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I know, the title is catchy. But I didn't use it to get you to read this thread, I just wanted to put it plainly and simply because it's the phrase I've had to wrap my head around over the last week. I'm not stating it as a positive affirmation (there's no point on a forum) I'm stating it as a fact and giving myself a thread I can refer back to when this time comes next year.
I'll write about the background and finally I'll tell you why I made the thread. You can skip to that if you don't feel like reading the rest. If it's choppy I apologize I didn't feel like typing my entire life out over the last 6 years and so I am simply giving you my conscious thoughts as they flow during typing this.
Background:
In college I realized I couldn't rationalize what I was doing. I couldn't see the logic in getting a degree just to get a JOB and repeat the same tireless work for a pay check 5 days a week for 40+ years just to hope to retire with some money when I was too old to enjoy it. I knew something was wrong with this equation, it ate at me, (this was before I read TMF ) so I didn't know there was a way out. Addressing it with my parents (slowlane as can be) rendered nothing but scoff because anything else scared them.
While I was pursuing my MBA (aka getting another degree because I didn't know what to do with my first one!) I was working part time at RadioShack just making enough to get by...barely. One day I met my mentor when he came in for an upgrade on his daughters phone. This guy just struck me as the kind of person I aspired to be and desired to be around. His demeanor, attitude, and positivity made a large impact on me. I got his number and contacted him the following week and we began talking. I didn't know he was to be my mentor I just knew that I could learn something from him.
I was your typical college educated and self proclaimed "self-aware" guy. I knew everything and always had an answer no matter what the question. I was arrogant, cynical, and going no where very fast (that counts as fastlane right?) After he took me under his wing I began to learn things about success, business, and myself that I didn't realize before and it took me a while but I eventually learned enough to know I didn't know anything. I read all the books he recommended, listened to cds, and began DREAMING BIG and LEARNING.
- Note - I mean real learning not what they teach you in college.
I was just about to graduate and my real education was just beginning. He offered me the opportunity to come work for him. I quit my JOB (just over broke) that day and started working for him with $0 salary, no benefits, no safety net. I was sold on the idea of becoming a financial success and in turn achieving dreams that had been beaten out of me throughout college. I worked on commission and I was terrible at what I did. So I worked on improving and learning more about myself and my work. I was passionate, more passionate than I had ever been. It was a re-awakening to my mind and my outlook on life.
While he was my mentor he saw how rough I was around the edges and thankfully had the patience to give me time and education to round them out and build new skills. He was always brutally honest with his advice and like Eleanor Roosevelt said:
"Don't take advice from anyone unless you're willing to switch places with them."
It was like drinking from a fire hose and damn I was thirsty.
My mentor was in the lowest point of his business since he had started. The 2008 bubble burst had crippled him nearly overnight. He was basically rebuilding from scratch and I was eager to help in any way I could. In exchange for his priceless lessons it was a small price to pay.
We worked tirelessly day and night up at 3am and home at 11pm. For years. Some weeks the money flowed in and some weeks it trickled. There were times where I was broke and only had $10 to my name. It was no walk in the park as some would tell you. But we persisted.
A few years after meeting my mentor he revealed to me that he had always wanted to find someone that could eventually take his place in his business. When it was booming he had a lot of people vying for the position. It was then that he took me on as his co-owner. And while the ride hasn't been smooth it's been well worth it. We have failed fast and we have failed often in an attempt to perfect the business and realize the financial gains possible.
THE POINT OF THE THREAD
After working tirelessly for 5 or 6 years as of last week I had one of the best meetings of my life. I began working on a new market to take the company into a few years ago. Ironically it was a market we had dabbled in when he first took me on, we both knew there had to be more to it so I started working into it. Making contacts and gaining the valuable introductions we needed to make it happen.
(I can't reveal too many details, due to an NDA in place, I'll have an AMA after everything goes through and I can talk a little more openly)
In this meeting through some high profile contacts I made we were introduced to the very people we needed to make our idea come to life, the gate keepers if you will. Our idea wasn't grandiose, in the business plan we drew up we planned to profit a few million dollars within the first 12 months of it being implemented and then replicating and scaling it to 10 million per year net profit within a total of 36 months from date of implementation. (Those numbers already had me excited due to the sustainability of the idea).
The gatekeepers told us the loved our plan and would be happy to offer any assistance they could to make it happen as quickly as possible (which happens to be Jan 15th, 2015 due to procedures and prep). But the offered us something that we never expected and asked if we could expand our model to include other avenues which would increase our anticipated market by 50%! (sorry I'm having to be so vague) We readily agreed and have started putting everything in place that we'll need, which we'll need the remaining months in 2014 to do so it works out perfectly.
Our new anticipated net income within the first 12 months is now: $25,000,000 (increased market + additional methods (streams of income)) and within 36 months we will be at a sustainable $100,000,000 per year.
The best part is that's as it rolls out onto the first market without any additional scaling. Based on the estimates of other markets we can grow it into a $1Billion annually in 6-10years.
Now I don't know about you but that's some walking around money if I've ever seen it!
If you read all the way through I appreciate it and I apologize again for having to be so vague. I know it makes it seem unrealistic without details but I assure you that it is quite real.
