Are you your families success story?

[Greg-J]

I'm just curious, and this is really only to those people who have been in it long enough to be making a living at it - but are you your family's success story?

Something MrGeek said in another thread just now made me think of the way people portray what I do - especially my family. Not my immediate family, but extended.

You see my grandfather is(was) Joe McKenzie, and unless you were in the semiconductor industry about 20 years ago, you won't know or care. The short of it is that he's the man who designed and developed the things in your computer like the CPU socket, the jumper, things like that. He held over 100 patents for the personal computer and was the go-to guy for companies like Intel and HP when they needed someone to fix what their engineers couldn't. He also pioneered offshore manufacturing - for good or worse. He was, by any one's definition, a success story. The one everyone in his family looked up to.

Anyway, as much as I would have loved for him to leave me a legacy, he left nothing to any of his four daughters when he died - so it forced everyone in the family to fend for themselves when they thought they were all getting huge inheritance checks. So my entire family, I mean everyone from him down, lives simple lives - none of them trying very hard to make anything more for themselves. I was really first one since Joe to do more than just 'want more. By the time I was 23 I become a millionaire (don't think I have piles of cash that I swim in, it's not like that - yet) and they all treat me like I'm some kind of genius. And while I'm not going to argue with them, it begs the question why people think it's so hard to just try. It's like success is this mystical thing to some people.

I saw some corny movie trailer the other day that quoted something like "If a man wants something he ain't never had before, he has to do something he ain't never done". Grammar errors not withstanding, I love sayings like that because they're so elegantly simple.

So ramblings aside, I'm curious to know if you're your families successful person or do you come from a fairly successful background and you just chose the Internet as your medium - or are you (one of) the one(s) your family looks to as the successful one?

[fryman]

My brother is stuck at a crummy job (typical Mexican job). Works 9 or 10 hours per day and earns like 700 bucks a month. My sister sells clothes and stuff like that and has to travel all over the place to look for clients. Must be making like 700 dollars a month also.

I get to work in my Pajamas, wake up whenever I feel like it, no boss around, and earn many times more. Heck, I must me earning more or less what my father earns. Difference is that he has been a doctor for 25 years, while I didn't even finish university.


Every day I thank my luck for being able to do something I just love and enjoy every second of it. I don't know if I am my family's success, but I sure feel like it.

[PGZ]

Wow.........where do I start ??

My Grandfather and his parents floated over to the US on a boat from Italy way back when. None of them spoke English but after a year in the US my Grandfathers Dad was drafted into the US Navy and started the 1st Navy Band.

My Grandfather was the youngest person ever accepted into West Point but then couldnt attend cause his eyesight wasnt perfect.

He started his own band and played up and down the East coast for Navy Balls. He himself played in Movies and made Guest spots on Hee Haw.

He wasted his money away on gambling so when he passed there was nothing to show for all his hard work.

My Pop had it all also but pissed it away cause of stupidness. I have 4 brothers and 1 is in jail/1 works for NC State Lottery/1 works for Homeland Security in Fla./1 use to own a Heating an Air Company and has lost everythin he owns like 5 times and him and his wife and kids are living with me now cause they have NOTHING once again.

I am the most successful of us all with my day job and then with what I do here. I have always been a go getter. Knowing that there was always more for me if I just wanted to go get it.

Sometimes my family can be an *** cause its been said everything I touch turned to GOLD. Its hard work that makes things happen and nothing else. I own a 4300 SQ ft house on 1 1/4 acres at the beach on the east coast.

When I started this online deal even my wife didnt stand behind me. She told me I was wasting my time and that I need to turn my attention towards something that would really work......LOL

1 year and 6 months later she sings a different song now. None of my money from online goes towards anything but the business itself. My day job pays all the bills for the household.

While I set on my *** yesterday and made $600 and some change online my entire family busted thier *** working overtime.

I hope to one day leave my day job and retire cause of what I do online. I continue to build month by month little by little. 1 site at a time.

Next month will be the 1st month that any money from my online stuff will come into the household. I plan on making my house payment with some of the check I get. This makes the wifey even happier and thats what I want more than anything.

PGZ

[Drew]

I'm trying to think of what I said that got you thinking about this.

This is probably far more than any of you wanted to know about me, and it's not something I normally talk about, guess Greg's post just got me going.

I've been thinking long and hard about if I should post this, but anyway here's mine.

My family orginally comes from England, in the early 70's my parents decided that they would make a new life for the family in Australia, which was enticing people to move there with cheaps flights and assistance.

At the time my father worked in a factory, and I'm not sure what my mother did, if anything.

Over the years both my parents had great success in their working lives and by the time they both retired they were quite Senior Managers in their organisations.

Neither myself or my sister finished high school, and when I decided to leave school that was probably a big disappointment for my parents, I was the one who had the brains and the talent to make it through University (No one in my family has been to University, even today.)

In my early 20's I was doing very well for myself, I owned a number of Companies and was also married, but I was working so much that my marriage ended.

Lesson learned: success is not measured in the amount of money/assets you have.

Over the next couple of years I met another lady and we had a son together, I went back to my old ways, once again we split, this time it was a lot harder because of my son.

Lesson Relearned: success is not measured in the amount of money/assets you have.

After a very long and messy custody battle I basically flipped out, I didn't care about anything anymore, I lost by businesses, my assets, basically everything. I was living on the good will over others and to be completely honest had become hooked on drugs (which btw don't really take the pain away, they just mask it - Don't do it)

So now I'm building myself back up again (That sounds recent, it's not, been with my missus for 10 years now), but I'm not forgetting the past lessons, even though it might seems I'm always working, I do make time for my family now.

Do my extended family think I am the successful one? When it comes to being able to make money I'd have to say yes. When it comes to whats truly important in life, I'd have to say no. (That would be my sister who has been with her husband for 23 years, and she's only 2 years older than me)

Money is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. I'm not rolling in it, but by the time I am, it will be with my wife and kids this time.

[fryman]

I own a 4300 SQ ft house on 1 1/4 acres at the beach on the east coast.

Wow... that is my dream!

I am saving up to buy myself a small apartment at Playa del Carmen, but boy that place is expensive!! Small place with 2 bedrooms doesn't go for less than $150k

Still a long way to go, but I hope I can manage to move by next year... sitting on my terrace while watching the sea and working on my laptop is something I really want to do.

[Greg-J]

I suppose I'll follow up with a bit more history:

I don't ever disclose how much I make, but in the past 5 years I've gone from renting small houses to I now own a very nice home and my wife and I kept our first home together as rental - which we are now subsequently selling because it's financially draining.

Right now I'm trying to avoid what MrGeek went through to be completely honest. I'm a workaholic and I always take on more than I should out of fear of letting people down, but end up letting people down anyway. In most cases, it's the wrong people. I'm trying to build an empire here, but I don't want to miss my childrens lives and my time with my wife to get their.

Lesson being learned: success is not measured in the amount of money/assets you have.

Honestly, I'm just trying to think of a way to give a lot of it up. I live a house that cost well over half a million dollars and I have car payments that are more than many house payments. A couple years ago all that mattered to me was proving everyone that ever doubted me wrong by having all the things they didn't, but in the past year it has really hit home that the path I'm on - or rather was on - is a very slippery slope to a place I don't really want to be, as Geek pointed out. Reevaluating how I measure success has definitely been a goal for me lately. And learning from other peoples mistakes is something I'm trying to get to sink in as well.




Amazing community isn't it? I don't imagine being this revealing on any other forum - and it's not just because this is my forum, because I really don't think of it that way at all. I'm really grateful to be part of it though. In spite of my entire life I have somehow developed a true sense of caring for others and just being able to find other people who actually give a damn, especially in this business, has been a wonderful experience.

Now if I could just get Fryman to loosen up a little ;) Honestly though Fryman, I think you're turning into a completely different person over here. Slowly, but surely.

[Cyclops]

My turn I guess, I have read this thread but backed off replying a couple of times.
I don't want to come across as an *** either which is how I think it will go.

First off, similar to Drew, none of my family have gone past high school, I mean my extended family, uncles, aunts cousins and their children. I thought one of my five children would break the mould but none of them have made it either despite being sent to the best private schools.
We all seem to reach a certain age then thats it, time to bail and go our own way.
No doctors or lawyers in my family lol. A couple of my cousins have done OK but the majority just do the normal....9 to 5 type routine.

It actually bothers me as I see families who to me are the norm and everyone goes to College or University, they don't even think that their is another option...it's just natural to do that.

