Give me some mutherfuarking advice

[tangy]

Here's what I'm thinking of doing:

• study to become a certified personal trainer in the next 10 months
• keep freelancing to support myself (bills + gym + supplements are costing me $460/wk
• go to university, I can do a 16 month diploma of business to gain entry to university, this counts as yr 12 and my first year of uni
• after that, I'll probably do a bachelor of business marketing and commerce or something similar

Fitness is a hobby of mine, so it's something that I might as well gain certification in, amirite?

Any older guys out there, who've been where I am want to give me some decent advice? Oh yeah, and if you want to help me out, I'm offering a free logo design or two free banners for the best two responses.

I'm pretty amped on preworkout at the moment, so this probably reads like I have adhd.

I'll jump in as one of the "older guys" who had a situation similar to yours. When I was 18 (back in the dot-com boom) I had a website which ended up exploding in popularity, and moved through to a buyout, etc. This happened right after I graduated HS so I didn't end up going to school right away - and when I did, I went to recording school (to get certified in something I liked, music... much like you're thinking with your personal training). Fast-forward more than a decade and I'm at university now, 3/5th through a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

I don't want to bore you with my story, so I'll comment on your plan and share my experiences.

1) If you want to study to get a personal trainer certification, that's fine. I suggest you go into this with the mentality that you're doing it for learning and personal growth and not for a future career. You can probably a more stable and higher income designing websites than being an actual trainer; it's not an easy job to build a solid long-term business unless you are in a very high population area which isn't already saturated. If you end up wanting to be a great personal trainer down the road, you can advance to something like a degree in Kinesiology / Human Kinetics / etc.

2) Yes - keep freelancing to support yourself. Your portfolio looks great; get sales threads up at all of the major IM forums to continue earning business and if things get slow, develop wordpress themes and sell them on Premium WordPress Themes, Web Templates, Mobile Themes | ThemeForest. I'm not a web developer, but the ones I know who do this say it's a great way to make additional side cash and more importantly, they earn loads of new customers through referrals and people who want customization. REMEMBER: There's nothing stopping you from growing this from a one-man show into a web development company doing millions of dollars a year in revenue.

3) Go to university when you can a) pay for it in cash without incurring any debt and b) know exactly what degree you want to take. I waited 11 years between high school and university and I spent that time shaping myself into who I am today. There was a lot of fun, a lot of pain, a lot of learning and a lot of trial and error along the way but that's what makes life... life. You can decide when you're ready to go, but be ready before you hit university. (By the way, university has been a fucking blast so far. It's awesome.)

You've got a whole life ahead of you, so use it wisely. Feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or want some mentorship.

 

[Ookie]

Although I disapprove of uni, hear me out (since you're Aussie and all).

Consider going through this Distance Education and Online Courses - Open Universities Australia

You can do four university units (that actually count as uni units, none of this 16 month bullshit) then apply for a university directly - no year 12 grad required. Being Australian, you can even use AUSTUDY to pay for it, and tell Centrelink you are a fulltime student. You can do web design units as a minor for your first year, before you decide on what you really want to do.

Also consider getting the fuck out of SA, it's a shithole. Go to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, or somewhere with a real economy.

Thanks man. I'll consider this when I'm ready to do Uni.

And yeah, if I'm still with my girl next year, I'll be moving to Melbourne. I'm in Adelaide because well, I needed somewhere quickly where I know people etc.

I think $460/week is way too much for somebody in your position. I would try to cut your expenses down to like $500/mo. Get a roommate and live frugal.

Once you do that focus on freelancing and get yourself comfortable. Become really good at what you do and work your ass off for a few years. Forget the fitness thing, personal trainers don't make shit and are a dime a dozen. Web designers are a dime a dozen too, but you can differentiate yourself with quality, so become the best at it. After a few years and you're all caught up and comfy work on networking and forming businesses with people who compliment your skillset.

Whatever you do, don't work for anyone else and don't get a degree. Keep figuring out how to build your own business and your own brand. Solve hard problems and think creatively. Constantly be on the lookout for new business models and always evolve. Don't take shortcuts. Work hard and smart now so you can be well taken care of later.

I have a room mate in a small flat, and it's $155/rent. Cheapest shithole I could find anywhere was $120/wk.

Thanks, yeah, I'm getting all of my gear tomorrow, so I'll be settling down for about 10 months atleast. I just want to do the personal training thing, I get a certificate to say I can teach shit, if I need money at any time really badly, I can pick up a few clients - beats flipping burgers at Maccas (been there, did that for 3 weeks last time I got kicked out of home).

Cheers, yeah, I plan to put down roots in web design, network, keep freelancing, I'll get there eventually.

I'll jump in as one of the "older guys" who had a situation similar to yours. When I was 18 (back in the dot-com boom) I had a website which ended up exploding in popularity, and moved through to a buyout, etc. This happened right after I graduated HS so I didn't end up going to school right away - and when I did, I went to recording school (to get certified in something I liked, music... much like you're thinking with your personal training). Fast-forward more than a decade and I'm at university now, 3/5th through a degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

I don't want to bore you with my story, so I'll comment on your plan and share my experiences.

