Hello everyone! I just picked up Millionaire Fastlane a few weeks ago...about 30 pages left. What can i say, it's an amazing book and really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I've also been reading a lot of posts here over the last few weeks.
Luckily, I already started on this path...I guess you could say I'm in the number two lane, working my way over
I'll try not to make a short story long, but I guess I'm supposed to give an intro so here goes (I'm sure it's TMI, but that's ok).
My name is Tony, nice to meet you all. I grew up in Tacoma, WA, and I hated the cold and rain. always wanted to work for myself, but took the other route instead. As recruiter for my company, I came to Santa Monica to find talent for our new stores, and instantly fell in love.
I had no management experience really, but i put my name in to manage one of the new stores, and two weeks later I was living in Redondo Beach, CA.
I was making around 100k at the time, but I was spending every bit of it. Still doing ok until one night I got a DUI and it started the tail-spin. I refused my test, spent 4 days in lovely LA county jail, couldn't drive for a year, tons of legal fees, was demoted, and my income cut in half...basically, I lost everything, left my apartment to live on my friend's couch for months (cause I could no longer afford rent) and walking around with a dazed look on my face. I was going to file bankruptcy but could afford a lawyer...which looking back on it, i'm happy I didn't.
Since i lost everything, I figured there's no reason why I shouldn't pursue my dream of working for myself, and things worked out where my girlfriend (now my wife) and I moved back to Tacoma to live with my mom and start our own business. After 15 years with my company, I took a layoff (because I tranferred to a store that was closing down) and became unemployed...soon to be self-employed.
My wife had a very basic website, doing some shopping for customers overseas, but it was more of a hobby and she was making about $100.00/month. I had no idea what i was gonna do, and neither of us had any real income.
I started watching The Big Idea, and it taught me how to change my thinking (from consumer to producer). I came up with my big idea, and invented a product.
I hated living in WA, mainly because of the weather. But we made the sacrifice to start our business. My mom had a daycare, so we worked until 6am, slept until 11am, then ran errands and started working...that way we avoided the daycare as much as possible. We did this for a year until we were able to move back to LA.
I scraped together some money to hire an engineer, and a patent attorney. We learned html/css/php because we couldn't afford to hire anyone.
After 8 months, overbudget and behind schedule, I got my first prototype. It was the biggest piece of shit I ever saw in my life. I was crushed. My engineer was going on vacation, and I was almost out of money, way behind schedule, and had nothing. I thought about giving up, and almost did.
But I had too much into it, i couldn't give up. I kept waking up at night, writing down ideas. I came up with an idea that became basically the product as it is today, and within a few weeks had the final product.
The product won an Innovations Engineering and Design award at the Consumer Electronics show a few months later, and last week I was awarded a US patent.
I also build websites (ecommerce, xhtml/css, and blogs) and have a personal development blog (my personal passion).
My wife's business has done very well also, and things are finally coming together.
I'm excited to apply some of the things I've learned from this book, and we have a joint project that we're working on that's related to her business, but on a much larger scale.
So, I guess it turned out pretty long, but that's me in a nutshell. Happy to join the forum, and look forward to contributing and learning!
Luckily, I already started on this path...I guess you could say I'm in the number two lane, working my way over
I'll try not to make a short story long, but I guess I'm supposed to give an intro so here goes (I'm sure it's TMI, but that's ok).
My name is Tony, nice to meet you all. I grew up in Tacoma, WA, and I hated the cold and rain. always wanted to work for myself, but took the other route instead. As recruiter for my company, I came to Santa Monica to find talent for our new stores, and instantly fell in love.
I had no management experience really, but i put my name in to manage one of the new stores, and two weeks later I was living in Redondo Beach, CA.
I was making around 100k at the time, but I was spending every bit of it. Still doing ok until one night I got a DUI and it started the tail-spin. I refused my test, spent 4 days in lovely LA county jail, couldn't drive for a year, tons of legal fees, was demoted, and my income cut in half...basically, I lost everything, left my apartment to live on my friend's couch for months (cause I could no longer afford rent) and walking around with a dazed look on my face. I was going to file bankruptcy but could afford a lawyer...which looking back on it, i'm happy I didn't.
Since i lost everything, I figured there's no reason why I shouldn't pursue my dream of working for myself, and things worked out where my girlfriend (now my wife) and I moved back to Tacoma to live with my mom and start our own business. After 15 years with my company, I took a layoff (because I tranferred to a store that was closing down) and became unemployed...soon to be self-employed.
My wife had a very basic website, doing some shopping for customers overseas, but it was more of a hobby and she was making about $100.00/month. I had no idea what i was gonna do, and neither of us had any real income.
I started watching The Big Idea, and it taught me how to change my thinking (from consumer to producer). I came up with my big idea, and invented a product.
I hated living in WA, mainly because of the weather. But we made the sacrifice to start our business. My mom had a daycare, so we worked until 6am, slept until 11am, then ran errands and started working...that way we avoided the daycare as much as possible. We did this for a year until we were able to move back to LA.
I scraped together some money to hire an engineer, and a patent attorney. We learned html/css/php because we couldn't afford to hire anyone.
After 8 months, overbudget and behind schedule, I got my first prototype. It was the biggest piece of shit I ever saw in my life. I was crushed. My engineer was going on vacation, and I was almost out of money, way behind schedule, and had nothing. I thought about giving up, and almost did.
But I had too much into it, i couldn't give up. I kept waking up at night, writing down ideas. I came up with an idea that became basically the product as it is today, and within a few weeks had the final product.
The product won an Innovations Engineering and Design award at the Consumer Electronics show a few months later, and last week I was awarded a US patent.
I also build websites (ecommerce, xhtml/css, and blogs) and have a personal development blog (my personal passion).
My wife's business has done very well also, and things are finally coming together.
I'm excited to apply some of the things I've learned from this book, and we have a joint project that we're working on that's related to her business, but on a much larger scale.
So, I guess it turned out pretty long, but that's me in a nutshell. Happy to join the forum, and look forward to contributing and learning!
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