Are you in a better place than you were 5 years ago?

[Blackman]

I'm in so much of a better place that 5 years ago feels like a different lifetime. I used to be broke, anxiety ridden, borderline depressed, and chronically unhappy because I could no longer make monies online. The truth is, the only thing I enjoying was making the quick and easy money. I dislike just about everything there is when it come to being involved with marketing. I spent several years trying to convince myself that this was my path because I had my first taste of success here. I was forever living in the past, I was arrogant, and I failed at everything I tried because I needed to surpass by previous 'success'.

I remember the day when I finally let all of this go. I didn't read any special book or use one of the top 10 groundbreaking life hacks. I was just listening to the Joe Rogan podcast and it hit me that he and most of the people on the podcast are pretty chill, happy, and fun people and they did shit they enjoyed. It finally hit me that I'll never be they type of person with this internet marketing pipe dream bullshit. I just went out and got a regular crappy job in customer service and poured all my free time into learning Linux. I already love this shit and a quick Google search let me know that Senior Linux Admins make $115k+ a year and most of these guys are self-taught and have no degrees.

Zoom forward to now and hot damn, now I'm the happy guy you might find on a podcast. I'm married now and I'm enjoying this career path.

Good to hear that you are doing well, but...

You can make a lot of money in many different job sectors, still doing what you love/enjoy, but you will NEVER have the freedom nor the income level that your own business could give you - it's a FACT.

We all struggle on the way up, make a lot of sacrifices, sit in front of our PCs all day, when others go out drinking/clubbing/having fun, etc.

If you want to have an average life and achieve in life what most people do, then you just follow the crowd. School > college > Uni > Job > Retirement.

You could be making $500k/year, but unless you actually go to work and show up, they won't pay you, right? You want a holiday? It's only 4-5 weeks per year. Sick pay? You know where the door is...

The job vs business argument is pointless, because the benefits of a business MASSIVELY outweight whatever a job can give you. However, whether you want to make money online, offline or on the moon, it's always more difficult than any 9-5 bollocks out there...

Why only 1-2% of us "make it"? And it's not just about AM/IM, the real life stats are not too far off - most people are in work, rather than running their own business.

It's a CHOICE, it's your DECISION, based on your thinking/life experiences. 8 years ago I made a decision to become financially independent and up until today, I'm still not in a position to say that I've achieved that. Do you think I will give up or change my mind?

I WILL NOT. It's a state of mind - if you set yourself a goal and are willing to do whatever it takes and however long it takes to achieve that, then it's all in your hands. I believe there's the right time and place for everything, so as long as you spend every day doing even smallest thing to get yourself closer to achieving your goal, then there's nothing that can stop you from making your dreams become a reality.

 

[bluechinagroup]

Good to hear that you are doing well, but...

You can make a lot of money in many different job sectors, still doing what you love/enjoy, but you will NEVER have the freedom nor the income level that your own business could give you - it's a FACT.

You're going to put Jameel in a funk with that kind of real talk. He's going to wake up to the fact that he's just a salary slave that signs away his constitutional rights from 9 am to 5 pm, plus any overtime his boss requires, every business day.

 

[Jameel]

So now you have a 9 to 5 job working as a sys admin? Different strokes for different folks I guess.

But yeah if your mindset was only on making a quick buck online then you were doing it totally wrong and maybe a traditional work environment is better for you.

Sysadmin yes, 9-5 no, I work remotely for the entire job. I enjoy working at home and I enjoy working with Linux. I get paid to do what I love and I enjoy every minute of it. Even when I was making 3-5k a day with the online stuff it was only a short term high and I found no satisfaction in the grind of it.

It's not that I had the inability to understand or learn marketing. I just loathed every second of it and I don't think it's a good trade off.

These are the kind of short sighted hustlers I personally look down on. I'm glad they're all being forced out of the industry. It's the wrong way of doing things if you want to make money online. You do realize that now though, and I am glad that you're in a better place mentally and financially.

I agree with this too. These type of people are in every field. It is very common in the Sysadmin field for Jr. admins to be lazy and unmotivated because they thought it would be an easy paycheck to 'play with computers'. They wash out or burn out too.