I grew up in Christchurch New Zealand. My parents never owned their own home and my Mother died when I was 13 from cancer. My father entered into a deep depression bought on initially by events he encountered in WW2.

I spent from age 13 to 17 being shunted around from relative to relative.
I started getting in trouble with the law for all types of stuff and before receiving a jail term at age 17 I bolted to Sydney Australia with a mate.

Straight to Kings Cross and Bondi where I got a job as a labourer on a building site at the top of William street in Kings Cross. If you ever see shots of Sydney the building is usually shown as it's right in the middle of the Cross and has a huge Coca Cola sign on it.
I worked on that building from the day work started until the day it was finished two years later.
That was a great time, Kings Cross was just a continuous party. At the time the Vietnam war was raging and the US forces had their R and R in Sydney.
Sex drugs and rock and roll were what it was all about......in those days the drugs were soft like Marijuana and hash...nothing harder than that thank God.

After that period I used the skills I had received from that job to start working as a builder.
I eventually opened a factory building Hot Tubs by hand from Red Cedar. That flourished until I had a bad car accident.....Four months later I was out of hospital, the business had been sold and I had been told I would never walk without crutches and my left arm would never function properly again.
The first thing I did was start driving again and by keeping both hands on the steering wheel over a period of time I think bought my arm back to close to normal.
I also got walking and now can run marathons and do triathlons. So the end result is no harm done LOL.

While I was recuperating I thought I better find something to get some $ in so I read everything I could find about the stockmarket. I had already been dabbling a bit but from then on that has been my primary source of income.
I also owned a small tourist type Magazine for awhile.

For the last 11 years I have owned a 95 square home with 6 bedrooms and a separate self contained apartment out the back on about a half acre of land, it's in a residential area 3ks from Surfers Paradise beach. I have it on the market for 2.5 million and have received offers around 2.2 ( one by the leader of one of the major political parties in Australia) but so far I have turned them down. I don't really want to sell but it's impractical for us to live here for much longer, My son is moving out with his mates soon and my daughter and grandson live here but they will move on sometime. That will leave me with my wife and my computer/mistress LOL.

Apart from the sharetrading I own a Baskin Robbins Franchise and play with my websites. I spend way more time on these than anything else for by far the smallest return LOL.
My longer term aim is to change that so I can give trading away and have a passive income coming in from the sites that I can live on.

I own everything outright except for about 80k on my home mortgage.
I never buy anything I can't pay for, even my car which cost 60k I paid cash for.
I wouldn't have a credit card if I didn't need it for the internet lol.

So back to the question I have strayed away from LOL, Yes I am my relatives success story.
Both my sisters have done well and it's ironic that we had the most upheaval as we grew up, we would have been regarded as the least likely to succeed out of the whole extended family.

In fact they all thought I would end up in prison. I was the tough guy, in a gang, always in trouble, fighting and all the crap that goes with it.

I look after my family and my in-laws, my wife is from a family of seven and I am the one they always come to when they need money. I have given them untold thousands over the years and never receive any back. In fact they criticize me behind my back but I don't worry about it, I know who I am LOL.

Now I'm mild mannered, don't drink or smoke. I have never been one to get addicted to anything...even though I tried hard LOL. I have too many friends who have ended up as alcoholics or drug addicted..or both. I get pissed off with them, they come to me for advice but never follow through on it. I had a friend arrive here three nights ago, he was drunk and had been beaten up, I was the one who had to clean him up and take him to the hospital aarrgggh.
I often say to myself, there but for the grace of God go I.
I don't understand how I have turned out as I am yet others who I regarded way higher then me have totally lost it.

My strong points are that I don't fear anything, I always find an alternative to a problem. It might seem insurmountable at days end but by the next morning I will have come up with a plan or another way to tackle it. I am fiercely loyal and will do anything for someone who doe's the right thing by me. I don't hold grudges very well either, that's probably my worst feature, I forgive and forget to easily.

My favourite saying is.....growing old ain't for sissies.

Well thats enough of me, nice to meet you guys. LOL

[AbdulR]

Since I'm only 19 I don't have a lot to share. At the moment I'm just the "smart and wise one" in the family.

I'm starting university in september. Going to be doing mechatronic engineering which is basically a mixture of mechanical engineering and electronics. Apart from that I'm also into photography given away a lot of prints to my college teachers etc they all think If I stick with it I could turn it into a profession but I don't want to I'm afraid it will take the fun out of it. Plus engineering interests me a lot and is a far safer career choice than photography. Great thing about photography is that you don't need a degree to make money from it.

I was very into coding and website development when I was young. Setup my first website when I was 13 but then I got bored of it all and never went back to it until I decided to develop a website where I could display my photos. I had forgotten pretty much everything about making one so it was quite frustrating. After that came a wordpress blog.

I didn't think about making money from the web until last year december. I had finished my alevels (equivalent to sat) and took a year off before starting university.

I'm not making big bucks from it. Just enough to pay my mobile, internet and webhosting bills but that is my fault I'm not dedicated enough to it. I have the knowledge of what I need to do to increase $made/day but I just get lazy *sigh*

[Scilynt]

Wow. Very cool to read and glad people decided to share. Although I knew some of you had "stories" and already respected you because of the way you treat others, I have to admit this thread has raised my respect even more.

Although I don't have any great stories or milestones I had to conquer, I feel kind of guilty reading all your stories and not sharing a bit about myself as well.

I don't think my family really has a "success story" really as none have done anything stellar but most just work hard and get by.

I haven't had a hard life but not exactly "privileged" either. My (step)father made decent money as a programmer but that was way before my interest in computers set in...wish I would have tried to learn something from him back then. At the time, the only real interest I had with computers were to play games and to eventually learn how to make them. I had always wanted to either get into the movie industry doing special effects (though I had a stint where I wanted to be an actor...a really bad one lol) or the video game industry using the same general tools. I loved both so either would be great. I ended up going to a crappy "vocational" school to learn 3D design but eventually learned that their idea of "3D" was using bryce3d...a joke in the industry (similar to comparing ms paint with photoshop). At the time I didn't know enough to know better or even what to research to find out, but it was before the "information age" and I believed the hype of the counselor lol. Although there wasn't much hope learning bryce3d and using that to get a job, I worked my *** off and ended up valedictorian of my class. Towards the end, I was even teaching the teacher how to do stuff. Although the school was pretty much a waste of time/money, the one thing that I hold dear to me is the fact that my dad saw my "graduate" and see I was top of the class and how proud he was. I actually had no idea it was going to happen and was actually surprised myself but I could see the pride and happiness just shine from him at the time. He died of cancer 3 weeks later. Both he and my mother were going through chemo therapy during that time, him for lung cancer and my mother for skin cancer so I had moved back home with them to help out and spend time with them. It was a great time as I really got to spend a lot of time with him/them and learn alot about them. He was my step father but I don't know my real father much and considered him to be my true father as much as he considered me a true son. My mothers cancer later went into remission.

Although I may have a higher chance of cancer because it is in our family line, I have had to deal with other illnesses/conditions that took/take much more of an impact. I had always had strange pains as I was growing up but starting having real problems when I was 15 or so. It took 5 or 6 years before doctors stopped blowing it off and blaming me for "making it up for attention" or "growing pains" lol, and I was diagnosed with a form of arthritis that affects younger males for the most part. I had eventually had both of my hips fully replaces with artificial joints by the age of 25 (32 now). Although that made a major impact for the better as far as daily intense pain went, I am always one shade or sore and feel like an 80 year old lol. The most annoying part is not having the energy I want to get the things I want done. Fatigue is rough when you have plans/dreams lol. Not only is the arthritis a cause, but the meds I have to take also cause fatigue.

Anyway, I am on disability so I can get medical coverage since my job doesn't have medical or anything that could be considered benefits. I have been working at, and help manage, a pizza restaurant. Not very brag worthy lol. But the owner is a cool guy and really helps out a lot as there have been times when I would have to take a couple weeks off because I couldn't walk and such but he will make sure I am ok (with bills and such). So it's partly because it is convenient but also a sense of loyalty. Of course working on my feet 10-15 hours a day is not advised by my doctors lol. I don't make much and usually struggle with my bills because of it. That is part of the reason why I have always wanted to pursue some kind of online venture. I wouldn't have to be on my feet walking literal miles a day and could earn money to pay bills and enjoy some of the hobbies I want. Yes, I could probably eventually find a job somewhere where I can sit down more and work dealing with PCs and such but I am also not built for corporate life. Tried it before and was just miserable regardless of good pay.

