Hi there,
so ... this is my introduction thread. My name is Phil and I'm located in Germany, Franconia to be precise.
I'm 43 yrs old, married to the most wonderful woman imaginable and father of two kids, a 6yr old boy and a 3yr old daughter (my personal planet actually has three suns *lol*).
I just recently finished the audio version of MJs book "the millionaire fastlane " and was amazed by the wealth of information shared there and also in this forum, which is referenced throughout the book.
While listening to the book (I commute a lot and simply staring on the motorway is such a waste of time) I must admit that I had my ups and downs with the content shared.
I first really loved the first chapters but then I felt it a bit lengthy. Now that I have finished the book I do not feel this anymore. It was necessary to get the overall picture.
Throughout my life I have - most of the time - been a kind of sidewalker. I really had downs with my parents passing away (aged 49 and 50) within a 1yr timeframe when I was 25. I would say, I know a thing or two about how bad life can be. Lost my appartment, lost my job, stole money (I'm really not very proud of this) to survive and in 2000 made a cut.
I moved from Duesseldorf, where I was born, to the area I live in now. I had my rollercoaster of life here as well but never more the low valleys which I experienced before the move.
I always wanted more and tried a lot of things. MLM (Herbalife, financial products, tailor made shirts and all that crap) and lost $1,000s. Always on the lookout for the next "get rich quick scheme". The one thing that I learned from this that there is no get rich quick without effort (and lottery is not an option).
Throughout the last years I recognized that the online world (aka the Internet) is the big equalizer of our time. I'm a big fan of master hustler GaryVee who is quite motivational for me. I love his direct speech (get the F*ck out of your comfort zone!).
Since I moved I'm working in a job which I started to hate. Not because of the task I have - I'm in IT procurement which I love) but because of all this F*ckin' (sorry) politics, who knows whom, who's kissing which a$$ and that performance is simply not valued. Additional to that a experienced a lot of betrayal (false promises) and lies within the corporate world.
However, I know there's a different approach, a different world and that it's open to (nearly) everyone who's willing to stop complaining (sounds a little bit strange when you look at the previous paragraph) and starting to take consistent action.
I really believe in that a lot of gatekeeping functions that may block people from a experiencing a fully abundant life are no longer there.
What do I mean?
One other very important event in my life was sports. I never was a sports guy but always fascinated about what people like you and me do achieve. I remember how interested I was, when a few of my colleagues told me about "running". My boss ran her first marathon and I thought to myself "how cool is that???". So in December of 2015 I listened to Hal Elrods podcast where he talked about a book that made him finish his first marathon. Went to Amazon, 1-click-bought the book. On January 12th, 2016 I - again consciously - decided I will do that, too. Went online and signed up for a marathon event in my area.
Fast forward 16 weeks - and appoximately 700 training kilometers (yes, we have the metric system here in Germany *lol*) later, I ran my first marathon on June 12th, 2016 (in 4:35 hrs, if you want to know...)
This really taught me the maybe most important lesson in life:
You mindset is the most important thing in life - if you really REALLY want something, you WILL achieve it!
Having the right mindset can overcome anything!
This caused a huge shift in my mind. After that I focussed even more on sports and became a running trainer just to find out that this leads more or less automatically to the "coaching trap" that MJ so well describes in his book (just another form of exchanging time for money and having a business that is dependent on my time). Nevertheless, this was some kind of "failure" that opened my eye to the more "unlimited scalable" business models. Failed but learned something which is the least I can expect.
Also, the marathon started my interest in what I call "life hacks". By this I mean things like meditation (which works more or less decently for me) or overcoming my huge procrastination (the 5 second rule by Mel Robbins really did the job for me).
I also know (now) that the vivid imagination of being wealthy and successful alone will not do the job (call it "orders from the universe", the secret or similar). It may be a good starting point to get to a defined end goal but if you do not take consistent and consequent action dreaming alone does not help at all. This is what I have done in the past 20 yrs or so and it only led me from a sidewalker to a slowlaner.
Maybe it's some kind of midlife crisis (a positive one) but in the last year I asked myself: Is this really all there is? Should this life, which is convenient and nice and everything, really be the final stage for the years to come? For me there is a clear answer (MJs book underlined this with a huge black stroke): NO - I want and deserve more and I will get more.
Coming to an end, here's what the next steps are from my point of view:
I will travel outside my comfort zone more and more to build a valuable asset. I know a thing or two about certain topics that I know are in high demand so my plan is to start teaching them. I will start a separate thread (something like an action journal in a separate thread).
I also think I need to at least roughly define an exit strategy because I definitely do not want to work until I'm 67 (standard retirement age in Germany as of now). I surely will not retire wealthy at age 29 because I simply do not have a time machine but I feel that now is the time to massively change.
Looking very much forward to the interaction with this amazing community (I love forums more than FB or any other community "tool") and to any question, feedback or comment you may have.
Open fire
so ... this is my introduction thread. My name is Phil and I'm located in Germany, Franconia to be precise.
I'm 43 yrs old, married to the most wonderful woman imaginable and father of two kids, a 6yr old boy and a 3yr old daughter (my personal planet actually has three suns *lol*).