I think it comes down to what your passion is I love marketing, I love getting to number one for a keyword. I love building new websites and offers. I despise anything related to Linux, programming, math. Like really fucking hate it.

Agree 100%

Good to hear that you are doing well, but...

You can make a lot of money in many different job sectors, still doing what you love/enjoy, but you will NEVER have the freedom nor the income level that your own business could give you - it's a FACT.

We all struggle on the way up, make a lot of sacrifices, sit in front of our PCs all day, when others go out drinking/clubbing/having fun, etc.

If you want to have an average life and achieve in life what most people do, then you just follow the crowd. School > college > Uni > Job > Retirement.

You could be making $500k/year, but unless you actually go to work and show up, they won't pay you, right? You want a holiday? It's only 4-5 weeks per year. Sick pay? You know where the door is...

The job vs business argument is pointless, because the benefits of a business MASSIVELY outweight whatever a job can give you. However, whether you want to make money online, offline or on the moon, it's always more difficult than any 9-5 bollocks out there...

Why only 1-2% of us "make it"? And it's not just about AM/IM, the real life stats are not too far off - most people are in work, rather than running their own business.

It's a CHOICE, it's your DECISION, based on your thinking/life experiences. 8 years ago I made a decision to become financially independent and up until today, I'm still not in a position to say that I've achieved that. Do you think I will give up or change my mind?

I WILL NOT. It's a state of mind - if you set yourself a goal and are willing to do whatever it takes and however long it takes to achieve that, then it's all in your hands. I believe there's the right time and place for everything, so as long as you spend every day doing even smallest thing to get yourself closer to achieving your goal, then there's nothing that can stop you from making your dreams become a reality.

I'm well aware of this. It is very ironic, when I posted this, I knew I would get several responses like all of yours. This is the exact mental trap I kept myself in for years. Toiling around with something I had no motivation to do and my results were piss poor. I must succeed in this because this is what the smart people in life do, and I'm a smart guy! I centered my entire self-worth on making a business work and becoming the rich one in my family. This type of community trap exists for so many places online and offline. Once I moved away from hive influence and began trusting myself I became happy.

This is not saying that I shall never try my hand at business again. I will never enjoy being just an affiliate marketer. I grew to hate my first product based business because I knew it would only be short term and it was kind of lucky timing also. The way that I modeled affiliate marketing, it was an impossible pipe dream where I would make money easily without doing much of anything because I hit all home runs for the first few years. Chasing that kind of dragon made me completely miserable.

I have a great idea for a Linux based project that people have already given me the thumbs up that they really want. My niche has always been translating difficult knowledge into easy to learn material that teaches all of the in-between stuff that people leave out. There are extraordinarily technically talented people in the Linux field. Unfortunately most of them are complete idiots to explaining how to learn and integrate versus just giving you how stuff works information. I excel in this area and the business would be totally different this time as it would be long term and passion based not greed based.

So to answer the question of the thread again: I'm in a 100000% better place than 5 years ago.

 

[msharron]

Five years ago I was working in call center taking abuse from AMEX Centurion card holders and their private bankers. Things started to pick up in 2012 after I found this place, read the enlightened section back to back two or three times and started networking.

Fast forward a few years and I'm running what looks like it could be a semi successful agency now employing 6 UK staff and an extended network of support staff overseas.

Not ball'in by any standards but I have the satisfaction of employing my old team leader.

 

[absolute]

I'm well aware of this. It is very ironic, when I posted this, I knew I would get several responses like all of yours. This is the exact mental trap I kept myself in for years. Toiling around with something I had no motivation to do and my results were piss poor. I must succeed in this because this is what the smart people in life do, and I'm a smart guy! I centered my entire self-worth on making a business work and becoming the rich one in my family. This type of community trap exists for so many places online and offline. Once I moved away from hive influence and began trusting myself I became happy.

This is so true. The exact same thing happened to me.

To me making $80-$150/hour remotely on a flexible contract basis (basically the more hours the better but please don't leave us) is nothing to scoff at. It gives you a much better base for building a sustainable business than having to constantly rebuild dead PPC campaigns (or whatever it is these days).

Plus being actually good in a field that most people couldn't master in a decade opens up a lot of doors. Especially if you aren't a basement dwelling geek.