So now I am working to get over that hurdle and be able to make enough to help pay bills and hopefully be able to get to where it completely covers bills and then some so I don't have to worry and can give my body a break heh. Gregs MSRS is actually my first effort in the "online business" side of the web where I am trying to make money. Don't even ask me how I was able to "afford" a copy lol but I am grateful that Greg was one of the first sellers I saw and got inspired by his, now legendary, sales threads lol. I guess if I ever "make it" Greg will be able to claim stake at my online business virginity heh.

Although I am close to the same age as some of you veterans, I feel like a total noob...not just in the sense of online business, but now seeing what some of you have already accomplished, in life. I'm inspired.

Now I need a nap. damn fatigue.

[chriscoop]

After reading this long post I was thinking what I can say about me and my family. It’s a new start of the day and the week so I am still fresh. I am from Holland and moved in November 2001 to Scotland to work for IBM. After a while I met my future wife and did get engaged after 7 months and 1 year later I did get married. The time was flying because I changed my job again and moved to London. The first job was a desktop support job by IBM and then I went into networking for the company Equant (part of French Telecom). Now in 2006 I changed my job twice again. You will think why you change your job so many times. Because IT is still under pressure to cut cost and I had to move on. I learned a lot about networking and windows but my passion is multimedia and internet. Back home in Holland I had my own multi media company for 4 years but then we arrived in 2001 in the middle of the internet bubble. Yes this adventure burst and I made a choice to move on and decide to move to Scotland and later to London. Here in the UK I was affected with a “domain virus” registration. I registered in a short period of time 100 domain names. Most of then I parked. After a while I did get some revenue from it. But I wanted to do something with the domain names and started to create some website’s. But the best website so far is the one from Greg and I started to earn some small money. My goal is to get $273.97 a day so that I can leave my normal day job. Just figure out yourself why $273.97 and not $250 or $300 :)

Go back to my family. I have 1 older brother who is also in IT he is more a database guy and have 1 younger sister who has 2 kids. My father and mother divorced 20 years ago but we had a good life. Not anything special to say about them.

This was a short story about me and my family. Maybe we can write a eBook with all the stories here :)

Ok I need to do some work now and will come back later to read the forum again. My daily kind of reading.

[Drew]

coz you want 100k a year...

[chriscoop]

Yes very good I am sure you did read DP before. You must have a goal in life and that is one of my goals. If you dont try you will never get it.

[Drew]

actually I know because thats my goal also....only I rounded it to 270 a day to make it easy for people to understand.

[Greg-J]

That was easy Chris. It falls in-line with my next goal.

I've set a lot of milestones and achieved all of them so far. My next goal is to make $2,739.76 per day off residuals.

I'm definitely going to write an eBook. I think it's a great idea to write a myspacepros eBook in the future actually. It would be very cool indeed.

[imagenesis]

I earn around 40 a day. Im 16. I got a 2290 or a (1560 on the old ones) on SATs and hopefully it will go up next time. I hate school and homework and I hope to drop out of college or not go. Im a senior right now (skipped a grade) so one more year for me to mooch off my parents and have lots of free time. Im willing to bet within the next year Ill be a millionaire or close to it. (not in cash obvisouly but what I can sell in 8-10 months revenue). Dont beleive me? Well ill be here in a year ;)

[PGZ]

I earn around 40 a day. Im 16. I got a 2290 or a (1560 on the old ones) on SATs and hopefully it will go up next time. I hate school and homework and I hope to drop out of college or not go. Im a senior right now (skipped a grade) so one more year for me to mooch off my parents and have lots of free time. Im willing to bet within the next year Ill be a millionaire or close to it. (not in cash obvisouly but what I can sell in 8-10 months revenue). Dont beleive me? Well ill be here in a year ;)

Ok back up not FAIR.................Computers werent a home item when I was 16 and only stores had them.......LOL

I really do wish I had such a start when you did. Keep it up and the world is whatever you want it to be.

KUDOS

PGZ

[Drew]

Yes they were! I had a Commodore VIC-20 back then....

[Cyclops]

It's funny how technology sometimes goes around in circles.....In the early 80ies I had a Commodore 64 with a modem, I had the same screen that the Stockbrokers offices had and could trade online with it, and it was all free.

Someone in Sydney also set up a shopping network where you entered what you wanted and they picked it from their warehouse and delivered the shopping to your door. That lasted a few months then closed because of lack of interest.

The Commonwealth bank here in Australia had onling banking where you could pay your bills etc.
The problem was that there were very few companies set up to make payments to.
So after a couple of years when their was still little interest the bank closed the facility.

Fast forward ~ 15 years and suddenly the internet came of age and things that you could do 15 years eariler but no one wanted to use suddenly became mainstream.

LOL..we didn't have TV here until I was 13.

[worlddom]

Hi Guys

First post and i must say it's a pleasure to be here, I'm feeling the excitement of starting something new. Only just come across Greg, his scripts and myspace this past week and considering i've been involved with the internet for the past 7 years, you would probably say 'What the hell have you been playing at?'

Anyway, to the question and a brief history of my life so far:

I'm thought of as being a bit luckier than most and am constantly being ribbed about silver spoons and mouths. I take this with a pinch of salt, a shrug and a laugh but think to myself that it's amazing how risk taking and hard working people are the ones who are luckiest in life.

Can't deny that I was brought up in a privileged environment; my father started with nothing but is a serial entrepreneur (retired now) who probably failed in more businesses than he succeeded in. Thing was he learnt a hell of a lot from the ones he failed in and ended up with a couple of very nice ones. He became one of the first to import business computers into the UK from Taiwan in the early days, made a big business of wholesaling microwaves way back when, and continued a very successful commercial property business through the decades.

I **** you not when I say that I was brought up living in a full blown medieval castle. (built 1200's majority rebuilt in Jacobean times. google caverswall castle, staffordshire, uk if you're a bit nosey, i think it's now a B&B)

Bit of a tough act to follow when you lack the incentive of having to earn your next meal, but due to ill health my father retired to Spain around 20 years ago which made my transition into family business a lot easier than it could have been. I left school after achieving pretty good A levels but parted company with academia there, much to a few people's dismay (apparently everyone goes to university these days!!)

So at 18 I was running small companies with an annual turnover of around a couple of million pounds and making around $$$k a year. Unfortunately people within senior positions who had worked there for 20yrs or so didn't take well to a young upstart and it was quite a battle.

I decided to leave the family businesses (giving up a lot) and start an internet business back in the late nineties. Unfortunately got caught up in the dot com boom (and subsequent flop) and almost lost my shirt, however managed to come out of the otherside with around 600 pretty good generic domain names. After that I bought and sold residential property and now own a small commercial property business (runs itself). I also sold a lot of my pretty good names for not a lot of money, but still have around 200 left.

About three years ago I contracted type one diabetes. Weirdest thing, at the age of 30 had a flu bug at Christmas and it killed all my insulin producing cells (how's that grab you?), and believe me I'm not overweight. The general medical opinion was to lead a less stressful life, which i thought sounded like quite a good plan, so I moved from the UK to a white village in southern Spain and became an RYA (Royal Yachting Association for the Yanks) sailing instructor.

So that's me so far. I've never earnt less and never felt more successful.

All the best
Mark

[Twan]

I don't have much of a life story. I'm only 15 years old right now. Most of my family is screwed up. My brother just went to college 1 week ago though, and it's the first time in the history of my family that someone went to college. I'm actually considered extremely smart by my parents.

I have little interest in school. Getting up at 6 AM, sitting in a room being lectured for 6 hours, doing 2 hours of homework, going to bed at 10 PM. Who wants that?

I managed to make around $5,000 this summer, which at 15 is pretty good. I actually had someone fund my initial projects (I didn't think they would work as well as they did), so I only ended up with $2,000 after taxes (big bummer)

I turn 16 in April and I would like to have about $30,000 by then. Therefore, I can buy a car.

If and IF I have enough money when I finish high school, I won't go to college, and I'll buy my own house. I'd like to be retired by 25, but hey, its all a dream.

[Crynos]

I don't have much of a life story. I'm only 15 years old right now. Most of my family is screwed up. My brother just went to college 1 week ago though, and it's the first time in the history of my family that someone went to college. I'm actually considered extremely smart by my parents.

I have little interest in school. Getting up at 6 AM, sitting in a room being lectured for 6 hours, doing 2 hours of homework, going to bed at 10 PM. Who wants that?

