First of all, thank you MJ for your book and this wonderful forum. It's just what I've been looking for. This place is the real deal and I've been soaking up the information like a sponge.
A "little" history.
I didn't realize it until a few months ago, but I am and have always been a textbook slowlaner. When my parents first started teaching me about money as a child, they taught me to save. I had a green Pringles can (sour cream and onion!) in which I would stash away my allowance every week. I never allowed myself to take any money out, only to put it in. If I got $5 for allowance, I put at least $3 into my Pringles bank account and the rest was for me to spend on whatever I wanted. As an early teen, I got my first job delivering the local city newspaper to my very own neighborhood making $85/month. I thought I had struck gold! Soon thereafter I opened my first checking account with my Mom as a co-signer. I had the same philosophy as I always did and I only ever put money into the checking account that I didn't intend on spending. This worked great as I grew up. It allowed me to save most of the money that I made while I watched many of my friends spend most of theirs. This only strengthened my slowlaner mentality.
I worked hard throughout school and took advantage of the post secondary enrollment option in high school. This allowed me to graduate college with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering a full year early. I couldn't wait to get out. I had lived at home and worked part-time at Best Buy all throughout college and now I was ready to get out on my own and start my career.
It's important to note the Best Buy part, since my time there helped confirm in my mind that I would never want to be in sales. I absolutely hated it. I worked in the camera department because I had a passion for photography. I just wanted to answer peoples' questions about cameras and help them make the right choice, which was not always the most profitable choice. Furthermore, I wasn't paid on any sort of commission, so up-selling was not high on my list of priorities either. With all of that said, Best Buy was quite good at teaching their employees about selling strategies, qualifying the customer, customer service, and organic growth. I found these aspects interesting, but grew tired of how they would teach one thing and then expect another.
Anyway, I quit Best Buy and started my new career as an electrical engineer for a fortune 500 biomedical diagnostics company. I was hired into an "innovation fellowship" program where I got to spend 3 months working on new development projects at each of the four company sites in the US. They paid for my apartment and a rental car all while paying the going rate for a starting engineer. Again I thought I had struck it rich, but I stuck to my guns about putting away the majority of my income.
Once the rotational program was over after the first year, I moved back home and started looking for houses. Although I had no plans of moving anytime soon and thought that I could be a "lifer" at my company I still wanted to find a house that I could put some work into to create instant equity. I made three separate offers on places with 20% down, but each time I got beat out by 100% cash offers. (I would later find out that each of these houses sold for $120k+ over the original purchase price just months later. This piqued my interest in real estate.) I eventually settled on a house and thought I was going to work another 40-50 yrs and retire off of my 401k and other savings. I thought this was the smart way to a happy retirement.
Two years later, I was starting to question my philosophy. I was getting bored with work, and tired of spending 40+hrs/week at the office. I had seen how money could be made with flipping houses if you were smart at it and bought the right houses at the right price. After all I had successfully picked out three houses already and watched them get flipped before my eyes. However, I thought I would need to be making 100% cash offers on houses and I simply didn't have the funds nor the time to really dive into this.
Instead I started a little business on the side as a wedding photographer. I did this because I had always had a passion for photography and I had helped my friend, a full-time wedding photographer, shoot as a secondary on several occasions. I charged $1000 per wedding and did a handful per year. It never really took off, mainly because I realized that it was gobs of work and unless you can eventually charge ridiculous rates per wedding, there really is no way to scale the business. I would still be stuck directly trading my time for money.
Shortly thereafter, my company was purchased by an acquisition company and they announced that they were going to eliminate 1200 jobs. My company offered voluntary lay-off packages, and I seriously considered it since I was ready for something new. But alas, I didn't do anything out of fear of the unknown. As luck would have it though, I was called into my boss' office and I was laid off. Having been there for almost 5 years, I got a 6-week paid severance package on top of the 3 weeks of paid time off that I had saved up. Plus, I had 12+ months of living expenses saved up in my "emergency fund," so I wasn't really worried at all. I was ready for a little mini retirement.
Life without a job was amazing. I could wake up whenever I wanted. I could go visit my grandparents during the day. I could relax and spend time doing the things that I enjoyed. But there was one problem: income. The 9 weeks of pay that I had coming in was going to eventually run out, and I didn't want to have to dip into my savings. I had to find a new job. So I did, but I was no longer happy with going to work every day. I had tasted true freedom, and I desperately wanted it back.
I started looking for other options. I started researching entrepreneurship and was recommended MJ's book by someone on the entrepreneur subreddit on reddit.com. I read the book and I finally realized where I had gone wrong all along. I had no control, no ability to scale, and no ability to generate passive income. I was giving 5 of my days to my employer, and only getting two back. I quickly joined the forums and started reading all that I could. Although I have a strong interest for real estate, Biophase's eCommerce thread and Vigilane's import thread inspired me to take some action. I have registered an LLC, opened a business bank account, researched products on Amazon and eBay, contacted manufactures, and have purchased two test orders of products to brand and sell online. I can say that I have already successfully reinvigorated myself to drive toward my new goal of becoming forever jobless. (Yes, I also read Billy Murphy's blog!
)
Wow, that was a long-winded introduction. Sorry about that. If you're still reading, I look forward to sharing my experiences with the forum as I learn and grow as an aspiring entrepreneur. Thanks for reading.
