Hey.
Just to preface this, my grasp of Shakespeare's language is okay-ish. English is not my native tongue. Please point out any spelling mistakes I make.
This thread is going to serve as my personal diary, I'll try to keep it stocked with my thoughts and ideas.
As usually, internal discoveries happen for me at weird times, it's 4:42 AM here as I'm writing this. I remember my first "awakening" moment. I was sixteen. I was smoking a cigarette on my balcony, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in Poland. Had to be around 2 AM. I remember dreaming of better life. I had a rough upbringing. You get the gist, single mother, low income, 2nd world country, bullied for wearing old shoes, bullied for being a jackass, and so on.
As I was smoking that cigarette, I wondered - where will my life lead me? I didn't believe in choices. I never made any. At least, not consciously.
Next day, as I was sitting in a old, dilapidated bus that took me to my High School an acquaintance of mine contacted me on Facebook. He wanted to brag - he got a new spanking Software Development job at Motorola in Cracow, or something like that. Back then I was easily impressed by him - earning 8000 PLN monthly? My mother made maybe, if she got lucky - 2000 PLN? And that fed me, her, and my brother! And kept the lights on! God damn. He was rich.
You need to understand, 8000 PLN back in 2015 was a lot of money to earn in Poland. You could rent an apartment, live quite lavishly, and still save a bunch. In dollars, this isn't much - probably around 30k USD pre-tax or something, depending on your taxes. Anyways, I digress.
It sparked something in me - why I couldn't be like him? I started reading, and teaching myself how to program. This went on and off, for years - until I finished High School basically. Small little programs, nothing fancy. I was constantly relapsing into the endless pursuit of temporary happiness provided by video games, sci-fi books and YouTube videos. I learned for a month or two, then F*cked around for the rest of the year. Nearing the end of High School, I told my mother that I will be a programmer, and I will F*ck off to Cracow to get a good job - obviously, she down played that. She told me that this won't really work, that I need to finish college and so on. This made me a bit more eager to learn. I started skipping school to learn how to program stuff. I believe I had 54% attendance rate for the whole last year of school. My school had a trial run of GED and I got a whooping 24% on maths test - I required at least 30% to pass, hah. Well, I did what every normal 18 year old kid would do - I went out, had a beer or three with my friends, came back around 1-2 AM and grinded math quizzes, then I went to sleep, and rinse and repeat. Done that for two week period before the proper GED exam. I finished top of my class, with I believe 87% on that test.
I've applied to my local college for an IT program, got in.
I started working a bit more on the programming stuff during the time between finishing High School and actually starting college - created a game or two, met some friends, some I even have contact with, like this one Italian kid that was 14 back then but really loved to create games. The time came, I moved out to my local college. I stayed at the dorm. Shared a room with a guy. After first month, I had my second "awakening" moment. What the F*ck am I doing with my life? I thought to myself one morning, looking at my roommates feet poking from under his duvet. This isn't what I want from life. I want comfort. I want nice things. I don't want to spend next 3,5 years doing this. I created a resume. I sent it out wherever I could. Note, I was quite inexperienced in the job search, as any 19 yo kid would be. I carried around a notepad in which I wrote all the phone numbers, recruiters names, and company names. I remember some of my first interviews - I didn't really perform there. In total I had probably 5 interviews for like, 150 resumes sent? Got two offers. One of them was based in Cracow, the other - remote. And I thought to myself. Well, here's the escape plan for me. I quickly called up my brother, asked if I can spend a month at his place in Cracow, thankfully he agreed. So, Nineteen years old, and about to start a job for some pretty okay-ish cash. As soon as I started working the reality hit me - I am trash at this. I learned what I could as fast as I could. Countless sleepless nights of learning on the job. Fearful that they find out I'm a fraud and they will fire me. That didn't happen.
I rented a place, got into a couple relationships, changed jobs, moved around the country for a bit and stuff. This kind of life was unimaginable to sixteen year old me, and here I was at around 23 - making around 70k USD on a sole proprietorship. At one point I even had two jobs since I submitted to the slowlane mindsets of building wealth and trading time for money. Few years passed, found a perfect gal, moved around a bit. Bought a 150k USD apartment for cash. That felt good.
And this leads me to now. I'm currently 25 and will be 26 in half a year.
