I came to a very difficult conclusion recently. I wanted to share it and why it motivated me to fully commit to the fastlane/starting a business. Reading my first intro post will also help with some context.
----------------------- In case that is not enought context ----------------------------------
After high school, I decided to go to college for one reason, and one reason only: I wanted to work on Starship with the elite SpaceX engineers, and project teams/college was the fastest path to gettting there. Note, I never wanted to go to college, but thought a 2-year sacrifice was worth it. So this and last semester I've been working relentlessly on engineering projects, and the trex amount of coursework. It's been a lot of work-sleep-work pain, a lot of BS (15% learning, 85% keeping GPA afloat), and I hated it a lot. It felt wrong, and I started to question if this is what it took, and if so, is the end goal what I want? SpaceX was literally the only thing I thought about for the last 6 months.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, I had a mentor during this time, and at one point he took a shot (a strong one) at my ego. It was in reference to getting a spacex summer internship; I was asking for an answer but self-admitted I had limited credentials to attain one as a freshman. But then I realized this was not only a hit to my ego, but a hit to why I wanted spacex: my ego.
I meditated for 2h on this. This was the longest I've ever sat still. I had to truly ask myself why I had this dream to work at Boca Chica. It was a deep and existential moment. Ideas circulated about mimetic theory, about preprogramming, the possibility that spacex is a matrix, not an escape, within the matrix. I didn't get down to the bottom of it but I realized on surface level: I thought it was "cool" to work on Starship. Cool to send humans to mars, cool to work by the beach on the southern tip of texas, cool to work for Elon, cool to (while true in my desire) attain an elite level of engineering skill. And let me be clear: I mean "cool" not in putting myself above other engineers/9-5 jobs, but cool in that my self-ego/ambitions would be fulfilled. So I had to ask why I wanted to do something cool, why I had an ego for cool things. And I still don't know. But what is for sure, is that I don't want to work for Rocketlab, Lockheed, NASA, etc. And other than Elon, the vision, and the team that comes with it, SpaceX is just another ambitious aerospace company. Cool aside, I'm an engineer working for a company. Is that what I want? Is that what my ego wants? I don't know.
So I have some things left unanswered. But what followed this meditation is a little voice that said if I continue focusing on the small BS problems (next exam, next homework deadline, next project), the cycle will continue indefinitely and reinforce the preprogramming of pursuing cool. That little voice told me that I need to leave college immediately, and find myself or a new atmosphere.
Just thinking about that voice spiked my cortisol. Hence the pulling the trigger analogy. I currently have no debt. I'm fearless and believe in myself exceptionally. I've seen and read enough to have zero doubt that I can make it. I decided on pursuing a secondary dream I've had for a while: moving to austin and starting a liquidation arbitrage company (more on that later). Technically, I will be taking gap year, so that if I find cool is what I really want, I can return with zero risk. The only thing I have to lose I thought, was 2.5 semesters of BS.
I have pulled the trigger and am final on the decision to leave college (temporarily or permanently). But before I had to ask myself if fastlane/business is just a scapegoat, another "cool." The truth is I also don't know. In the end, why do anything? But I reason that in the short-term (1-5 years) it would be an objectively good thing to put myself (and the free market) in absolute control of my life and attain wealth. In the long-term, I'm 18yo and don't know what I truly want in life. At least if I achieve a high-level of wealth, I will have the freedom to explore new things and have higher probability of answering what I don't know. Maybe I will still want to work with SpaceX, but at the current moment, I feel a deep belonging to pursuing that little voice.
On the fastlane details:
It's first important to mention my mindset is not in desperation, but in confidence and control. I don't believe that it will be dropped to me from the sky, and I know ahead only I can make it happen. I will also need to extend my growth towards becoming a respectable, high-value man. Excusing superficial self-help and "entrepreneurship" books, I have read and learned a lot from MJ and authors of similar caliber. I think have a glimse of what money is, how businesses produce value, and what it takes to transpose the two. But I have a lot to learn, especially from other entrepreneurs and this fastlane forum. I'm still naive in many lenses.
I'm choosing Austin because it seems like an econmically viable place to start an LLC (or S-corp if I find investors). I see it as a rising Silicon Valley with a lot of young entreprenuerial energy, loads of VC funding coming in, and a good atmoshpere for the fastlane. I considered scottsdale, but find it less urban and more residential in energy. Additionally I really prioritize to network with other entrepreneurs, investors, and partners to work with, something I hope Austin can offer.
