What the deal is

[elevate]

My fastlane journey began unexpectedly in late 2016. My partner and I had recently moved back home from the other side of the country to be closer to family. We had a daughter on the way, and figured it would make life a little easier to be close to family (#IgnoranceIsBliss).

I am a software engineer, and had been at it about eight years at that point. I took a contract job (I have worked a lot of these) to get some income rolling in, and figured I would find another gig at some point if it sucked. It sucked big time! I remember sitting there at my desk thinking about how nice it would be to not be there.

I decided on a whim (kind of jokingly) to do a search for how to become a millionaire. That would definitely get me out of sitting a desk wasting my life. A lot of the results were related to books. I figured a book would be a good place to start. The only real get rich book I had ever heard of was RDPD. I did a search and read some of the reviews. It really didn't seem that appealing to me. Skip. I found a website with several books listed. I read each description and went and checked out reviews. Can you guess which one I purchased (@MJ DeMarco )? I immediately went to lunch and started to listen. It was literally like swallowing a handful of red pills. After I finished the book I took stock in my current situation and realize that a time trade was not going to work for me.

I immediately sprang into action and started my own company, but what was I going to do? Some sort of software for sure. My dad has a small business, and I have done side work for him from time to time over the last several years. I remembered a potential job he had mentioned a couple months back and called him to talk about it. I told him about wanting to start my own business and that this previous job might be a good fit for a SaaS product. He agreed and said that he would help me out if I wanted. He had been working with clients in the industry, and said he would talk to the guy who proposed the aforementioned potential job. His contact has been in the industry for 30 years, and was at one point the national sales manager for the largest manufacturer/supplier to the industry. I asked him to confirm that the problem the potential job would solve is something that is common in the industry. It was confirmed. I was elated. Not only was it a problem, but there were no direct competitors. This was going to be the first of its kind, even better.

I told my partner what I was planning to do and she thought I was out of my mind. I started working on it at night after my time trade, and most of my weekend was spent working on it as well. Bye bye social life, video games, and everything else. The only thing I did aside from my time trade and working on my business was buying a house to escape the people farm I was living in at the time. After the move I set up my office and kept plugging away. Then randomly, I discovered Unscripted . There's another book? Of course I will read it.

I had finished by previous contract and had taken another at that point. This one was ok, but the company was having internal issues and I couldn't stand the decisions they were making. I finished Unscripted with about two months left on the contract. I decided at that point I was going to finish the contract, take out a loan, focus 100% on the business, and get it launched.

I plan on starting a progress thread to detail the finer points of my journey thus far.

 

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