There are more people looking for linux/insert-programming-language training and tutorials today than there were members on both wafo and wf combined back in 2009. It's a huge market.

Edit: most people would be better off getting good at something and then shifting focus to long-term business goals. In five years a decent coder can make $500k working 30 hour weeks. My guess is that an average IMers makes exactly fuck all over the same time period. Some IMers do well, but if you're actually looking 10-15 years ahead (retire early, travel) then well... there are many ways to get there.

 

[Phear]

Naw my life has always been pretty shit fam

 

[Marky Ting]

5 years ago I was in the 2 comma club and started a satellite office for an engineering firm. Grew it. Made Money. Bored to death.

Last year I had an idea for a massive website. We've been working on it for 14 months. To pay bills I build small sites on the side and in my other spare time I study marketing techniques for the impending launch. Im going big or going home.

Mentally I'm much better off. The things I have learned in this time will allow me to fall back on some other ventures if this project crashes and burns.

 

[ImagesAndWords]

5 years go this month;
I had just made the big move with my wife and kids back from Norway to the US. Was still in the mindset of an affiliate, thinking it would be my long term "business" and "what I wanted to do".

But the frustrations and unpredictable nature of affiliate offers made me want to pull my hair out and I got REALLY sick of it, to the point where one morning in 2011 - I had an epiphany... I remember laying next to my wife and telling her "I have had enough of this. I need to start thinking of business differently and take OWN my own future. I need to own my own products"

And that was the beginning of where I am today. The next HUGE kick in the butt I needed shortly after that was given to me by the book "The Millionaire Fastlane" by author (and now my friend), MJ DeMarco.

I cannot recommend that book highly enough. It will change your mindset and way of thinking of business, and show you that achieving a million dollar net worth is within realistic reach if you go about things the right way. (hint; it does not involve affiliate marketing or hustling SEO, lol).

Today I own two different product-based businesses, one in the nutritional supplement space that I formulated and branded myself (passively paying for our living expenses), and another physical product that I invented, prototyped, and manufacture - selling to people all over the world. All based upon creating value = businesses based on market needs. Not based on my own need to make money.

Lastly, moving to Scottsdale, AZ was another catalyst to growing myself and my business. There's a good sized, entrepreneur community here with frequent meetups in a very business friendly economy and political environment.

To grow big, you have to take advantage of every opportunity. Environment and networking plays a big role in that.

But as a whole - when you start regarding making a LOT of money not as a selfish goal, but as a side effect of first and foremost building and providing long term value, the money will start to flow almost on its own.

 

[shindig]

You're going to put Jameel in a funk with that kind of real talk. He's going to wake up to the fact that he's just a salary slave that signs away his constitutional rights from 9 am to 5 pm, plus any overtime his boss requires, every business day.

Huh? Working as a programmer at a software company I've learned more about real world business, dealing with fortune 500 clients, than I ever did trying to run my own business.

When I do go out on my own next time, I'll be far more successful than I ever would have been simply from watching how the CEO interacts with clients in meetings...much different than I thought, he pushes back on a lot of things where I've always been too eager to please. He charges 10x what I'd have ever thought was reasonable, and we're busy as fuck.

I set my own hours and can work from home. I'm usually the first person in the office and I go in at 11am.

I can work for 3 months and take the rest of the year off. One of my co-workers is a state politician who's gone most of the time, another works for 3 months then moves to Chile for a year until he needs money, if the company likes you they'll let you come and go as you please as long as you commit to whatever project you take on for 6 - 12 weeks.

I build projects for clients I never would have been able to land myself (fortune 500).

When a project goes sideways, or a client is crazy, I still get paid when the owner takes a 5 figure loss and he deals with an insane amount of stress day to day.

I get early access to new technology I wouldn't be able to get myself or with a small company.

I received number 200 htc vive dev kit from valve 8 weeks ago, we'd gladly pay $20k for another one today if we could get one but they're priceless at the moment.

Right now I'm working on a castAR project, a vive project, and a couple mobile AR(computer vision) projects, earlier this year I shipped a half million $$ VR project made by myself and 2 artists, worked with motion simulators. Also doing R&D with robotics, get paid to learn.

In my spare time I'm building mobile games with an artist I partnered with who's amazing...when I get enough income rolling in from them I'll hire more artists and coders and start my own studio.

