My Life Defining Moment & Motivation / What's Yours?
- Thread starter Soupyone
- Start date
Inspiring. Over the next few months I have to make the biggest decision so far of my life.
Option 1-
Go to almost any 4-year college I want, work my ass of, party, major in some aspect of business, and work a 9-5 for the rest of my life.
Option 2-
Go to community college, where the workload is minimal. Stay at home with my parents(no overhead), and try to go big with AM.
Option 1-
Go to almost any 4-year college I want, work my ass of, party, major in some aspect of business, and work a 9-5 for the rest of my life.
Option 2-
Go to community college, where the workload is minimal. Stay at home with my parents(no overhead), and try to go big with AM.
Mine was graduating from college. and realizing that the careers that follow my degree was something i did not want to do!!!!
What's with so many people trotting out their IQ scores? Is this place MENSAfire? When I was in 5th grade, the teacher announced the class's IQ scores to the class publicly (bitch). I was a very quiet, socially inept and a rather dim appearing kid, mostly uninterested in schoolwork. Teacher announced I "surprisingly" scored as #3 in the class of 35. (ÜBER BITCH!!!)
Anyway, my life defining motivation to really get moving came from a mixed blessing: I inherited an estate house from my parents that is needy and in a county (Nassau) that gouges us all for sky-high property taxes. I am constant on the hook for thousands in upkeep/improvements/taxes, and must constantly bleed money to continue owning my "free" estate house.
Although I'm close to NYC, I don't even care to try out for a "real" job because I know there's so much more opportunity as an affiliate marketer/copywriter than anything I could earn working for somebody else. I made a commitment to this a while ago, and really want my portable employment to pay well so I can move to Los Angeles and still keep my "job."
Anyway, my life defining motivation to really get moving came from a mixed blessing: I inherited an estate house from my parents that is needy and in a county (Nassau) that gouges us all for sky-high property taxes. I am constant on the hook for thousands in upkeep/improvements/taxes, and must constantly bleed money to continue owning my "free" estate house.
Although I'm close to NYC, I don't even care to try out for a "real" job because I know there's so much more opportunity as an affiliate marketer/copywriter than anything I could earn working for somebody else. I made a commitment to this a while ago, and really want my portable employment to pay well so I can move to Los Angeles and still keep my "job."
Cool post and just what I needed as I was feeling lazy today and now feel like hustlin on a Sunday instead.
I guess I always had hustle on the brain and in my heart, dating back to my early teens. Had tried my hand at MLM at 15, buying cars at auction and reselling them at 16, and a whole assortment of other shit throughout my teens and early 20's.
Some made money. Some lost money. But nothing ever 'took off'.
Eventually I caved to the pressure of my Mom to get a real job and I ended up in Corporate America at the age of 23.
I languished there for about 7 years... always doing well by most people's standards... always getting promoted... but never loving it, and ALWAYS feeling that I was meant for something else.
Along the way I found the love of my life and I married her -- something I ever ever thought would happen to me.
We decided that we wanted kids, and of course, with a good job which paid about $60k a year (which I thought was good back then), and health insurance and benefits, it seemed like we were taking the path of the American Dream.
Unfortunately, about 3 weeks in, something went wrong.
My wife's pregnancy became difficult. Hard on her physically because it was marred with complications.
Hard on her mentally because she was always concerned for her own life and that of our first child.
And hard on me mentally because trying to work for a company that doesn't give a rat's fuck if your wife is in pain -- and wants you in the office 10 hours a day or more -- all the while wanting to be home with my wife and making sure everything was ok.
It was then that I began to realize that what I had been doing -- working for someone else -- it was wrong. It was ALWAYS wrong for me.
And then one day I opened the mailbox and my most crucial life defining moment arrived in a big fat envelope from our Insurance company.
"Dear John,
Your claim has been reviewed by our specialists and unfortunately the medical provider's services are not covered under your policy..."
I realized that one of the reasons I even worked for anyone else at all -- to have insurance and 'benefits' -- it was all fucking bullshit.
I was on the hook for six figures in medical bills.
It was then that all my doubts and disbelief in myself completely evaporated.
I remember very distinctly thinking... "I can't fuck myself any worse than these assholes."
So, I began building my online business on company time...
It took me a few years to figure out how to make it work for me.
But the end result is today I NEVER worry about money. My family does not worry about money. We live in a home we love in a town we love and our kids will always be taken care of.
Yeah, we added another kid since then and I paid those medical bills in cash.
