Hi guys,
Long time fan of MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane book and these forums (although only signed up today, been visiting the forums quite regularly for some time)
I need some advice please but first my story...
Currently 25 and from the UK. At the age of 16 my parents decided to take me and my brother to Australia, this was the first time I'd been out of the UK and the first time I'd been on a plane. My parents had been saving for sometime to afford the holiday and actually took out loan to pay for part of the holiday (not from a rich family). In Australia we stayed with one of my Mums friends from her school days in the UK and my mum's School friends husband. My mum's school friend and her husband had set up a business in the UK 10 years prior to our visit (a old peoples nursing home) and sold it for a couple of £million, immigrated to oz, re-invested the money in a number of childrens nursery's, after a few years of building this business up they sold the business for many millions and stilled owned the buildings of the nursery's and got a nice little income in rent every month from these as well (as fastlane as you can get, right?). When my family visited Oz this had already happened, the Oz family lived in a beautiful mansion (bought out right), nice garden, pool, cars etc, and the best part, they also had free time to do what they wanted, they didn't have 9-5 jobs or a boss, everyday they just did what they wanted... This was a HUGE eye opening experience for me, coming from a family who'd had to work super hard to get anything we wanted, parents working multipliable jobs to afford to buy Christmas presents etc. I wanted the mansion, nice cars and the freedom to do what I wanted....
I came back to the UK after an amazing month in Australia and business was my life and passion but with no money (apart from that saved from a paperround) and no experience/ideas i decided the best course of action was to join a sixth form and get some A-Levels, obviously picking Double business as one of my subjects. During sixth form I did everything I could to be involved in business and learn about business, I joined the Young Enterprise club (In this a bunch of students had to come up with business ideas, start them and try and make a profit), I started my own businesses, all very small scale but none-the-less, huge learning experiences for me. A couple of times I'd even have teachers interrupt a class I was in to buy one of my products. Everyday I'd come home and search the web, looking for ideas, gaps in the markets, reading about successful people etc etc. I ended Sixth Form doing really well in my A-Levels (best double business grade in my year and the top 3% law grade in the country), for someone who's always struggled at school this was a huge achievement and can mainly be put down to my passion for business. I'd also made a small profit from my business ventures.
So what next... Again with no 'amazing' business ideas and with everyone (teachers, parents, friends) pushing for me to go into university I decided to go to university to get a degree (Everyone does this so its got to be the right thing to do...WRONG). I hated university, I'm not sure what it was but the subject I decided to study (management) just bore me to tears, the teaching style at university just didn't do it for me either. Over the 3 years at university I got pretty depressed, I'm not the type of guy to give in when things get hard though, but really lost my passion for business and for everything really. Ended up going from 14 stone (196lbs) to 21 stone (296lbs). I didn't really put my full effort into university and my grades showed it, leaving university with a 2:2 degree (most employers look for 2:1 minimum to even get an interview). Ended university £22k in debt (all money made from business at sixth form gone), 9 stone overweight and with a substandard degree that might as well of been worthless.
This was at the height of the recession which made finding a job almost impossible. 6 months after university, still living with my parents, I must of applied for 200+ jobs, I was willing to do anything but most employers would come back with 'must have experience', ha, strange I wasn't told this when I enrolled at university and signed the student loan forms!! It seemed like a catch 22, I couldn't get a job because I had no experience and I couldn't get experience because I couldn't get a job! I even went and got my old paper round back, 22 years old, with a degree and doing a paper round, lowest of the low..... This is when I started playing online poker properly, I'd started playing online poker back at university and was making a ok living playing $100nl (.50/$1 blinds), this was going good until black Friday hit and the poker site i was playing on was closed down and my funds (around $3.5k) were frozen with the possibility of never getting them back. Doh, just my luck! My parents were getting sick of my moping around the house, this was really time to find a 'proper job' now.. I stumbled upon a job in a online Casino (this is where players can play slots, table games etc over the internet), applied for the role and with my experience playing poker etc I managed to get the role. The role was graduate position in Spain, the company were even offering to pay for my accommodation for the first year. At the time it was winter and snowing outside, I didn't have a penny to my name and my parents were yelling at me everyday, i was ecstatic to move and start a new life in the sun. (Just a side note, over the year after university I decided to do something about my increased university weight, I decided to have a weight loss bet with a bookmaker, they offered me 20/1 to lose 6 stone in a year, I bet £50 I could and they accepted. After the year I'd gone from 21 stone to 12.9 stone, a total weight loss of 180lbs in a year and £1,000 richer!!