What I guess I'm trying to say is I'm far more productive and growing my skill-set dramatically by being around smart people working on interesting projects....more so than if I was left to myself to make all this shit happen. I didn't know how much I didn't know type thing...

I get a steady $10k - $14k/mo, not huge money, but most importantly, it's sustainable, I could do this the rest of my life and be happy as fuck, and there's plenty of opportunity to venture out on my own, a thousand different ways.....

I've seen a number of people on this site who've made a lot more money than I've ever made in a year, and they're broke as fuck because the mechanics they exploited short term (built their business around) are gone and they have minimal skills to fall back on...

I've had several non tech businesses and been a landlord since I was 18, had 8 employees at one point, made good money but it was stressful as fuck and my brain was rotting away...I feel like I get more out of life by stimulating my brain, rather than just focusing on money...

 

[conjamuk]

5 years go this month;
I had just made the big move with my wife and kids back from Norway to the US. Was still in the mindset of an affiliate, thinking it would be my long term "business" and "what I wanted to do".

But the frustrations and unpredictable nature of affiliate offers made me want to pull my hair out and I got REALLY sick of it, to the point where one morning in 2011 - I had an epiphany... I remember laying next to my wife and telling her "I have had enough of this. I need to start thinking of business differently and take OWN my own future. I need to own my own products"

And that was the beginning of where I am today. The next HUGE kick in the butt I needed shortly after that was given to me by the book "The Millionaire Fastlane" by author (and now my friend), MJ DeMarco.

I cannot recommend that book highly enough. It will change your mindset and way of thinking of business, and show you that achieving a million dollar net worth is within realistic reach if you go about things the right way. (hint; it does not involve affiliate marketing or hustling SEO, lol).

Today I own two different product-based businesses, one in the nutritional supplement space that I formulated and branded myself (passively paying for our living expenses), and another physical product that I invented, prototyped, and manufacture - selling to people all over the world. All based upon creating value = businesses based on market needs. Not based on my own need to make money.

Lastly, moving to Scottsdale, AZ was another catalyst to growing myself and my business. There's a good sized, entrepreneur community here with frequent meetups in a very business friendly economy and political environment.

To grow big, you have to take advantage of every opportunity. Environment and networking plays a big role in that.

But as a whole - when you start regarding making a LOT of money not as a selfish goal, but as a side effect of first and foremost building and providing long term value, the money will start to flow almost on its own.

Pretty cool you know MJ. His book is lifechanging.

 

[miketpowell]

Glad to hear so many of you are doing better! To those that aren't hopefully things will turn around - this world is full of opportunity.

For me a better mark would probably be 6.5 years ago - right about when I first started dedicating all my time to AM trying to get that first successful campaign my last year in college so I wouldn't have to get some crappy job when I graduate since besides a degree my qualification were lacking on a resume.

I was very lucky and had some big wins in my first 6 months. Also it was very fortunate that I had hit some big money when I was 13 and had already experienced blowing money on worthless crap. So I've never really inflated my lifestyle much and even with the ups and down that comes with running affiliate campaigns times have never been tough financially and the bank account pretty much only grows.

However because of that I've found myself in a similar situation to you a number of times. If I don't need the money to pay the bills next month what keeps me working instead of just being lazy?

Here are some of the things I've done:

1. Restrict the activities I allow for myself unless I accomplish certain goals
2. Keeping it fresh with new stuff often enough
3. Take a 9-5 consulting position to see how much that can suck (it actually wasn't that bad because I worked with a few great people but the huge Fortune 50 company itself would do the dumbest stuff at the board level which killed any potential fun)
4. Read about other peoples success stories
5. Maintain a strong relationship with my GF and now wife traveling and doing things together. Find a woman/partner you are truly compatible with and not just some you are only waiting to have sex with whenever you are hanging out and things can be awesome.

Sometimes I've had a strong focus on number 1 over the years. I'm a big advocate of self discipline is the key to motivation. Punish yourself if you don't do what you are supposed to. It can feel so good when it finally turns. And by punish I don't mean self harm or anything stupid like that I mean tell yourself if you don't get X done today your not going out with friends tonight but instead cleaning the house and going on a 5 mile run.