Thanks OP for some inspiration. +rep man.
I guess I always had hustle on the brain and in my heart, dating back to my early teens. Had tried my hand at MLM at 15, buying cars at auction and reselling them at 16, and a whole assortment of other shit throughout my teens and early 20's.
Some made money. Some lost money. But nothing ever 'took off'.
Eventually I caved to the pressure of my Mom to get a real job and I ended up in Corporate America at the age of 23.
I languished there for about 7 years... always doing well by most people's standards... always getting promoted... but never loving it, and ALWAYS feeling that I was meant for something else.
Along the way I found the love of my life and I married her -- something I ever ever thought would happen to me.
We decided that we wanted kids, and of course, with a good job which paid about $60k a year (which I thought was good back then), and health insurance and benefits, it seemed like we were taking the path of the American Dream.
Unfortunately, about 3 weeks in, something went wrong.
My wife's pregnancy became difficult. Hard on her physically because it was marred with complications.
Hard on her mentally because she was always concerned for her own life and that of our first child.
And hard on me mentally because trying to work for a company that doesn't give a rat's fuck if your wife is in pain -- and wants you in the office 10 hours a day or more -- all the while wanting to be home with my wife and making sure everything was ok.
It was then that I began to realize that what I had been doing -- working for someone else -- it was wrong. It was ALWAYS wrong for me.
And then one day I opened the mailbox and my most crucial life defining moment arrived in a big fat envelope from our Insurance company.
"Dear John,
Your claim has been reviewed by our specialists and unfortunately the medical provider's services are not covered under your policy..."
I realized that one of the reasons I even worked for anyone else at all -- to have insurance and 'benefits' -- it was all fucking bullshit.
I was on the hook for six figures in medical bills.
It was then that all my doubts and disbelief in myself completely evaporated.
I remember very distinctly thinking... "I can't fuck myself any worse than these assholes."
So, I began building my online business on company time...
It took me a few years to figure out how to make it work for me.
But the end result is today I NEVER worry about money. My family does not worry about money. We live in a home we love in a town we love and our kids will always be taken care of.
Yeah, we added another kid since then and I paid those medical bills in cash.
Thanks OP for some inspiration. +rep man.
dude thats really really fascinating story. well i dont thinks i had that moment yet but closest i had was japan when i was 18.
This same type of deal happened to a man who goes to my local church.
He worked for 50+ years to retire wealthy and travel, but the last year before he was about to retire he got cancer and died within a few months.
Live and enjoy your life now!
My defining moment came to me 2 years ago when I changed my mind in the middle of an Accounting class I was taking at my local Community College.
I was in the middle of this huge final that was either going to pass or fail me. I had studied for 8 hours the previous day and everything had fallen out of my head before the test.
Then it hit me, "why am I paying to learn all of this advanced shit I am probably never going to use just to get a general degree. I've spent nearly $10,000 for nearly 2 years to go to school here and I don't even know where I am going with my education. Holy shit what have I done!?!"
In the middle of the test I put all my stuff into my bag and walked out of the classroom, out of the building, got in my car and never went back to college.
I was in the middle of this huge final that was either going to pass or fail me. I had studied for 8 hours the previous day and everything had fallen out of my head before the test.
Then it hit me, "why am I paying to learn all of this advanced shit I am probably never going to use just to get a general degree. I've spent nearly $10,000 for nearly 2 years to go to school here and I don't even know where I am going with my education. Holy shit what have I done!?!"
In the middle of the test I put all my stuff into my bag and walked out of the classroom, out of the building, got in my car and never went back to college.
Nice post man, motivation and motivation. My turning moment was when I received $1 on 15-10-2009 online as freelancer and independent seo service provider. Actually I was accountant in private firm , leave my job to enter in online world. After leaving my accountant job I have worked with local seo companies as internship or at very low wage, but I have carry on my work with full determination to learn new things accurately and efficiently. After some time when I have become very much professional in my field , I have left local seo companies and try my luck as freelancer on different IM forums and freelance resources . . . My 1st 3 months (dark and difficult days) were very much crucial because no repu and no work then turning moment of my life comes and that was 15-10-2009 on which I have received $1 as freelancer and after I become very much successful in online seo service providing industry.
If you're serious about wanting to give AM a shot and have the discipline to keep up on your studies, go to the JC. With minimal effort you should be able to keep a solid GPA and transfer after 2 years. That way you can spend less money and time on school and delay the AM decision for a while. If you start to see success you can always just tone down your class load and not deal with the hassle and expense of moving your stuff back home. If you decide that transferring to a university after 2 years is the right idea then you will have saved a good amount of money and took a shot at giving AM a chance.
