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Hello All,
I've known about the Fastlane Forum since 2019 when I read TMF as I was starting my first business and trying to wrap my head around moving beyond a secure job and into a life of freedom and abundance. I will be honest and say that the stories about the forum and the brutal honesty of the Fastlane mindset, especially in Unscripted , made me a bit reluctant to come here at first. Not because I question the truth, validity, or wisdom of any of the tenants but because I knew I needed to take my own journey in my own time.
In the "Getting The MOST Out Of Fastlane (Required Read)" post MJ asked for new people to tell you our stories, so here it goes. I apologize for the length - this will probably be part info for you forum veterans and part catharsis for me. I won't be offended if you don't read it.
I'm currently 43.5 years old and until 2018 was a card carrying member of the slowlane. I was the typical straight A student growing up and in high school and was readily/eagerly programmed with the "get good grades and work hard to succeed" mantra. By early in high school I knew I wanted a certain amount of income and financial security, being from an average middle class family with a government worker as the bread winner. This attitude and my academic abilities led me to decide at the age of 15, as a junior in high school, that I was going to become a chemistry professor.
What the mind decided on at age 15 was achieved in part at age 30 and ultimately at age 40. After HS came the Ivy League undergrad degree (yes I was that brainwashed), PhD (5 years), and two post-doctoral training positions (3 years). At age 30 I started as an assistant professor - opportunity and income yes, but no security until I got tenure. At age 40, I was tenured and promoted to associate professor, seemingly set now with a job I can't be easily fired from (unless I do something REALLY wrong) and a pretty much guaranteed income to go with it, not to mention a sweet a$$ benefits and retirement package (to cushion the chains of bondage).
What happened next should have been predictable, but I didn't really see it coming. The short way to say it is that getting tenure broke something in me. Finally achieving the security of lifetime employment and wage all the sudden opened a door to want more. I spent a few months a bit adrift trying to figure out what the "more" I wanted was. The search led me to read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", which did a lot of further mental damage and broke me even more (arguably in a good way, since it was starting to break the mental hold of the slowlane). By the time I was done reading it was clear to me that while I had been successful in my life (as I defined it up to that point), no matter what I was an employee. I knew that even now as a tenured professor, there's an upper limit to my income. And what I really desired was to break the link trading my time for money and to generate more income than my guaranteed position would afford. Instinctively, I wanted the "3F wealth" that MJ describes in TMF - fitness, family, and freedom - before I ever read TMF.
Based on multiple factors (my interest in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, interest of both by wife and I in real estate, some mentoring from my successful small business owner father-in-law), I decided to attend a local "free" seminar from the Rich Dad, Poor Dad education company/Elite Legacy (yes, I know I can hear the groans). While I did not buy the program then, they did a good job of follow-up marketing and I did end up buying their program as an online offering at a steep, steep discount that was a considerably more reasonable.
So I was off and running in 2018 setting up and starting my own business. On the positive side, I can say that I learned a lot, I did a few deals, made some money (but am still net negative), met a lot of great people, and met a business partner that I'm still working with. Part of that journey was my business partner suggesting that I read TMF and my journey to better understand myself, my life up to that point, the business that I was building, and its pluses and minuses. For these reasons alone, I do not view the money and time I spent on that training and trying to build an active real estate investment business as a waste or with any regret. The only non-academic job I'd ever has was two summers in college working in a bank. I needed the crash course in business concepts and real life, in particular in marketing and other areas that I foolishly looked down on as an academic.
Now at the beginning of 2021, the real estate business is still going. I have one active property I'm renting and getting a small cash flow on. But I've also come to conclude that for me, in my situation (a full time job and two kids under 5yo), and with my available time, resources, and natural strengths/weaknesses, active real estate investing is not going to be a Fastlane business for me. I don't have the time to BE the Human Resources system needed for lead generation nor do I have the funds right now to pay for a Human Resources system (a VA). I am still collaborating some with my business partner, mainly on acquisition marketing, so I do hope to still bring in some income along with the rental property. But in terms of my main endeavor to conceive of and build a Fastlane business, I've decided to turn the steering wheel and change course.
The conclusion that real estate investing is not going to be my Fastlane led me to listen to TMF again this month (Jan 2021), which in turn finally motivated me to come join the forum here. Right now I'm kicking around ideas (digital books? affiliate marketing? eComm?) for the next endeavor. I've written a digital book and will have it up on Amazon by the end of Feb 2021; but I know that's not going to be a Fastlane business and could easily turn into a second job, just as real estate investing did. I'm doing it mainly to do SOMETHING to take action, to learn something new, and learn about that aspect of digital marketing and commerce. I know affiliate marketing is not truly Fastlane and is at best a passenger activity. If I chose to start it, it would be with an eye towards learning that business, making some cash along the way, and figuring out where I'm going to try to create something new that does not violate any of the Fastlane commandments. Part of my issue with this is that the academic side of me gets in the way, wanting to create something "totally new" instead of simply putting a new twist on something that already exists.
