Hey Fastlaners!
Unlike some people (*cough* @Chitown *cough*) I've already created a formal intro when I joined.
But it was just the usual generic...Hey, I'm from Toronto. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to learning for you all and giving back value where I can...blah blah...shit.
Now, in preparation for the Summit, I'll go 'open kimono' for you all and give you my full backstory. Yeah, you read that right; full frontal!
I landed here in the forum before I read the book. It was a little a$$-backwards but I didn't know about the book beforehand (sorry @MJ DeMarco). How'd I find the forum? I'm not sure exactly what led me here...but I think it was just 'organic search' as I was figuring out this crazy path of entrepreneurship.
You see, one year for Christmas my soon-to-be second wife gave me a Brian Tracy audio book to listen to on my commute. I was down on my job and wanted a change so she felt the book would help my mindset. As a real estate agent she applied some of his ideas to her career and benefitted form it. Little did she know that book would start me on this path. (Fact: I wasn't fan of the book, but it was enough to get me thinking and learning more about other aspects of business and life.) I signed up for an Audible account and started burning through business books at an alarming rate (a testament to the length of my commute) which eventually led me here.
I had made a few attempts at entrepreneurship in the past but they always lacked that long term goal setting and opportunities to scale.
--- My racing history and business (the long version) ---
I started working on race cars when I was 12. A neighbour had a stock car the he raced at one of the local tracks. I would go over from time to time just to see what was going on. One day, his regular crew was a no-show and he was frantically trying to get ready for a race. I offered to help and to my surprise he put me to work on the car.
The neighbour wasn't a good driver but he was passionate about it. He lived in the slowlane to support his habit. He made 6 figures but lived with his mom and poured everything into his car. He didn't care if he won or lost, he just wanted to be a part of the big show. And that's what drove him to leave the local track and move up to what was the #3 touring series in the US at the time (ARCA).
When I was 16 he decided to make the switch to race ARCA. He didn't just by an old Nascar chassis and run it like most teams did. Instead he build a jig and then built the car on the jig he fabricated. He sold the jig afterward to cover the costs of the car. He was a skilled fabricator but a shitty engineer and the car ran like crap. As stupid as it sounds, I'm thankful for that. Because the car was shit he was open to ideas on how to make it faster. He encouraged me to research race car design and allowed me the freedom to make substantial changes to the car. At 17 I was his Race Engineer in ARCA and I was learning a ton!
I stepped away from racing when I was 19 to focus on my degree. After graduation I started working in a small town and was bored; both socially and with my work. I wanted to get back into racing but there was nothing around. I thought about leaving it all to go work for a team in North Carolina. Unfortunately over the past 6 years I had lost touch with most of my network while Nascar went through a boom. The opportunities weren't there.
It wasn't until 2003 when I was 29 that I got back into racing. I remember sitting in my house watching this race on TV. I had seen it years before but for some reason this particular one resonated with me. It was the 24h of Daytona. The cars were much more sophisticated than the primitive stock cars I had been working on and that appealed to the engineer in me. I liked it so much that I decided then and there to put competing in the 24h on my bucket list.
The series had a forum on their site back then. It had a classifieds area with a driver ride board and a crew available/wanted page. I posted a ad explaining my background and offering my services as a volunteer to get my foot into the door. I started to become more active on the boards and in March I got an email. Someone wanted to give me a shot. They flew me to Homestead and after that trial race, I was in. That following January the team had a chance to race in the 24 h of Daytona and they went for it. Less than a year after adding it to my bucket list I was able to scratch it off. It felt great! But also a little anti-climactic.
I stayed in professional sportscar racing until 2013 with a variety of teams. Over the years I was fortunate to have been part of a championship winning team and a team that won the 24h (center of back row) . I also was a contributor in bringing Porsche their first win in a particular class.
I started a business during those years. It was a hobby more than a business really. I helped other Canadians find jobs in pro-racing and got them to legally work in the US. I helped to negotiate their rates and skimmed a bit off the top for my services. It wasn't much in terms of revenue and I was ok with that. I just wanted to give back and help others.
