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PREFACE
First and foremost I want to thank you in advance for taking the time out of your busy day to visit my site. I know it doesn't seem like much but you guys are the reason I continue to write, and as long as I continue to receive positive feedback I know that I'm making some type of impact even if it's at the smallest level.
So what exactly is The House: Your Blueprint for Success Series? Well, in brief it is my opinion on some of the steps an aspiring entrepreneur needs to take in order to start their journey. However, even if you have no interest in starting your own business I'd like the believe that many of the principles and ideas in this series will relate to other aspects of life as well, whether it's going for that next promotion, or planning to make a major life change such as starting a family, or even simply making it through life's everyday challenges. The main mission (just like this sites) is to motivate, inspire and encourage you to shoot for your dreams no matter what they may be. This is what I did a few years ago and hopefully my story of triumphs and failures and help yours as well.
It was my senior year in college when I realized that I did not want to pursue a career in the field that I was studying. Actually, I never had that much interest in what I was studying but I figured that by the time I became a senior it would all come together. Well there I am a graduation and guess what, it didn't. this was around the same time that all of this economic stuff started to come to the light so good jobs were hard to find. Therefore in order to buy sometime I decided to enroll in graduate school and it would at least buy me a few more years to make up my mind about things and for the job market to turn around. A few months into my studies I came to the conclusion that the program I was in was a waste of time for me. In no way do I mean any disrespect towards the University, graduate program, or any teachers. I simply mean that it wasn't for me. However during that process I did discover what I did have a passion for and I've been working towards that dream ever since. Have I made it yet? Nope, but I have put myself in a position too, and I can clearly see what steps I need to take in order to get there. As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this series is to share the lessons I learned throughout my journey in hopes that you will be able to use them during yours.
So what exactly is The House: Your Blueprint for Success Series? Well, in brief it is my opinion on some of the steps an aspiring entrepreneur needs to take in order to start their journey. However, even if you have no interest in starting your own business I'd like the believe that many of the principles and ideas in this series will relate to other aspects of life as well, whether it's going for that next promotion, or planning to make a major life change such as starting a family, or even simply making it through life's everyday challenges. The main mission (just like this sites) is to motivate, inspire and encourage you to shoot for your dreams no matter what they may be. This is what I did a few years ago and hopefully my story of triumphs and failures and help yours as well.
It was my senior year in college when I realized that I did not want to pursue a career in the field that I was studying. Actually, I never had that much interest in what I was studying but I figured that by the time I became a senior it would all come together. Well there I am a graduation and guess what, it didn't. this was around the same time that all of this economic stuff started to come to the light so good jobs were hard to find. Therefore in order to buy sometime I decided to enroll in graduate school and it would at least buy me a few more years to make up my mind about things and for the job market to turn around. A few months into my studies I came to the conclusion that the program I was in was a waste of time for me. In no way do I mean any disrespect towards the University, graduate program, or any teachers. I simply mean that it wasn't for me. However during that process I did discover what I did have a passion for and I've been working towards that dream ever since. Have I made it yet? Nope, but I have put myself in a position too, and I can clearly see what steps I need to take in order to get there. As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this series is to share the lessons I learned throughout my journey in hopes that you will be able to use them during yours.
CHAPTER 1: CHOOSING THE RIGHT PIECE OF LAND
I call this series the house because the steps needed to be successful are very similar to the steps needed to build a house from scratch. When thinking about building a house or another type of property, you don't just jump into it and say "I want to build this right here, right now." It takes a good amount of planning. People usually just see the end product or the construction part of the process, but before all of that is where the real work is put in. All starting with "Choosing the Right Piece of Land."
The most crucial decision in starting your journey is discovering what exactly it is that you want to do. Relating this question back to the overall building a house theme, this would be the part where you have to decide what piece of land to go after. Building a property is great but before you start you have to have the purpose in mind. The purpose will allow you to know where you want to build, and how much space is needed to build what you desire. For example, if you plan building a commercial retail property then you would obviously want it to be in an area that has high traffic and visibility. On the other hand if you were building a personal vacation home then you may only need a small area located away from others. The point is that you can't just jump into something and do it. You're going to want to know the basic outline of your end product so that when the time comes you'll be able to draw up a plan or blueprint as I like to call it, on how you're going to achieve it. More importantly, you want to know for sure what do you want to do, and are you sure that you want to do it. If you can't answer those questions with a definite response then you may not be ready yet. At this point you don't need to know all the details, but just like the land example, you want to at least have a basic idea of what you want your starting point to be.
