Aloha Kākou,
(Hi everybody),
I am a Pittsburgh-born marine naturalist on Maui, Hawaii. I would say I’m a fish guy, but the magic of life is what gets me. I’m so stoked that we’re living on this ocean-planet that’s spinning and orbiting through space. That we share it with such a variety of weird and wonderful critters. And, that we have eyeballs to see it all, bodies to explore it, and brains to understand it. But what’s left to learn is still greater than what we already know.
THANK YOU for your work in this forum. Thank you for reading this. MAHALO. I am so grateful for you.
I’m here because I am committed to achieving financial freedom, and to making the world a better place. I want to kick a$$ at life, and I need to interact with a community of people like you who do the same.
I have been working on snorkel and whale watching tours since 2005. I teach people about the ocean and do all the customer service and crew duties on the boat. I work for Pacwhale Eco-Adventures. This work coincides with my own personal mission in life: inspiring ocean conservation. I also have been doing underwater photography for fun since 2004, with a dream of someday making a career of it.
I have two young daughters (born in 2016 and 2019). Having kids has inspired me to get serious about our financial future.
I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2017 when my wife got pregnant for the second time. My father-in-law recommended that we start a college savings plan for our daughter. It reminded me that my career path was not heading towards the financial future that I want for our family. Nor was it heading towards the life work that I want to do.
I picked up “I Am A Badass At Making Money”. Then I started learning WordPress to build a website to sell prints of my underwater photos as art. I developed a marketing plan. Start a blog about marine life and ocean conservation to drive traffic to my art print sales.
As I started learning WordPress, I also started listening to the cash flow ninja podcast. This led me to audiobooks: Wealth Can’t Wait-->Think And Grow Rich, Miracle Morning; 7 Day Startup.
I took some PTO to finish building my website. Got it done.
Shortly after launching, I made a couple of mistakes. Wasted some time and money.
My biggest mistake so far has been chasing shiny objects. The book 7-Day Startup had warned me not to do this, but I did not listen. I pretty much abandoned my marketing plan, and I started jumping from idea to idea.
I will follow through with this art business. I know that a lot of people might yell, “Wonder Twins!!!” In fact, I have yelled it inside my own head. “Follow your passion and do what you love” can lead you to violate the Commandments of Need and Entry.
My answer is that people have some pretty solid needs that I can meet with my art. Reaching those people and meeting their needs is a process not an event. The process is the barrier to entry. I am up for the challenge. That said, I waver like crazy. I’m more of a words and pictures guy, less of a numbers guy. One of my big challenges is forcing myself to do the math. When I envision the future, I come up with some pretty awesome words and images. When it comes time to figure out how much those things will cost and how will I pay for them, I tend to chicken out.
I have worked through a lot of my issues with money. I come from a middle class family where money doesn’t grow on trees or buy happiness, and on and on. Mediocrity is the norm and religious guilt abounds. I love my family to the moon and back, and I very much appreciate their support of my life choices. They kind of wish I was still in Pittsburgh, but it’s also cool for them to have me living my adventurous life in Maui. I’m very grateful that I rarely receive anything in the way of a guilt trip, and I get a lot of love and support from the fam. Working through my money issues is a work in progress, but I've made a lot of headway. Thanks in part to the words of MJ: "Freedom costs money." And the awesome life I want to live will require a lot of money.
I've had my FTE. New Years Eve last year. "Work when you’re needed” hurts enough for me to do what it takes. I don't blame my leadership team or anybody else. It's just time for me to grow into the kick-a$$ life that I want to live.
So, what am I doing right now? Expanding my education. The knowledge gap is real. Action faking? Nah. I’m studying accounting daily. Taking notes. Taking quizzes. That’s my process at the moment. I must develop a foundation of financial literacy. The plan is to apply what I’ve learned to my own business, set some realistic goals, and execute.
Thank you @MJ DeMarco for writing your books. You have nourished my entrepreneurial spirit and given me the tools to get where I want to go. May I have the wisdom and fortitude to use them. Thank you for starting this forum too, and for cultivating it. I love what I see here, and I want to be a valued member of the forum.
I’ll be 43 next month. I must keep moving. I need fires under my a$$. I also put a high value on family time and sleep. Being a family man and being healthy take high priority for me. So it’s a balancing act.
I look forward to building friendships within this community. I promise to contribute to the conversation, to be positive, and to show respect.
Wow! That was a long intro. Anybody still with me? Thanks for reading (or skimming)!