I managed to make around $5,000 this summer, which at 15 is pretty good. I actually had someone fund my initial projects (I didn't think they would work as well as they did), so I only ended up with $2,000 after taxes (big bummer)

I turn 16 in April and I would like to have about $30,000 by then. Therefore, I can buy a car.

If and IF I have enough money when I finish high school, I won't go to college, and I'll buy my own house. I'd like to be retired by 25, but hey, its all a dream.Heh, my story is pretty much the same. Im 15 turning 16 in 20 days. Made about the same this summer, in other ventures though. Now looking to start some sites with the goal of making 30k a year by college.

[icfire]

hehe im turning 16 in may next year. seems like I am the youngest.
My dad owned a company and then sold it and hasnt been working for about 9 years. He has been looking for a opportunity to make more money and when he saw that I started to be making $100+ a day he wanted in. As I didn't have enough money to invest in my projects he gave me a loan and took 50% of everything I earned.

[Drew]

a loan and 50%....

so you have to pay back the money and he also gets 50% of the business?

[PGZ]

I was about to say the samething Geek...

You as the mind behind it all should always have more than 50% to begin with.

But also this doesnt sound like a good deal for you at all....

He gets his money back and gets 50% of all profits ?

Or does he just gets 50% of profits from said loans ?

Either way you should always maintain more than half of what you have created.

The most you should do is you 51% and him 49% even if it is your father.

PGZ

[alexisthemovie]

im 16 and i turn 17 in november.

i have made just about what twan has this summer except not in the myspace game. im too lazy to type up a family tree history like you all but my parents are very successful being first generation immigrants. we own 5 houses. my dad does background animation (http://studio881.com/wei) and my mom does the same thing (http://studio881.com/).

im making between $75-$150/day off adsense/ypn and also do freelance web design. i would like to purchase a second and third car before the end of the year.

[fryman]

That Chirstmas image is just beautiful

[Drew]

Duuuuuuuude, your parents could do some awesome holiday graphics!! (hint hint!)

[alexisthemovie]

lol they can't even be bothered to write up digg worthy photoshop tutorials! i've tried asking. lol.

[Scilynt]

lol they can't even be bothered to write up digg worthy photoshop tutorials! i've tried asking. lol.You would think photoshop would be in your DNA lol. Did they pass on any of their talent to you?

[alexisthemovie]

lol technically yes, but i spent a lot of time learning design. i do web design off the side however i defintely do not enjoy it and am taking a long term hiatus away from it. i worked on over 10 clients this summer and made bank. its a good business but very boring.

[Greg-J]

lol technically yes, but i spent a lot of time learning design. i do web design off the side however i defintely do not enjoy it and am taking a long term hiatus away from it. i worked on over 10 clients this summer and made bank. its a good business but very boring.
I was just talking to Anand yesterday, complementing him on April Zero and he brought you up. Told me you had pointed him my way a while back and you raved about my scripts. Thank you ;)

Your parents are 'crazy talented' though.

[michellem]

Wow, - way cool how everyone is sharing here.

Even more inspiring is seeing so many younger folks who realize the potential of net business and are starting early. Retire by 30!

I've got a story too... I am not considered a success by my family, I don't think. I'll get into it, since so many others here have.

Regular US childhood of divorced parents who don't speak to each other much - wen to go live with my dad at 13 and my mom stopped talking to me for it. Her family was fed lies by her and to this day, they kind of regard me as a "problem child" - even though I'm 27, LOL.

I did really well for myself after highschool - I didn't go to college, despite family's urging and subsequent dissapointment, but made darn good money in the dot-com boom here in California. With the 200 crash, I was laid off, and got behind on a lot of bills. My dad was helping me pay keep up while I looked for a new job (although no one was hiring at the time), but died in a medial mistake thing where they didn't steralize equipment.

I went in a nasty downward spiral, ended up losing my car, apartment, etc. My mother's family was upset that I didn't just "pull myself up by my bootstraps" after my fathers death. I just couldn't function for a long while. It hurt too much.

I was 21 at the time and 3 months after my dad's death found out I was pregnant... Many problems with the father I won't go into because that's his problem, his privacy, but suffice to say we parted when my son was 1 1/2 yrs old. During my pregnancy, I started working at home, doing anything I could from the computer.

I seriously worked for a stint taking CC #'s for people calling the psychic, Madame Cleo! Anything I could do to keep the rent paid.

Anyway, time passed, I kep up the online working thing, from Madame Cleo to Virtual Assisting to writing marketing materials for people. I got into "internet makreting" about 1 1/2 yrs ago and was making a full-time income about 6 months in and was able to abandon any work I was doing for other people - admin/writing, etc.

During that time, I also met my husband, a wonderful, amazing man. I couldn't dream of finding a more perfect match. We moved to the country from the SF Bay Area in September of last year, to a beautiful 5 acre farm. We love our lives, my business has continued to grow and prosper. I can't ask for anything more. We're expecting a baby in December as well.

Despite the struggles and subsequent successes, my family doesn't seem to belive I'm successful... I think they still think this whole "make money online" thing is a huge joke, an excuse for me to sit at the computer all day. I tell my mom I can't stay in the Bay Area overnight when coming for a family party as I have to return to work Monday and she gets mad - my business isn't *real* to her or any of them, they don't understand I have customers to support, staff to supervise and train, etc. It's frustrating. I'm still the "problem child."

What is rewarding though is knowing that I am successful, when I look at my own goals and values. I am happy. I am comfortable, and I have a beautiful, growing family that I adore. And that's what matters.

[Cyclops]

I am happy. I am comfortable, and I have a beautiful, growing family that I adore. And that's what matters.
And thats really the bottom line isn' it.......:)

[GeorgeB]

Well let's see :)

My family is pretty splintered. My mother had me when she was 13 years old... So of course I ended up staying with my grandparents when she split. I don't hold a grudge against her now that I'm an adult and can understand how frightening that must have been for her especially having a 12 year old of my own now.

I was brought up in Harlem NYC. Put aside all the gang violence and stuff you hear about Harlem (especially in the 80s) because yeah a lot of it is true but the true sad story about living in Harlem is that living in Harlem means being poor.. very very poor. Thought I found out later in life that city poor and country poor are 2 vastly different things :) I guess I had it easy. At least I had indoor plumbing.

My grandparents split up when I was 16. I took that hard. I mean parents split up, but your grandparents?

By that point in my life I had been getting into a lot of trouble and I even blamed myself a bit for the stress I put on them. So it was a no brainer for me to go with my grandfather when he moved to North Carolina. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. At first I played the tough kid from New York role but after spending a full summer and my entire high school senior year there, I finally got to see that the whole world isn't like New York and there is hope. Even for a young black/hispanic kid from Harlem. It's also where I met my first wife and we became pregnant. I now had a purpose. Take care of that kid at all costs. I watched my uncle go straight from highschool to the marines and was so proud to even know him. He seemed 10 feet tall. The things he did, the stories he told the places he'd been. I knew that was how I wanted kids in the family to look up to me one day.

I now had a goal. I went to community college for a while but the weight of taking care of my newborn daughter while working any odd job I could find and going to school was too much. I joined the Army (but kept going to school) and after 2 years I used the Army green to Gold program to get out, finish my degree and come back in as a commissioned officer. One of the proudest times in my life.

But that pride also woke me up and I realized after going through all that I had been through that there was absolutely nothing I can't accomplish. I also realized becomign an officer wasn't for me, it was to make my family proud, but it didn't fullfill me in the way I thought it would. This is where I met my wife who, ok this will sound corny and cliche, but, she completed me. About that time I had quite a bit of money saved and I bought/worked (technical support) my way in to half ownership of what is now the largest lexus owners club forum on the web ;)

So after realizing I could make that much money on the web I resigned my commission and went full time. I owned a few other web properties and was doing well but money got between the friendship I had built with my partner and we just couldn't get along. I allowed him to buy me out and I went back to work for the government where I am today. I'm slowly building my empire and plan to quit next year. But my day job pays so well (I'm a network engineer) that I am really having to struggle to make what I make double what I make at my day job consistently which is my criteria for quitting next year.