)
Anyway, I've been in Spain for 2 years now. I've progressed in the company and have a fairly high paying job for someone my age. Because of the housing recession in Spain I live in a nice villa with a pool, dream come true right? Well kind of... I still work for the 'da man', still have to get up at 7am every morning, still have a boss telling me what to do, I've worked super hard to get where I am in my job, many late nights, work emails on holiday and at all times day and night etc. I'm definitely firmly stuck in the slowlane, I have a good job and get paid well but still go pay cheque to pay cheque, i buy what i want, eat out, go on holidays etc, I do have a good life but 2 years after arriving in Spain I actually have less money in my bank then when I arrived as a unemployed busto person living with his parents (it's almost payday)... I still play poker and if it wasn't for poker I'd probably be in many £000's of debt...
So this takes me to the present day and the reason I'm posting on this forum looking for advice....Back in September 2013 I was promised X promotion and X payrise this April, for a number of reasons out of my control this isn't happening now. I've raised the issue with a number of senior people in the business but they said there isn't anything they can do about it but... "if I work really hard for another 6 months then there is a chance I can progress" There have been a number of other changes that I don't really want to go into but overall I feel like I've been screwed over and over looked. The Slowlane is really good at sucking you in, now I'm working my a$$ off even more to get the chance of a promotion I was promised I'd get in April!! I'm still very ambitious and want to progress quick and be able to afford nice things, even if I'm in the slowlane. The whole thing has just pea'd me off, I've been back stabbed and it got me thinking back to the Millionaire Fastlane book I read maybe 4 years ago and that the slowlane isn't right at all... If you'd asked me at 17 when i was in Sixth Form and loving business if I'd be working for someone else at 25 I'd of said 0%, if you'd of asked me at 17 how much money me at 25 would have it'd be alot more then it is now. Something else to state is the company I work for is moving back to the UK in December because of tax reasons, I'd have to move also if I wanted to keep my job (I hate the fact a company can decide where I live)...
Unlike before I have ideas for business now, ideas that I think will work. The problem is they all involve a level of programming expertise I don't have (even though I am learning, it could take years before I'm at the level of building the websites and apps I have in my head). Still have a HUGE passion for business and I know one day I will be working for myself (it actually gives me little butterflys everytime I think about it)
So here are my choices as I see them..
1) Leave my current well paying job, say "thanks for screwing me over, I'm out of here", move back to the UK, try and start my ideas and go for it! (Pros: Will be good to finally bite the bullet and work for myself, I have a feeling it would work out some way or other. Cons: No money at the moment and no idea where I'd start with the ideas)
2) As the company is moving in Dec..Work at the company until Dec, this gives me around 9 months to really start saving (probably can save around £10kish in the time), use this time to really study programming and dip my toe in the business water. Then when Dec comes round and the company ask me to move, I say "no, thanks". Start my own business and go for it. (Pros: Seems like a safer move. Cons: Will have to work for backstabbers for 9 months, slow lane always seems to suck you back in...)
3) Stay in the slowlane, work really hard for 6 months, probably move up in the company and move back to the UK when they ask me too. Have a safe and nice life but making someone else rich for my hard work. (Pros: Safe. Cons: Will always have what-ifs?)
4) Look for a new job - with my experience now it wouldn't be that hard
5) Move to Thailand, grow and beard and grind online poker for living. Thailand is somewhere I've always wanted to live and with the cheap cost of living over there I could live off my poker winnings.
I have more options, i.e. save up to go travelling (something I've always wanted to do), or as my parents suggested saving up for a mortgage on a house, but the above 5 are what I'm really considering.
Something else is that in my contract at the moment it does state that I'm allowed no out-side business interests or to start any business without written permission from the company I work for (crazy right?!), so anything I was to do outside of the business would have to be top secret or I could lose my job) I do have a couple of very small time affiliate things but these were started back in my sixth form days and only make <£100 a year and were signed off by the company when I joined.
What do you think? Any advice on what you think I should do? Or any advice at all? I've been super close to handing my notice in a few times over the last couple of months and thinking "f**k it" but head is a little all over the place so not sure what to think. Any ideas on where I'd go if I wanted someone to build a website/app for me and how much it would cost etc?
