Hi everyone,
Thanks for having me.
At 31 y/o I've been an IT engineer, a Hopeless amateur trader, an Insurance agent, Insurance Lobbyist and a recently a Publicity agent.
Today I'm starting an Insurtech startup to create my Fastlane life.
Introduction to the intro
In a way, I have already started this path, which began when I was in college.
One day at the library I stumbled on the "4 hour workweek". (MJ's book came to me some years later...)
At that time, I thought that I had to travel a path that was the same as everyone's...
Finish your college, get a 9-5 job, work your a$$ off, take some additional training, and someday I would get some freedom.
But, by reading the "fisherman's tale" from the "4 hour workweek" I understood that my goals in life were simpler, and possibly attainable very soon in life, only if it was possible to do something different...
In fact setting a vision for my life and concluding about my goals, could have been my greatest achievement early on.
Chapter I - IT engineer at Hell's Inc.
So, having concluded about my vision and goals in life, my everyday life - working for a multi-national IT consulting firm - started to look less interesting.
I remember as if it was yesterday: going to work on the train, passing over the city's river and watching the beach and the fishermen on their boats near the shore. I asked myself, "could I go down there now, if I wanted to?" and the answer was NO. Then I would look inside the train and look at people's faces. Some would be sleeping with sunglasses on, others staring at nothing - thinking about their debt and problems at home...
This was not the life I wanted.
One day, after being blamed for an error on a software I was programming by a senior manager, that was asked to be put there on purpose by my own manager, I decided it was now IRREVERSIBLE. Either they would suck the life out of me, or I would have to make myself deal with the uncertainty of doing "who knows what"...
Chapter II - The unprepared insurance agent
This is how I came to train as as Insurance agent.
Times were though as an IT programming guy turned Insurance sales professional.
My training was composed of several hours of laws about sales, insurance, anti money laundering and some tips on which products to sell. - How to sell? - that was left for me to figure out...
I still remember my first day on the field...
Having read about "doing it until you become it", I went out to an industrial area and started to ask receptionists at factories to speak with the financial department or the business owner.
Most noticed that my voice was shaking, my forehead was dripping in sweat (it was mid August), so they just replied they weren't interested and pointed the way out.
Not willing to give up, in one of the factories which was closed for vacations, there was a man filling stuff up in the office. He listened to my speech, and to my surprise booked an appointment for me with the financial department - he was the owner.
This is how I got my first meeting, which led to my first big sale.
Chapter III - Amateur trader with no clue
At this time, the shinning object syndrome made another victim: me.
It turns out that my small interest in stocks and futures had now grown with forex.
But forex with it's big leverage was another beast - one that took me hostage...
I would spend days day-trading, learning the new system from the latest guru, earning some, then loosing some.
I started to have great dreams of buying stuff, working very little, and having it easy.
My vision was being forgotten, it started to be about having stuff and not about the process.
After some years, I finally decided to quit trading, having wasted money from something that had worked (insurance sales) in something that wasn't (forex).
Chapter IV - Lobbying for insurance tech
Having decided to live with my girlfriend - and now wife - I had to get a "job" because my agency business was not enough to support it.
It was a "job"(just over broke) because I accepted minimum wage to work for an insurtech startup.
In this company I was happy.
I didn't have a schedule, worked from home, made trips whenever it was needed and managed my own work, all I had to do was produce results.
These results were mainly the result of lobbying for my startups' services.
And having applied my hardly-earned lessons of persistence from my sales job, the job got done.
I even gave them all of my ideas, produced content regularly, recruited a sales team and a bunch of other stuff - I was feeling great, I wanted to give back! I even made a deal with the founders to get equity because of this.
But then one day it all came crashing down...
A founder tried to trick me into giving my hard-earned Insurance accounts to them, before I signed into the partnership.
I refused and left with nothing.
Having been working with a torn ligament for some time, it was time to have surgery.
This left me living out of social security for some months while in recovery, and wondering why my vision was so simple and yet, so difficult to reach.
Chapter V - Selling through writing
One day, after checking the mail, I noticed a flyer from a gym - man, was it ugly and bad at copywriting!
So I said to myself - I could do this.
