From Zero to Hero For, Like, The 18th Time...

Good luck with the journey man! You have a gift for IM so just do it!

You will succeed, again.

Your old days' tricks threads are very good, it always sit in my bookmarks, I even read all bookmarks again last week, and I can't remove your thread from my bookmark, just because its fxxking awesome.

Can't wait to read your past blackhat endeavours, those must be happened in THAT marvelous world...

Very glad you're back! Following your journey.

Almost spent all my passive income on expensive pointless shit. Now I have zeros to invest for my potential projects.

Your situtation is actually is a lot like mine. Have you got any plan yet?

Are you pulling this shit just now, or forever?

This is a great story and thread in general. I am curious if any of this had to do with drugs or alcohol? I do not mean to offend you if I am doing so. I know a few friends that have had problems in the past, but have since turned their life around. Good luck on your journey - you will get it right this time and keep it moving in a positive direction!

YESTERDAY'S WORK PROGRESS

1. Applied to a couple Upwork gigs
2. Spent most of the day going ballistic on keyword research for two potential partners
3. Pretty much succeeded in finding good authority niches for both potential partners
4. Had a call, landed a nice corporate client for a $500 article
5. Landed a nice client for potential FB ad campaign (I have to dazzle him with some sample copy before we move onto the full campaign)
6. Landed a smaller client for potential weeky blog posts (I have to dazzle him with a test piece of content first)
7. Have 2x orders from clients I landed earlier this month in my queue

Overall: Assuming FB campaign client likes initial copy and wants to move onto full campaign, and assuming weekly blog post client pulls the trigger after seeing the test piece of content, I have ~$1500 of work in the queue.

YESTERDAY'S LIFE PROGRESS

Realized that my mental state is going to be slightly less optimistic at times due to a few factors:

• Life is going to seem a little boring/monotonous until I get a motorcycle and an apartment. I can't really get out and do the things I want to do
• I am losing my shit not having a place of my own for privacy
• I have no desk/monitor for productive work, though I did buy a mouse, which should increase productivity a little bit

All of this is OK. Once I start getting closer to where I want to be, my optimism and drive will increase. It's not as if I'm being lazy, but I have the capability to be a work machine on the level of terminator.

I also haven't been a productive worker in about a year, so have to get back into the general work rhythm as well, which feels good

TODAY'S PLAN

• Apply to as many Upwork gigs as possible
• Since not many Upwork gigs are posted on weekends, spend most of the day working on the authority site partnerships
• Try to go the entire day without getting into a negative mental headspace

KomonMam said:

Very glad you're back! Following your journey.

Almost spent all my passive income on expensive pointless shit. Now I have zeros to invest for my potential projects.

Click to expand...

Story of my life!

momotico said:

Your situtation is actually is a lot like mine. Have you got any plan yet?

Click to expand...

Grind!

Scorpion Ghost said:

Are you pulling this shit just now, or forever?

Click to expand...

LOL. Very relevant. Except for the three additional zeros.

frozen_yoda said:

This is a great story and thread in general. I am curious if any of this had to do with drugs or alcohol? I do not mean to offend you if I am doing so. I know a few friends that have had problems in the past, but have since turned their life around. Good luck on your journey - you will get it right this time and keep it moving in a positive direction!

Click to expand...

No offense taken. I was visited by the DEA when I was a teenager! Genuinely should have gone to prison on that day. But I didn't, due to a combination of sheer luck (90%) and quick thinking (10%).

Here's an example of the stuff I used to do:

The first thing I did was contact my brother. He needed help getting Bitcoins off of his old computer and had offered to pay me a small fee if I was able to help. That small fee would be enough to purchase one or two days’ worth of weed if I rationed it well.

On the eve of going to my brother’s house, I had no weed, which meant I couldn’t fall asleep. In order to fall asleep and try to mask my negative emotions at the same time, I decided to take some Lorazepam I had gotten from a friend of mine. For the less degenerate among us, Lorazepam is similar to Xanax. Xanax and Lorazepam are benzodiazepines. A common side-effect of benzodiazepines is a complete lack of self-control. I had never tried benzodiazepines and was unaware of this side effect.

I began with 3mg: slightly above the internet’s recommended recreational dose. I thought I felt nothing, so I took another 5mg. Now I felt something, but I wasn’t high like I would be with weed. Still, I managed to fall asleep around 5 AM and stay asleep until 8 AM.

When I woke up, I thought the previous night’s 8mg had left my system, but it hadn’t, or at least not fully. I wanted to get high before I went to my brother’s house, so I gulped down the remaining 12mg that I had. Now I was sitting at around 20mg, or 10x the internet’s recommended recreational dose, and I definitely felt something. I thought I was just a little high, but in reality, I was unfamiliar with the effects of benzodiazepines and barely functional.

Then, in a moment of sheer lunacy, I decided it would be fun to take some MDMA (ecstasy) to make the drive even more fun. The standard recreational dosage for MDMA is between 100mg and 150mg. I weighed out the rest that I had -- around 400mg -- and ate the tan crystals like Pop Rocks.

Feeling like life was a wonderful adventure, I hopped into my car to drive into Boston, turned my subwoofers on blast, and rear-ended someone almost immediately. Luckily, it was more of a firm tap than a fatal collision. Even more luckily, I hit the guy in a very busy area of town right near a highway ramp, so talking to each other outside of our cars was noisy and chaotic. Even more luckily, the sun was shining brightly, so my microscopic pupils didn’t look out of place. The guy was clearly put off by me, but he didn’t call the cops. I think he was in a rush.