If you're working towards a goal just know that once the breakthrough occurs it floods like a dam breaking. Napoleon Hill said it, I just experienced it.
I'll write about the background and finally I'll tell you why I made the thread. You can skip to that if you don't feel like reading the rest. If it's choppy I apologize I didn't feel like typing my entire life out over the last 6 years and so I am simply giving you my conscious thoughts as they flow during typing this.
Background:
In college I realized I couldn't rationalize what I was doing. I couldn't see the logic in getting a degree just to get a JOB and repeat the same tireless work for a pay check 5 days a week for 40+ years just to hope to retire with some money when I was too old to enjoy it. I knew something was wrong with this equation, it ate at me, (this was before I read TMF ) so I didn't know there was a way out. Addressing it with my parents (slowlane as can be) rendered nothing but scoff because anything else scared them.
While I was pursuing my MBA (aka getting another degree because I didn't know what to do with my first one!) I was working part time at RadioShack just making enough to get by...barely. One day I met my mentor when he came in for an upgrade on his daughters phone. This guy just struck me as the kind of person I aspired to be and desired to be around. His demeanor, attitude, and positivity made a large impact on me. I got his number and contacted him the following week and we began talking. I didn't know he was to be my mentor I just knew that I could learn something from him.
I was your typical college educated and self proclaimed "self-aware" guy. I knew everything and always had an answer no matter what the question. I was arrogant, cynical, and going no where very fast (that counts as fastlane right?) After he took me under his wing I began to learn things about success, business, and myself that I didn't realize before and it took me a while but I eventually learned enough to know I didn't know anything. I read all the books he recommended, listened to cds, and began DREAMING BIG and LEARNING.
- Note - I mean real learning not what they teach you in college.
I was just about to graduate and my real education was just beginning. He offered me the opportunity to come work for him. I quit my JOB (just over broke) that day and started working for him with $0 salary, no benefits, no safety net. I was sold on the idea of becoming a financial success and in turn achieving dreams that had been beaten out of me throughout college. I worked on commission and I was terrible at what I did. So I worked on improving and learning more about myself and my work. I was passionate, more passionate than I had ever been. It was a re-awakening to my mind and my outlook on life.
While he was my mentor he saw how rough I was around the edges and thankfully had the patience to give me time and education to round them out and build new skills. He was always brutally honest with his advice and like Eleanor Roosevelt said:
"Don't take advice from anyone unless you're willing to switch places with them."
It was like drinking from a fire hose and damn I was thirsty.
My mentor was in the lowest point of his business since he had started. The 2008 bubble burst had crippled him nearly overnight. He was basically rebuilding from scratch and I was eager to help in any way I could. In exchange for his priceless lessons it was a small price to pay.
We worked tirelessly day and night up at 3am and home at 11pm. For years. Some weeks the money flowed in and some weeks it trickled. There were times where I was broke and only had $10 to my name. It was no walk in the park as some would tell you. But we persisted.
A few years after meeting my mentor he revealed to me that he had always wanted to find someone that could eventually take his place in his business. When it was booming he had a lot of people vying for the position. It was then that he took me on as his co-owner. And while the ride hasn't been smooth it's been well worth it. We have failed fast and we have failed often in an attempt to perfect the business and realize the financial gains possible.
THE POINT OF THE THREAD
After working tirelessly for 5 or 6 years as of last week I had one of the best meetings of my life. I began working on a new market to take the company into a few years ago. Ironically it was a market we had dabbled in when he first took me on, we both knew there had to be more to it so I started working into it. Making contacts and gaining the valuable introductions we needed to make it happen.
(I can't reveal too many details, due to an NDA in place, I'll have an AMA after everything goes through and I can talk a little more openly)
In this meeting through some high profile contacts I made we were introduced to the very people we needed to make our idea come to life, the gate keepers if you will. Our idea wasn't grandiose, in the business plan we drew up we planned to profit a few million dollars within the first 12 months of it being implemented and then replicating and scaling it to 10 million per year net profit within a total of 36 months from date of implementation. (Those numbers already had me excited due to the sustainability of the idea).
The gatekeepers told us the loved our plan and would be happy to offer any assistance they could to make it happen as quickly as possible (which happens to be Jan 15th, 2015 due to procedures and prep). But the offered us something that we never expected and asked if we could expand our model to include other avenues which would increase our anticipated market by 50%! (sorry I'm having to be so vague) We readily agreed and have started putting everything in place that we'll need, which we'll need the remaining months in 2014 to do so it works out perfectly.
Our new anticipated net income within the first 12 months is now: $25,000,000 (increased market + additional methods (streams of income)) and within 36 months we will be at a sustainable $100,000,000 per year.
The best part is that's as it rolls out onto the first market without any additional scaling. Based on the estimates of other markets we can grow it into a $1Billion annually in 6-10years.
Now I don't know about you but that's some walking around money if I've ever seen it!
If you read all the way through I appreciate it and I apologize again for having to be so vague. I know it makes it seem unrealistic without details but I assure you that it is quite real.
If you're working towards a goal just know that once the breakthrough occurs it floods like a dam breaking. Napoleon Hill said it, I just experienced it.
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