After enrolling in graduate school I finally realized what I wanted to do with my life. Well, let's retrace a little bit, I finally realized what I didn't want to do with my life and that was work for others. At this point in my life I had spent the past eight years of my life working multiple jobs and I was simply just tired of being bossed around by others. I know that eight years isn't a long time at all, but when I things became real and I started to think about my future, I didn't want to be "that guy" that looks back 30 years later and says "I wish I would have" or, "I knew I should have". If I was going to crash and burn chasing a dream then I was going to do it early enough in my life that I could still rebound from it. I also made myself a promise when I was younger that I would be worth a million dollars by the age of 30 and when looking at different self-made millionaires I noticed that none of them just waited for something to happen, they went after it. With that being said I knew that I wanted to become an entrepreneur and work for myself. Unfortunately, what I was studying in grad school didn't set me up for that path but I stuck with it anyway because, well I had nothing better to do. ( Not to mention I was using the student loan money to buy my first house ;-), but that's another story). Anyway, as mentioned above, I had a broad idea of what I wanted to do with my life but the details were very scarce. Luckily for me between working in the school district for seven hours a day and sitting in a classroom for my own studies for another three hours, I had plenty of time to think of my way out. This is when I finally picked out my piece of land and had an idea of what I wanted to build. Now that I had the hard part figured out, it was time to move on to the fun part which was drawing up my blueprint to be successful.
The most crucial decision in starting your journey is discovering what exactly it is that you want to do. Relating this question back to the overall building a house theme, this would be the part where you have to decide what piece of land to go after. Building a property is great but before you start you have to have the purpose in mind. The purpose will allow you to know where you want to build, and how much space is needed to build what you desire. For example, if you plan building a commercial retail property then you would obviously want it to be in an area that has high traffic and visibility. On the other hand if you were building a personal vacation home then you may only need a small area located away from others. The point is that you can't just jump into something and do it. You're going to want to know the basic outline of your end product so that when the time comes you'll be able to draw up a plan or blueprint as I like to call it, on how you're going to achieve it. More importantly, you want to know for sure what do you want to do, and are you sure that you want to do it. If you can't answer those questions with a definite response then you may not be ready yet. At this point you don't need to know all the details, but just like the land example, you want to at least have a basic idea of what you want your starting point to be.
After enrolling in graduate school I finally realized what I wanted to do with my life. Well, let's retrace a little bit, I finally realized what I didn't want to do with my life and that was work for others. At this point in my life I had spent the past eight years of my life working multiple jobs and I was simply just tired of being bossed around by others. I know that eight years isn't a long time at all, but when I things became real and I started to think about my future, I didn't want to be "that guy" that looks back 30 years later and says "I wish I would have" or, "I knew I should have". If I was going to crash and burn chasing a dream then I was going to do it early enough in my life that I could still rebound from it. I also made myself a promise when I was younger that I would be worth a million dollars by the age of 30 and when looking at different self-made millionaires I noticed that none of them just waited for something to happen, they went after it. With that being said I knew that I wanted to become an entrepreneur and work for myself. Unfortunately, what I was studying in grad school didn't set me up for that path but I stuck with it anyway because, well I had nothing better to do. ( Not to mention I was using the student loan money to buy my first house ;-), but that's another story). Anyway, as mentioned above, I had a broad idea of what I wanted to do with my life but the details were very scarce. Luckily for me between working in the school district for seven hours a day and sitting in a classroom for my own studies for another three hours, I had plenty of time to think of my way out. This is when I finally picked out my piece of land and had an idea of what I wanted to build. Now that I had the hard part figured out, it was time to move on to the fun part which was drawing up my blueprint to be successful.
CHAPTER 2: DRAWING UP THE BLUEPRINT
After coming to the decision on what type of land you want to purchase and build on, the next step is to draw up a plan of what you want to develop on it. Creating this blueprint is probably one of the most exciting components of this entire process because at this point you have the freedom to basically do whatever you want. Obviously you want to plan things within reason but it's like a little kid being given a blank piece of paper and being told "I want you to draw a zoo, but you could put whatever animals you like in it." Ok, that probably wasn't the best example in the world, but the point is you can outline what you want your dreams to be and they don't have to be limited by others. Once you get started on this blueprint you'll realize that this task includes a lot more than simply jotting down your desires. During this process you have to ask yourself a lot of difficult questions and be able to answer them. The three most important questions you'll run across are "what, when, and how."
