Guest304
New Contributor
I've only just begun immersing myself in the plethora of knowledge that seems to be here on the forum. I've ordered the book. You might be asking yourself why the title of my thread is skepticism, yet my post seems so positive so far. Well, I didn't say my own skepticism did I?
Truth be told this post IS about my own skepticism and overcoming it.
I'm still new to entrepreneurship and learning to grasp the keys to success.
My biggest problem thus far? Simple. Skepticism. While I haven't read the book yet ( day two on the forum) I do intend to. I have to assume this is probably mentioned. Even if it is, I imagine there may be someone out there like myself that fancies themselves intelligent and therefore somewhat skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. When you hear something that sounds amazing and simple that just requires effort, you probably think to yourself... "Hmmmm, if it were that easy everyone would do it!"
Well yes, in the real world that's mostly true, but I have to say. Having a passion and a dedication to what you're doing is a real key to success on the road leading up to what I consider being the fast lane.
Truth be told the title of this thread is more of a click-bait when I really get down to it. This is a thread that introduces myself to the forum and hopefully will help some others about any resolve they may have.
I'm 26 and have an awesome career at the moment.
It didn't start out that way though, and truthfully, there was a lot of hard work and dedication involved to get where I am ( cruisin' down the street in my six fo) and what I would call the highway leading up to the fast lane. The method I took may be off the beaten path for the norm here and from what I've read so far, it's a dirt road start. I will tell you anyway, because not everyone will find this forum or this new way of thinking at the same point in their lives.
I grew up in Georgia, where I graduated High school. Throughout school I had mostly straight A's and took AP classes etc. By the time I hit high school though; I had developed other interested such as riding dirt bikes, as well as general teenage girl problems. I lost focus. Which seems to be the key to anything does it not? I didn't study ever really because I didn't need to. That stuff sort of came easily. Now a senior in High School, AP physics was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Ultimately I hunkered down and actually opened the book. What do you know? I passed. Actually, the professor had made a deal with us that whatever we got on the final exam was to be our grade for the year if it was better than our grade in the class. Well, That meant meant I needed a 70 right? There was no point in trying to salvage anything else. Well, The amass of studying I did landed me a 98 on the final. Awesome. I had skated by and studied once. Now I'd reap the full rewards of my mostly lazy lifestyle. Wrong, the professor couldn't turn my 50 into a 98 for one test. He'd assumed that wouldn't happen for anyone. Apparently, I was really lacking applying myself at the time. We agreed and settled upon an 80 for the class. That was my first real life lesson as well as my first lesson in humility and how the real world works. I tell you this to simply say; being skeptical isn't always bad, but applying yourself never is.
After High school I had amassed a pretty decent following locally riding dirt bikes. I thought, hell... I can just do this for a career. At the time, mostly nobody was backflipping and I could do the basics. If I learned to flip, I could make a really decent living doing it and enjoying what I do. Well, as you all know... Life doesn't work like that. I did have plenty of opportunity. I worked for a place that was the Mecca for moto in the US ( at least on the East Coast) and had met countless people I'd need in the future to pursue that career. In the meantime, I had created my first business. A school. I was great with kids, mainly because I'm still just a big kid. Albeit a smarter one. I was making $60 -$100 an hour to reach little rugrats how to ride. It was terrific. Then my boss at the park caught wind and wanted his cut. HALF? Yeah right! I'm doing all the work and actually bringing people in. If anything he should pay me! Well, that was lesson number two. I decided it was time to apply myself. I moved to Florida to go to school. Where you ask? MMI of course. If I can't be a pro motocross rider, I can still be in the industry.
After moving to Orlando I quickly realized that MMI wasn't for me. I was working at McDonalds which was just enough to support traveling to and from school. I couldn't actually afford living and school itself. I got another job selling art door to door. I was good at it. In my first day of testing where I was to watch and Learn, I sold $500.00 worth of art while the trainer was on lunch break. I didn't get to keep any of my cut though... because well, I was just training. That seemed to be a pyramid scheme and I was getting homesick so I moved on back to Georgia to re-up my moto school. I knew a former championship winning pro looking for some help. His name was, let's call him SHLAY Dentley.
So Shlay and I worked for months together doing schools where I'd do the brunt of the work and he'd sit back and sort of direct, but who was I to say anything? He's Shlay Dentley. I'm just a never was freestyler. So I did it for a while, only to end up deciding to go solo on my own again and pay the 50% tax to my former boss to do it on his property. Life lesson three learned here. You've got to pay to play and that's something I needed to learn growing up.