I started reading the Fastlane yesterday. The book unlocked something within me—something I’ve felt growing inside me for the past few months.
I'm not satisfied again. I feel hungry once more. I find myself smoking a cigarette and wondering what the hell do I do with my life. I achieved what I wanted. Good job. Pretty and supportive girlfriend. Keys to my own place. Yet I am not satisfied. I'm burned out on doing the same repetitive stuff all day. But most of all...
I'm terrified.
Terrified that I lose my job. Terrified that the market dries up and Software Engineers won't be needed. Terrified that all of my free time is being spent mostly on recuperation from my work.
I am moving to my new apartment in two weeks. I have enough money saved up to buy all the necessities I need for my new apartment - washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, and probably coast for a couple of months. I have a pretty okay job that does not require a lot of attention during the day - I work maybe 2 or 3 hours a day, and the rest of the day I spend F*cking around watching YouTube.
I want to change that.
The idea of my own business, or even side gig has circulated inside of me for a couple of years. I have tried previously to do something, but it never amounted to anything.
One of the gigs I done was a free ebook on the topic of how to navigate PayPal account block - sometimes PayPal likes to screw their own customers over AUP violations and lock them out. I remember that I was quite shocked when I had people reaching out to me for private consultations - which were paid. I never gave any. I don't know why.
The plan is to:
1. Keep my job - it's cushy. And it's not the time to quit it yet.
2. Stop mindlessly researching - if I'm going to do something, I'm going to act. And not just consume "tips and tricks" from bozos.
3. Don't be scared - I'm always scared of the tax man, the government, rules and regs. If I happen to stumble onto a problem in a heavily regulated market - I'm going to solve the problem, market it, and I'll try my best to be in compliance with rules as much as I realistically can.
4. Try things out - I have enough money to try different ventures. I know I will fail. I will learn from my mistakes.
I'm going to sleep now.
Tommorow I will compile a list of problems and solutions to them I currently see in the market. I have some experience from the six years as a Software Developer - there probably are things that could help me solve problems I've encountered.
I will do some research on which ones would have the biggest market, what's the scalability of those solutions and how much impact they could have.
Just to preface this, my grasp of Shakespeare's language is okay-ish. English is not my native tongue. Please point out any spelling mistakes I make.
This thread is going to serve as my personal diary, I'll try to keep it stocked with my thoughts and ideas.
As usually, internal discoveries happen for me at weird times, it's 4:42 AM here as I'm writing this. I remember my first "awakening" moment. I was sixteen. I was smoking a cigarette on my balcony, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in Poland. Had to be around 2 AM. I remember dreaming of better life. I had a rough upbringing. You get the gist, single mother, low income, 2nd world country, bullied for wearing old shoes, bullied for being a jackass, and so on.
As I was smoking that cigarette, I wondered - where will my life lead me? I didn't believe in choices. I never made any. At least, not consciously.
Next day, as I was sitting in a old, dilapidated bus that took me to my High School an acquaintance of mine contacted me on Facebook. He wanted to brag - he got a new spanking Software Development job at Motorola in Cracow, or something like that. Back then I was easily impressed by him - earning 8000 PLN monthly? My mother made maybe, if she got lucky - 2000 PLN? And that fed me, her, and my brother! And kept the lights on! God damn. He was rich.
You need to understand, 8000 PLN back in 2015 was a lot of money to earn in Poland. You could rent an apartment, live quite lavishly, and still save a bunch. In dollars, this isn't much - probably around 30k USD pre-tax or something, depending on your taxes. Anyways, I digress.
It sparked something in me - why I couldn't be like him? I started reading, and teaching myself how to program. This went on and off, for years - until I finished High School basically. Small little programs, nothing fancy. I was constantly relapsing into the endless pursuit of temporary happiness provided by video games, sci-fi books and YouTube videos. I learned for a month or two, then F*cked around for the rest of the year. Nearing the end of High School, I told my mother that I will be a programmer, and I will F*ck off to Cracow to get a good job - obviously, she down played that. She told me that this won't really work, that I need to finish college and so on. This made me a bit more eager to learn. I started skipping school to learn how to program stuff. I believe I had 54% attendance rate for the whole last year of school. My school had a trial run of GED and I got a whooping 24% on maths test - I required at least 30% to pass, hah. Well, I did what every normal 18 year old kid would do - I went out, had a beer or three with my friends, came back around 1-2 AM and grinded math quizzes, then I went to sleep, and rinse and repeat. Done that for two week period before the proper GED exam. I finished top of my class, with I believe 87% on that test.