I certainly didn't "solve" the problem and some weeks and even months did just feel a bit directionless. Here are some other things I've done the last 1.5 years that have really helped. However this was only possible because money wasn't an issue.

1. Start a business with W2 employees, equity partners and a physical office

2. Spend time thinking about what I enjoy and want in life and work for that. For me it's building up enough assets that no matter what happens to my income I'll be secure. I just had 2 twin girls in the last week (our first kids) and I want to be able to raise them as a full time dad without having to worry about work. Also enough money for easy international travel 1-3 times a year with the family.

The key problem I think most people have is they don't really know what THEY want in life. They are simply out to impress other people or as you said OP your dad. Even if your dad had not passed this is just not a sustainable strategy for most people.

Saving money to buy a car you really don't care about but really just want to show it off is a great way to kill motivation.

If you're not sure if you care about something but only want it to show it off to others think about it this way. Would I still want this if I could never tell/show anyone about it? Some guys would still love to take a sports car to the track every weekend no matter what but the majority just want to impress others.

If you have no clue what you want in life it's tough to be motivated. For me it's being able to stop working very early in life and not worry about money so I can spend time with my girls, play video games and maybe get good enough at golf to beat my dad before his game starts going from age.

Lastly my health. I've got Crohn's disease and had my entire colon removed, my health is not great to say the least. If there is some new medical technology to get a new colon in 20 years I sure as hell don't want to have to pass it up because I don't have the money. Not having a colon is pretty shitty, literally.

 

[cardine]

In 2010 I was making the switch from high school to college, while making a good amount of money on short term affiliate stuff.

I made the decision at the time to save and reinvest every penny I made - pretty much the only thing I spent that money on besides my business was my college tuition.

In the end this was one of the best decisions I ever made - I was able to take a year off working on building up two different businesses without having to worry about expenses, and now both of those businesses are thriving today.

So now I'm making much more than I was making back in 2010, it is much more stable, and these businesses are assets, not hustles. Another critical difference is that I now employ an office full of people, which has only been possible by carefully reinvesting most of my profits. It's allowed me to be able to scale things up while keeping my work life balance in check and avoiding burnout.

For me I can say without a doubt that every year has been far better than the previous year, and I expect that trend to continue. I can say with a lot of confidence that five years from now I'll be leaps and bounds ahead of where I am today. For me that intrinsic drive is who I am; even when I'm completely comfortable there is a burning need to think bigger.

 

[bluechinagroup]

Lastly my health. I've got Crohn's disease and had my entire colon removed, my health is not great to say the least. If there is some new medical technology to get a new colon in 20 years I sure as hell don't want to have to pass it up because I don't have the money. Not having a colon is pretty shitty, literally.

Damn bro. I'm really sorry to hear that. Off topic, but how does dealing with a colostomy bag affect your quality of life? I'm assuming need one if you have no colon, or have there been better medical developments since then? I hope you can have a new colon grown for you too. Personally I am real eager for laboratory grown organs to become a reality too.

Also congrats on your business success!

 

[Jon]

Huh? Working as a programmer at a software company I've learned more about real world business, dealing with fortune 500 clients, than I ever did trying to run my own business.

When I do go out on my own next time, I'll be far more successful than I ever would have been simply from watching how the CEO interacts with clients in meetings...much different than I thought, he pushes back on a lot of things where I've always been too eager to please. He charges 10x what I'd have ever thought was reasonable, and we're busy as fuck.

I set my own hours and can work from home. I'm usually the first person in the office and I go in at 11am.

I can work for 3 months and take the rest of the year off. One of my co-workers is a state politician who's gone most of the time, another works for 3 months then moves to Chile for a year until he needs money, if the company likes you they'll let you come and go as you please as long as you commit to whatever project you take on for 6 - 12 weeks.

I build projects for clients I never would have been able to land myself (fortune 500).

When a project goes sideways, or a client is crazy, I still get paid when the owner takes a 5 figure loss and he deals with an insane amount of stress day to day.

I get early access to new technology I wouldn't be able to get myself or with a small company.

I received number 200 htc vive dev kit from valve 8 weeks ago, we'd gladly pay $20k for another one today if we could get one but they're priceless at the moment.