Aloha,
Josh
(Hi everybody),
I am a Pittsburgh-born marine naturalist on Maui, Hawaii. I would say I’m a fish guy, but the magic of life is what gets me. I’m so stoked that we’re living on this ocean-planet that’s spinning and orbiting through space. That we share it with such a variety of weird and wonderful critters. And, that we have eyeballs to see it all, bodies to explore it, and brains to understand it. But what’s left to learn is still greater than what we already know.
THANK YOU for your work in this forum. Thank you for reading this. MAHALO. I am so grateful for you.
I’m here because I am committed to achieving financial freedom, and to making the world a better place. I want to kick a$$ at life, and I need to interact with a community of people like you who do the same.
I have been working on snorkel and whale watching tours since 2005. I teach people about the ocean and do all the customer service and crew duties on the boat. I work for Pacwhale Eco-Adventures. This work coincides with my own personal mission in life: inspiring ocean conservation. I also have been doing underwater photography for fun since 2004, with a dream of someday making a career of it.
I have two young daughters (born in 2016 and 2019). Having kids has inspired me to get serious about our financial future.
I started my entrepreneurial journey in 2017 when my wife got pregnant for the second time. My father-in-law recommended that we start a college savings plan for our daughter. It reminded me that my career path was not heading towards the financial future that I want for our family. Nor was it heading towards the life work that I want to do.
I picked up “I Am A Badass At Making Money”. Then I started learning WordPress to build a website to sell prints of my underwater photos as art. I developed a marketing plan. Start a blog about marine life and ocean conservation to drive traffic to my art print sales.
As I started learning WordPress, I also started listening to the cash flow ninja podcast. This led me to audiobooks: Wealth Can’t Wait-->Think And Grow Rich, Miracle Morning; 7 Day Startup.
I took some PTO to finish building my website. Got it done.
Shortly after launching, I made a couple of mistakes. Wasted some time and money.
My biggest mistake so far has been chasing shiny objects. The book 7-Day Startup had warned me not to do this, but I did not listen. I pretty much abandoned my marketing plan, and I started jumping from idea to idea.
I will follow through with this art business. I know that a lot of people might yell, “Wonder Twins!!!” In fact, I have yelled it inside my own head. “Follow your passion and do what you love” can lead you to violate the Commandments of Need and Entry.
My answer is that people have some pretty solid needs that I can meet with my art. Reaching those people and meeting their needs is a process not an event. The process is the barrier to entry. I am up for the challenge. That said, I waver like crazy. I’m more of a words and pictures guy, less of a numbers guy. One of my big challenges is forcing myself to do the math. When I envision the future, I come up with some pretty awesome words and images. When it comes time to figure out how much those things will cost and how will I pay for them, I tend to chicken out.
I have worked through a lot of my issues with money. I come from a middle class family where money doesn’t grow on trees or buy happiness, and on and on. Mediocrity is the norm and religious guilt abounds. I love my family to the moon and back, and I very much appreciate their support of my life choices. They kind of wish I was still in Pittsburgh, but it’s also cool for them to have me living my adventurous life in Maui. I’m very grateful that I rarely receive anything in the way of a guilt trip, and I get a lot of love and support from the fam. Working through my money issues is a work in progress, but I've made a lot of headway. Thanks in part to the words of MJ: "Freedom costs money." And the awesome life I want to live will require a lot of money.
I've had my FTE. New Years Eve last year. "Work when you’re needed” hurts enough for me to do what it takes. I don't blame my leadership team or anybody else. It's just time for me to grow into the kick-a$$ life that I want to live.
So, what am I doing right now? Expanding my education. The knowledge gap is real. Action faking? Nah. I’m studying accounting daily. Taking notes. Taking quizzes. That’s my process at the moment. I must develop a foundation of financial literacy. The plan is to apply what I’ve learned to my own business, set some realistic goals, and execute.
Thank you @MJ DeMarco for writing your books. You have nourished my entrepreneurial spirit and given me the tools to get where I want to go. May I have the wisdom and fortitude to use them. Thank you for starting this forum too, and for cultivating it. I love what I see here, and I want to be a valued member of the forum.
I’ll be 43 next month. I must keep moving. I need fires under my a$$. I also put a high value on family time and sleep. Being a family man and being healthy take high priority for me. So it’s a balancing act.
I look forward to building friendships within this community. I promise to contribute to the conversation, to be positive, and to show respect.
Wow! That was a long intro. Anybody still with me? Thanks for reading (or skimming)!
Aloha,
Josh
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