I’m still shocked that I never faced any legal repercussions for my schemes nor the erratic behavior that I engaged in during this period of my life. The only time I wore handcuffs was when I underestimated the power of acid (LSD), took an obscene amount, and lost my mind at an Avicii concert when I was 16. When I came to, I was not only cuffed, but also being wrestled onto the ground by eight cops in a concrete corner of the lobby of the concert venue. Still, I didn’t go to jail. Instead, I went to the hospital and woke up in a literal straight jacket. They still use those. Being trapped in one is a fun way to end an acid trip.

Anyways, I managed to get to my brother’s house, complete my task of getting the Bitcoins off of his old computer, and drive home without killing myself or anyone else. Dude, is this bender even related to your skill of manipulation? Yes. As I was lying in bed, still completely intoxicated from the Lorazepam and MDMA, I thought of my next scheme.

Click to expand...

I have had issues with the like in the past. Drove one of my first businesses into the ground where I was receiving up to 22 properties in a day for property preservation after the '08 crash. I was making enough money where I hired an office manager and a couple of assistants believing I could step away for a month or two and live it up! Unfortunately, the manager did not know enough about the business and during my binge and traveling around the country the business fell apart. I had contracts with some national property management companies and banks that took almost 6 months to land and let it all slide.. Drugs and alcohol can really fuck with your mind.

UPDATE

I have officially gotten back into the rhythm of working like a maniac. Working 12-hour days and loving it.

Solid progress on client base and other SEO projects. Landed a few high-paying clients along with one or two lower-paying clients who can send me consistent work. Ideally, looking to lock down a few of these lower-paying clients so that I can have very consistent daily income, while also pursuing larger projects on the side.

Bank account still looking quite meager, but grinding it up. I need to get an apartment ASAP as I am definitely wearing out my welcome at my friend's place.

I've been 95% sober, which is a stark contrast to a couple months ago when I was drinking a six pack (minimum) every night. In fact, I bought some beer last night, but decided I wanted to stay sober and continue working rather than start drinking.

Trying to spend as little as money as possible aside from food and my morning coffee. (People say Starbucks is a waste of money, but I can get 3x as much work done if I get an XL iced coffee before I begin. It's half caffeine, half routine.)

frozen_yoda said:

I have had issues with the like in the past. Drove one of my first businesses into the ground where I was receiving up to 22 properties in a day for property preservation after the '08 crash. I was making enough money where I hired an office manager and a couple of assistants believing I could step away for a month or two and live it up! Unfortunately, the manager did not know enough about the business and during my binge and traveling around the country the business fell apart. I had contracts with some national property management companies and banks that took almost 6 months to land and let it all slide.. Drugs and alcohol can really fuck with your mind.

Click to expand...

Damn! That's brutal. Did this situation repeat itself like it did for me? How's life these days?

Love the brutal honesty mate good luck with the journey.

What's your rate as a writer?

Total Noob said:

1. Had a call, landed a nice corporate client for a $500 article
2. Landed a nice client for potential FB ad campaign (I have to dazzle him with some sample copy before we move onto the full campaign)
3. Landed a smaller client for potential weeky blog posts (I have to dazzle him with a test piece of content first)
4. Have 2x orders from clients I landed earlier this month in my queue

Click to expand...

What an amazing development. You are unstoppable now LOL.
Keep it going and please keep us updated here. Going to follow.
I just love to see people get motivated and working hard for their goals no matter what happens later whether they achieve them all or some or none.

Looks like a very interesting journey. Good luck, man!

Thanks for all the good luck wishes! Appreciate them greatly.

thescrrr said:

What's your rate as a writer?

Click to expand...

Variable. Depends on the specifics of the project.

Bookmarked and good luck

Interested to see how quickly you can ramp this up. I'm guessing there is a certain amount of freedom, after developing the skillset needed to be successful in IM, knowing you can start from zero and be successful in a given amount of time.

Damn, this shit looks like a movie. Following this.

Total Noob said:

Damn! That's brutal. Did this situation repeat itself like it did for me? How's life these days?

Click to expand...

Without quoting your whole post, I am glad to see you getting back on track and in a solid rhythm! Keep it up man, success can be a drug of it's own. Hard to compare since they are completely different feelings, but it's definitely a high watching your bank account grow.

For myself, yes it has been off and on. Looking back now a little over 10 years later from letting go of my first business I've had lots of ups and downs. Most of the downs were in some way related to drugs or alcohol in one way or another and have had some pretty negative experiences that are probably worse than losing the first business. Someday I may share some of those, but as of right now don't really feel like getting into them.

Life nowadays is going much better and I am running a couple of businesses and actually starting another one within the next few weeks with a business partner for accounting. He will manage the day to day operations, CPAs, bookkeepers, etc and I will focus on the software development, strategic business planning, and outsourcing the marketing. We are going in 50/50 which is a first for me and I know that can cause problems when it comes to decision making as opposed to 51/49 with a 50/50 profit split. My other two companies I own 100% and like it that way, but this guy really knows his stuff and has managed accounting businesses in the past.

I bought my first house when I was 25 in SoCal with 4 br, 3bth, 3 car garage, swimming pool and made some bad decisions with drugs/alcohol that once again put my life to shambles. A couple of other big life events and I ended up working for the US gov on some high profile projects for our national warning system.

I'm never (hopefully) going back now and believe everything will be up from here.

Keep us updated on your progress and feel free to send me a PM anytime. Might talk to you at some point for another idea.

Best,
Master Yoda

Animation_Videos said:

woahh you started at 13? i was probably watching cartoons back then..btw whats your age now?

Click to expand...

I am still watching cartoons today, at 40

I should say this going to be an amazing journey, Wish you best of luck and please keep us updated.