Hi all,
I am happy to be here. Despite being a long time lurker, I feel that this community is one of the healthiest and sane communities in business.
I want to start with a rhetorical question (I ask myself for past 15 years):
I observe less intelligent people becoming millionaires and living the lifestyle of abundance of plenty, while I am just walking in circles.
My entire professional life I felt like I was missing something…
And only now, - almost two decades later, thanks to books like FastLane Millionaire, - I am starting to see the problem…
It turned out to be something completely different than I originally thought. I'll share my perspective, but I want to preface where I am coming from with a very brief introduction.
Hopefully some of you can relate to my story and see similarities in our struggles.
I am interested in hearing how you overcame them on your FastLane journey.
I'll spare you the long boring dossier and resume-like chronological list of life milestones. Few strangers truly care about that, so I'll share the relevant parts only. Afterall, I have a couple questions for you (you probably have an obvious answer).
I love money. I love the comfort and lifestyle that money brings.
But I am also extremely lazy and impatient. I want things to show up yesterday. I want money to come effortlessly (yeah, "passive income"). I want a system that gives me time and location freedom. (Who doesn't, right?)
First, I will address the obvious:
I am aware that wealth and forturnes don't come to the lazy. I am not delusional that sitting on the coach will yield the riches. I don't mind building something that can facilitate such "passive" cash flow. I will happily put 150% effort to build that.
Now I am getting to the problematic part I still have no answer to.
I understand that what matters more is not how hard one works but how hard one works on the right things.
This is where the fun starts, I'll get to that in a minute...
For the past 17+ years, I freelanced as a developer (full stack programmer). I went through all the familiar ups and downs, feast or famine of that "career". But, freelancing paid the bills, fed my family, and kept the lights on.
And when I was younger, it enabled my destructive lifestyle of drinking, partying and debauchery. I believe this exact lifestyle prevented me from building a real business when I was young and uncommitted. I just got by and spent all I had on fun. I didn't value my time, my money or health.
I could take higher stakes and bigger risks - I didn't.
But I am done with that. Regret is cancerous, no point of hating myself for the past.
Now I have a family. I am a responsible father (of 3) and a loyal husband. Because I am the sole breadwinner, I cannot quit my "job" (freelancing) and go all in. That's the risk aversion I am dealing with right now.
Now back to the REAL PROBLEM I have:
The real problem is deciding on what to do!
This is where I come to the community for guidance.
I have way too many interests. From holistic spiritual meditation, to AI & Machine Learning, to writing and copywriting. I read and study marketing for fun. The content I consume consists of mostly business channels, building personal brand, eComm, etc.
One part of me wants to be creators like Justin Welsh, Dan Koe or Dickie Bush and just sell courses/communities. I have enough freelancing experience to teach it or even technical courses.
Another part wants to build a SaaS product. I want to gather a team of developers and play the "startup" with hustle and grind. I lookup to SaaS founders like Alex Becker (with a multi-million dollar exit). I know what tech startup is, had a couple of them in my 20s. (2009-2013 ish) and plenty of startup clients. It's hard work. No delusion about that.
Then, I get sucked into idea of starting a marketing agency. I study consumer marketing for fun. I am fascinated by this. But I am so burnt out dealing with clients. I follow Daniel Fazio, Brett Malinowski, Iman Ghadzi and the appeal of SMMA lures me in. Plus I have experience finding clients, closing the sale.
Occasionally, a little voice inside tells me: "you should just start niche blogs (or YouTube channel), SEO the hell out of them, collect affiliate commissions, paid advertising and never deal with people!". My YouTube feed is full of creators like Gary Vee, Sean Cannell and Chris Do - especially in the personal brand niche.
Why does this frustrate me?
Everytime a freelancing bad client pisses me of (or acts like my boss) I want to go "antisocial" and never deal with clients. At those points I want to start a YouTube channel or a few niche blogs and just create until I get enough traction. Then sell ads, or earn commission income or even dabble in some eComm/Dropshipping with outsourced customer support.
That takes time, and as I said above, I want results now. I want to quit freelancing, so I seek a cashflow business ideas. I start looking back into agency model again, because, agency (services) is fastest path to stream of income (considering I know how to get clients).
Today I am almost 40. I had the same issue in my 20s. I dabbled in things (startup, ecomm, dropshipping, SEO, service agency, webdev, etc - and all failed.) The only thing that has not failed is freelancing (programming). But it has income cap, it's time-for-money and I just dislike it.
I don't have a lot to show for, other than vast experience starting and quitting businesses, building half finished products, abandoning content blogs and making great plans how I will, one day, become rich.
I am getting MASSIVE FOMO. I want to be everywhere. And today, the AI industry is fueling sooo many interesting opportunities, never available before, I am frantic.
so...
I can no longer fck around, I found out what happens. Nothing good.
I know, I am Money Chasing. I am looking for the EVENT.
I understand this is rudderless.
I understand I need to pick one direction.
I need to make that decision and stick to it.
Yet, I am always back at drawing board:
Which way?
How did you find your CENTS business(es)?
If you struggled with FOMO and indecision, how did you pick one?
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