Answering the "what" question was probably the most difficult for me. I say that because although I kind of knew what I wanted to do, I didn't actually know what I had to do in order to do it. I know that sounds confusing but in the previous chapter I mentioned that I ultimately came to the decision that I wanted to be self-employed and work for myself . However, I still didn't know what I wanted to do specifically. Finding the answer to this question took me longer than expected, I'm talking months. Day after day I would sit at my job going through idea, after idea, after idea. Those who know me personally, know that I'm an idea man, especially if it involves a way to make money. I won't bore you or have you judge my character by digging into my past, but just know that my own father routinely refers to be as "a hustler." In a positive sense of course. If there is a way to make money out there, please believe I will find it, and most of the time it's by trial and error. This is exactly how I figured out what my "What" was going to be. Long story short, I continued to spit out and jot down bad idea, after bad idea, after bad idea, until I eventually ran out of bad ones and came across something that had potential. BAM! My "what" was answered, now it was time to get down to business.
When I talk about my college experience I often say that I felt it was a waste of time because what I'm doing now has nothing to do with what I studied. Although deep down I do somewhat believe this (financially speaking at least), a lot of the skills that I did learn from being a public relations major helped me a lot during this process and without those skills and techniques I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now. (Thank you Millersville University professors if you're reading this.) When starting to create my "Blueprint" I decided to change the three questions of "what," "how," and "when" into the three categories: Goals, Objectives, and Tactics. The Goals category which was my overall vision acted as my "what", while the objectives and tactics basically combined my "how" and "when." My objectives were a more detailed version of my goals, while my tactics were a plan on how I was going to achieve each objective. One thing that I was taught about writing objectives was that they always have to be measurable. Meaning that your objective couldn't simply be "I want to have more sales this year." Instead a true objective would be written as such: "I want to increase sales by 10% by December 31, 2011." In the first version there is no way that you could actually tell if you've completed it or not since there is no standard to judge by. However, in the second example it's pretty clear judge if you completed or failed the task. An example of a tactic would then be: "Increase marketing in the urban areas" since that is a method you would use to help achieve your objective. After you have your Goal, objectives, and tactics written out, the next step is to start construction on the house beginning with the foundation.
Answering the "what" question was probably the most difficult for me. I say that because although I kind of knew what I wanted to do, I didn't actually know what I had to do in order to do it. I know that sounds confusing but in the previous chapter I mentioned that I ultimately came to the decision that I wanted to be self-employed and work for myself . However, I still didn't know what I wanted to do specifically. Finding the answer to this question took me longer than expected, I'm talking months. Day after day I would sit at my job going through idea, after idea, after idea. Those who know me personally, know that I'm an idea man, especially if it involves a way to make money. I won't bore you or have you judge my character by digging into my past, but just know that my own father routinely refers to be as "a hustler." In a positive sense of course. If there is a way to make money out there, please believe I will find it, and most of the time it's by trial and error. This is exactly how I figured out what my "What" was going to be. Long story short, I continued to spit out and jot down bad idea, after bad idea, after bad idea, until I eventually ran out of bad ones and came across something that had potential. BAM! My "what" was answered, now it was time to get down to business.
When I talk about my college experience I often say that I felt it was a waste of time because what I'm doing now has nothing to do with what I studied. Although deep down I do somewhat believe this (financially speaking at least), a lot of the skills that I did learn from being a public relations major helped me a lot during this process and without those skills and techniques I wouldn't be in the position that I'm in now. (Thank you Millersville University professors if you're reading this.) When starting to create my "Blueprint" I decided to change the three questions of "what," "how," and "when" into the three categories: Goals, Objectives, and Tactics. The Goals category which was my overall vision acted as my "what", while the objectives and tactics basically combined my "how" and "when." My objectives were a more detailed version of my goals, while my tactics were a plan on how I was going to achieve each objective. One thing that I was taught about writing objectives was that they always have to be measurable. Meaning that your objective couldn't simply be "I want to have more sales this year." Instead a true objective would be written as such: "I want to increase sales by 10% by December 31, 2011." In the first version there is no way that you could actually tell if you've completed it or not since there is no standard to judge by. However, in the second example it's pretty clear judge if you completed or failed the task. An example of a tactic would then be: "Increase marketing in the urban areas" since that is a method you would use to help achieve your objective. After you have your Goal, objectives, and tactics written out, the next step is to start construction on the house beginning with the foundation.