On the liquidation arbitrage business: I've learned a lot about dropshipping and ecommerce ecosystem as a whole in the past 2 years. I've also been a mildly successful reseller on eBay. The thing that caught my interest in retail liquidation pallets/lots was a summer ago, in one weekend, I bought a homedepot liquidation pallet for under $200, and sold a third of the inventory on FBM for $600 cash. It opened up my eyes. Big companies like quicklotz, liquidation.com, and b-stock buy these liquidation pallets for pebbels from Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc. and auction them off to individuals. I believe there is a gap between two ends of the market: the individuals buying from auctions are side-hustlers, have little knowledge of what's inside the pallet (scams are quite often), and can't scale the side-hustle past their garage (also don't have LLC/licenses for bigger operations). While the liquidation companies are "quick flip," don't care to house extended inventory, don't take apart the pallets, and don't sell the goods on ebay/amazon. My big idea is to have a front-to-end liquidation company that buys the liquidation pallets directly from retailers, in truckloads, has a warehouse and inventory staff, an automated product listing software (not terribly difficult to build with the right team - can also be sold as a subscription later on) for thousands of listings/day, and eventually its own shopify store (to exceed the limiting fees and marketing on ebay/amazon). Of course, I think this would have to start as a small reselling company, buying from liquidation companies, with a small warehouse.
I've also explored the idea of an SaaS company specializing in performing advanced simulations (sotwares like Ansys Mechanical, Star CCM) for small engineering startups/companies. An SaaS company for helping manufacturing companies (machine shops, injection molds, metal/lumber suppliers) integrate their services with Shopify stores (believe it or not most still only do orders over the phone/email). And a home installation company specializing in integrating homeowners' solar arrays with a module to sell energy back to grid; similar to to tesla power wall, but no battery, and company takes small commission on reveneue from what is sold back to grid. However these are ideas, and I feel liquidation arbitrage is more simple and reliable.
To start, I'm thinking I get a job in sales or construction (skills I want to level up) to pay the bills, and work my a$$ off on the business and networking in the remaining time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I appreciate anyone who has read through the entire post. I have a few things to take care of, and will be leaving for Austin soon. While I shared maybe half my current thoughts, I really believe this is the start of something new, and am open to anyone's thoughts/advice on what I've planned moving forward.
I will be updating this thread with my progress as time passes. But I also want to be the guy that takes action instead of talking.
-Dan
----------------------- In case that is not enought context ----------------------------------
After high school, I decided to go to college for one reason, and one reason only: I wanted to work on Starship with the elite SpaceX engineers, and project teams/college was the fastest path to gettting there. Note, I never wanted to go to college, but thought a 2-year sacrifice was worth it. So this and last semester I've been working relentlessly on engineering projects, and the trex amount of coursework. It's been a lot of work-sleep-work pain, a lot of BS (15% learning, 85% keeping GPA afloat), and I hated it a lot. It felt wrong, and I started to question if this is what it took, and if so, is the end goal what I want? SpaceX was literally the only thing I thought about for the last 6 months.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, I had a mentor during this time, and at one point he took a shot (a strong one) at my ego. It was in reference to getting a spacex summer internship; I was asking for an answer but self-admitted I had limited credentials to attain one as a freshman. But then I realized this was not only a hit to my ego, but a hit to why I wanted spacex: my ego.
I meditated for 2h on this. This was the longest I've ever sat still. I had to truly ask myself why I had this dream to work at Boca Chica. It was a deep and existential moment. Ideas circulated about mimetic theory, about preprogramming, the possibility that spacex is a matrix, not an escape, within the matrix. I didn't get down to the bottom of it but I realized on surface level: I thought it was "cool" to work on Starship. Cool to send humans to mars, cool to work by the beach on the southern tip of texas, cool to work for Elon, cool to (while true in my desire) attain an elite level of engineering skill. And let me be clear: I mean "cool" not in putting myself above other engineers/9-5 jobs, but cool in that my self-ego/ambitions would be fulfilled. So I had to ask why I wanted to do something cool, why I had an ego for cool things. And I still don't know. But what is for sure, is that I don't want to work for Rocketlab, Lockheed, NASA, etc. And other than Elon, the vision, and the team that comes with it, SpaceX is just another ambitious aerospace company. Cool aside, I'm an engineer working for a company. Is that what I want? Is that what my ego wants? I don't know.
So I have some things left unanswered. But what followed this meditation is a little voice that said if I continue focusing on the small BS problems (next exam, next homework deadline, next project), the cycle will continue indefinitely and reinforce the preprogramming of pursuing cool. That little voice told me that I need to leave college immediately, and find myself or a new atmosphere.