In 15 days before and after Christmas I conceptualized, promoted and sold a 3 month consulting service to gyms: a full-stack publicity service: copy, design, print and distribution.
The goal was to help them with their flyers exclusively, by being a sales-first marketing effort.
This went great and I ended up doing copywriting and design, skills I didn't even know I had!
But the best part was using something that was hardly-earned early on, the sales persistance skillset.
In this 15 days, I crafted a direct-mail letter and sent it nationwide (Portugal) and then followed up with each Gym's owner to discuss it further.
I made about 500 calls in 2 days and about 1000 in the course of one week - the week after Christmas.
Most didn't want the service, some said it to be too expensive, but some bought and others even said it to be "the most effective written campaign they ever saw".
Wow!
3 months Forward to March, this service is discontinued, because it proved not to be scalable.
Chapter VI - Certain of what's to come
Today, I'm building something I know for a fact is scalable.
The Insurtech that I helped grow with my ideas will have another competitor very soon.
I can feel it in my gut that this will be my fastlane, and it's unavoidable...
This time, my persistence and sales skills will guarantee that doors will be opened, my experience in shoestring will guarantee that every decision's ROI is predictable, my IT degree will allow me communicate with developers and my publicity experience will give me confidence to create killer copy and designs for investor pitch-decks.
Chapter VII - Endnotes
Although this a very long intro of myself, I considered important to give it all to you.
But if you skipped, there's one conclusion you should make.
If you haven't figured it out already until now, here it is:
No matter what it is you're planning on doing, just do it. If you have fun doing it and help people on your way, you'll get valuable skills, connections, and life experience.
Ultimately, you'll become a better, richer-person (possibly not financially) with a skillset that one day will fuel a project that will change the world.
And either having done sales or not, don't forget to persist, it is the single most important skill I have come across over the years.
Most people quit too soon - too often, not understanding that effort builds willpower and willpower fuels effort, but it's when persistance is applied that you see results.
Believe in yourselves and keep on persisting.
Thanks very much for your attention if you read this far.
Please give me some thoughts about the skill that's made you who you are.
@MJ DeMarco
Cheers,
Nuno
Thanks for having me.
At 31 y/o I've been an IT engineer, a Hopeless amateur trader, an Insurance agent, Insurance Lobbyist and a recently a Publicity agent.
Today I'm starting an Insurtech startup to create my Fastlane life.
Introduction to the intro
In a way, I have already started this path, which began when I was in college.
One day at the library I stumbled on the "4 hour workweek". (MJ's book came to me some years later...)
At that time, I thought that I had to travel a path that was the same as everyone's...
Finish your college, get a 9-5 job, work your a$$ off, take some additional training, and someday I would get some freedom.
But, by reading the "fisherman's tale" from the "4 hour workweek" I understood that my goals in life were simpler, and possibly attainable very soon in life, only if it was possible to do something different...
In fact setting a vision for my life and concluding about my goals, could have been my greatest achievement early on.
Chapter I - IT engineer at Hell's Inc.
So, having concluded about my vision and goals in life, my everyday life - working for a multi-national IT consulting firm - started to look less interesting.
I remember as if it was yesterday: going to work on the train, passing over the city's river and watching the beach and the fishermen on their boats near the shore. I asked myself, "could I go down there now, if I wanted to?" and the answer was NO. Then I would look inside the train and look at people's faces. Some would be sleeping with sunglasses on, others staring at nothing - thinking about their debt and problems at home...
This was not the life I wanted.
One day, after being blamed for an error on a software I was programming by a senior manager, that was asked to be put there on purpose by my own manager, I decided it was now IRREVERSIBLE. Either they would suck the life out of me, or I would have to make myself deal with the uncertainty of doing "who knows what"...
Chapter II - The unprepared insurance agent
This is how I came to train as as Insurance agent.
Times were though as an IT programming guy turned Insurance sales professional.
My training was composed of several hours of laws about sales, insurance, anti money laundering and some tips on which products to sell. - How to sell? - that was left for me to figure out...
I still remember my first day on the field...
Having read about "doing it until you become it", I went out to an industrial area and started to ask receptionists at factories to speak with the financial department or the business owner.