Right now I'm working on a castAR project, a vive project, and a couple mobile AR(computer vision) projects, earlier this year I shipped a half million $$ VR project made by myself and 2 artists, worked with motion simulators. Also doing R&D with robotics, get paid to learn.

In my spare time I'm building mobile games with an artist I partnered with who's amazing...when I get enough income rolling in from them I'll hire more artists and coders and start my own studio.

What I guess I'm trying to say is I'm far more productive and growing my skill-set dramatically by being around smart people working on interesting projects....more so than if I was left to myself to make all this shit happen. I didn't know how much I didn't know type thing...

I get a steady $10k - $14k/mo, not huge money, but most importantly, it's sustainable, I could do this the rest of my life and be happy as fuck, and there's plenty of opportunity to venture out on my own, a thousand different ways.....

I've seen a number of people on this site who've made a lot more money than I've ever made in a year, and they're broke as fuck because the mechanics they exploited short term (built their business around) are gone and they have minimal skills to fall back on...

I've had several non tech businesses and been a landlord since I was 18, had 8 employees at one point, made good money but it was stressful as fuck and my brain was rotting away...I feel like I get more out of life by stimulating my brain, rather than just focusing on money...

I like seeing folks like you in the sense that you're employable, can go into business for yourself, sell out, return to the employee spot and workforce, be happy, and still do it all over again when you're good and ready for it.

You're a bit of a unicorn in that sense.

Sure, it's a slower road to success and total life accomplishment, but it's also a very safe road nonetheless. I'm not discounting anything you're expressing here. I certainly admire your position and openness. Being self aware like you are, about your capabilities and flaws is too, a rare find. You should absolutely continue to expand on that in your professional life.

I suppose that's another factor that makes us total opposites. I love risk and chaos and thrive in it because I'm able to see all the dots and connect them in the most effective sense along with having the guts to forge ahead regardless of the warnings from others around me or barriers in front of me. BlueChinaGroup is like this too. We aren't mavericks, we're not crazy either. We're just... misunderstood. I can tell you he and I are both alike too in that we have to learn from 'tough love' aka we can't learn unless we are in the fight ourselves and learn the hard way, every time, regardless of what the signs may be. Maybe it's a tough slugging it out thing.. or maybe we just like to fight and destroy adversaries for the thrill of it. But all three of us share that high self confidence and healthy ego with the right amount of self awareness of what we can and cannot undertake and learning from those around us and those before us too.

#nohomo

 

[Jon]

This thread + real feels =

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1hcc1QvM2Q[/ame]

You have to hit play if you know what's good for you!

 

[LazyHippy]

Honestly, no.

5 years ago, I was engaged, happy, reasonably stable financially. A few months later and it had all gone to shit. A year of being a carer, 4 years as a widower. Cancer is a cunt.

Now more broke than I've ever been but building something that will be great and sustainable. With hindsight almost wish I'd ditched any ethics 5, 6, 7 years ago and pushed any old crap, had something to fall back on. Still rather be broke than to have made millions from ripping people off but wish I'd been more focussed back then though, rather than jump from project to project.

Can't change the past though, can only learn from it.

 

[bluechinagroup]

I am very sorry to hear that you lost a loved one to cancer LazyHippy. What a horrible disease.

It's pretty much impossible to be motivated on the IM side if you're a carer and then going through the mourning process. Best off luck with building something great and sustainable. A sustainable business is always the way to go.

 

[c4yrslf12]

On the whole, I think I'm better off, but struggling in some areas.

5 years ago I was just leaving college, signing up for my first 'career' and about to have my first kid. It was a job I knew I wouldn't do forever, but also knew it could be lucrative. I stayed around long enough to get what I needed out of the job (some cash, some credibility, and some ideas). Around that time, found WF.

WF, actually, is responsible for me resigning my position and moving towards the online space (passive thanks, Jon, although we've never spoken). I always had interest in it, but didn't know a Ctrl button from an Alt. The way I made it work was to grow a local business using my previous credentials and utilizing a website I built on my own, and now it's become a nationally expanding business. Fun stuff. I have a few really great relationships which I cherish, but definitely need more (professionally speaking).