--- TV and Consulting ---
Still, racing was mostly a fly-in job. I was working full-time for Sony in their Systems Integration Group and burning through vacation and lieu time to go racing. At Sony, we designed and built TV stations, Radio stations and other A/V intensive projects for Medical, Education and Government sectors. After 7 years there and no prospect for a long term career path I quit...sort of.
We lost a big tender we were bidding on and rumour had it that the client still needed some help with it. My kids (twins) were about to turn 1. In Canada that means it's your last chance to take your 1 year of maternity or paternity leave. So I jumped at it, not knowing completely what I was doing. I spent time with the kids and a few weeks later reached out to the client that whose project we lost. I told them I was available as a consultant if they needed some assistance. They took me up on it and my accidental foray into entrepreneurship began.
I grew the company from a staff of 1 to 3 over the 4 years I had it. Revenue was around the $500k mark. The industry took a downturn over this time as did my marriage. We divorced and in fallout of the marriage I sold the business for peanuts. My cynical outlook on the health of the industry and depression over my marriage were to blame. I took a 9-5 job for less money because of the benefits and stability. I'd say that I regret that decision but I don't. I'm in a different area of the industry and have continued to evolve as a person. Without that whole journey I never would have met the amazing wife I have now and I wouldn't have found this forum or any of you. So, I am grateful.
Now, I'm remarried to someone who also has a fastlane mentality and a desire to travel. She used to have a moderately successful side-business but it wasn't scalable so we sold it to refocus. She's a real estate agent and we've been fortunate to pick up some smart investment properties. We've grown our net worth considerably and have rather decent cash-flow from them as well. Still, it's not the fastlane success story that we want to create for us. Thankfully we're not done our journey yet.
I haven't yet been here a year, but I've learned and changed so much during this time. I'd say thanks to @MJ DeMarco and the mods/contributors here but that's not enough. The best way that I can thank those before me, who left the breadcrumbs for my journey, is to be a success and to fulfill the potential that I know I have while contributing to the community as they have.
See you in Scottsdale!
Mike aka LateStarter
Unlike some people (*cough* @Chitown *cough*) I've already created a formal intro when I joined.
But it was just the usual generic...Hey, I'm from Toronto. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to learning for you all and giving back value where I can...blah blah...shit. Now, in preparation for the Summit, I'll go 'open kimono' for you all and give you my full backstory. Yeah, you read that right; full frontal!
I landed here in the forum before I read the book. It was a little a$$-backwards but I didn't know about the book beforehand (sorry @MJ DeMarco). How'd I find the forum? I'm not sure exactly what led me here...but I think it was just 'organic search' as I was figuring out this crazy path of entrepreneurship.
You see, one year for Christmas my soon-to-be second wife gave me a Brian Tracy audio book to listen to on my commute. I was down on my job and wanted a change so she felt the book would help my mindset. As a real estate agent she applied some of his ideas to her career and benefitted form it. Little did she know that book would start me on this path. (Fact: I wasn't fan of the book, but it was enough to get me thinking and learning more about other aspects of business and life.) I signed up for an Audible account and started burning through business books at an alarming rate (a testament to the length of my commute) which eventually led me here.
I had made a few attempts at entrepreneurship in the past but they always lacked that long term goal setting and opportunities to scale.
--- My racing history and business (the long version) ---
I started working on race cars when I was 12. A neighbour had a stock car the he raced at one of the local tracks. I would go over from time to time just to see what was going on. One day, his regular crew was a no-show and he was frantically trying to get ready for a race. I offered to help and to my surprise he put me to work on the car.
The neighbour wasn't a good driver but he was passionate about it. He lived in the slowlane to support his habit. He made 6 figures but lived with his mom and poured everything into his car. He didn't care if he won or lost, he just wanted to be a part of the big show. And that's what drove him to leave the local track and move up to what was the #3 touring series in the US at the time (ARCA).