I've applied to my local college for an IT program, got in.
I started working a bit more on the programming stuff during the time between finishing High School and actually starting college - created a game or two, met some friends, some I even have contact with, like this one Italian kid that was 14 back then but really loved to create games. The time came, I moved out to my local college. I stayed at the dorm. Shared a room with a guy. After first month, I had my second "awakening" moment. What the F*ck am I doing with my life? I thought to myself one morning, looking at my roommates feet poking from under his duvet. This isn't what I want from life. I want comfort. I want nice things. I don't want to spend next 3,5 years doing this. I created a resume. I sent it out wherever I could. Note, I was quite inexperienced in the job search, as any 19 yo kid would be. I carried around a notepad in which I wrote all the phone numbers, recruiters names, and company names. I remember some of my first interviews - I didn't really perform there. In total I had probably 5 interviews for like, 150 resumes sent? Got two offers. One of them was based in Cracow, the other - remote. And I thought to myself. Well, here's the escape plan for me. I quickly called up my brother, asked if I can spend a month at his place in Cracow, thankfully he agreed. So, Nineteen years old, and about to start a job for some pretty okay-ish cash. As soon as I started working the reality hit me - I am trash at this. I learned what I could as fast as I could. Countless sleepless nights of learning on the job. Fearful that they find out I'm a fraud and they will fire me. That didn't happen.
I rented a place, got into a couple relationships, changed jobs, moved around the country for a bit and stuff. This kind of life was unimaginable to sixteen year old me, and here I was at around 23 - making around 70k USD on a sole proprietorship. At one point I even had two jobs since I submitted to the slowlane mindsets of building wealth and trading time for money. Few years passed, found a perfect gal, moved around a bit. Bought a 150k USD apartment for cash. That felt good.
And this leads me to now. I'm currently 25 and will be 26 in half a year.
I started reading the Fastlane yesterday. The book unlocked something within me—something I’ve felt growing inside me for the past few months.
I'm not satisfied again. I feel hungry once more. I find myself smoking a cigarette and wondering what the hell do I do with my life. I achieved what I wanted. Good job. Pretty and supportive girlfriend. Keys to my own place. Yet I am not satisfied. I'm burned out on doing the same repetitive stuff all day. But most of all...
I'm terrified.
Terrified that I lose my job. Terrified that the market dries up and Software Engineers won't be needed. Terrified that all of my free time is being spent mostly on recuperation from my work.
I am moving to my new apartment in two weeks. I have enough money saved up to buy all the necessities I need for my new apartment - washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, and probably coast for a couple of months. I have a pretty okay job that does not require a lot of attention during the day - I work maybe 2 or 3 hours a day, and the rest of the day I spend F*cking around watching YouTube.
I want to change that.
The idea of my own business, or even side gig has circulated inside of me for a couple of years. I have tried previously to do something, but it never amounted to anything.
One of the gigs I done was a free ebook on the topic of how to navigate PayPal account block - sometimes PayPal likes to screw their own customers over AUP violations and lock them out. I remember that I was quite shocked when I had people reaching out to me for private consultations - which were paid. I never gave any. I don't know why.
The plan is to:
1. Keep my job - it's cushy. And it's not the time to quit it yet.
2. Stop mindlessly researching - if I'm going to do something, I'm going to act. And not just consume "tips and tricks" from bozos.
3. Don't be scared - I'm always scared of the tax man, the government, rules and regs. If I happen to stumble onto a problem in a heavily regulated market - I'm going to solve the problem, market it, and I'll try my best to be in compliance with rules as much as I realistically can.
4. Try things out - I have enough money to try different ventures. I know I will fail. I will learn from my mistakes.
I'm going to sleep now.
Tommorow I will compile a list of problems and solutions to them I currently see in the market. I have some experience from the six years as a Software Developer - there probably are things that could help me solve problems I've encountered.
I will do some research on which ones would have the biggest market, what's the scalability of those solutions and how much impact they could have.
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