My family was so proud of me as a US Army Officer and pretty much forgot I existed when I resigned. Now they're back with empty pockets and open hands. Up until a year ago I still got phone calls when the holidays approach and my aunts, and cousins drop their kids' christmas list on me like I'm their father. Pretty soon after everyone started caring about where I was or what was doing I found my generocity and morals about putting family first just caused me to get used. I had to change my phone number due to 2 sets of relatives that called me (no exaggeration) every single month with a sob story about how they can't pay for this or that bill is due. They wouldn't even try to help themselves anymore, and I could tell they had no problem whatsoever lying to my face to get money.

So in my situation, being the family success story has it's drawbacks.

[Sergio]

Hopefully I can become my family's first success, other than my millionare cousin (who left so no one would ask for his money). I've noticed so many mistakes my family has done, specially my brother, and that has helped me become stronger, and I guess you could say smarter. Well I'm just 16, but I make more money than my 24 year old brother, but then again he barely makes any money. Right now this is just somewhat of a hobby for me, but I can see myself doing this for a long time.

[PGZ]

From one fellow Army brother to another...Great story George and you should be proud of yourself and your accomplishments.

You had every excuse of why you should of failed but looked past that and become the man you are today. My respect for you has gone even higher than it was to begin with.

PGZ

[avi8r]

I'm very new to this group. Just bought the MSRS script yesterday (Greg, I'm sorry for being such a pain in the *** yesterday--was such a comedy of errors trying to just download the script and all). So I think I'll use this thread as a way of introducing myself whilst telling my story at the same time.

When I was a newlywed, I worked in a mailroom, then moving pianos in SF (very hard work by the way) and just doing anything I could to support my new family. We were the poor ones in an affluent neighborhood (how we ended up there is another story. Eventually I talked my way into a position selling software. They provided a "portable" computer (anyone remember the old Compaq portable computers that were like lugging a heavy sewing machine around?) to demo the software to customers. That was my day job. My night time job was as a security guard for a strip mall in Milipitas, CA. When I first started I was pretty computer illiterate and when I wasn't walking the perimeter of the mall punching all the clocks with my key, I would sit at the computer soaking up everything I could possibly learn about it. I accidently deleted the hard drive four or five times before I began figuring out what I was doing. I was a quick study, and even though I was subsiting on 4 or 5 hours of sleep each 24 hour period, I managed to keep it all together.

I was learning so much so quickly that my employer was quite impressed and noticed that I had a knack for instruction and began letting me teach some of their software classes as well as going out and doing Novell Network installs (this was in the early days of networking where it was only linear and star topologies). One of the programs on my demo computer was a beta version of Ventura Publisher. As a software company, we had received permission to do beta testing. I picked it up pretty quickly and took it upon myself to create a monthly newsletter for the company.

About a year later, I got hired by a software development company to write their technical manuals and do their newsletter. A year after that I parlayed that position to teach desktop publishing and basic computer skills at a technical college in the Bay Area. Since I had some networking experience, I asked for and received permission to upgrade all of the computers in my lab and network them together. This helped the school so much that they decided with my help, to do that for all of the classrooms. This job lasted a couple of years and then management and I had a falling out. Since I already had a couple of clients on the side, I just turned full-time computer consultant at that point. But it was hard work. I was working 12-14 hour days and not seeing my family very much. Fortunately I had a very understanding wife (as long as our checking account was full!).

So I built up a very successful consultancy and by the mid 90's had 15 consultants working for me. I consulted for companies like Apple, Oracle, Cisco and National Semiconductor. In 1997 I went where the money was and devoted half of my business to Y2K consulting and we were making bank.

That year I went to a family reunion and my oldest sister pulls me aside and says she notices that I've very successful and what is the secret to my success. I hadn't really thought of myself as a success since my goals were much loftier than that, but I told her about the long working hours blah blah blah and was surprised to see my sister actually listening intently to what I was saying (if you knew about my family background you'd understand why that was so surreal). It was then that I began to pay attention to how my siblings were treating me. It was obvious that I had their respect. And then disaster struck.

That very same year my wife was diagnosed with cancer. In 1998 she passed away and I spent another year just going through the motions. In the spring of 1999 I sold my consulting business for a low seven figures and moved to Utah to be closer to family. I find myself gravitating to high risk sports like sky diving and car racing, so some of my money went to that. Then I realized that was just me acting out a deathwish and since I still had three young children depending soley on me, that was just foolishness. So I started up another business that went belly up and took my millions with it.

So I moved from my seven bedroom house into a trailer (OK it was a "modular home" in a trailer park) and went back to school to pursue my first love--aviation. So I get my degree this next April 2007 in Aviation Science graduating with honors (3.87 GPA) which is not bad considering that the first time I went to college 20 years ago I got kicked out for bad grades!

And I have noticed that my family doesn't treat me with the same esteem they did before. which is no big deal really, but it was nice while it lasted to have them think of me as successful. So now, my online businesses are to help fund paying off my student loans and give me enough cashola to build an online empire and do some real estate investing. Right now my income fluctuates between $2,000 and $3,000 / month with online endeavors. It looks like we've all had our ups and downs. As my father once said to me (back when I was a whining teenager), "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Of course my dad hasn't had a kidney stone yet either!

I have great respect and admiration for all of you who are "going for it" and Greg, modest though you may be, you are to be commended for creating such a great product and a great online community. Kudos.

[Greg-J]

Great story mate. And thank you for the kind words.


This is the best thread ever. I love it.

[scramjet]

Amazing life stories, Congratulation to everyone especially the under 20 crowd!


I personally keep it a big secret, my extended family thinks I am a bum because I work at night / sleep all day and never go to work (I have not had a JOB for 12 years). I drive cheap cars and never buy expensive things.

I started 9 years ago by buying up domain names because I didn't trust the stock market. Turns out it was a good investment :).

I went in to semi-retirement at age 30 from real estate and affiliate domain income. Four years later on April 16 2006 I reached full retirement and asked my Girl friend of 11.5 yrs if she wanted to retire with me.

My income as gone up 500% since April.

I finally asked my Girl Friend if she would be my wife and we are getting married in the spring.

I found that as soon as money was no longer a worry I really wanted to spend my time helping others learn how to make money. Now I spend my time doing so through LearningCentre.com.

If you would like to help mentor others please let me know and I will give you a special introduction on the forum and or Blog.

~Scramjet

[Scilynt]

Awesome and congrats Scramjet. Must be a great feeling to "retire" so early and just be able to enjoy time with loved ones. It always seems like a catch-22 for me...spending as much time as possible to get to where I can spend all of it with freinds/family but I end up not spending time because of all the time involved wth getting there lol.

Very cool idea with the learningcentre.com! I wouldn't mind mentoring others but I'm obviously still at the level that I need the mentoring lol.

[PGZ]

Very cool idea with the learningcentre.com! I wouldn't mind mentoring others but I'm obviously still at the level that I need the mentoring lol.

Hey Brother you are further along then you actually think.....You just dont see it yet but the people around you online see it everyday.

PGZ

[Selena]

My dad's a welder and my mom has cancer and is handicapped so she cant work.

My dad was making 20 dollars an hour working 40 hours per week at 47 years old before he quite his job to look for a new one.
Guess what? I'm 15 and i can make the money he made and much more. Its wonderful to make that much money at be able to know that i can buy whatever they want, whatever i want, and support myself with just an internet connection and a computer.
If i didnt have school i could probably make about 60 dollars an hour or more. And my part time job at subway, paying 6.50 per hour, is just pennies compared to what i can make online, and its more or less just work experience so i have something to put on applications. Online work is wonderful. Hell i get out of the show and im butt naked and i can make money.

But in response to your question, no, my family can barely run a computer, except my brother. they are clueless to the online world and everytime i even hint at talking to someone online they get uber gay and are like "omg predators!!"

[scramjet]

Awesome and congrats Scramjet. Must be a great feeling to "retire" so early and just be able to enjoy time with loved ones. It always seems like a catch-22 for me...spending as much time as possible to get to where I can spend all of it with freinds/family but I end up not spending time because of all the time involved wth getting there lol.

Very cool idea with the learningcentre.com! I wouldn't mind mentoring others but I'm obviously still at the level that I need the mentoring lol.

Thanks, yes it is a great feeling spending time with friends and family.

It takes alot of time and effort to get free but it is a lot better than working for a life time for the lowest someone can get away with paying you!

I believe that anyone and everyone can teach me something and therefor could be one of my mentors.

I truly believe you would be an excellent addition to the mentors on LearningCentre.

~Scramjet

[scramjet]

My dad's a welder and my mom has cancer and is handicapped so she cant work.