I just recently finished the audio version of MJs book "the millionaire fastlane " and was amazed by the wealth of information shared there and also in this forum, which is referenced throughout the book.
While listening to the book (I commute a lot and simply staring on the motorway is such a waste of time) I must admit that I had my ups and downs with the content shared.
I first really loved the first chapters but then I felt it a bit lengthy. Now that I have finished the book I do not feel this anymore. It was necessary to get the overall picture.
Throughout my life I have - most of the time - been a kind of sidewalker. I really had downs with my parents passing away (aged 49 and 50) within a 1yr timeframe when I was 25. I would say, I know a thing or two about how bad life can be. Lost my appartment, lost my job, stole money (I'm really not very proud of this) to survive and in 2000 made a cut.
I moved from Duesseldorf, where I was born, to the area I live in now. I had my rollercoaster of life here as well but never more the low valleys which I experienced before the move.
I always wanted more and tried a lot of things. MLM (Herbalife, financial products, tailor made shirts and all that crap) and lost $1,000s. Always on the lookout for the next "get rich quick scheme". The one thing that I learned from this that there is no get rich quick without effort (and lottery is not an option).
Throughout the last years I recognized that the online world (aka the Internet) is the big equalizer of our time. I'm a big fan of master hustler GaryVee who is quite motivational for me. I love his direct speech (get the F*ck out of your comfort zone!).
Since I moved I'm working in a job which I started to hate. Not because of the task I have - I'm in IT procurement which I love) but because of all this F*ckin' (sorry) politics, who knows whom, who's kissing which a$$ and that performance is simply not valued. Additional to that a experienced a lot of betrayal (false promises) and lies within the corporate world.
However, I know there's a different approach, a different world and that it's open to (nearly) everyone who's willing to stop complaining (sounds a little bit strange when you look at the previous paragraph) and starting to take consistent action.
I really believe in that a lot of gatekeeping functions that may block people from a experiencing a fully abundant life are no longer there.
What do I mean?
- you want to be a TV star in your topic? Start a YouTube channel (see "Wine Library TV")
- you think you want to create a book? Createspace (and the other services around) is your friend
- you want to build a tribe? Start a website / blog
- I always was fascinated by what people do with Microsoft Excel - I consciously decided to teach this to myself up to the point that I got one of the top 10 Excel blogs
- I hated how people present these days in the corporate world (death by powerpoint) - I decided that there's a better way and learned Powerpoint
- In the last years I started with a web designers certificate as a side job (coaching trap, see below) and moved more and more into SEO. I now have a very decent time-proof approach to SEO and anyone interested in that can ask me anything about it - both publicly or through a PM here
One other very important event in my life was sports. I never was a sports guy but always fascinated about what people like you and me do achieve. I remember how interested I was, when a few of my colleagues told me about "running". My boss ran her first marathon and I thought to myself "how cool is that???". So in December of 2015 I listened to Hal Elrods podcast where he talked about a book that made him finish his first marathon. Went to Amazon, 1-click-bought the book. On January 12th, 2016 I - again consciously - decided I will do that, too. Went online and signed up for a marathon event in my area.
Fast forward 16 weeks - and appoximately 700 training kilometers (yes, we have the metric system here in Germany *lol*) later, I ran my first marathon on June 12th, 2016 (in 4:35 hrs, if you want to know...)
This really taught me the maybe most important lesson in life:
You mindset is the most important thing in life - if you really REALLY want something, you WILL achieve it!
Having the right mindset can overcome anything!
This caused a huge shift in my mind. After that I focussed even more on sports and became a running trainer just to find out that this leads more or less automatically to the "coaching trap" that MJ so well describes in his book (just another form of exchanging time for money and having a business that is dependent on my time). Nevertheless, this was some kind of "failure" that opened my eye to the more "unlimited scalable" business models. Failed but learned something which is the least I can expect.
Also, the marathon started my interest in what I call "life hacks". By this I mean things like meditation (which works more or less decently for me) or overcoming my huge procrastination (the 5 second rule by Mel Robbins really did the job for me).
I also know (now) that the vivid imagination of being wealthy and successful alone will not do the job (call it "orders from the universe", the secret or similar). It may be a good starting point to get to a defined end goal but if you do not take consistent and consequent action dreaming alone does not help at all. This is what I have done in the past 20 yrs or so and it only led me from a sidewalker to a slowlaner.
Maybe it's some kind of midlife crisis (a positive one) but in the last year I asked myself: Is this really all there is? Should this life, which is convenient and nice and everything, really be the final stage for the years to come? For me there is a clear answer (MJs book underlined this with a huge black stroke): NO - I want and deserve more and I will get more.
Coming to an end, here's what the next steps are from my point of view:
I will travel outside my comfort zone more and more to build a valuable asset. I know a thing or two about certain topics that I know are in high demand so my plan is to start teaching them. I will start a separate thread (something like an action journal in a separate thread).
I also think I need to at least roughly define an exit strategy because I definitely do not want to work until I'm 67 (standard retirement age in Germany as of now). I surely will not retire wealthy at age 29 because I simply do not have a time machine but I feel that now is the time to massively change.
Looking very much forward to the interaction with this amazing community (I love forums more than FB or any other community "tool") and to any question, feedback or comment you may have.
Open fire
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