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

Well, you havent owned it since 2005. Sounds like SOMEONE else did something right all these years ( at least 10 )

Yeah, the sale happened during my divorce. I wasn't putting myself through that amount of stress and responsibility just for myself.

My business partners even said they preferred me at the helm. The new owner actually ended up poaching quality developers from shops that I made solid relationships with. What an asshole.
 


Yeah, the sale happened during my divorce. I wasn't putting myself through that amount of stress and responsibility just for myself.

My business partners even said they preferred me at the helm. The new owner actually ended up poaching quality developers from shops that I made solid relationships with. What an asshole.

isnt it really convenient to be that full of yourself?

one company goes to shit - new owners fault
one company does well for ten years - obviously carried by stuff you may or may not have done a decade ago

the fact that you can hack php scripts jacked from random sites together doesn't make you a programmer. you seem to be relatively good at selling shit marked up nicely to clueless people. gz on that, but you're not skilled at anything technical.
 
isnt it really convenient to be that full of yourself?

one company goes to shit - new owners fault
one company does well for ten years - obviously carried by stuff you may or may not have done a decade ago

the fact that you can hack php scripts jacked from random sites together doesn't make you a programmer. you seem to be relatively good at selling shit marked up nicely to clueless people. gz on that, but you're not skilled at anything technical.

Fucken WF. Can't we just talk like normal human beings? Is is really that difficult?

All I said was that I think it's pretty cool that the first online business I started is doing well. I started that thing from nothing more than an idea in my head, ran it successfully for 5 years, then sold. To this day, it's still running, which I think is pretty cool.

By no means am I jealous or anything, but nonetheless, a business I started back in Nov 2000 is still successfully running today, which you have to admit, is pretty fucken cool.
 
Income: No, about half of what it was in 2010

Net worth: Yes, thanks to rising stock and real estate market, good personal finance and really low living expenses.


Affiliate business dried up and I got a 9-5 just to have a normal income. It sucks.

End game is financial independence and to do w/e kind of work I want to do online from home. Almost there.
 
5 years ago, I had just gotten married, my businesses were still in the revenue upswing, and I was working 60-70 hours a week, trying to stash as much money as possible for my eventual (early) retirement.

Flash forward to today, business revenue is stable but not growing, I can honestly say I'm working at least 10 hours less per week then I used to, and a little bit of my hunger/edge has faded, maybe I'm just getting complacent, or just old. No complaints, I have more in the bank than I did 5 years ago, the companies are still doing fine, but I don't have quite the same killer instinct as I did 5 years ago, and probably even further from that then I was 10 years ago. Still, no complaints, can't stay at that level forever, but I need to lock-down and get as hungry as I used to be to really cross the finish-line in style.
 
Need some motivation: Read The Compound Effect: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Compound-Effect-Darren-Hardy/dp/159315724X"]The Compound Effect: Darren Hardy: 9781593157241: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
 
Want purpose? Get enough money to support at least 3-4 kids. If first 3 kids are girls, you'll want that extra cheese to have room for a possible 4th boy. I know a neighbour who wanted a boy so bad, but he ended up with 4 girls. At this point he couldn't support the 5th kid.
You'll definitely want that baby boy to pass on all your knowledge, choose his dreams and likes and make him what you didn't were in your young life, fuck him up mentally and he'll end up doing the same etc.
What was this thread about, I'm drunk.

Come on man, I know you are drunk making that statement. I know families with 3-4 kids that are already broke as fuck just trying to raise them. Me personally, I don't have any kids and dont plan to have them. I have a few reasons for that.

1. I cant afford them.

2. I cant raise them, not my thing.

3. I would be a horrible father, and I know that and ok with it.

4. I am more responsible for myself and know I can't take care of them.

5. There is no guaranty the kids you have now will turn up the way you want them too.

But this female versus male nonsense is getting old, end rant. Time for some johnny walker green label.
 
It's quite obvious that I was just stating the story of average dad with his kids. In no way I would do this to my kids, girls or boys. Sure, I would introduce them to certain stuff, but let them decide. I play drums, if my kid will want guitar or bass, so be it.

Regarding the male/female issue, fathers will have different approaches with their boys. It's natural to see their sons as a version of themselves. Same goes for mother/daughters. Say I have a big business going, you think I wouldn't want my daughter to run it? Fuck, it's possible she would even do better, why not.

I'm just saying, in a family of 3 daughters and 1 son, why should we blame the father if he wants to play baseball with him? Let boys be boys and girls be girls. I don't believe in gender equality. They are different and compliment each other. Same treatment and respect, sure, I'm all for that, but devaluing the character and personality of each gender for the sake of equality it's like hiring minorities so you don't get perceived as rasist rather than choosing people based on skill.
 
Definitely better off.

When I first joined this site, I was an eager beaver.. Lots of time to spare doing business school with a couple side gigs to bring in money. Made my first coin running rebills through ROIshare; however, that quickly went away.

These days I still check back on the forum, and get somewhat inspired... Though my current employment/passion leaves me little time to explore.

FWIW, I deal in processing for a rather large merchant, and manage a lot of our various relationships in the high risk space.
 
Now I'm trying to desperately find something to motivate me again. Money doesn't motivate me like it use to. I've fell victim to the life of comfortableness. I only do enough work to pay my bills and pay for entertainment every month. Everyday I tell myself I need to get to work, but in the end I sit on my computer and do nothing.

If you don't need the money then why bother wasting your time working for it? If you can pay your bills and live happily what's the benefit of making more money?
 
I would have to guess that there's an element of challenging one's self here. It's great to make enough scratch to pay for your current expenses/retirement... Though I'd assume the people on this forum want to be engaged/challenged more, and the reward of succeeding pays off tenfold compared to having a high paying job that lets you live comfortably.

My 2c at least...
 
I started my IM career almost exactly 5 years ago. Back then I'd never worked a regular job and was still in high school, so it's pretty easy to say I'm doing better today.

For the 4 first years, I only did affiliate + SEO stuff, the money was ok but I knew it wouldn't last forever so I was constantly trying to stay ahead and look for new opportunities. I quit school and basically locked myself in the apartment for the first 4 years. I destroyed my social life a bit but honestly I think the rewards were worth it as I was making pretty good money at the start of 2014 and that's when I finally decided to start my own service.

Start of 2014 I also started doing the "digital nomad" thing as I was getting way too bored of life just working from home 24/7. It was a lot to handle together with the new business but so far I've managed to make it work...

However now I feel like I've hit a dangerous wall of complacency, at the moment I'm making good money almost autopilot just from past efforts but I'm losing the drive I used to have. I let myself take a few months off and just "enjoy life" and traveling. Now I'm finding it really hard to get back to work... I know what's happening here, I've heard of it happening to others several times but I'm struggling to find a cure.

I'm seriously considering selling my business so I can start something more interesting and/or meaningful. I'm scared of what might happen to me if I don't regain the passion soon.
 
2010 was one of the best years of my life. Its still good today. As long as I can keep traveling the world I am happy. I don't want marriage or kids.
 
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.
 
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.

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.
 
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'.

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'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.
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.