Fast forward a few years and I'm sick of it again. Well, a buddy of mine sees some of my art work ( charcoal portraits) and is blown away. He's covered head to toe in tattoos and says he knows a guy that owns a tattoo shop in Florida that would hire me on the spot. Here's where my skepticism came into play again. Sure I was decent at drawing; I mean my dad was a professional artist so it wasn't too farfetched, but on the spot I could start tattooing and making real money? Surely that's not the case. Come to find out; in this instance it wasn't , but hey I was looking for a change. So I moved back to Florida to give it a shot.
Once I arrived, I luckily could rely on my artistic background to supplement me working for the same place doing social media and design stuff while I was learning to tattoo. I apprenticed at the shop for about 4 months before I regularly had my own clients and started really becoming an "artist" Well, tattooing was the second job I had where I had to really rely on booking appointments to make sure I had enough money to pay the bills. There are seasons months in the industry for most artists and it was hard. I never was good at saving money. So I thought hell, I'll get a second job. Little did I know, that job would change my life and my world view forever.
The fourth life lesson came here: Life is full of ups and downs, but everything worth doing requires effort. It's important that even if you're skeptical to still go out and try for the things you want. I mean REALLY try. Not just put in an attempt. Try until you've failed to the point where it's insane to try again... Then try one more time.
I got my second job part time at a warehouse that I found on craigslist. It worked out because it was the same distance in another direction as the tattoo shop from my house. It's actually a triangle. No matter if I was going from the shop to the warehouse or from either to home, it was all about the same distance. I still ride and drive a pickup because of that so gas mileage is a concern being on a low budget, but it worked out. The first day of my new job in the warehouse I was hired. I was supposed to be on a 90 day trial to see how it'd work. The boss was so happy with my speed and enthusiasm that he gave me the job then and there. I worked in the warehouse maybe 6 months before they decided to put me in customer service. I did both. Answered phones while packing boxes. I would still pack more boxes than anyone else. At that point my new boss did something that had never happened to me before. He gave me a bonus. Not just any bonus either. He offered to buy me a new dirt bike. He had grown up riding and I had ridden with him once or twice. He saw my ragged out old bike and decided I needed a new one. He wanted to reward me for my efforts. I couldn't believe it. Nobody had ever given me a bonus like that or cared. Could this really be happening? Yes. The company was a start up at that time and my boss himself was enjoying the fruits of his labor and success. He was rewarding everyone similarly that deserved it. At the time, I didn't think I did. I was just doing my job. Shortly after I was promoted again. This time to Customer service manager, but it had a catch. I needed to quit tattooing and be a full time employee. It was tough. I was passionate about art, but I knew I had a real opportunity here. I made the decision to quit tattooing and go full time as the customer service manager. That came with a raise for the most money I'd ever made. This brings me to life lesson 6: Always jump in with both feet. This opportunity had taught me not to second guess myself. I was the Customer service manager for about 2 years. We had and still have 4.9 stars on Google trusted stores with something like 9000 verified customer reviews. You could say I'm good at what I do. Well, everyone already knew of my artistic background given the fact that I had tattooed a few of my fellow employees. So when the product development team came to me with an idea on a product that they needed drawn, I jumped at the opportunity. I drew it up and it turned out to be a success. Shortly after that I was offered a position in product development. Keep in mind that I had no degree other than a high school diploma and no real background in it whatsoever, but I could work on things, I enjoyed tinkering, and I was artistic. An apparent recipe for success.
Product development was a bumpy road at first and I made lots of mistakes. It didn't come as naturally to me as customer service did. I was mostly cleaning and managing projects. It felt like I was an apprentice again, but with a higher pay grade. Got through the grunt work learning things along the way. Eventually I got the hang of it and began working on and developing my own projects. It was great. I missed tattooing, but I was getting to design things that were going to be around for years and years to come. I got to see my art literally come to life. All while learning business and teaching myself CAD. I was gaining experience that I need for my own future endeavors. Lesson seven : Learn from everything that you do. Regardless of what I create or have created, I have learned to design, develop, market, test, and patent products from a thought in my head. That's knowledge that people pay to learn. I got to be paid to learn it!
I sit here typing this after hours as the manager of product development for that same company. I'm not wealthy, but I have learned what it takes to become wealthy through my endeavors and experiences. I currently have an idea for a completely different industry that is a complete game changer. The best part, my boss is willing to fund prototyping and patents. It could just very well put my on the Fast Lane for good.
If there's one thing (potentially seven if you read all of my dribble about myself this far) that you take away from this, I hope it's this. Don't let your skepticism get in the way of your advancement. IF something feels right go for it full throttle. Not half cocked. Don't look back, and enjoy the ride.