Sorry for the long life story but I thought it was needed to get a full idea of what's going on.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Mark
Long time fan of MJ DeMarco, The Millionaire Fastlane book and these forums (although only signed up today, been visiting the forums quite regularly for some time)
I need some advice please but first my story...
Currently 25 and from the UK. At the age of 16 my parents decided to take me and my brother to Australia, this was the first time I'd been out of the UK and the first time I'd been on a plane. My parents had been saving for sometime to afford the holiday and actually took out loan to pay for part of the holiday (not from a rich family). In Australia we stayed with one of my Mums friends from her school days in the UK and my mum's School friends husband. My mum's school friend and her husband had set up a business in the UK 10 years prior to our visit (a old peoples nursing home) and sold it for a couple of £million, immigrated to oz, re-invested the money in a number of childrens nursery's, after a few years of building this business up they sold the business for many millions and stilled owned the buildings of the nursery's and got a nice little income in rent every month from these as well (as fastlane as you can get, right?). When my family visited Oz this had already happened, the Oz family lived in a beautiful mansion (bought out right), nice garden, pool, cars etc, and the best part, they also had free time to do what they wanted, they didn't have 9-5 jobs or a boss, everyday they just did what they wanted... This was a HUGE eye opening experience for me, coming from a family who'd had to work super hard to get anything we wanted, parents working multipliable jobs to afford to buy Christmas presents etc. I wanted the mansion, nice cars and the freedom to do what I wanted....
I came back to the UK after an amazing month in Australia and business was my life and passion but with no money (apart from that saved from a paperround) and no experience/ideas i decided the best course of action was to join a sixth form and get some A-Levels, obviously picking Double business as one of my subjects. During sixth form I did everything I could to be involved in business and learn about business, I joined the Young Enterprise club (In this a bunch of students had to come up with business ideas, start them and try and make a profit), I started my own businesses, all very small scale but none-the-less, huge learning experiences for me. A couple of times I'd even have teachers interrupt a class I was in to buy one of my products. Everyday I'd come home and search the web, looking for ideas, gaps in the markets, reading about successful people etc etc. I ended Sixth Form doing really well in my A-Levels (best double business grade in my year and the top 3% law grade in the country), for someone who's always struggled at school this was a huge achievement and can mainly be put down to my passion for business. I'd also made a small profit from my business ventures.
So what next... Again with no 'amazing' business ideas and with everyone (teachers, parents, friends) pushing for me to go into university I decided to go to university to get a degree (Everyone does this so its got to be the right thing to do...WRONG). I hated university, I'm not sure what it was but the subject I decided to study (management) just bore me to tears, the teaching style at university just didn't do it for me either. Over the 3 years at university I got pretty depressed, I'm not the type of guy to give in when things get hard though, but really lost my passion for business and for everything really. Ended up going from 14 stone (196lbs) to 21 stone (296lbs). I didn't really put my full effort into university and my grades showed it, leaving university with a 2:2 degree (most employers look for 2:1 minimum to even get an interview). Ended university £22k in debt (all money made from business at sixth form gone), 9 stone overweight and with a substandard degree that might as well of been worthless.
This was at the height of the recession which made finding a job almost impossible. 6 months after university, still living with my parents, I must of applied for 200+ jobs, I was willing to do anything but most employers would come back with 'must have experience', ha, strange I wasn't told this when I enrolled at university and signed the student loan forms!! It seemed like a catch 22, I couldn't get a job because I had no experience and I couldn't get experience because I couldn't get a job! I even went and got my old paper round back, 22 years old, with a degree and doing a paper round, lowest of the low..... This is when I started playing online poker properly, I'd started playing online poker back at university and was making a ok living playing $100nl (.50/$1 blinds), this was going good until black Friday hit and the poker site i was playing on was closed down and my funds (around $3.5k) were frozen with the possibility of never getting them back. Doh, just my luck! My parents were getting sick of my moping around the house, this was really time to find a 'proper job' now.. I stumbled upon a job in a online Casino (this is where players can play slots, table games etc over the internet), applied for the role and with my experience playing poker etc I managed to get the role. The role was graduate position in Spain, the company were even offering to pay for my accommodation for the first year. At the time it was winter and snowing outside, I didn't have a penny to my name and my parents were yelling at me everyday, i was ecstatic to move and start a new life in the sun. (Just a side note, over the year after university I decided to do something about my increased university weight, I decided to have a weight loss bet with a bookmaker, they offered me 20/1 to lose 6 stone in a year, I bet £50 I could and they accepted. After the year I'd gone from 21 stone to 12.9 stone, a total weight loss of 180lbs in a year and £1,000 richer!!
