I'm halfway through reading MJ's book and I thought to myself that after lurking on these boards for a little while now, it's time to register and say hi.
Hi! Nice to meet you all!
Let me start by telling you a bit about myself.
I must say however, that I don't want to get into detailed specifics, because I don't wish to be identified.
I grew up in Europe, in one of the more Eastern countries. Life is difficult there, a gigantic longshot from the opportunities a country like the USA can offer.
In my birth country (I don't call it "home country", because my home is the USA now), the victim mentality rules almost everything (pretty much since the WWII).
As I was reading MJ's book, I can't even count how many times I said to myself "that's TOTALLY my aunt" or "wow that could be my friend's mom". It's difficult to believe that almost an entire country belongs in the sidewalk or slowlane category, and they "thrive" there.
By thriving, I don't mean having a nice life.
No.
They HATE the lifestyle, they HATE being a slave (at least those who have a job), they HATE not having a job, they do not search for a job even if they desperately need one, but the saddest thing is that they just LOVE LOVE LOVE to complain about it all.
Do nothing, but complain.
Wait for someone to swoop in and save them.
I can't stand that mentality, and I'm extremely glad that when I was 17 years old, I moved to the USA.
A couple of months after I turned 18, I married the love of my life, and things couldn't be better.
The situation is this...
We don't belong in any of the 3 categories MJ described in his book.
We're not Sidewalkers - we don't spend everything we have on things we can't afford, just to look wealthy. We don't care about "looking" wealthy.
We're not Slowlaners - we don't have 401k, investments in long term stocks, and we sure as hell don't plan on waiting till we're 80 to enjoy money. We don't rely on social security, or any of the things MJ mentioned in his book.
We're self employed.
We only buy what we can afford. Afford = buying things that doesn't lower our quality of living.
We're not Fastlaners - We're not rich. Far from it. However, we do have income that is not governed by any sort of "job".
Yes, we're self employed. Yes, we've been living off of it (it's my husband's company, he's been living off of it since way before we got married). Yes, we know how to manage money, and not fall into the trap of either the Sidewalk or the Slowlane mentality. Sidewalk and Slowlane mentality to us seem absurd and illogical.
However, we're not "free" (rich).
For one example, we don't have kids (though we would love to). One of the reasons is that if we had one or two, we probably wouldn't be able to keep up our way of living, and would have to downgrade. That wouldn't be fair to us, or the potential kids. (Besides, the world nowadays makes a sane person think twice about bringing a baby into it...)
It's like we're driving slow in the fastlane.
Hopefully, this will change with upcoming changes to our business structure, and the industry.
Now, the reason why I finally registered and am posting...
I've had several ideas in the past couple of weeks that I would have loved to bring to fruition but when I searched on Google, they've already been done and for free too... The websites are nicely organized, easy to read, and every bit of information I could have given on my own website was covered on theirs.
This made me lose drive a bit, especially that I'm out of ideas now.
The other problem is that I know zero about creating websites, newsletters, coding and the like.
I know how to create graphics, I work with 3D programs, but these all use tools that require coding knowledge to improve / revolutionize, and I myself know nothing about it.
I fear that by the time I learn how to code a program, or create a website (html or css doesn't matter), new codes will surface, new technology will be available and the time I invested in learning a technological skill will be wasted because the technology is old.
The way things have been rocketing forward in technology is on one hand brilliant, but on the other hand, unnerving. Simply because of fear of wasted time.
I am hoping to have an idea I can go ahead with soon.
It really is a sucky situation when one is extremely motivated to jump in and do things, but have nothing to work with because of... well... inventor's block. Entrepreneur's block. Call it what you will.
If I had an idea, a driving force to work towards, I would know exactly what I'd need to learn in order to realize it.
Since I don't have an idea, what I would need to learn now is extremely broad, and it would be a time waster to learn it all, especially things that I might never need.
Anyway, hope this wasn't too tiring for you all to read, and if you did read it, thanks
Again, nice to meet you all, I look forward to getting to know this community.
Cheers and have a nice day!
~ Liana W.
EDIT: I forgot to write that I do have one idea, but I highly doubt it's fastlane material, and even if it was, it relies too much on things already created, for which I would have to ask permission to use and would have to pay royalties and publishings on...
EDIT2: I have a couple of ideas for books... I loved writing since I was little, and my grammar and spelling was one of the few things in school I got an excellent mark on. I have started to write a couple of them, but left them unfinished because I went off to pursue other interests, such as advancing my 3D graphics skills... Maybe it's time to look through my old folders and see what I have...
