...It's so obvious once it's explained to you.
Thats how it felt to read Fastlane and Unscripted this past week.
Hey All, Thanks for having me at this forum. I'm pretty excited to spend time in a corner of the web that can actually improve my life rather than suck the time out of it.
A little bit about me, kinda Cliff-Notes style....
I started by testing the limits of my college advisor's patience by constantly switching focus right about the end of every semester. The relief on her face when I announced, in my exit interview, that I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do next was priceless. It was now or never. Career was going on hold. Bigger plans were in the works.
Right out of college I started training full time for the Olympics in my chosen sport. (yes, I was good enough to warrant the effort) I had it all figured out. Sleep right? Eat right? I could give a week's worth of TED talks. Focus? Laser, baby. Discipline? Please! You ever consider practicing abstinence as part of achieving your goals? Hey, no STD or baby drama was going to derail my dream at the wrong time! Blood, Sweat, and Tears? Every. Damn. Day! Future income? That will all pan out once I get my medals.
Or would it? First real lesson learned: Banking on hope is a bad idea. It wasn't a lack of talent that brought the dream to screeching halt. And it sure as hell wasn't a lack of any of those qualities that your wannabe "expert" selling "self help" books write about. (Or even the legit ones.) It was crap completely out of my control. The curve ball I never saw coming.
What to do next? Well, I am an expert in my given sport. A world leading expert, to be honest. I'll make my coin coaching! I actually got to experience a bit of the Olympic dream by being a coach at one of the Games. Trouble is, there ain't no big money in a sport that the public only sees once every four years. There's not even above average money in it. "Do what you love"! Not if you want to experience true freedom in life. Traveling the world is fun. But not if it's for work every time.
It's funny that MJ uses the old "Personal Trainer" analogy so often. Yep. That was me for awhile too. The best in Hollywood and Miami were making north of $200 per hour at the time and I'm a former Olympic coach. I've got credibility coming out of my ears. I should be able to make that $$ easy! (funny how $200/hr seemed like a big number at the time) Yeah, MJ actually explains the down side of being a Personal Trainer well enough. I won't repeat it here.
One of my interests since high school was High End stereo gear. What you might call the Lamborghini and Ferarris of stereos. And in my off seasons from coaching I spent years teaching myself the fundamentals of Electrical Engineering. I couldn't afford the gear. But growing up without much I was already well versed in the DIY method of fulfilling interests. I Eventually developed a stereo product that significantly improved the performance of those million dollar systems that some of you may aspire to own one day. (Or already do.) The upside in the High End stereo industry is heavy on magnitude. A lot can be made with just one sale. The down side? Scale is pretty much non-existent. It's the niche of a niche hobby. It completely violates the Entry Commandment. It's a terrible time-suck, in the worst of ways. And it's ethically challenged. But at least I had the magnitude aspect right. Ugh.
Frustrated with another dead end money maker I started looking for other options. A few came and went. I even spent several months exploring those methods that shall not be mentioned on this forum. At least I was now wise enough to see through the guru BS. But it's funny how desperation and frustration can magnify hope and make you WANT to believe the guru BS.
Anyway, that brings me to right about now. For the past couple years I've been working on another product to sell. One that avoids a lot of the problems learned in previous efforts. But not ALL.
And that's why I feel so fortunate having discovered these books in the last few days. A week ago I was working toward an October launch for this new product. But now, having read Fastlane and Unscripted , I realize that this effort is still seriously flawed. The entire idea, while exciting, fun, and much better than my previous efforts, can't break free of time involvement and it lacks unlimited scalability!
And that's where the title of my thread comes from. It's such an obvious principle, choosing to focus on ideas that are unlimited in scale. But until someone actually put it in front of my face, it never actually occurred to me! The math is undeniable. But unless you look at it through the lens of mathematics, you never see the reality.
Anyway. I'm not going to roll in here and make some grand "Billionaire in three years" declaration to the likes of this crowd. I know better.
Mostly I'm just sorta......... disoriented, I guess is the best way to put it. I'm grateful that I discovered this community and the books it's based on before I was completely immersed in yet another flawed business effort. I'm really excited to get involved here. But I'm a little shell shocked by the sudden "Stop what you're doing and start again" realization. I'm encouraged by the knowledge that I already have the proven tools to get shit done. Ie. I don't have to learn the qualities of discipline, etc. But as I sit here I have exactly zero ideas to work on.
Square one. Again. But with a nice bright light at the end of the tunnel this time.
So that's me. Warts and all. Just happy to be hear and ready to learn.
