My Life Defining Moment & Motivation / What's Yours?
- Thread starter Soupyone
- Start date
You're 16 and know nothing.
Stay in school, learn all you can, and when you're well educated and ready go off into the world.
Knowing affiliate marketing isn't enough to prepare you for life... Especially outside of Internet Marketing.
Lawlz. I felt the same way, but it simply isn't true.
Now the social/cliche part of HS can be a bitch, but actual HS classes don't rate for much as 'stress' later in your life.
If you're super motivated to get out of HS (and I too believe that the education system today is fucked) get your GED and test out of HS early.
You're going to need that 'basic' education even if that education has only prepared you to learn a bunch of shit you're not interested in in a short amount of time.
'Cause there is a lot of shit you need to know that you won't be interested in. It isn't all AM and dollar signs.
This thread is def awesome Soupyone
Everytime I start to feel a lil lazy, I find myself reading the original post and get re-energinzed....that and the fact that ur sitting in Miami right now, my dream city to live while I'm stuck in Ohio in 47 degree weather and non stop rain
Thanks bro
Everytime I start to feel a lil lazy, I find myself reading the original post and get re-energinzed....that and the fact that ur sitting in Miami right now, my dream city to live while I'm stuck in Ohio in 47 degree weather and non stop rain
Thanks bro
@gbmack
Stay in school dude, no matter how much you hate it...
I was somewhat in a similar position as you about 4-5 years ago, a bit older but same dilemma, I was 20, sophomore in college making $1k a day from doing some shady Myspace spamming lol I thought I was on top of the world for 1.5 years, not going to class, debating about dropping out and getting into AM....then shit came crashing down quicker than I thought was possible, SOOOOOOO glad I didnt drop out of school and finished my degree cuz with it the least I could do was secure a daytime job while I'm working my way back up in making AM in full time
You never know whats going to happen tommorow, and even if you dont plan to use ur education in any way, having a highschool diplomma and a degree is good to have at least for a backup plan if all else fails.
Trust me at 16, i had the same feelings as you having right now...but trust me, in a few years you're gonna look at this post (hopefully banking ur ass off by then) and u're gonna say to urself "I cant believe I actually thought about doing something so retarded"
Stay in school dude, no matter how much you hate it...
I was somewhat in a similar position as you about 4-5 years ago, a bit older but same dilemma, I was 20, sophomore in college making $1k a day from doing some shady Myspace spamming lol I thought I was on top of the world for 1.5 years, not going to class, debating about dropping out and getting into AM....then shit came crashing down quicker than I thought was possible, SOOOOOOO glad I didnt drop out of school and finished my degree cuz with it the least I could do was secure a daytime job while I'm working my way back up in making AM in full time
You never know whats going to happen tommorow, and even if you dont plan to use ur education in any way, having a highschool diplomma and a degree is good to have at least for a backup plan if all else fails.
Trust me at 16, i had the same feelings as you having right now...but trust me, in a few years you're gonna look at this post (hopefully banking ur ass off by then
) and u're gonna say to urself "I cant believe I actually thought about doing something so retarded"
I've had a few life-defining moments, probably because I'm a stubborn Irish prick that doesn't always get the message the first time. Grew up with nothing in Detroit. Mother died when I was 4, raised by my father, no brothers or sisters. The only people I had growing up was my dad and my maternal grandma (more on that later). Anyway, my dad was a heroin addict. Caught him coming out of the bathroom when I was 15 with his arm still tied-off and that shit hurt like hell. Really good-hearted person, but he had his own demons and to this day (I'm 35) I've never done any drugs solely because of what I saw growing up. I used to steal food out of stores because he would either forget to buy food, or run out of money. That's when I learned that hot tea and sugar represses your appetite and makes the hunger pains go away.
Anyway, a combination of the great upbringing, not having a pot to piss in, and an above average IQ (like a lot of people on here), lead me into a life of crime as a teenager. B&E's, re-tagged cars, robberies etc - you name it, if there was money to be made doing it, I probably did it. One by one a lot of the kids I grew up with were killed, OD'ed, ended up in Juvey etc until I finally got popped. Was arrested a few times as a kid and then finally they sent my ass to the big house for 3 years. During that time, my father and grandmother both died (couldn't go to funeral of course even though they were my only family), and my first born son was taken away from his mom and adopted out (still haven't seen him - he's 15 now).
The enormity of all that finally got to me and I got drunk one night while still on parole, got in an accident and almost killed a guy. They sent me back for 4 more years and during that time is when I realized how important it was for me to focus on what really matters in life.
Got out some years ago, got custody of my other son from his mom, working on custody of my 14 year old daughter (might be a little late for that, but we still have a great relationship), got married to the girl that stuck by me through all that bullshit and we have a beautiful little 3 year old daughter now. We bought a beautiful 4 bedroom house with all the trimmings, great neighborhood out in the suburbs, great schools, etc.