My dad was making 20 dollars an hour working 40 hours per week at 47 years old before he quite his job to look for a new one.
Guess what? I'm 15 and i can make the money he made and much more. Its wonderful to make that much money at be able to know that i can buy whatever they want, whatever i want, and support myself with just an internet connection and a computer.
If i didnt have school i could probably make about 60 dollars an hour or more. And my part time job at subway, paying 6.50 per hour, is just pennies compared to what i can make online, and its more or less just work experience so i have something to put on applications. Online work is wonderful. Hell i get out of the show and im butt naked and i can make money.

But in response to your question, no, my family can barely run a computer, except my brother. they are clueless to the online world and everytime i even hint at talking to someone online they get uber gay and are like "omg predators!!"


I am very impressed! keep kicking butt!

~Scramjet

[money_train]

this is the best thread of all time.
keep them coming guys.

[piplewis]

Not quite a success story and i'm unsure about posting this but...

My parents ran a large(ish) hotel for many years making a comfortable but not fantastic living, this was back in 82 and they bought me my first computer in 83.

They divorced when I was 18 and the old man travelled around the world having fun and spending his money from the divorce while my mother ran what was left of the business, a small BnB.

Life was easy till then and I did the usual feel sorry for myself drop out thing after they split up blaming them for ruining 'our' lives and hit the drugs and alcohol hard ~ very hard.
Still into computers at the time though god only knows what I was doing because I didn’t.

I emerged from the haze when I was 26 and got myself a job doing maintenance in a local hotel working for peanuts and stayed there for a few years moving on to working for a company who specialise in industrial cleaning in confined spaces which I still do today.
The job entails mainly (tho not exclusively) getting covered in human crap cleaning sewers. All for £9 an hour.

Now aged 37 I needed a new direction in life, I seriously don't want to shovel sh*t till I retire.

I then found out me mum had cancer and watched her being so strong and brave eventually beating the cancer, I thought to myself how insignificant my so called problems were.

A few months ago on DP I saw this guy called Greg having (if my memory serves me right) a slight altercation with someone in the forum and mentioning he had some project in mind. Interested I always kept a look out for his posts and soon enough he made his announcement about MSRS.
I jumped at the chance and even though in debt bought the script and WOW it started making a bit of money and has paid for itself and more, now instead of getting high or pissed I try to do a little bit to my site every day if I can.

Whilst not trying to be corny Greg’s MSRS is the best bloody thing to happen to me (in respect of having something to focus on) and I'm hoping that possibly in the not to distant future it will have been the kick-start of my attempt to try to look after my parents whom I gave so much hassle and owe so much.

I've tried being a bum and was pretty good at it, but now I'm on an upward curve and this time I will be no letdown/failure. After nearly 25 years of computing I’m finally learning something.

Pip Lewis

[PGZ]

WOW Pip Lewis what a GREAT story. I wish you the best of luck and just to let you know if ya ever think about any type of backslide we are always here to talk and listen regardless if MSRS related or not.

The more this thread grows the more I learn from each of you....Amazing Pip Lewis TRULY AMAZING.

PGZ

[Ted Hat]

Am I my family success story? Nah..im more of thier failure story. Dropped out of college in 2005 for bad grades. My parents make more than me and mare much more well-off than me.


For awhile my mom thought I was wasting my time in college doing myspace crap and then I showed her some of my recent earnings and now she wants to help me...lol


I also voted for bush in 2004 nd plan to vote for the republican in 2008

[Connections]

No I don’t define myself to be a success story; I define myself as some one looking to make extra money on the internet. To even be classed as a “success story” in my family you would have to have a house worth 20 million and own a lot of property, as my mums family has alot of million air's in it and they have this kind of wealth. They have made their money via owneing hotels on the gold coast in Australia.

here is a little info of what I ahve been doing online for the last 3 years -

When I was 16 in 2003 I tried out working for uncles helping them as they are builders, doing work for other people doing like letter box mail drops but I found this type of work was not for me and the pay rater were poor, I found that I was always working for some one else and making them money.

When I was 17 in 2004 I started selling things on eBay, just general junk I had I realized after selling some lego for $500 their was money to be made in this area.

So I then went to various trading forums and looked for people selling bulk lots of things, I made a good contacts with this guy selling second hand computer items such as bags of SD computer ram, I paid in lots off $500 and usually sold the goods for around $2500 a nice $2000 profit on each lot. The guy selling me the computer parts eventually had no more so then I started looking for something new to do.

I found some people in the USA selling these 59 FIFTY hats I realized in my country their was market for this stuff and imported around 10 at a cost price off $10 each I sold them all for $50 I then imported around 100 and sold these off for around 35 each, after I sold the 100 some sellers from china came into my market and started running me out of business as the prices they offered were very low I had not chance to stay in the business as it was not worth it.

In early 2005 I purchased a car from 100% eBay earning’s for $7000 cash and paid for all the extra like insurance etc.. etc… this car had a RRP of around $11 000 so I scored a bargin, I then still kept doing this mini eBay thing over the next few months but I had the HSC I tired my best for this and did ok I got a uai been 62 which is not that great my sister got a 98 uai, my parents always think I am some kind of failure lol and they always talk about how better my sister are then me.

I realized that I had expertise in the field of marketing via my eBay dealings, I had always liked marketing/advertising so I then in late 2005 I applied for a business/marketing/advertising advance dip over 2 years and this is what I am currently doing.

In 2006 I started making more money online I started working on affiliate websites and getting paid by them to do marketing for them In march this year I was talking to this guy I know who owns this car website and he makes 50 dollars a day on it via ad sense, he told me all about how to make the $$$ and then told me to join digital point forums for more info on e-marketing.

I currently have 10 sites and make ok money off ad sense from this, I also have been doing a lot of advertising for people via a fair few webmaster forums as well.
I sold my car I originally purchased form the eBay earnings for $9000 and made a $2000 profit and then purchased another car.

I am soon going to buy a investment property and start getting into the property market.

The over all thing is my sister who are apparenlty smart and I am a failure is that,

1) they do not own cars.
2) they have not paid for their own computers.
3) they have not purchased alot of stuff liek I have.
4) they do not have savings.

yet they have had part time jobs and all they do is spend their $$$ on clothes.



but I concider myself to be very veyr unlucky aswell,
I was allmost killed around 6 months ago by a gang and I was left in hospital for 2 weeks I was in ICU for a few days but I dont reeally feel like telling this story now

[Sergio]

This is one of the best threads in this forum and there's a lot of new members. With that said...'

*BUMP!*

EDIT: I've changed completely since my last post. This is what I'm going to be doing for many years to come.

[Dale]

Am I my families success story?: Yes, because most of my family members chose the "bad road" and are either working long hours a day at minimum wage. A lot of the people on my dad's side chose drugs over family and my dad has been arrested/put in jail numerous times after drug busts, etc. It's crazy. Then, there's my mom's side. None of them have completed college, though they started and just quit, and most are making way less then I am.

I don't have an awesome story like everyone else where their grandparents/parents were famous because that's not true with my family. None of them are famous. They made nothing of their lives.

It's amazing how I can sit here on my laptop, making more than my brother-in-law does working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, at a pizza shop. It's nice to know that I can buy anything I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about working at McDonalds like some of my friends are.

That's pretty much the end of the short-but-sweet version of my story ;)

[Sergio]

It's nice to know that I can buy anything I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about working at McDonalds like some of my friends are.

Feels good doesn't it? ;) Although I chose to not buy that stuff, simply because I'm saving.

[Dale]

Although I chose to not buy that stuff, simply because I'm saving.

I don't buy anything either ROFL I seriously get so much money, i just give it to my mom or something. I haven't bought anything from a store since Christmas :P I'll build up money in my paypal, then I'll cashout and just put the money in my wallet, and I'll completely forget about it.

[ashbernie311]

It's amazing how I can sit here on my laptop, making more than my brother-in-law does working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, at a pizza shop. It's nice to know that I can buy anything I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about working at McDonalds like some of my friends are.


^^Exactly! It's a great sense of pride to know you can do something different and something you enjoy to make a living.

This thread is old I know, but I read it all and it's so great to hear everyone's story. I wish I had joined way back then to share my thoughts about everyone's success/growing stories.


I guess you say people in my family look at me as a success (and Tiff [Kasami]) too. They usually don't understand how I have gone from typical teenager attending high school, to business entrepreneur having meetings and flying around the country while attending college and hanging with my same typical friends from before. Lol.