Cheers!
Thats how it felt to read Fastlane and Unscripted this past week.
Hey All, Thanks for having me at this forum. I'm pretty excited to spend time in a corner of the web that can actually improve my life rather than suck the time out of it.
A little bit about me, kinda Cliff-Notes style....
I started by testing the limits of my college advisor's patience by constantly switching focus right about the end of every semester. The relief on her face when I announced, in my exit interview, that I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do next was priceless. It was now or never. Career was going on hold. Bigger plans were in the works.
Right out of college I started training full time for the Olympics in my chosen sport. (yes, I was good enough to warrant the effort) I had it all figured out. Sleep right? Eat right? I could give a week's worth of TED talks. Focus? Laser, baby. Discipline? Please! You ever consider practicing abstinence as part of achieving your goals? Hey, no STD or baby drama was going to derail my dream at the wrong time! Blood, Sweat, and Tears? Every. Damn. Day! Future income? That will all pan out once I get my medals.
Or would it? First real lesson learned: Banking on hope is a bad idea. It wasn't a lack of talent that brought the dream to screeching halt. And it sure as hell wasn't a lack of any of those qualities that your wannabe "expert" selling "self help" books write about. (Or even the legit ones.) It was crap completely out of my control. The curve ball I never saw coming.
What to do next? Well, I am an expert in my given sport. A world leading expert, to be honest. I'll make my coin coaching! I actually got to experience a bit of the Olympic dream by being a coach at one of the Games. Trouble is, there ain't no big money in a sport that the public only sees once every four years. There's not even above average money in it. "Do what you love"! Not if you want to experience true freedom in life. Traveling the world is fun. But not if it's for work every time.
It's funny that MJ uses the old "Personal Trainer" analogy so often. Yep. That was me for awhile too. The best in Hollywood and Miami were making north of $200 per hour at the time and I'm a former Olympic coach. I've got credibility coming out of my ears. I should be able to make that $$ easy! (funny how $200/hr seemed like a big number at the time) Yeah, MJ actually explains the down side of being a Personal Trainer well enough. I won't repeat it here.
One of my interests since high school was High End stereo gear. What you might call the Lamborghini and Ferarris of stereos. And in my off seasons from coaching I spent years teaching myself the fundamentals of Electrical Engineering. I couldn't afford the gear. But growing up without much I was already well versed in the DIY method of fulfilling interests. I Eventually developed a stereo product that significantly improved the performance of those million dollar systems that some of you may aspire to own one day. (Or already do.) The upside in the High End stereo industry is heavy on magnitude. A lot can be made with just one sale. The down side? Scale is pretty much non-existent. It's the niche of a niche hobby. It completely violates the Entry Commandment. It's a terrible time-suck, in the worst of ways. And it's ethically challenged. But at least I had the magnitude aspect right. Ugh.
Frustrated with another dead end money maker I started looking for other options. A few came and went. I even spent several months exploring those methods that shall not be mentioned on this forum. At least I was now wise enough to see through the guru BS. But it's funny how desperation and frustration can magnify hope and make you WANT to believe the guru BS.
Anyway, that brings me to right about now. For the past couple years I've been working on another product to sell. One that avoids a lot of the problems learned in previous efforts. But not ALL.
And that's why I feel so fortunate having discovered these books in the last few days. A week ago I was working toward an October launch for this new product. But now, having read Fastlane and Unscripted , I realize that this effort is still seriously flawed. The entire idea, while exciting, fun, and much better than my previous efforts, can't break free of time involvement and it lacks unlimited scalability!
And that's where the title of my thread comes from. It's such an obvious principle, choosing to focus on ideas that are unlimited in scale. But until someone actually put it in front of my face, it never actually occurred to me! The math is undeniable. But unless you look at it through the lens of mathematics, you never see the reality.
Anyway. I'm not going to roll in here and make some grand "Billionaire in three years" declaration to the likes of this crowd. I know better.
Mostly I'm just sorta......... disoriented, I guess is the best way to put it. I'm grateful that I discovered this community and the books it's based on before I was completely immersed in yet another flawed business effort. I'm really excited to get involved here. But I'm a little shell shocked by the sudden "Stop what you're doing and start again" realization. I'm encouraged by the knowledge that I already have the proven tools to get shit done. Ie. I don't have to learn the qualities of discipline, etc. But as I sit here I have exactly zero ideas to work on.
Square one. Again. But with a nice bright light at the end of the tunnel this time.
So that's me. Warts and all. Just happy to be hear and ready to learn.
Cheers!
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