My drive in life is to give everything to my children that I never had. Sounds cliche as hell to say it, but that really is what drives me. Cars, clothes, boats and hoes don't do it for me anymore. I find value in being able to throw the football around with my son and spend time with my daughters. I enjoy teaching them more than anything, because nobody ever explained anything to me growing up. I had to learn everything the hard way and I don't want them to deal with that shit.
I love IM because it allows me the financial freedom, and more importantly, the time to spend with my family. That's all that matters to me. If I had to choose between an extra $200k this year, or spending a few hours with my kids everyday I would take the time without a second thought. Having time taken away from you, and being in a cage for 7 years puts a lot of shit in proper perspective.
Anyway, a combination of the great upbringing, not having a pot to piss in, and an above average IQ (like a lot of people on here), lead me into a life of crime as a teenager. B&E's, re-tagged cars, robberies etc - you name it, if there was money to be made doing it, I probably did it. One by one a lot of the kids I grew up with were killed, OD'ed, ended up in Juvey etc until I finally got popped. Was arrested a few times as a kid and then finally they sent my ass to the big house for 3 years. During that time, my father and grandmother both died (couldn't go to funeral of course even though they were my only family), and my first born son was taken away from his mom and adopted out (still haven't seen him - he's 15 now).
The enormity of all that finally got to me and I got drunk one night while still on parole, got in an accident and almost killed a guy. They sent me back for 4 more years and during that time is when I realized how important it was for me to focus on what really matters in life.
Got out some years ago, got custody of my other son from his mom, working on custody of my 14 year old daughter (might be a little late for that, but we still have a great relationship), got married to the girl that stuck by me through all that bullshit and we have a beautiful little 3 year old daughter now. We bought a beautiful 4 bedroom house with all the trimmings, great neighborhood out in the suburbs, great schools, etc.
My drive in life is to give everything to my children that I never had. Sounds cliche as hell to say it, but that really is what drives me. Cars, clothes, boats and hoes don't do it for me anymore. I find value in being able to throw the football around with my son and spend time with my daughters. I enjoy teaching them more than anything, because nobody ever explained anything to me growing up. I had to learn everything the hard way and I don't want them to deal with that shit.
I love IM because it allows me the financial freedom, and more importantly, the time to spend with my family. That's all that matters to me. If I had to choose between an extra $200k this year, or spending a few hours with my kids everyday I would take the time without a second thought. Having time taken away from you, and being in a cage for 7 years puts a lot of shit in proper perspective.
Because basically every piece of technology you've ever touched is based upon billions of sine waves, and you're now only a few steps from understanding it all if you want to.
This, of course, coming from the electrical/computer engineer who just gave up engineering to do IM.
That said, do your best to enjoy high school. Keep your eyes open for opportunities - you are in an environment that most of us are not, and we do not see these new hot products, topics, or potential business ideas that you are privy to.
Make some lady friends (if you got no game, do your research and figure it out), find out what they're into and what's hot and upcoming, and market the shit out of it online.
This thread has inspired me.
I've lurked around the forum a little bit over the last several months. I've done a bunch of research on IM but haven't really taken any action, like many others. I just lost my job a few weeks ago and I think it's about time that I finally start taking some action. Really loving WickedFire right now. Thanks for the kick in the ass guys.
I've lurked around the forum a little bit over the last several months. I've done a bunch of research on IM but haven't really taken any action, like many others. I just lost my job a few weeks ago and I think it's about time that I finally start taking some action. Really loving WickedFire right now. Thanks for the kick in the ass guys.
Haha well despite being the coolest thing I've ever been a part of, it was NOT a life-defining moment unfortunately: we didn't get picked up. The show was simply too expensive and risky for Spike since it wasn't a guaranteed home run. Thanks for asking though. What a great experience.
The good news is that I now have an IMDB profile which my lame ass Xrumer'd (haha when girls meet me and google me they see it pretty high up), and when I'm done traveling and have my campaigns a bit on autopilot in the Spring, I'm gonna audition for a few more. I'd love to co-host something geeky like on Discovery or History Channel. I have a fair amount of hookups now.
That's pretty cool man. Hell, even the experience of being part of something like that at the pilot stage would be pretty bad ass. "Something geeky on Discovery or History" pretty much defines 80% of what I watch on TV...lol.
UPDATE:
I figured I'd raise this from the dead since there's been another big change.
After I lost all the money I made again I started a local SEO biz and ended up saving up enough to enter the next chapter of my life.
As of December I'll be out of the IM game forever. We're launching a finance biz revolving around a dot com as soon as all of the licensing, bonding, and errors & omissions insurance is taken care of.
I'll stick around until things get really busy, but I figured I'd update anyone here who looked to this thread as motivation.