)Anyway, I've been in Spain for 2 years now. I've progressed in the company and have a fairly high paying job for someone my age. Because of the housing recession in Spain I live in a nice villa with a pool, dream come true right? Well kind of... I still work for the 'da man', still have to get up at 7am every morning, still have a boss telling me what to do, I've worked super hard to get where I am in my job, many late nights, work emails on holiday and at all times day and night etc. I'm definitely firmly stuck in the slowlane, I have a good job and get paid well but still go pay cheque to pay cheque, i buy what i want, eat out, go on holidays etc, I do have a good life but 2 years after arriving in Spain I actually have less money in my bank then when I arrived as a unemployed busto person living with his parents (it's almost payday)... I still play poker and if it wasn't for poker I'd probably be in many £000's of debt...
So this takes me to the present day and the reason I'm posting on this forum looking for advice....Back in September 2013 I was promised X promotion and X payrise this April, for a number of reasons out of my control this isn't happening now. I've raised the issue with a number of senior people in the business but they said there isn't anything they can do about it but... "if I work really hard for another 6 months then there is a chance I can progress" There have been a number of other changes that I don't really want to go into but overall I feel like I've been screwed over and over looked. The Slowlane is really good at sucking you in, now I'm working my a$$ off even more to get the chance of a promotion I was promised I'd get in April!! I'm still very ambitious and want to progress quick and be able to afford nice things, even if I'm in the slowlane. The whole thing has just pea'd me off, I've been back stabbed and it got me thinking back to the Millionaire Fastlane book I read maybe 4 years ago and that the slowlane isn't right at all... If you'd asked me at 17 when i was in Sixth Form and loving business if I'd be working for someone else at 25 I'd of said 0%, if you'd of asked me at 17 how much money me at 25 would have it'd be alot more then it is now. Something else to state is the company I work for is moving back to the UK in December because of tax reasons, I'd have to move also if I wanted to keep my job (I hate the fact a company can decide where I live)...
Unlike before I have ideas for business now, ideas that I think will work. The problem is they all involve a level of programming expertise I don't have (even though I am learning, it could take years before I'm at the level of building the websites and apps I have in my head). Still have a HUGE passion for business and I know one day I will be working for myself (it actually gives me little butterflys everytime I think about it)
So here are my choices as I see them..
1) Leave my current well paying job, say "thanks for screwing me over, I'm out of here", move back to the UK, try and start my ideas and go for it! (Pros: Will be good to finally bite the bullet and work for myself, I have a feeling it would work out some way or other. Cons: No money at the moment and no idea where I'd start with the ideas)
2) As the company is moving in Dec..Work at the company until Dec, this gives me around 9 months to really start saving (probably can save around £10kish in the time), use this time to really study programming and dip my toe in the business water. Then when Dec comes round and the company ask me to move, I say "no, thanks". Start my own business and go for it. (Pros: Seems like a safer move. Cons: Will have to work for backstabbers for 9 months, slow lane always seems to suck you back in...)
3) Stay in the slowlane, work really hard for 6 months, probably move up in the company and move back to the UK when they ask me too. Have a safe and nice life but making someone else rich for my hard work. (Pros: Safe. Cons: Will always have what-ifs?)
4) Look for a new job - with my experience now it wouldn't be that hard
5) Move to Thailand, grow and beard and grind online poker for living. Thailand is somewhere I've always wanted to live and with the cheap cost of living over there I could live off my poker winnings.
I have more options, i.e. save up to go travelling (something I've always wanted to do), or as my parents suggested saving up for a mortgage on a house, but the above 5 are what I'm really considering.
Something else is that in my contract at the moment it does state that I'm allowed no out-side business interests or to start any business without written permission from the company I work for (crazy right?!), so anything I was to do outside of the business would have to be top secret or I could lose my job) I do have a couple of very small time affiliate things but these were started back in my sixth form days and only make <£100 a year and were signed off by the company when I joined.
What do you think? Any advice on what you think I should do? Or any advice at all? I've been super close to handing my notice in a few times over the last couple of months and thinking "f**k it" but head is a little all over the place so not sure what to think. Any ideas on where I'd go if I wanted someone to build a website/app for me and how much it would cost etc?
Sorry for the long life story but I thought it was needed to get a full idea of what's going on.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Mark
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