Just thinking about that voice spiked my cortisol. Hence the pulling the trigger analogy. I currently have no debt. I'm fearless and believe in myself exceptionally. I've seen and read enough to have zero doubt that I can make it. I decided on pursuing a secondary dream I've had for a while: moving to austin and starting a liquidation arbitrage company (more on that later). Technically, I will be taking gap year, so that if I find cool is what I really want, I can return with zero risk. The only thing I have to lose I thought, was 2.5 semesters of BS.
I have pulled the trigger and am final on the decision to leave college (temporarily or permanently). But before I had to ask myself if fastlane/business is just a scapegoat, another "cool." The truth is I also don't know. In the end, why do anything? But I reason that in the short-term (1-5 years) it would be an objectively good thing to put myself (and the free market) in absolute control of my life and attain wealth. In the long-term, I'm 18yo and don't know what I truly want in life. At least if I achieve a high-level of wealth, I will have the freedom to explore new things and have higher probability of answering what I don't know. Maybe I will still want to work with SpaceX, but at the current moment, I feel a deep belonging to pursuing that little voice.
On the fastlane details:
It's first important to mention my mindset is not in desperation, but in confidence and control. I don't believe that it will be dropped to me from the sky, and I know ahead only I can make it happen. I will also need to extend my growth towards becoming a respectable, high-value man. Excusing superficial self-help and "entrepreneurship" books, I have read and learned a lot from MJ and authors of similar caliber. I think have a glimse of what money is, how businesses produce value, and what it takes to transpose the two. But I have a lot to learn, especially from other entrepreneurs and this fastlane forum. I'm still naive in many lenses.
I'm choosing Austin because it seems like an econmically viable place to start an LLC (or S-corp if I find investors). I see it as a rising Silicon Valley with a lot of young entreprenuerial energy, loads of VC funding coming in, and a good atmoshpere for the fastlane. I considered scottsdale, but find it less urban and more residential in energy. Additionally I really prioritize to network with other entrepreneurs, investors, and partners to work with, something I hope Austin can offer.
On the liquidation arbitrage business: I've learned a lot about dropshipping and ecommerce ecosystem as a whole in the past 2 years. I've also been a mildly successful reseller on eBay. The thing that caught my interest in retail liquidation pallets/lots was a summer ago, in one weekend, I bought a homedepot liquidation pallet for under $200, and sold a third of the inventory on FBM for $600 cash. It opened up my eyes. Big companies like quicklotz, liquidation.com, and b-stock buy these liquidation pallets for pebbels from Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Amazon, etc. and auction them off to individuals. I believe there is a gap between two ends of the market: the individuals buying from auctions are side-hustlers, have little knowledge of what's inside the pallet (scams are quite often), and can't scale the side-hustle past their garage (also don't have LLC/licenses for bigger operations). While the liquidation companies are "quick flip," don't care to house extended inventory, don't take apart the pallets, and don't sell the goods on ebay/amazon. My big idea is to have a front-to-end liquidation company that buys the liquidation pallets directly from retailers, in truckloads, has a warehouse and inventory staff, an automated product listing software (not terribly difficult to build with the right team - can also be sold as a subscription later on) for thousands of listings/day, and eventually its own shopify store (to exceed the limiting fees and marketing on ebay/amazon). Of course, I think this would have to start as a small reselling company, buying from liquidation companies, with a small warehouse.
I've also explored the idea of an SaaS company specializing in performing advanced simulations (sotwares like Ansys Mechanical, Star CCM) for small engineering startups/companies. An SaaS company for helping manufacturing companies (machine shops, injection molds, metal/lumber suppliers) integrate their services with Shopify stores (believe it or not most still only do orders over the phone/email). And a home installation company specializing in integrating homeowners' solar arrays with a module to sell energy back to grid; similar to to tesla power wall, but no battery, and company takes small commission on reveneue from what is sold back to grid. However these are ideas, and I feel liquidation arbitrage is more simple and reliable.
To start, I'm thinking I get a job in sales or construction (skills I want to level up) to pay the bills, and work my a$$ off on the business and networking in the remaining time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I appreciate anyone who has read through the entire post. I have a few things to take care of, and will be leaving for Austin soon. While I shared maybe half my current thoughts, I really believe this is the start of something new, and am open to anyone's thoughts/advice on what I've planned moving forward.
I will be updating this thread with my progress as time passes. But I also want to be the guy that takes action instead of talking.
-Dan
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