Most noticed that my voice was shaking, my forehead was dripping in sweat (it was mid August), so they just replied they weren't interested and pointed the way out.
Not willing to give up, in one of the factories which was closed for vacations, there was a man filling stuff up in the office. He listened to my speech, and to my surprise booked an appointment for me with the financial department - he was the owner.
This is how I got my first meeting, which led to my first big sale.
Chapter III - Amateur trader with no clue
At this time, the shinning object syndrome made another victim: me.
It turns out that my small interest in stocks and futures had now grown with forex.
But forex with it's big leverage was another beast - one that took me hostage...
I would spend days day-trading, learning the new system from the latest guru, earning some, then loosing some.
I started to have great dreams of buying stuff, working very little, and having it easy.
My vision was being forgotten, it started to be about having stuff and not about the process.
After some years, I finally decided to quit trading, having wasted money from something that had worked (insurance sales) in something that wasn't (forex).
Chapter IV - Lobbying for insurance tech
Having decided to live with my girlfriend - and now wife - I had to get a "job" because my agency business was not enough to support it.
It was a "job"(just over broke) because I accepted minimum wage to work for an insurtech startup.
In this company I was happy.
I didn't have a schedule, worked from home, made trips whenever it was needed and managed my own work, all I had to do was produce results.
These results were mainly the result of lobbying for my startups' services.
And having applied my hardly-earned lessons of persistence from my sales job, the job got done.
I even gave them all of my ideas, produced content regularly, recruited a sales team and a bunch of other stuff - I was feeling great, I wanted to give back! I even made a deal with the founders to get equity because of this.
But then one day it all came crashing down...
A founder tried to trick me into giving my hard-earned Insurance accounts to them, before I signed into the partnership.
I refused and left with nothing.
Having been working with a torn ligament for some time, it was time to have surgery.
This left me living out of social security for some months while in recovery, and wondering why my vision was so simple and yet, so difficult to reach.
Chapter V - Selling through writing
One day, after checking the mail, I noticed a flyer from a gym - man, was it ugly and bad at copywriting!
So I said to myself - I could do this.
In 15 days before and after Christmas I conceptualized, promoted and sold a 3 month consulting service to gyms: a full-stack publicity service: copy, design, print and distribution.
The goal was to help them with their flyers exclusively, by being a sales-first marketing effort.
This went great and I ended up doing copywriting and design, skills I didn't even know I had!
But the best part was using something that was hardly-earned early on, the sales persistance skillset.
In this 15 days, I crafted a direct-mail letter and sent it nationwide (Portugal) and then followed up with each Gym's owner to discuss it further.
I made about 500 calls in 2 days and about 1000 in the course of one week - the week after Christmas.
Most didn't want the service, some said it to be too expensive, but some bought and others even said it to be "the most effective written campaign they ever saw".
Wow!
3 months Forward to March, this service is discontinued, because it proved not to be scalable.
Chapter VI - Certain of what's to come
Today, I'm building something I know for a fact is scalable.
The Insurtech that I helped grow with my ideas will have another competitor very soon.
I can feel it in my gut that this will be my fastlane, and it's unavoidable...
This time, my persistence and sales skills will guarantee that doors will be opened, my experience in shoestring will guarantee that every decision's ROI is predictable, my IT degree will allow me communicate with developers and my publicity experience will give me confidence to create killer copy and designs for investor pitch-decks.
Chapter VII - Endnotes
Although this a very long intro of myself, I considered important to give it all to you.
But if you skipped, there's one conclusion you should make.
If you haven't figured it out already until now, here it is:
No matter what it is you're planning on doing, just do it. If you have fun doing it and help people on your way, you'll get valuable skills, connections, and life experience.
Ultimately, you'll become a better, richer-person (possibly not financially) with a skillset that one day will fuel a project that will change the world.
And either having done sales or not, don't forget to persist, it is the single most important skill I have come across over the years.
Most people quit too soon - too often, not understanding that effort builds willpower and willpower fuels effort, but it's when persistance is applied that you see results.
Believe in yourselves and keep on persisting.
Thanks very much for your attention if you read this far.
Please give me some thoughts about the skill that's made you who you are.
@MJ DeMarco
Cheers,
Nuno
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