Having my business has been such an amazing ride. It's crazy because I have moved 10-11 times in my life, just FINALLY settling down in my first home back in September/Oct...and even now, I hope to purchase another home and leave this one to my mother and little sister. We were never "rich", or even "comfortable" with money. My mother has always struggled to support us, working two-three jobs, living in apartments and sometimes struggling to pay rent. I think it's always important for US (as online business guru's) to never lose sight of the value of the dollar. This was a big issue for me as I grew as a person and as a company. I constantly thought "I'm making this huge amount of money, do I know what this means anymore?" Luckily, I think I do. :)

I always remember where I came from, and how hard it WAS growing up. Never the less, I owe my mom a lot- she's been there since day one saying "What are you even doing on that damn computer?!" When I was nine ROFL :p, to "Ash, do you really think Google is going to send that check?" to celebrating my very first check (ever) of $2700. And so it grew. And now, she's here working WITH me, and it's wonderful.

Through-out the company 'blossoming' there were a lot of bumps in the road, and I'm sure there will be more in the roads ahead. You really learn who you can trust, and how people can really react to money (even family). It's a constant struggle of balance between business and friends, but it's something that everyone goes through (I was just a little less prepared).

I opened up WhateverLife.com in 2004...I had it as sort of a "look at my graphics" and "I have a website!" website. I used to get so excited when I had two visitor's online (one being myself...:P) In August, 2005- My friends had told me about Myspace, and how I should create layouts for it...so I did; no money, no revenue...just a text link back. And that's when it started to grow. There were no SEO tricks, seed money, or anything else involved in my site. Many people find it hard to believe, but it was a long time ago-back before all of the sites started competing, so surely I had some advantage then! Well, as it grew, my friend (who was hosting me) told me how we should expand and I should place "Adsense" ads on my site. Boy, did I flip out at the mere $0.18 a day! I'm not kidding. I was the kid who had to dig for quarters to go the gas station with my friends! Lmao!
Now I recently told my closest friend how much I actually make a month, and she couldn't believe it. I guess I don't see it much as a big deal, because I've done this all along, and it's great securing my future. My mom always reminds me "it's a big deal Ash" and then I say "I'm going to the mall, be back in a bit"- Have to keep that normalcy and regular life lol. :) I'm not that big on designer things, I still love Target and shop at Forever 21 (which I love)...but that's cool 8)

Anyways, that's really my story. It keeps growing and I'm thankful everyday, trying to come up with new innovative ideas to impress my audience; and enjoying every last minute of business opportunities, meetings and conferences. Although three years ago I would have been too shy to EVER do any of this, the business sort of forces you out of your comfort zone, and you really learn how to deal with the hardships of every aspect of your business (from financial to taxes to payroll to advertising...never to lose thought of graphic design of course!)

A lot of my family has drifted from me as time goes by. It's a shame really, I was close with most of them. But like I said, sometimes it's hard for them to see that I've taken an unconventional way of living up (not going to regular high school, working a lot, going to meetings, etc.)-And I suppose it's just sort of hard to understand if you're not familiar with the internet at all. Regardless, I think what we have here (all of us) is an amazing opportunity to really shine, and it's great. I hope everyone stays successful and grows as well! :D

By the way, I just turned 17 June 4th. I hope that to any of you, you can see age has no limits on your success. Much love :P

[Jordan]

Mk ill start from the beginning. I was living a normal life i guess. my parents had been running a really large church for about a decade and then merged it with another church, so it had grown to about 750+ regular churchgoers. then my parents moved me interstate and then decided we were going to go to Africa eventually for missionary work...wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea nor was I happy about moving interstate and living in a BIBLE COLLEGE...oh I definitely got bagged out for that and going from owning a really nice house to renting a small flat on a campus of hundreds of people in the middle of nowhere sucked.

I got really badly beaten up at school. like i got tortured and bashed and ganged up on and stuff. Just for random reasons really... I didn't really have any friends at all nor a life all the way through primary school. Pretty sad I know but I've got over it.

2002 we moved to South Africa and lived on guess what? another frickin bible college. I thought I would hate it at first but I actually made so many friends and made even more in the second year when I started going to a private school in town. My parents weren't getting paid for their job so we were living off our church back in Australia's sponsorship which wasn't much money at all and so we had to get extra sponsors and take out loans just for me to be able to get to go to school... plus the exchange rates were changing for the worse (I know this sounds like my life story but seriously, i'm getting to it)

The thing was, my parents were tutoring at the college right. The head of the college approached all the staff with this new contract. They had already signed a two year contract previously so this was actually illegal - and there were many parts which people didn't agree with. So he sacked them. My parents said they didnt agree with it either and so the head fired them. My sisters were doing their final years of school by distance via the internet and the idiot CUT OFF OUR INTERNET ACCESS so literally my sisters were so close to failing their last year of school thanks to that. They gave us a week to move out and my parents didn't have any money but sponsors money for food and stuff, so they had to take out heaps of loans.

But another problem came up - within that week, our visas expired. We were already in the process of suing the head of the college for unfair dismissal so he was pretty pissed at us - SO HE CALLED THE FKIN GOVERNMENT. We had to run, literally. The police came after us, it was pretty intense. We didn't have anywhere to go and they wouldn't renew our visas so we had to quickly take out even MORE loans and start renting a house in town. That ran my parents like, over 20k in the hole i guess, maybe more - we had to rent and kind of stay in hiding for a few months. I had finally settled in and made heaps of friends but before my school year had ended, the government had caught on and we had to leave the country right away. Our government would give us basic legal protection if needed but we had to go right away - so within the month we went back to Australia.

My parents had spent decades working up to becoming missionaries and trying to do some good and guess where it had got them? Running from the law and in debt...all their hopes gone. My dad's now like, 46 and he can't even get a decent job even though he has his master's degree there are no positions in his work fields... right now hes stuck doing night shift working for some crappy online newspaper. my mum's a nurse and she works 50 hours a week nightshift. my parents split up late last year which was a pretty big blow so now my mum was paying for my schooling and everything else on one income. so she had to pull me out of my private school and put me in public. it's been pretty tough i guess, i mean I've had it better than others but still ehh.

all of my dad's siblings have had successful careers, i think two or three of them are actually millionaires with large businesses and everything so I think that makes him feel a bit inferior in a way. my mum's alright, i mean she has a steady career as a nurse but its nothing really major. my dad started writing movie scripts and i think some of them will really take off so that might bring him some success but its a pretty low chance in that business.

hopefully i can be a success story. i've only just started taking websites seriously in the last year or so and so i have a long way to go. i really do enjoy graphic and web design and every aspect of it really and so i'm sure that if i have fun with my job and put effort into it, i'll make it a success. I have so many ideas that I want to put into place, so many investment ideas, so many new and original thoughts that i could build up but i really don't have the resources to make them happen. so my goal is to get those resources. work my way up from the bottom to the top. i do hope that i can be a success one day, whether it be in this work field or another.

and i still have the problems to work through in my life. i've gone through adolescent depression without any of my family members knowing and got over it all by myself, which shows the willpower and determination that i have. i still get bullied every day, not many people know about it but i have a great bunch of friends that stick up for me and look out for me. i have all those past memories and experiences, and even though the majority of them are negative and really not good, they have all shaped me in a way and made me what i am today. hopefully my future experiences will also contribute and help make me a success story. one day.

LOL wow that post was bloody long.

oh and ash, i think you're an inspiration. 17 and you're probably making more in a month than what most adults make in a year or more. having a whole business under your control, flying around the country and all that...seriously it just excites me thinking about it :)

[Dale]

Woah Ash, what an inspiring story. It's good to see that you are thankful for what you have, I've been seeing people getting too carried away with things and not remembering who they are and that family matters. And yeah, I've drifted away from alot of my family too, it really sucks :\

I just noticed that 75% of my friends have layouts from Whateverlife on their myspace ROFL

[Dale]

woah jordan, sorry your life sucked :\ I used to be totally bummed when someone said they didn't like me [old middle school drama, i know]. I was totally consumed with being popular, and "fitting in" that i totally lost control of my life.

[i think ill re-write my story, and add way more :P ]

[Jordan]

woah jordan, sorry your life sucked :\ I used to be totally bummed when someone said they didn't like me [old middle school drama, i know]. I was totally consumed with being popular, and "fitting in" that i totally lost control of my life.

[i think ill re-write my story, and add way more :P ]
eh it didn't really suck, there were some highs but i guess there were more lows. i'm in year 9 now and nearly fifteen (yeah australian schooling is different) and i already know that i'm not meant to be one of the popular kids :) i'm just going through school being myself and i tell everyone 'its ok i dont like you either' lmfao =) oh what a lovely kid i am.