Chapter 3: Building A Foundation
To me building a strong foundation is the same as making sure that you accomplish all of the necessary behind the scenes work before attempting to move on to the fancy stuff. It's at this point in the process where your work ethic and desire are really tested because it often turns into a long lonely grind. However, for those who make it through building this foundation allows you to set yourself up for success by giving you both confidence and direction. Not to mention by taking the time, which could be months or years, to build this foundation, you've proven to yourself that your 100% dedicated to the task at hand. After-all everybody likes playing with the new toy or electronic device, but nobody likes doing the most crucial part which is putting it together or taking the time to program it so it doesn't fall apart or malfunction. During my college years, one of the newly renovated dorms was torn down because it was sinking. If I remember correctly the problem wasn't caused by a faulty foundation, rather I think there was an unseen issue with water in the ground or something like that. The point is, a beautiful, and practically new building had to be destroyed because it didn't have a sturdy base and because somebody MAY have dropped the ball when doing their research prior to construction
After writing my blueprint which included my goals, objectives and tactics, the next step was to start putting my plan in motion. Remember at this point in my life I had just graduated college and was your typical beyond broke graduate student. Since my goal was to be an entrepreneur, I knew that I would need two things: time and money. Most people understand the money part, but to me time was just as important. When starting something new you have to realize that chances are you won't be successful overnight. It's going to take a while. You also have to be 100% dedicated to what you're doing, so if that means not working your regular 40 hour shift, then you have to make that sacrifice. Therefore you need enough money to be able to take that time off and still be able to make it financially. This was the tricky part because at the time (2007) finding one job that paid well was stressful enough. Luckily for me I had acquired a paid internship right off the bat so I didn't have to deal with the stress of rushing to find a paycheck so I could pay for basic necessities like living expenses. However I knew that just surviving wasn't enough so I decided to pick up another job to go along with my internship and an extra side hustle that I had been doing since undergrad. I knew it wouldn't be easy doing all of this, while at the same time having no clue what grad-school had to offer but honestly school was the last thing on my mind. First and foremost on my to-do-list was to make money and working more was the easiest way to do it at the time. On average my daily schedule was as follows: From 5am-11am I worked at a local Fitness Center, from 1pm-5pm I went to my internship at the University, and from 6pm-9pm I took graduate classes and/or worked with a local janitor cleaning banks and daycares. Yes! The fun life indeed. Pardon my sarcasm, I'm not complaining since I wasn't forced to work this schedule to survive, like many others out there (who I commend by the way), I chose to work this grueling schedule because...well, because I'm a very impatient person and I figured the more I worked, the more money I would make, and the quicker I would be able to build my financial foundation. I continued this schedule for two years. By the time I was starting my third year I had finished my graduate work (except for the exit exam) and was able to pick up a full-time job to go along with my internship since I didn't have to worry about classes anymore. This made my schedule even more hectic working 11 hours straight each day, but the pay was better and I was extremely close to my monetary goals. April 2010 is when I finally hit mark and finished building the foundation. Now it was time to start working on the rest of the house. The part that the rest of the world will see.
After writing my blueprint which included my goals, objectives and tactics, the next step was to start putting my plan in motion. Remember at this point in my life I had just graduated college and was your typical beyond broke graduate student. Since my goal was to be an entrepreneur, I knew that I would need two things: time and money. Most people understand the money part, but to me time was just as important. When starting something new you have to realize that chances are you won't be successful overnight. It's going to take a while. You also have to be 100% dedicated to what you're doing, so if that means not working your regular 40 hour shift, then you have to make that sacrifice. Therefore you need enough money to be able to take that time off and still be able to make it financially. This was the tricky part because at the time (2007) finding one job that paid well was stressful enough. Luckily for me I had acquired a paid internship right off the bat so I didn't have to deal with the stress of rushing to find a paycheck so I could pay for basic necessities like living expenses. However I knew that just surviving wasn't enough so I decided to pick up another job to go along with my internship and an extra side hustle that I had been doing since undergrad. I knew it wouldn't be easy doing all of this, while at the same time having no clue what grad-school had to offer but honestly school was the last thing on my mind. First and foremost on my to-do-list was to make money and working more was the easiest way to do it at the time. On average my daily schedule was as follows: From 5am-11am I worked at a local Fitness Center, from 1pm-5pm I went to my internship at the University, and from 6pm-9pm I took graduate classes and/or worked with a local janitor cleaning banks and daycares. Yes! The fun life indeed. Pardon my sarcasm, I'm not complaining since I wasn't forced to work this schedule to survive, like many others out there (who I commend by the way), I chose to work this grueling schedule because...well, because I'm a very impatient person and I figured the more I worked, the more money I would make, and the quicker I would be able to build my financial foundation. I continued this schedule for two years. By the time I was starting my third year I had finished my graduate work (except for the exit exam) and was able to pick up a full-time job to go along with my internship since I didn't have to worry about classes anymore. This made my schedule even more hectic working 11 hours straight each day, but the pay was better and I was extremely close to my monetary goals. April 2010 is when I finally hit mark and finished building the foundation. Now it was time to start working on the rest of the house. The part that the rest of the world will see.
