said...see you soon!

 

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[Guest06196]

Hsiev tvusz @Kenoi V. Tadj e qmietasi ug niivoph zua op qistup.