Hi! Nice to meet you all!
Let me start by telling you a bit about myself.
I must say however, that I don't want to get into detailed specifics, because I don't wish to be identified.
I grew up in Europe, in one of the more Eastern countries. Life is difficult there, a gigantic longshot from the opportunities a country like the USA can offer.
In my birth country (I don't call it "home country", because my home is the USA now), the victim mentality rules almost everything (pretty much since the WWII).
As I was reading MJ's book, I can't even count how many times I said to myself "that's TOTALLY my aunt" or "wow that could be my friend's mom". It's difficult to believe that almost an entire country belongs in the sidewalk or slowlane category, and they "thrive" there.
By thriving, I don't mean having a nice life.
No.
They HATE the lifestyle, they HATE being a slave (at least those who have a job), they HATE not having a job, they do not search for a job even if they desperately need one, but the saddest thing is that they just LOVE LOVE LOVE to complain about it all.
Do nothing, but complain.
Wait for someone to swoop in and save them.
I can't stand that mentality, and I'm extremely glad that when I was 17 years old, I moved to the USA.
A couple of months after I turned 18, I married the love of my life, and things couldn't be better.
The situation is this...
We don't belong in any of the 3 categories MJ described in his book.
We're not Sidewalkers - we don't spend everything we have on things we can't afford, just to look wealthy. We don't care about "looking" wealthy.
We're not Slowlaners - we don't have 401k, investments in long term stocks, and we sure as hell don't plan on waiting till we're 80 to enjoy money. We don't rely on social security, or any of the things MJ mentioned in his book.
We're self employed.
We only buy what we can afford. Afford = buying things that doesn't lower our quality of living.
We're not Fastlaners - We're not rich. Far from it. However, we do have income that is not governed by any sort of "job".
Yes, we're self employed. Yes, we've been living off of it (it's my husband's company, he's been living off of it since way before we got married). Yes, we know how to manage money, and not fall into the trap of either the Sidewalk or the Slowlane mentality. Sidewalk and Slowlane mentality to us seem absurd and illogical.
However, we're not "free" (rich).
For one example, we don't have kids (though we would love to). One of the reasons is that if we had one or two, we probably wouldn't be able to keep up our way of living, and would have to downgrade. That wouldn't be fair to us, or the potential kids. (Besides, the world nowadays makes a sane person think twice about bringing a baby into it...)
It's like we're driving slow in the fastlane.
Hopefully, this will change with upcoming changes to our business structure, and the industry.
Now, the reason why I finally registered and am posting...
I've had several ideas in the past couple of weeks that I would have loved to bring to fruition but when I searched on Google, they've already been done and for free too... The websites are nicely organized, easy to read, and every bit of information I could have given on my own website was covered on theirs.
This made me lose drive a bit, especially that I'm out of ideas now.
The other problem is that I know zero about creating websites, newsletters, coding and the like.
I know how to create graphics, I work with 3D programs, but these all use tools that require coding knowledge to improve / revolutionize, and I myself know nothing about it.
I fear that by the time I learn how to code a program, or create a website (html or css doesn't matter), new codes will surface, new technology will be available and the time I invested in learning a technological skill will be wasted because the technology is old.
The way things have been rocketing forward in technology is on one hand brilliant, but on the other hand, unnerving. Simply because of fear of wasted time.
I am hoping to have an idea I can go ahead with soon.
It really is a sucky situation when one is extremely motivated to jump in and do things, but have nothing to work with because of... well... inventor's block. Entrepreneur's block. Call it what you will.
If I had an idea, a driving force to work towards, I would know exactly what I'd need to learn in order to realize it.
Since I don't have an idea, what I would need to learn now is extremely broad, and it would be a time waster to learn it all, especially things that I might never need.
Anyway, hope this wasn't too tiring for you all to read, and if you did read it, thanks
Again, nice to meet you all, I look forward to getting to know this community.
Cheers and have a nice day!
~ Liana W.
EDIT: I forgot to write that I do have one idea, but I highly doubt it's fastlane material, and even if it was, it relies too much on things already created, for which I would have to ask permission to use and would have to pay royalties and publishings on...
EDIT2: I have a couple of ideas for books... I loved writing since I was little, and my grammar and spelling was one of the few things in school I got an excellent mark on. I have started to write a couple of them, but left them unfinished because I went off to pursue other interests, such as advancing my 3D graphics skills... Maybe it's time to look through my old folders and see what I have...
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