Wow awesome thread! Love the original post!
I'm 24 so i dont know if I had my life defining moment but the closest thing that came to one was indeed in Miami, FL!
god i love that city, it just re-energizes me everytime im there.
I'm originally from Ukraine, moved to Cleveland, OH at age 11. Def. came from what you would call a true middle class family. Dad is a truck driver, mom works at a hair salon. We were pretty well off back in the motheland but all that came to an end when my gramps passed away. So we moved here for the better life (come to think about it, i have now idea how Cleveland, OH came about since I fucking HATE!! living next to a farm) Went to school, got my finance degree (should have went for IT or something AM related) thinking that corporate america was the way to go...man was i fucking wrong...FUUCK THAT!! couldnt find a decent job other than a bank teller for $10/hr...hated every minute of it. so i quit, and got a job as a sales rep for a tech company selling wireless equipment, the job pays well but I'm still stuck in a cubicle working for a guy who makes almost $200,000 a month. Up until my last months trip to Miami (to visit a good friend) i had my mind made up on the fact that if im end up making 100-200k a year ill be perfectly ok with my life....boy did that all change after the trip.
Not sure why or when or how but when I came back from Miami, the luxury, the fancy cars and all the beatiful girls....the first thing i see stepping off the airplane was a dumb fuck hillbilly in overalls, wearing a GIT-R-DONE hat spitting chewing tabacco into a cup
At that point I promised myself that Im gonna do what ever is necessary to make sure I do not end up like him or anyone resembling him living in this shitty city. I promised myself that my dad will not a truck driver for the rest of his life and that one day I will be able to take care of them like they deserve. And the whole idea with being comfrotable with making 100-200k a year.....FUUUUUUCK that! The trip to miami completely reinvented the way I think...and even though I've been doing AM full time for only a month and i have yet to make one profitable campaign (i know, fucking terrible) I will not stop until I make my dreams come true....
So i guess this post is by someone who just had his life defining moment...now I gotta work my ass off to make sure that whatever I just wrote isnt complete bullshit...cuz I hate people who bullshit!
Well, thats all, just wanted to vent...great thread! hoping one day I can look back at this and say "yup...i did it just like i said I would"
I'm 24 so i dont know if I had my life defining moment but the closest thing that came to one was indeed in Miami, FL!
god i love that city, it just re-energizes me everytime im there.I'm originally from Ukraine, moved to Cleveland, OH at age 11. Def. came from what you would call a true middle class family. Dad is a truck driver, mom works at a hair salon. We were pretty well off back in the motheland but all that came to an end when my gramps passed away. So we moved here for the better life (come to think about it, i have now idea how Cleveland, OH came about since I fucking HATE!! living next to a farm) Went to school, got my finance degree (should have went for IT or something AM related) thinking that corporate america was the way to go...man was i fucking wrong...FUUCK THAT!! couldnt find a decent job other than a bank teller for $10/hr...hated every minute of it. so i quit, and got a job as a sales rep for a tech company selling wireless equipment, the job pays well but I'm still stuck in a cubicle working for a guy who makes almost $200,000 a month. Up until my last months trip to Miami (to visit a good friend) i had my mind made up on the fact that if im end up making 100-200k a year ill be perfectly ok with my life....boy did that all change after the trip.
Not sure why or when or how but when I came back from Miami, the luxury, the fancy cars and all the beatiful girls....the first thing i see stepping off the airplane was a dumb fuck hillbilly in overalls, wearing a GIT-R-DONE hat spitting chewing tabacco into a cup
At that point I promised myself that Im gonna do what ever is necessary to make sure I do not end up like him or anyone resembling him living in this shitty city. I promised myself that my dad will not a truck driver for the rest of his life and that one day I will be able to take care of them like they deserve. And the whole idea with being comfrotable with making 100-200k a year.....FUUUUUUCK that! The trip to miami completely reinvented the way I think...and even though I've been doing AM full time for only a month and i have yet to make one profitable campaign (i know, fucking terrible) I will not stop until I make my dreams come true....
So i guess this post is by someone who just had his life defining moment...now I gotta work my ass off to make sure that whatever I just wrote isnt complete bullshit...cuz I hate people who bullshit!
