Charting Your Progress

To explain my progress let me show you my downfall.

1: November 2002 Forget to fill out any college applications – which lands me in community college. After becoming disillusioned drop out of school and get a job at a coffee shop.

2: November 2004 Get a job as a teller with a bank which leads to a promotion six months later as a loan officer and the peak of the real estate market. I got in just when everybody was just finishing wiping their mouths and moving back into used auto sales. Spend a year getting paid to sit around and watch movies in my office while getting paid as a Jr. Loan Officer and then spend the next 8 months spending tons of money I don’t have. Leave that job with 15k in credit card debt and a year to date earnings of a little over a thousand bucks.

THE RISE

1: December 2006 I con my way into a job at Bank of America. This is where my life turned around. I finally find success in my role and become the #1 salesperson in my region. I’m making a whopping 40 grand a year at 20 years old and loving it. Pay off all my debt and decide to become a corporate lackey. Upper management tells me I’m going places in the company. I transfer and take a promotion where things go bad. The economic bubble pops and I quickly find a new job at a small credit union.

Mean while I had been researching starting a company for quite a while. During those years I owned and operated a few websites, read the Rich Dad Poor Dad series, tons of books on Economics, business management, entrepreneurship, stock trading and real estate. I bought two houses, one for a dollar which nearly cost me 14k and a lawsuit, and the other one I moved into with my wife.

Keys to Success:

Go backwards in time a bit. I got my life straightened out. Settled down with a beautiful girl who keeps me on my toes and encourages me to go further when I get tired. I would say she’s the key to my success these last few years. Her dad didn’t want her to marry the indebted idiot that I was so I sucked it up and manned up. I got serious about my life and where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be.

I’d also add that one little black notebook has also helped me a lot and those are the Moleskine notebooks. Since buying my first one I’ve paid off all my debt, rid my life of toxic people, found a better job, came up with some great ideas, and overall flourished. I’ve discovered that journaling is essential to success because it allows you to come up w/ a plan and describe it in great detail.

To chart your progress you must first figure out where you are and how far away from where you’d like to be you are. Always keep in mind that no matter how old you are it’s never too late to try something new. Keep your eyes open and check back often for my forum. It will be a great place to connect with suppliers for your online store, or buyers for the products you sell.