~J
Truth be told this post IS about my own skepticism and overcoming it.
I'm still new to entrepreneurship and learning to grasp the keys to success.
My biggest problem thus far? Simple. Skepticism. While I haven't read the book yet ( day two on the forum) I do intend to. I have to assume this is probably mentioned. Even if it is, I imagine there may be someone out there like myself that fancies themselves intelligent and therefore somewhat skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. When you hear something that sounds amazing and simple that just requires effort, you probably think to yourself... "Hmmmm, if it were that easy everyone would do it!"
Well yes, in the real world that's mostly true, but I have to say. Having a passion and a dedication to what you're doing is a real key to success on the road leading up to what I consider being the fast lane.
Truth be told the title of this thread is more of a click-bait when I really get down to it. This is a thread that introduces myself to the forum and hopefully will help some others about any resolve they may have.
I'm 26 and have an awesome career at the moment.
It didn't start out that way though, and truthfully, there was a lot of hard work and dedication involved to get where I am ( cruisin' down the street in my six fo) and what I would call the highway leading up to the fast lane. The method I took may be off the beaten path for the norm here and from what I've read so far, it's a dirt road start. I will tell you anyway, because not everyone will find this forum or this new way of thinking at the same point in their lives.
I grew up in Georgia, where I graduated High school. Throughout school I had mostly straight A's and took AP classes etc. By the time I hit high school though; I had developed other interested such as riding dirt bikes, as well as general teenage girl problems. I lost focus. Which seems to be the key to anything does it not? I didn't study ever really because I didn't need to. That stuff sort of came easily. Now a senior in High School, AP physics was the hardest thing I'd ever done. Ultimately I hunkered down and actually opened the book. What do you know? I passed. Actually, the professor had made a deal with us that whatever we got on the final exam was to be our grade for the year if it was better than our grade in the class. Well, That meant meant I needed a 70 right? There was no point in trying to salvage anything else. Well, The amass of studying I did landed me a 98 on the final. Awesome. I had skated by and studied once. Now I'd reap the full rewards of my mostly lazy lifestyle. Wrong, the professor couldn't turn my 50 into a 98 for one test. He'd assumed that wouldn't happen for anyone. Apparently, I was really lacking applying myself at the time. We agreed and settled upon an 80 for the class. That was my first real life lesson as well as my first lesson in humility and how the real world works. I tell you this to simply say; being skeptical isn't always bad, but applying yourself never is.
After High school I had amassed a pretty decent following locally riding dirt bikes. I thought, hell... I can just do this for a career. At the time, mostly nobody was backflipping and I could do the basics. If I learned to flip, I could make a really decent living doing it and enjoying what I do. Well, as you all know... Life doesn't work like that. I did have plenty of opportunity. I worked for a place that was the Mecca for moto in the US ( at least on the East Coast) and had met countless people I'd need in the future to pursue that career. In the meantime, I had created my first business. A school. I was great with kids, mainly because I'm still just a big kid. Albeit a smarter one. I was making $60 -$100 an hour to reach little rugrats how to ride. It was terrific. Then my boss at the park caught wind and wanted his cut. HALF? Yeah right! I'm doing all the work and actually bringing people in. If anything he should pay me! Well, that was lesson number two. I decided it was time to apply myself. I moved to Florida to go to school. Where you ask? MMI of course. If I can't be a pro motocross rider, I can still be in the industry.
After moving to Orlando I quickly realized that MMI wasn't for me. I was working at McDonalds which was just enough to support traveling to and from school. I couldn't actually afford living and school itself. I got another job selling art door to door. I was good at it. In my first day of testing where I was to watch and Learn, I sold $500.00 worth of art while the trainer was on lunch break. I didn't get to keep any of my cut though... because well, I was just training. That seemed to be a pyramid scheme and I was getting homesick so I moved on back to Georgia to re-up my moto school. I knew a former championship winning pro looking for some help. His name was, let's call him SHLAY Dentley.
So Shlay and I worked for months together doing schools where I'd do the brunt of the work and he'd sit back and sort of direct, but who was I to say anything? He's Shlay Dentley. I'm just a never was freestyler. So I did it for a while, only to end up deciding to go solo on my own again and pay the 50% tax to my former boss to do it on his property. Life lesson three learned here. You've got to pay to play and that's something I needed to learn growing up.