When I was 16 he decided to make the switch to race ARCA. He didn't just by an old Nascar chassis and run it like most teams did. Instead he build a jig and then built the car on the jig he fabricated. He sold the jig afterward to cover the costs of the car. He was a skilled fabricator but a shitty engineer and the car ran like crap. As stupid as it sounds, I'm thankful for that. Because the car was shit he was open to ideas on how to make it faster. He encouraged me to research race car design and allowed me the freedom to make substantial changes to the car. At 17 I was his Race Engineer in ARCA and I was learning a ton!
I stepped away from racing when I was 19 to focus on my degree. After graduation I started working in a small town and was bored; both socially and with my work. I wanted to get back into racing but there was nothing around. I thought about leaving it all to go work for a team in North Carolina. Unfortunately over the past 6 years I had lost touch with most of my network while Nascar went through a boom. The opportunities weren't there.
It wasn't until 2003 when I was 29 that I got back into racing. I remember sitting in my house watching this race on TV. I had seen it years before but for some reason this particular one resonated with me. It was the 24h of Daytona. The cars were much more sophisticated than the primitive stock cars I had been working on and that appealed to the engineer in me. I liked it so much that I decided then and there to put competing in the 24h on my bucket list.
The series had a forum on their site back then. It had a classifieds area with a driver ride board and a crew available/wanted page. I posted a ad explaining my background and offering my services as a volunteer to get my foot into the door. I started to become more active on the boards and in March I got an email. Someone wanted to give me a shot. They flew me to Homestead and after that trial race, I was in. That following January the team had a chance to race in the 24 h of Daytona and they went for it. Less than a year after adding it to my bucket list I was able to scratch it off. It felt great! But also a little anti-climactic.
I stayed in professional sportscar racing until 2013 with a variety of teams. Over the years I was fortunate to have been part of a championship winning team and a team that won the 24h (center of back row) . I also was a contributor in bringing Porsche their first win in a particular class.
I started a business during those years. It was a hobby more than a business really. I helped other Canadians find jobs in pro-racing and got them to legally work in the US. I helped to negotiate their rates and skimmed a bit off the top for my services. It wasn't much in terms of revenue and I was ok with that. I just wanted to give back and help others.
--- TV and Consulting ---
Still, racing was mostly a fly-in job. I was working full-time for Sony in their Systems Integration Group and burning through vacation and lieu time to go racing. At Sony, we designed and built TV stations, Radio stations and other A/V intensive projects for Medical, Education and Government sectors. After 7 years there and no prospect for a long term career path I quit...sort of.
We lost a big tender we were bidding on and rumour had it that the client still needed some help with it. My kids (twins) were about to turn 1. In Canada that means it's your last chance to take your 1 year of maternity or paternity leave. So I jumped at it, not knowing completely what I was doing. I spent time with the kids and a few weeks later reached out to the client that whose project we lost. I told them I was available as a consultant if they needed some assistance. They took me up on it and my accidental foray into entrepreneurship began.
I grew the company from a staff of 1 to 3 over the 4 years I had it. Revenue was around the $500k mark. The industry took a downturn over this time as did my marriage. We divorced and in fallout of the marriage I sold the business for peanuts. My cynical outlook on the health of the industry and depression over my marriage were to blame. I took a 9-5 job for less money because of the benefits and stability. I'd say that I regret that decision but I don't. I'm in a different area of the industry and have continued to evolve as a person. Without that whole journey I never would have met the amazing wife I have now and I wouldn't have found this forum or any of you. So, I am grateful.
Now, I'm remarried to someone who also has a fastlane mentality and a desire to travel. She used to have a moderately successful side-business but it wasn't scalable so we sold it to refocus. She's a real estate agent and we've been fortunate to pick up some smart investment properties. We've grown our net worth considerably and have rather decent cash-flow from them as well. Still, it's not the fastlane success story that we want to create for us. Thankfully we're not done our journey yet.
I haven't yet been here a year, but I've learned and changed so much during this time. I'd say thanks to @MJ DeMarco and the mods/contributors here but that's not enough. The best way that I can thank those before me, who left the breadcrumbs for my journey, is to be a success and to fulfill the potential that I know I have while contributing to the community as they have.
See you in Scottsdale!
Mike aka LateStarter
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