Well, thats all, just wanted to vent...great thread! hoping one day I can look back at this and say "yup...i did it just like i said I would"
Since I last posted to this thread, I've had a lot of changes. This one hit me kind of hard:
I've been full-time IM since Sept 1. I used to work for a company of HIGHLY talented, overworked, yet extremely underpaid young individuals (average age probably 30 in the entire company of 5000).
When people leave the company, it's tradition to send a "farewell" e-mail to all of the friends you've made at the company. In mine, I got a bit intense and basically said "Hey, you guys are all smarter than me - so seriously, what the fuck are we doing? If I'm not bankrupt in a year, then I challenge you to sack up and join me in entrepreneurship and stop slaving away for someone else. Because if I can make it, then I damn well know you can"
I got lots of good responses - but one response was from my buddy who was all about climbing the corporate ladder. He basically said "I'm going to give them one last chance for them to make me a VP or Segment Manager.... I'll give it another year... if it doesn't work, then I'll go and do my own thing", and he commented on how seeing the homes of the founders of the company made him want to start his own some day.
One month later, this friend of mine was found passed away in his hotel room while at a conference. A typically non-lethal pre-existing condition he had got to the best of him. He was a year younger than me.
While this friend of mine LOVED what he did, and worked and played balls-to-the-wall, he aspired to be bigger. He saved money in order to get there. And now he's gone.
The lesson is, there's no time to wait, especially if it's on other people. Fuck being at their mercy - be at your own.
I know for a fact that if I died today as opposed to dying 3 months ago, I would be MUCH more satisfied that I finally sacked up myself and did went after it.
I've been full-time IM since Sept 1. I used to work for a company of HIGHLY talented, overworked, yet extremely underpaid young individuals (average age probably 30 in the entire company of 5000).
When people leave the company, it's tradition to send a "farewell" e-mail to all of the friends you've made at the company. In mine, I got a bit intense and basically said "Hey, you guys are all smarter than me - so seriously, what the fuck are we doing? If I'm not bankrupt in a year, then I challenge you to sack up and join me in entrepreneurship and stop slaving away for someone else. Because if I can make it, then I damn well know you can"
I got lots of good responses - but one response was from my buddy who was all about climbing the corporate ladder. He basically said "I'm going to give them one last chance for them to make me a VP or Segment Manager.... I'll give it another year... if it doesn't work, then I'll go and do my own thing", and he commented on how seeing the homes of the founders of the company made him want to start his own some day.
One month later, this friend of mine was found passed away in his hotel room while at a conference. A typically non-lethal pre-existing condition he had got to the best of him. He was a year younger than me.
While this friend of mine LOVED what he did, and worked and played balls-to-the-wall, he aspired to be bigger. He saved money in order to get there. And now he's gone.
The lesson is, there's no time to wait, especially if it's on other people. Fuck being at their mercy - be at your own.
I know for a fact that if I died today as opposed to dying 3 months ago, I would be MUCH more satisfied that I finally sacked up myself and did went after it.
Great motivation.
When I was 15 I pocketed tons of $$ from affiliate marketing.
Now, I am 16 and junior year in HS is fucking stressful. I get tons of homework that I hate. Why the fuck must I learn french? What is the point of graphing y=sin(x+1)-3? Who the fuck cares about king george III?
I do enjoy some of my classes like psychology, physics, and writing, but I'll probably never use those.
I'm seriously contemplating dropping out of HS and going AM full time, but it's just a dream I have. My parents would kill me if I dropped out of school. I just get blazed to relieve the stress and get back to working like a slave.
Even worse, I have less time for AM nowadays.... fuck the education system. Sure, you may be a better person for being educated, but you're only being used to make the corporations rich. Our education system is fucked up. Most students don't even want to go to school, but they have to or else they won't get a degree so they can make money, making the corps richer. Something is wrong.
When I was 15 I pocketed tons of $$ from affiliate marketing.
Now, I am 16 and junior year in HS is fucking stressful. I get tons of homework that I hate. Why the fuck must I learn french? What is the point of graphing y=sin(x+1)-3? Who the fuck cares about king george III?
I do enjoy some of my classes like psychology, physics, and writing, but I'll probably never use those.
I'm seriously contemplating dropping out of HS and going AM full time, but it's just a dream I have. My parents would kill me if I dropped out of school. I just get blazed to relieve the stress and get back to working like a slave.
Even worse, I have less time for AM nowadays.... fuck the education system. Sure, you may be a better person for being educated, but you're only being used to make the corporations rich. Our education system is fucked up. Most students don't even want to go to school, but they have to or else they won't get a degree so they can make money, making the corps richer. Something is wrong.