Chapter 4: Erecting The House
After you have a steady foundation in place it's time to start the fun part of the construction process. What's the fun part you ask. Well the fun part is actually putting up the sections of the house that the outside world gets to see. Actually, not just the outside world but the part that you will see day in and day out on a regular basis. This is the point in the construction process where you start to see your hard thought though plans come to life. Previously we have brainstormed, drawn out blueprints and did a lot of behind the scenes work with nothing to really show for it. Everything before now was just a dream, just a desire, kind of like a secret that only you and maybe a few others knew about. Once you start erecting the actual house there is no turning back. You're putting yourself out there and it's either do-or-die. Now it's more than just you paying attention, it's the world as well.
If I told you that I quit a pretty secure job where I was making good money, to follow a dream of mine what would you call me? Crazy, stupid, arrogant? Well I've heard them all and honestly I don't . I mean I've been called a lot worse and all it does is motivate me that much more. Putting yourself out there and really going for it can be a very scary thing to do. However, if you planned correctly and completed all of the tasks in the previous chapters, then you should no doubt be prepared to handle what's ahead. In my case I knew that I had saved enough money to survive a full year of absolute failure without starving or anything like that. Therefore little pressure was taken off because I knew that I had afforded myself time to get used to the up's and down's that came in starting your own business. I knew that if my first month didn't go well I didn't have to quit or try and make an immediate and perhaps emotional change. The worst thing that you can do is get scared when things don't start out the way you wish they would because as soon as fear, greed, revenge or any other emotions enter the situation, they usually have a negative effect on your judgment and how you operate. I wouldn't be honest if I told you guys that fear never entered my mind because it did. Not a lot, but every once in a while I did get scared. However, I wasn't scared of my business failing I was scared that my business wouldn't be successful within the timeframe I had planned and therefore I would have to go back to working a few jobs that I didn't like in order to survive while still trying to grow my business. At no time did I ever think that my business would fail. It was simply the question of how long it would take before it succeeded. One of my favorite saying is "I truly believe that people only fail because they give up before they have the chance to succeed." They key is to stay hungry and stay motivated. Having a financial deadline was something that helped me al lot and stopped me from procrastinating. I knew I had a specific date that I had to get the job done by, and if I didn't then it would be an ugly step back. Think about when you see those half built houses or half refurbished factories that construction has been stopped on due to lack of funds, I didn't want to be that kind of eye sore.
If I told you that I quit a pretty secure job where I was making good money, to follow a dream of mine what would you call me? Crazy, stupid, arrogant? Well I've heard them all and honestly I don't . I mean I've been called a lot worse and all it does is motivate me that much more. Putting yourself out there and really going for it can be a very scary thing to do. However, if you planned correctly and completed all of the tasks in the previous chapters, then you should no doubt be prepared to handle what's ahead. In my case I knew that I had saved enough money to survive a full year of absolute failure without starving or anything like that. Therefore little pressure was taken off because I knew that I had afforded myself time to get used to the up's and down's that came in starting your own business. I knew that if my first month didn't go well I didn't have to quit or try and make an immediate and perhaps emotional change. The worst thing that you can do is get scared when things don't start out the way you wish they would because as soon as fear, greed, revenge or any other emotions enter the situation, they usually have a negative effect on your judgment and how you operate. I wouldn't be honest if I told you guys that fear never entered my mind because it did. Not a lot, but every once in a while I did get scared. However, I wasn't scared of my business failing I was scared that my business wouldn't be successful within the timeframe I had planned and therefore I would have to go back to working a few jobs that I didn't like in order to survive while still trying to grow my business. At no time did I ever think that my business would fail. It was simply the question of how long it would take before it succeeded. One of my favorite saying is "I truly believe that people only fail because they give up before they have the chance to succeed." They key is to stay hungry and stay motivated. Having a financial deadline was something that helped me al lot and stopped me from procrastinating. I knew I had a specific date that I had to get the job done by, and if I didn't then it would be an ugly step back. Think about when you see those half built houses or half refurbished factories that construction has been stopped on due to lack of funds, I didn't want to be that kind of eye sore.
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