Personally, I think I'm a little worse off. I don't do the things I love anymore (although I've added a few fun hobbies I never thought I'd do). I'm in worse shape, physically. And emotionally, I have a desire to find 'who I really am' but lack the capacity to do so for some reason; fucking weird psychologically to know you are DESTINED to do something great but keep getting that tip of the tongue feeling. As much as it drives me forward, it drives me insane. That meditation, bruh.

 

[miketpowell]

Damn bro. I'm really sorry to hear that. Off topic, but how does dealing with a colostomy bag affect your quality of life? I'm assuming need one if you have no colon, or have there been better medical developments since then? I hope you can have a new colon grown for you too. Personally I am real eager for laboratory grown organs to become a reality too.

Also congrats on your business success!

I had a colostomy bag from 2009-2011 and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. You can do a ton of things with it still like go swimming ect and my gf didn't care so I really had a DGAF attitude about it and wasn't always trying to hide it. The key issues were:

1. Couldn't lie on stomach - simple pleasure in life and important for a message or something.
2. Always had to bring supplies on me in case something happened and needed to replace.
3. Can't do high end really rough physical activities like wrestling/MMA.


It had some huge benefits too though. In 2009 after I recovered from the surgery I felt fantastic. Also as a young guy that otherwise looks healthy and always got shit from people for "pretending to be sick" this shut those fuckers up good.

In 2011 I had a few surgeries that switched to what they call a "J-Pouch" which is basically just trying to make a tiny colon with some small intestine. The 2 big problems here are it's small so I have to go many times a day and also I haven't been able to pass gas since without going to the bathroom so that causes more bathroom trips and bathroom urges. I've been much more uncomfortable and in more pain really with the J-pouch. Traveling was much easier with the bag really. Been told it can take up to 10 years to full get used to and adapted to it though.

Overall though it's been nothing I couldn't handle with the support of friends and family. Haven't really had to deal with my hardship in life besides this and I don't think it's that bad of a deal. LazyHippy really puts things into perspective with his post how much rougher life can be than what I've had to deal with.

Definitely very excited about what medical advances we will see in our lifetime. I have a feeling I'll have to wait awhile even after they start growing organs successfully because in my case it would really be "elective" surgery I don't need to live. Seeing as how at first there will be decent risks to how the body takes the new organ no surgeon will likely want to do it until the procedure becomes safer over time.

Thanks for your concern and congrats on your business as well!

 

[LazyHippy]

I had a colostomy bag from 2009-2011 and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. You can do a ton of things with it still like go swimming ect and my gf didn't care so I really had a DGAF attitude about it and wasn't always trying to hide it. The key issues were:

1. Couldn't lie on stomach - simple pleasure in life and important for a message or something.
2. Always had to bring supplies on me in case something happened and needed to replace.
3. Can't do high end really rough physical activities like wrestling/MMA.


It had some huge benefits too though. In 2009 after I recovered from the surgery I felt fantastic. Also as a young guy that otherwise looks healthy and always got shit from people for "pretending to be sick" this shut those fuckers up good.

In 2011 I had a few surgeries that switched to what they call a "J-Pouch" which is basically just trying to make a tiny colon with some small intestine. The 2 big problems here are it's small so I have to go many times a day and also I haven't been able to pass gas since without going to the bathroom so that causes more bathroom trips and bathroom urges. I've been much more uncomfortable and in more pain really with the J-pouch. Traveling was much easier with the bag really. Been told it can take up to 10 years to full get used to and adapted to it though.

Overall though it's been nothing I couldn't handle with the support of friends and family. Haven't really had to deal with my hardship in life besides this and I don't think it's that bad of a deal. LazyHippy really puts things into perspective with his post how much rougher life can be than what I've had to deal with.

Definitely very excited about what medical advances we will see in our lifetime. I have a feeling I'll have to wait awhile even after they start growing organs successfully because in my case it would really be "elective" surgery I don't need to live. Seeing as how at first there will be decent risks to how the body takes the new organ no surgeon will likely want to do it until the procedure becomes safer over time.

Thanks for your concern and congrats on your business as well!

Co-incidentally it was bowel cancer my wife had, so relate to a lot of what you are saying.

A couple of friends have Crohn's as well, it's nasty. Good to hear your doing ok. It will be interesting to see what comes of growing organs etc, looks like we'll be in a different world in 10, 20 years time.