You only fail when you decide that you're going to stop.
I figured I'd raise this from the dead since there's been another big change.
After I lost all the money I made again I started a local SEO biz and ended up saving up enough to enter the next chapter of my life.
As of December I'll be out of the IM game forever. We're launching a finance biz revolving around a dot com as soon as all of the licensing, bonding, and errors & omissions insurance is taken care of.
I'll stick around until things get really busy, but I figured I'd update anyone here who looked to this thread as motivation.
You only fail when you decide that you're going to stop.
Memory Lane
It's premature to speculate on that until one's life ends, or is about to. But if I had to, at this point, I would say that my life-defining moment was my decision to move to Long Beach to put myself through college, and to contribute to the world of hip hop with my LA underground heroes.
I was one of 5-10 white people in my neighborhood (on the border between Long Beach, Compton, and Lakewood, by the railroad tracks), and, to my knowledge, the only one attending college. I spent all the money I had moving into that cramped, ghetto apartment, so had to immediately find work to pay for rent and food. I had no phone and no car and maybe, $1000 worth of possessions. I used my lifeguarding and water safety instructor skills to land a job at the YMCA and a non-profit aquatic therapy center for the elderly and disabled in southern Compton. That place warmed my soul in ways I can't explain... helping me get through my starving college student days with a real sense of history and dignity.
So, after 5 years of waking up at 5 a.m., using public transit to get to work before 7 a.m., working part time (about 36 hours a week) at the pool, and going to college full time, taking public transit and walking several miles to get home between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m., I graduated into one of the worst economic realities the world has ever seen -- with a dual major in International Business and Management, and 7 A.A.'s. I also had experience interning at the record label (upabove) of one of my heroes and inspirations, 2MEX. I had acheived my goals of acheiving a college degree (first of my 5 siblings, and something neither parent acheived until late in life), as well as working with the artists I'd admired. And I was in severe debt.
Much has changed in my life since then (except for the debt, thanks Reagan). But I'd say, that was one of the most important moments in my life -- the decision to move to Long Beach.
I think you're totally right, though. I'm really too young to know when, truly, my definining moment was, since it's likely still to come.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
It's premature to speculate on that until one's life ends, or is about to. But if I had to, at this point, I would say that my life-defining moment was my decision to move to Long Beach to put myself through college, and to contribute to the world of hip hop with my LA underground heroes.
I was one of 5-10 white people in my neighborhood (on the border between Long Beach, Compton, and Lakewood, by the railroad tracks), and, to my knowledge, the only one attending college. I spent all the money I had moving into that cramped, ghetto apartment, so had to immediately find work to pay for rent and food. I had no phone and no car and maybe, $1000 worth of possessions. I used my lifeguarding and water safety instructor skills to land a job at the YMCA and a non-profit aquatic therapy center for the elderly and disabled in southern Compton. That place warmed my soul in ways I can't explain... helping me get through my starving college student days with a real sense of history and dignity.
So, after 5 years of waking up at 5 a.m., using public transit to get to work before 7 a.m., working part time (about 36 hours a week) at the pool, and going to college full time, taking public transit and walking several miles to get home between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m., I graduated into one of the worst economic realities the world has ever seen -- with a dual major in International Business and Management, and 7 A.A.'s. I also had experience interning at the record label (upabove) of one of my heroes and inspirations, 2MEX. I had acheived my goals of acheiving a college degree (first of my 5 siblings, and something neither parent acheived until late in life), as well as working with the artists I'd admired. And I was in severe debt.
Much has changed in my life since then (except for the debt, thanks Reagan). But I'd say, that was one of the most important moments in my life -- the decision to move to Long Beach.
I think you're totally right, though. I'm really too young to know when, truly, my definining moment was, since it's likely still to come.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I feel your post man....It getting me motivated to keep trying harder to be successful...A defining moment in my life was when i was a sophomore in college studying engineering. I was tired of working for other people and wanted to be my own boss. I said fuck it and change major to Business (Graduated) and have no job... but i am happy to said that i own my own business bitches...
Rep++++ to everyone amazing stories....FUCK! I am PUMP
Rep++++ to everyone amazing stories....FUCK! I am PUMP
If it helps to motivate anyone in a rough one and needs to know what's possible, I wasn't making ridiculous money--yet I did see a natural progression of my quality of living.
When I first moved to Chicago:
Near Southside of Chicago, Section 8 / Mixed housing (my unit was section 8)
I actually was kicked out of the section 8 when they looked over my application for the 2006 year. I put that I make $250,000 (obviously, I was just dreaming)... But, the building manager didn't like me and said she's taking it as is and gave me until Monday to move, if I didn't I'd find my stuff on the curb...
Heh you were right down the street from me. I'm at 16th/michigan