1) If you want to study to get a personal trainer certification, that's fine. I suggest you go into this with the mentality that you're doing it for learning and personal growth and not for a future career. You can probably a more stable and higher income designing websites than being an actual trainer; it's not an easy job to build a solid long-term business unless you are in a very high population area which isn't already saturated. If you end up wanting to be a great personal trainer down the road, you can advance to something like a degree in Kinesiology / Human Kinetics / etc.

2) Yes - keep freelancing to support yourself. Your portfolio looks great; get sales threads up at all of the major IM forums to continue earning business and if things get slow, develop wordpress themes and sell them on Premium WordPress Themes, Web Templates, Mobile Themes | ThemeForest. I'm not a web developer, but the ones I know who do this say it's a great way to make additional side cash and more importantly, they earn loads of new customers through referrals and people who want customization. REMEMBER: There's nothing stopping you from growing this from a one-man show into a web development company doing millions of dollars a year in revenue.

3) Go to university when you can a) pay for it in cash without incurring any debt and b) know exactly what degree you want to take. I waited 11 years between high school and university and I spent that time shaping myself into who I am today. There was a lot of fun, a lot of pain, a lot of learning and a lot of trial and error along the way but that's what makes life... life. You can decide when you're ready to go, but be ready before you hit university. (By the way, university has been a fucking blast so far. It's awesome.)

You've got a whole life ahead of you, so use it wisely. Feel free to PM me anytime if you have questions or want some mentorship.

I love you man. nohomo

Basically everything you've said, is what my plan is for now.

I'm going to do the personal training thing to mix things up, keep my mind busy, give me a break from web design shit. I don't intend to do it for a career, but just as a hobby.

Work isn't really a problem at the moment, I have shittons of work, motivation and focus have been major problems, but after talking to a few guys from here, I'm changing the way I do shit. Themeforest I've wanted to do for a while, but I haven't had the time or a suitable coder. I'm going to hire a VA in the next couple of weeks to take over my coding work, as the amount I'm paying my current coder is far more than the cost of a VA. Plus then I have him doing cool shit in his spare time. My plan is develop this thing into a multi million dollar business, you will hear about me in 5 - 10 years from now, if you don't hear about me sooner.

Thanks for the advice about Uni, I won't close that option, I'll keep it there for the future. When I want to mix things up and can afford it, I'll go back and do something that will be useful, not just something for the sake of getting a degree.

To the haters - U mad brah?​

 

[amateursurgeon]

Now that you've put it like that, I don't need Uni. I'm 18, supporting myself as a web designer already, I've gone from like $200 a month, to $500/wk in a little over a year. I just need to focus on my business, put in the time and I'll see results. Thanks for the advice man, everything is much clearer now.

You're welcome. There is another reason to go to uni - it gives you life experience of being away from home, and you get to mix with other people your age. However, if that's what you want it for, you're probably best off travelling for a year or three.

In my first attempt at a degree, I spent a fortune basically just partying for a year, it would have been much cheaper for me to do it abroad. My second attempt (the degree I actually finished) was in an engineering-based computing degree, which is actually still useful to me 10 years later on.

You can always go to uni later if you wish. I may go back and do a further qualification just for the heck of it later on, but it will probably be in neurobiology or some shit I find fascinating.

One thing to bear in mind though - if you go to uni after a couple of years' working, you'll probably find most of the people you're there with horrendously immature, because they're still basically schoolkids. I made far more friends outside of uni than in, because I found most of the people there really tedious. But maybe that's just me.

 

[rusvik]

You should probably also break up with your girlfriend before it becomes a 'thing'. Trust me, it will be harder once you show some promise and the big 'marriage and set for life' idea begins to emerge.

 

[Insomniac]

You're welcome. There is another reason to go to uni - it gives you life experience of being away from home, and you get to mix with other people your age. However, if that's what you want it for, you're probably best off travelling for a year or three.

In my first attempt at a degree, I spent a fortune basically just partying for a year, it would have been much cheaper for me to do it abroad. My second attempt (the degree I actually finished) was in an engineering-based computing degree, which is actually still useful to me 10 years later on.

You can always go to uni later if you wish. I may go back and do a further qualification just for the heck of it later on, but it will probably be in neurobiology or some shit I find fascinating.

One thing to bear in mind though - if you go to uni after a couple of years' working, you'll probably find most of the people you're there with horrendously immature, because they're still basically schoolkids. I made far more friends outside of uni than in, because I found most of the people there really tedious. But maybe that's just me.

He's Australian, not American - your advice is invalid. Australian uni is cheap, even for the top institutions. 3 year degree = 24 units x $800 = ~$19k - don't have to pay back your loan until you have a job earning over $40k, and the interest rate is the same as inflation - you could pay for the whole degree off welfare easily. It's uncommon for Aussies to dorm for uni, however Aussie males do normally move out of home somewhere between 18-21. Aussie uni's typically have bars on-site also. As Australia has trades (apprenticeships) the uni's aren't full of tards who don't want to be there either.

 

[actionman]

Wow AUS university system is so much better. If it is that cheap and has such great loan deals definitely do it man. An education is always valuable.

But the loans at uni's in the USA are ridiculously expensive.