A "little" history.
I didn't realize it until a few months ago, but I am and have always been a textbook slowlaner. When my parents first started teaching me about money as a child, they taught me to save. I had a green Pringles can (sour cream and onion!) in which I would stash away my allowance every week. I never allowed myself to take any money out, only to put it in. If I got $5 for allowance, I put at least $3 into my Pringles bank account and the rest was for me to spend on whatever I wanted. As an early teen, I got my first job delivering the local city newspaper to my very own neighborhood making $85/month. I thought I had struck gold! Soon thereafter I opened my first checking account with my Mom as a co-signer. I had the same philosophy as I always did and I only ever put money into the checking account that I didn't intend on spending. This worked great as I grew up. It allowed me to save most of the money that I made while I watched many of my friends spend most of theirs. This only strengthened my slowlaner mentality.
I worked hard throughout school and took advantage of the post secondary enrollment option in high school. This allowed me to graduate college with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering a full year early. I couldn't wait to get out. I had lived at home and worked part-time at Best Buy all throughout college and now I was ready to get out on my own and start my career.
It's important to note the Best Buy part, since my time there helped confirm in my mind that I would never want to be in sales. I absolutely hated it. I worked in the camera department because I had a passion for photography. I just wanted to answer peoples' questions about cameras and help them make the right choice, which was not always the most profitable choice. Furthermore, I wasn't paid on any sort of commission, so up-selling was not high on my list of priorities either. With all of that said, Best Buy was quite good at teaching their employees about selling strategies, qualifying the customer, customer service, and organic growth. I found these aspects interesting, but grew tired of how they would teach one thing and then expect another.
Anyway, I quit Best Buy and started my new career as an electrical engineer for a fortune 500 biomedical diagnostics company. I was hired into an "innovation fellowship" program where I got to spend 3 months working on new development projects at each of the four company sites in the US. They paid for my apartment and a rental car all while paying the going rate for a starting engineer. Again I thought I had struck it rich, but I stuck to my guns about putting away the majority of my income.
Once the rotational program was over after the first year, I moved back home and started looking for houses. Although I had no plans of moving anytime soon and thought that I could be a "lifer" at my company I still wanted to find a house that I could put some work into to create instant equity. I made three separate offers on places with 20% down, but each time I got beat out by 100% cash offers. (I would later find out that each of these houses sold for $120k+ over the original purchase price just months later. This piqued my interest in real estate.) I eventually settled on a house and thought I was going to work another 40-50 yrs and retire off of my 401k and other savings. I thought this was the smart way to a happy retirement.
Two years later, I was starting to question my philosophy. I was getting bored with work, and tired of spending 40+hrs/week at the office. I had seen how money could be made with flipping houses if you were smart at it and bought the right houses at the right price. After all I had successfully picked out three houses already and watched them get flipped before my eyes. However, I thought I would need to be making 100% cash offers on houses and I simply didn't have the funds nor the time to really dive into this.
Instead I started a little business on the side as a wedding photographer. I did this because I had always had a passion for photography and I had helped my friend, a full-time wedding photographer, shoot as a secondary on several occasions. I charged $1000 per wedding and did a handful per year. It never really took off, mainly because I realized that it was gobs of work and unless you can eventually charge ridiculous rates per wedding, there really is no way to scale the business. I would still be stuck directly trading my time for money.
Shortly thereafter, my company was purchased by an acquisition company and they announced that they were going to eliminate 1200 jobs. My company offered voluntary lay-off packages, and I seriously considered it since I was ready for something new. But alas, I didn't do anything out of fear of the unknown. As luck would have it though, I was called into my boss' office and I was laid off. Having been there for almost 5 years, I got a 6-week paid severance package on top of the 3 weeks of paid time off that I had saved up. Plus, I had 12+ months of living expenses saved up in my "emergency fund," so I wasn't really worried at all. I was ready for a little mini retirement.
Life without a job was amazing. I could wake up whenever I wanted. I could go visit my grandparents during the day. I could relax and spend time doing the things that I enjoyed. But there was one problem: income. The 9 weeks of pay that I had coming in was going to eventually run out, and I didn't want to have to dip into my savings. I had to find a new job. So I did, but I was no longer happy with going to work every day. I had tasted true freedom, and I desperately wanted it back.
I started looking for other options. I started researching entrepreneurship and was recommended MJ's book by someone on the entrepreneur subreddit on reddit.com. I read the book and I finally realized where I had gone wrong all along. I had no control, no ability to scale, and no ability to generate passive income. I was giving 5 of my days to my employer, and only getting two back. I quickly joined the forums and started reading all that I could. Although I have a strong interest for real estate, Biophase's eCommerce thread and Vigilane's import thread inspired me to take some action. I have registered an LLC, opened a business bank account, researched products on Amazon and eBay, contacted manufactures, and have purchased two test orders of products to brand and sell online. I can say that I have already successfully reinvigorated myself to drive toward my new goal of becoming forever jobless. (Yes, I also read Billy Murphy's blog!
)Wow, that was a long-winded introduction. Sorry about that. If you're still reading, I look forward to sharing my experiences with the forum as I learn and grow as an aspiring entrepreneur. Thanks for reading.
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