Fast forward a few years and I'm sick of it again. Well, a buddy of mine sees some of my art work ( charcoal portraits) and is blown away. He's covered head to toe in tattoos and says he knows a guy that owns a tattoo shop in Florida that would hire me on the spot. Here's where my skepticism came into play again. Sure I was decent at drawing; I mean my dad was a professional artist so it wasn't too farfetched, but on the spot I could start tattooing and making real money? Surely that's not the case. Come to find out; in this instance it wasn't , but hey I was looking for a change. So I moved back to Florida to give it a shot.
Once I arrived, I luckily could rely on my artistic background to supplement me working for the same place doing social media and design stuff while I was learning to tattoo. I apprenticed at the shop for about 4 months before I regularly had my own clients and started really becoming an "artist" Well, tattooing was the second job I had where I had to really rely on booking appointments to make sure I had enough money to pay the bills. There are seasons months in the industry for most artists and it was hard. I never was good at saving money. So I thought hell, I'll get a second job. Little did I know, that job would change my life and my world view forever.
The fourth life lesson came here: Life is full of ups and downs, but everything worth doing requires effort. It's important that even if you're skeptical to still go out and try for the things you want. I mean REALLY try. Not just put in an attempt. Try until you've failed to the point where it's insane to try again... Then try one more time.
I got my second job part time at a warehouse that I found on craigslist. It worked out because it was the same distance in another direction as the tattoo shop from my house. It's actually a triangle. No matter if I was going from the shop to the warehouse or from either to home, it was all about the same distance. I still ride and drive a pickup because of that so gas mileage is a concern being on a low budget, but it worked out. The first day of my new job in the warehouse I was hired. I was supposed to be on a 90 day trial to see how it'd work. The boss was so happy with my speed and enthusiasm that he gave me the job then and there. I worked in the warehouse maybe 6 months before they decided to put me in customer service. I did both. Answered phones while packing boxes. I would still pack more boxes than anyone else. At that point my new boss did something that had never happened to me before. He gave me a bonus. Not just any bonus either. He offered to buy me a new dirt bike. He had grown up riding and I had ridden with him once or twice. He saw my ragged out old bike and decided I needed a new one. He wanted to reward me for my efforts. I couldn't believe it. Nobody had ever given me a bonus like that or cared. Could this really be happening? Yes. The company was a start up at that time and my boss himself was enjoying the fruits of his labor and success. He was rewarding everyone similarly that deserved it. At the time, I didn't think I did. I was just doing my job. Shortly after I was promoted again. This time to Customer service manager, but it had a catch. I needed to quit tattooing and be a full time employee. It was tough. I was passionate about art, but I knew I had a real opportunity here. I made the decision to quit tattooing and go full time as the customer service manager. That came with a raise for the most money I'd ever made. This brings me to life lesson 6: Always jump in with both feet. This opportunity had taught me not to second guess myself. I was the Customer service manager for about 2 years. We had and still have 4.9 stars on Google trusted stores with something like 9000 verified customer reviews. You could say I'm good at what I do. Well, everyone already knew of my artistic background given the fact that I had tattooed a few of my fellow employees. So when the product development team came to me with an idea on a product that they needed drawn, I jumped at the opportunity. I drew it up and it turned out to be a success. Shortly after that I was offered a position in product development. Keep in mind that I had no degree other than a high school diploma and no real background in it whatsoever, but I could work on things, I enjoyed tinkering, and I was artistic. An apparent recipe for success.
Product development was a bumpy road at first and I made lots of mistakes. It didn't come as naturally to me as customer service did. I was mostly cleaning and managing projects. It felt like I was an apprentice again, but with a higher pay grade. Got through the grunt work learning things along the way. Eventually I got the hang of it and began working on and developing my own projects. It was great. I missed tattooing, but I was getting to design things that were going to be around for years and years to come. I got to see my art literally come to life. All while learning business and teaching myself CAD. I was gaining experience that I need for my own future endeavors. Lesson seven : Learn from everything that you do. Regardless of what I create or have created, I have learned to design, develop, market, test, and patent products from a thought in my head. That's knowledge that people pay to learn. I got to be paid to learn it!
I sit here typing this after hours as the manager of product development for that same company. I'm not wealthy, but I have learned what it takes to become wealthy through my endeavors and experiences. I currently have an idea for a completely different industry that is a complete game changer. The best part, my boss is willing to fund prototyping and patents. It could just very well put my on the Fast Lane for good.
If there's one thing (potentially seven if you read all of my dribble about myself this far) that you take away from this, I hope it's this. Don't let your skepticism get in the way of your advancement. IF something feels right go for it full throttle. Not half cocked. Don't look back, and enjoy the ride.
~J
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