I joined this forum 7 months ago. And for a solid month after I joined this forum I felt like I was heading in the right direction. I wrote out my plans and goals, all of the goal planning and setting my sights on a dream were a direct inspiration from reading “The Millionaire Fastlane ” by MJ. On my first post on this forum I ran a sob story full of excuses as to why I was where I was in my life. Someone asked if I tried my hand at writing for a living. This sparked something in me that had always been there, the desire to be a writer. I told myself I’m going to hold onto this dream and I’m going to make it happen.
At that time I was broke as ever, the bills were really starting to pile up and the pressure was getting unbearable. My brother called me and told me he was out of work and needed my help. Compared to him I’m a guru when it comes to marketing. He wanted to get back into contracting home repairs and construction. He knew I could generate leads and land jobs. We had achieved moderate success a few years back. I chalked our past failures to not taking anything seriously. I was desperate for money, and I started to envision it all working out. I would get his phone ringing and he would do all the rest. I would get paid a 10% commission on every job he landed.
I printed up flyers for house painting and drove around and slipped them in mailboxes of houses that were in need of fresh paint. After a few days his phone started ringing. For the first week I went with him to estimate the jobs. After about 10 estimates he still hadn’t landed a single job. I tried to give him a few tips on customer interaction, none of the tips were well received. He blamed it on the economy. I told him to let me do all of the talking for the next few estimates, he agreed to let me. After the third estimate we landed a job. It wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t really small either. And the customer was a full time real estate agent that flipped her own properties on the side. It was an "in" for steady slow lane work.
My health really wouldn’t allow me to work full time labor, so we both agreed that I would just show up on the job to keep face with the customer, and I would collect a commission at the end of the job. Over the course of the next few days my brother managed to persuade the customer that he was calling the shots. At that point I could have gone home. My brother told me he really needed my help on the job, I wouldn’t have to work hard and I could get paid by the hour and collect a commission upon job completion. If my brother could have afforded to pay me the commission up front I would have taken it. But I knew he was just as broke as me. It was a 2 week job, 1 week into the job I threw my back out. I literally couldn’t walk for more than 5 steps without pausing to brace myself. I was bed ridden for at least 3 weeks.
Even then I managed to use craigslist to keep his phone ringing. I tried calling my brother everyday and he ignored my calls. His wife would even cover for him. A few days after the job was completed I managed to get my brother on the phone. If it wasn’t for the fact that I used a service called spoofcard (They provide a service to spoof your caller id as any phone number), he probably wouldn’t have ever answered my call. These are literally the last words I heard from my brother since last September “I have the check from the lady, I’m cashing it in the morning. I’ll drop your money off”. I haven’t spoken with him since. This is the kind of family I grew up with. Not only did I blow my back out working, I did it all for free.
Now I’d love to say that since my brother stuck me I saw the light and it motivated me to do my own thing, but if that was true I wouldn’t be writing this thread in the sidewalk section. I ran into a ridiculous amount of adversity, pain, suffering, mental anguish and blah blah blah blah blah. The fact is those are all just f%^*ing excuses. Sure it’s true that my health is in a really bad state. Sure it’s true I live in pain and suffering. Aside from the physical pain, the suffering is only fault of myself. Four or five days ago it hit me like a ton of bricks. I can’t control physical pain, but the suffering is all on me.
When I am focused on a task there is no suffering. When I am deeply immersed in any kind of creative process the pain is even less intense. Entertainment can ease the pain and suffering to an extent. But if I was to entertain myself as a distraction from pain and suffering, where would I be in another 10 years? I know the key is to immerse myself in consecutive creative tasks that are aligned with my dreams and aspirations. Even if in 10 years I didn’t achieve the financial goals I set for myself, that still would be 10 years with less pain, 10 years with less suffering, I would be 10 years wiser, and I still would have ten years of creative accomplishment.
Since I sat my a$$ back on the sidewalk in ignorance a few months ago, there is one thing I can say I am proud of. And basically it really is only one thing, I never stopped reading and learning. I wanted to know what exactly it was that kept me reverting to my seemingly default settings of no dreams and aspirations. I wanted to know how I could get so pumped and feel so unstopped for a full month and then lose all steam, why couldn’t I stay inspired and motivated?
For the past 6 months I’ve been studying neuroscience. I’ve was hoping I could pinpoint something in the microcosm of that which is me. What needed to change on a neurological level? I was hoping to discover a neurological switch I could flip that would set off in motion the changes that needed to happen to reinvent myself into the person I wanted to be. Did I learn anything useful from studying neuroscience? Yes, a lot of cools stuff! Months later do I still believe there is a switch I could turn on to make the ideal version of myslef manifest? Simply put, no…..
God bless my kindle! After 127 books, publications and articles on neuroscience (75% Skimmed, 25% thoroughly read), there was one common recurring theme in the abstract of human behavior. It really all boils down to this word HABBIT. So I got my hands on as many books as I could to make sense of human behavior and habits. Everyone has heard someone say the phrase “I am a creature of habit”. The fact is everyone is a creature of habit. A person’s character, personality, achievements, and every other attribute is really just the sum of their most persistent habits. Our whole life is a series of habits.