I'm committed to leaving the slowlane and moving to a Fastlane business and life. I'm hoping being a part of this forum will help my mindset and conceive of something of value to offer the world built on/in an automated, mostly passive Fastlane Business Process
I've known about the Fastlane Forum since 2019 when I read TMF as I was starting my first business and trying to wrap my head around moving beyond a secure job and into a life of freedom and abundance. I will be honest and say that the stories about the forum and the brutal honesty of the Fastlane mindset, especially in Unscripted , made me a bit reluctant to come here at first. Not because I question the truth, validity, or wisdom of any of the tenants but because I knew I needed to take my own journey in my own time.
In the "Getting The MOST Out Of Fastlane (Required Read)" post MJ asked for new people to tell you our stories, so here it goes. I apologize for the length - this will probably be part info for you forum veterans and part catharsis for me. I won't be offended if you don't read it.
I'm currently 43.5 years old and until 2018 was a card carrying member of the slowlane. I was the typical straight A student growing up and in high school and was readily/eagerly programmed with the "get good grades and work hard to succeed" mantra. By early in high school I knew I wanted a certain amount of income and financial security, being from an average middle class family with a government worker as the bread winner. This attitude and my academic abilities led me to decide at the age of 15, as a junior in high school, that I was going to become a chemistry professor.
What the mind decided on at age 15 was achieved in part at age 30 and ultimately at age 40. After HS came the Ivy League undergrad degree (yes I was that brainwashed), PhD (5 years), and two post-doctoral training positions (3 years). At age 30 I started as an assistant professor - opportunity and income yes, but no security until I got tenure. At age 40, I was tenured and promoted to associate professor, seemingly set now with a job I can't be easily fired from (unless I do something REALLY wrong) and a pretty much guaranteed income to go with it, not to mention a sweet a$$ benefits and retirement package (to cushion the chains of bondage).
What happened next should have been predictable, but I didn't really see it coming. The short way to say it is that getting tenure broke something in me. Finally achieving the security of lifetime employment and wage all the sudden opened a door to want more. I spent a few months a bit adrift trying to figure out what the "more" I wanted was. The search led me to read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", which did a lot of further mental damage and broke me even more (arguably in a good way, since it was starting to break the mental hold of the slowlane). By the time I was done reading it was clear to me that while I had been successful in my life (as I defined it up to that point), no matter what I was an employee. I knew that even now as a tenured professor, there's an upper limit to my income. And what I really desired was to break the link trading my time for money and to generate more income than my guaranteed position would afford. Instinctively, I wanted the "3F wealth" that MJ describes in TMF - fitness, family, and freedom - before I ever read TMF.
Based on multiple factors (my interest in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, interest of both by wife and I in real estate, some mentoring from my successful small business owner father-in-law), I decided to attend a local "free" seminar from the Rich Dad, Poor Dad education company/Elite Legacy (yes, I know I can hear the groans). While I did not buy the program then, they did a good job of follow-up marketing and I did end up buying their program as an online offering at a steep, steep discount that was a considerably more reasonable.
So I was off and running in 2018 setting up and starting my own business. On the positive side, I can say that I learned a lot, I did a few deals, made some money (but am still net negative), met a lot of great people, and met a business partner that I'm still working with. Part of that journey was my business partner suggesting that I read TMF and my journey to better understand myself, my life up to that point, the business that I was building, and its pluses and minuses. For these reasons alone, I do not view the money and time I spent on that training and trying to build an active real estate investment business as a waste or with any regret. The only non-academic job I'd ever has was two summers in college working in a bank. I needed the crash course in business concepts and real life, in particular in marketing and other areas that I foolishly looked down on as an academic.
Now at the beginning of 2021, the real estate business is still going. I have one active property I'm renting and getting a small cash flow on. But I've also come to conclude that for me, in my situation (a full time job and two kids under 5yo), and with my available time, resources, and natural strengths/weaknesses, active real estate investing is not going to be a Fastlane business for me. I don't have the time to BE the Human Resources system needed for lead generation nor do I have the funds right now to pay for a Human Resources system (a VA). I am still collaborating some with my business partner, mainly on acquisition marketing, so I do hope to still bring in some income along with the rental property. But in terms of my main endeavor to conceive of and build a Fastlane business, I've decided to turn the steering wheel and change course.
The conclusion that real estate investing is not going to be my Fastlane led me to listen to TMF again this month (Jan 2021), which in turn finally motivated me to come join the forum here. Right now I'm kicking around ideas (digital books? affiliate marketing? eComm?) for the next endeavor. I've written a digital book and will have it up on Amazon by the end of Feb 2021; but I know that's not going to be a Fastlane business and could easily turn into a second job, just as real estate investing did. I'm doing it mainly to do SOMETHING to take action, to learn something new, and learn about that aspect of digital marketing and commerce. I know affiliate marketing is not truly Fastlane and is at best a passenger activity. If I chose to start it, it would be with an eye towards learning that business, making some cash along the way, and figuring out where I'm going to try to create something new that does not violate any of the Fastlane commandments. Part of my issue with this is that the academic side of me gets in the way, wanting to create something "totally new" instead of simply putting a new twist on something that already exists.
I'm committed to leaving the slowlane and moving to a Fastlane business and life. I'm hoping being a part of this forum will help my mindset and conceive of something of value to offer the world built on/in an automated, mostly passive Fastlane Business Process
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