Knowing the things I know now, leaves me with no excuses as to why I can’t accomplish anything I set my mind to. I know that the only thing holding me back (or moving me forward) is my habits. And not only do I know habits are the keys to success. I understand exactly how to analyze any habit, remove it or replace it according to my goals and desires. The only question is when. When will I implement the things I know?
1 of 2
At that time I was broke as ever, the bills were really starting to pile up and the pressure was getting unbearable. My brother called me and told me he was out of work and needed my help. Compared to him I’m a guru when it comes to marketing. He wanted to get back into contracting home repairs and construction. He knew I could generate leads and land jobs. We had achieved moderate success a few years back. I chalked our past failures to not taking anything seriously. I was desperate for money, and I started to envision it all working out. I would get his phone ringing and he would do all the rest. I would get paid a 10% commission on every job he landed.
I printed up flyers for house painting and drove around and slipped them in mailboxes of houses that were in need of fresh paint. After a few days his phone started ringing. For the first week I went with him to estimate the jobs. After about 10 estimates he still hadn’t landed a single job. I tried to give him a few tips on customer interaction, none of the tips were well received. He blamed it on the economy. I told him to let me do all of the talking for the next few estimates, he agreed to let me. After the third estimate we landed a job. It wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t really small either. And the customer was a full time real estate agent that flipped her own properties on the side. It was an "in" for steady slow lane work.
My health really wouldn’t allow me to work full time labor, so we both agreed that I would just show up on the job to keep face with the customer, and I would collect a commission at the end of the job. Over the course of the next few days my brother managed to persuade the customer that he was calling the shots. At that point I could have gone home. My brother told me he really needed my help on the job, I wouldn’t have to work hard and I could get paid by the hour and collect a commission upon job completion. If my brother could have afforded to pay me the commission up front I would have taken it. But I knew he was just as broke as me. It was a 2 week job, 1 week into the job I threw my back out. I literally couldn’t walk for more than 5 steps without pausing to brace myself. I was bed ridden for at least 3 weeks.
Even then I managed to use craigslist to keep his phone ringing. I tried calling my brother everyday and he ignored my calls. His wife would even cover for him. A few days after the job was completed I managed to get my brother on the phone. If it wasn’t for the fact that I used a service called spoofcard (They provide a service to spoof your caller id as any phone number), he probably wouldn’t have ever answered my call. These are literally the last words I heard from my brother since last September “I have the check from the lady, I’m cashing it in the morning. I’ll drop your money off”. I haven’t spoken with him since. This is the kind of family I grew up with. Not only did I blow my back out working, I did it all for free.
Now I’d love to say that since my brother stuck me I saw the light and it motivated me to do my own thing, but if that was true I wouldn’t be writing this thread in the sidewalk section. I ran into a ridiculous amount of adversity, pain, suffering, mental anguish and blah blah blah blah blah. The fact is those are all just f%^*ing excuses. Sure it’s true that my health is in a really bad state. Sure it’s true I live in pain and suffering. Aside from the physical pain, the suffering is only fault of myself. Four or five days ago it hit me like a ton of bricks. I can’t control physical pain, but the suffering is all on me.
When I am focused on a task there is no suffering. When I am deeply immersed in any kind of creative process the pain is even less intense. Entertainment can ease the pain and suffering to an extent. But if I was to entertain myself as a distraction from pain and suffering, where would I be in another 10 years? I know the key is to immerse myself in consecutive creative tasks that are aligned with my dreams and aspirations. Even if in 10 years I didn’t achieve the financial goals I set for myself, that still would be 10 years with less pain, 10 years with less suffering, I would be 10 years wiser, and I still would have ten years of creative accomplishment.
Since I sat my a$$ back on the sidewalk in ignorance a few months ago, there is one thing I can say I am proud of. And basically it really is only one thing, I never stopped reading and learning. I wanted to know what exactly it was that kept me reverting to my seemingly default settings of no dreams and aspirations. I wanted to know how I could get so pumped and feel so unstopped for a full month and then lose all steam, why couldn’t I stay inspired and motivated?
For the past 6 months I’ve been studying neuroscience. I’ve was hoping I could pinpoint something in the microcosm of that which is me. What needed to change on a neurological level? I was hoping to discover a neurological switch I could flip that would set off in motion the changes that needed to happen to reinvent myself into the person I wanted to be. Did I learn anything useful from studying neuroscience? Yes, a lot of cools stuff! Months later do I still believe there is a switch I could turn on to make the ideal version of myslef manifest? Simply put, no…..
God bless my kindle! After 127 books, publications and articles on neuroscience (75% Skimmed, 25% thoroughly read), there was one common recurring theme in the abstract of human behavior. It really all boils down to this word HABBIT. So I got my hands on as many books as I could to make sense of human behavior and habits. Everyone has heard someone say the phrase “I am a creature of habit”. The fact is everyone is a creature of habit. A person’s character, personality, achievements, and every other attribute is really just the sum of their most persistent habits. Our whole life is a series of habits.
Knowing the things I know now, leaves me with no excuses as to why I can’t accomplish anything I set my mind to. I know that the only thing holding me back (or moving me forward) is my habits. And not only do I know habits are the keys to success. I understand exactly how to analyze any habit, remove it or replace it according to my goals and desires. The only question is when. When will I implement the things I know?
1 of 2
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