[Dale]

REWRITTEN VERSION OF MY STORY IN MORE DETAIL:

I was born in a poor, poor town in Maryland called LaPlata. I lived in a rundown apartment with my mom and dad. We lived in the "ghetto" and there was so much bad stuff going on like drug busts, shootings, etc. We moved around the country a few times over the next 2 years, like Mississippi, Maryland, etc. Finally, we settled back in Maryland and my mom had my younger brother, Devin. My mom and dad started having relationship problems because drug dealers were constantly coming in our house and stealing furniture, presents, valuables ,etc. because my dad wanted crack. We ended up losing most of our stuff. So my mom, dad, brother and myself moved to Ohio in another bad town called Youngstown. My mom and dad broke up shortly after and my mom, brother, and myself had to move in with my aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins in a 2 bedroom trailer. Times were rough, and we were barely making it through.

Finally, my mom had enough money for us to move into a 2-bedroom apartment with just her, my brother, and myself. We stayed in this apartment for about 3 years. My mom finally found someone and they bought a house together. His parents were rich, because they owned a trailer business. We stayed there for about 5 years.

[Now time for the bad part of my life] The relationship between my mom and her boyfriend wasn't so great. He was a lazy slob, and she wasn't looking for someone like that. So we left and moved into a trailer with one of my mom's friends.

It was my first year in middle school [6th grade] and I didn't really know what to expect. I would be transferring schools AND starting middle school at the same time. I became so consumed with wanting to be popular and wanting everyone to like me, I totally forgot who my real friends were. I blew all my money on "cool clothes" just to impress the "popular kids". Finally, I was popular. My dream came true. I found out the hard way that popularity isn't always fun. I constantly had people talking about me, and spreading totally bogus and wrong rumors about me. I had to deal with the pressures and everything, not fun. Then, my grades went down, down, down. I went from a 3.8 GPA down to a 1.5 because I wasn't concentrating on school, only friends. Soon, people started ditching me because now, all of a sudden, getting bad grades wasn't cool. So I decided to prove to everyone that I wasn't stupid. The school spelling be was coming up, and I wanted to be in. We had to go against our whole class [28 kids in mine] and the winner of the class would be in the school spelling bee. I was zooming through long words, and finally, I beat the class. I was so happy. But, I didn't realize that the whole elementary, middle, and high school would be at the speling bee. Ugh oh. Alot of people means I'm probably going to bail out and just quit.

So the spelling be came, and lucky me was the first one up to spell. Alls I saw were everyone's eyes in the audience, I struggled, but spelled my word right. One by one, everyone was getting out. Finally, I came to the word "graduate" and just threw the spelling be by saying "i quit". Big mistake though. Over the following days and weeks, I had to deal with people calling me a "failure" and "loser". Didn't bother me much though. Then, my best friends at the time completely ditched me. Not a good idea. That's when my depression settled in. I felt lonely and like noone liked me. I struggled, but made it to the end of the year. Then during the summer [Summer 2006] we moved back in with my mom's ex. It was kind of fun because we got spoiled, but we got tired of it all and my mom decided it was time to move near her family in Louisiana.

We drove the whole 1,090 miles there, in our car, it was a nearly 23 hour drive. We made it though. We lived with my other aunt and 3 cousins in a 3 bedroom house. I started 7th grade at another school, this time, I had a stupid uniform to wear. I slowly went day by day, making decent grades. My depression got the best of me though. I kept feeling as if noone liked me, and I was totally hated. Then, by Christmas, we got our own house. ANOTHER new school, in the middle of the year, this would be my 3rd school of my 7th grade year. The new school was great, I got over the whole "noone likes me thing" but, still depressed. I made new friends, and had the best schooyear of my life.

Now I'm here ROFL Waiting on 8th grade to start :P


So, Am I my families success story?: Yes, because most of my family members chose the "bad road" and are either working long hours a day at minimum wage. A lot of the people on my dad's side chose drugs over family and my dad has been arrested/put in jail numerous times after drug busts, etc. It's crazy. Then, there's my mom's side. None of them have completed college, though they started and just quit, and most are making way less then I am.

I don't have an awesome story like everyone else where their grandparents/parents were famous because that's not true with my family. None of them are famous. They made nothing of their lives.

It's amazing how I can sit here on my laptop, making more than my brother-in-law does working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, at a pizza shop. It's nice to know that I can buy anything I want, whenever I want, and not have to worry about working at McDonalds like some of my friends are.

[piplewis]

Nice to see this thread resurfacing, there's a lot of good people on this forum.:-)

[Jessica61981]

I grew up in Kansas City, MO where I live now. My childhood is very vague to me. I was a competitive Gymnast and was at the gym about 30 hours a week. So I feel as if I missed out on the whole childhood experience. I ended up quiting Gymnastics and had a rough time at school with the whole fitting in part. In High School I did okay I was a cheerleader, did track and Diving. Worked a PT job making sandwiches.

After high school I went to college and was a Cheerleader. We were a competitive cheerelading squad, so I did the whole cheerleading thing that you see on ESPN down in Florida. In the summer of my 1st year in college I worked teaching cheerelading camps around the midwest.

I went back to college my 2nd year and ending up dropping out after Cheerleading Nationals. I had got pregnant. I totally though that I was in love and all that girly drama. I was left by myself and came to stay with my parents. That didn't go over to well with my dad. Any ways I ended up having the baby and giving him up for adoption and I was 19. This was the hardest thing I had to do in my whole life. This changed my whole life. It took me a long time to finally get over that hump and move on. But of course you never actually move on.

So about a year later I started working back at the same Sandwich place and helping the local high school with Cheerleading. I went back in the summers and still taught teaching Cheerleading around the midwest.

Then I met Rodney(adidar83) and we just hit it off. I quit the whole cheerleading teaching. We moved in and I started working in Insurance and Hating every bit. Finally I was fired!

I knew of Myspace and I loved glitter! I was tired of always searching for glitters so I thought oh this can't be hard. So I started a website. It has had its ups and downs and hopefully is on its way up again. I'm not making much money off of it. So I do have a PT job coaching Gymnastics. I love every minute of it.

Rodney works Full time and we are trying a go at a few different websites ideas.

I have learned so much in my little life which I will be 26 Tuesday 6/19.

The questions more or less what is your definition of success and do you find yourself successful. I have about $40 in my checking and thats it. But I consider my self successful because I am happy at what I do. You may need money to buy you this and that. But at the end of the day when you put your head to your pillow are you happy? And I am. So yeah through all of all my hardtimes and up and downs. I consider myself, lucky, happy, and successful. :)

[Greg-J]

Excellent stories. I've missed this thread a lot, so cheers for bringing it back up.

[Dale]

Wow, everyone has such inspiring stories :) keep 'em coming :biggrin:

[Kyle]

^^Exactly! It's a great sense of pride to know you can do something different and something you enjoy to make a living.

This thread is old I know, but I read it all and it's so great to hear everyone's story. I wish I had joined way back then to share my thoughts about everyone's success/growing stories.


I guess you say people in my family look at me as a success (and Tiff [Kasami]) too. They usually don't understand how I have gone from typical teenager attending high school, to business entrepreneur having meetings and flying around the country while attending college and hanging with my same typical friends from before. Lol.

Having my business has been such an amazing ride. It's crazy because I have moved 10-11 times in my life, just FINALLY settling down in my first home back in September/Oct...and even now, I hope to purchase another home and leave this one to my mother and little sister. We were never "rich", or even "comfortable" with money. My mother has always struggled to support us, working two-three jobs, living in apartments and sometimes struggling to pay rent. I think it's always important for US (as online business guru's) to never lose sight of the value of the dollar. This was a big issue for me as I grew as a person and as a company. I constantly thought "I'm making this huge amount of money, do I know what this means anymore?" Luckily, I think I do. :)

I always remember where I came from, and how hard it WAS growing up. Never the less, I owe my mom a lot- she's been there since day one saying "What are you even doing on that damn computer?!" When I was nine ROFL :p, to "Ash, do you really think Google is going to send that check?" to celebrating my very first check (ever) of $2700. And so it grew. And now, she's here working WITH me, and it's wonderful.

Through-out the company 'blossoming' there were a lot of bumps in the road, and I'm sure there will be more in the roads ahead. You really learn who you can trust, and how people can really react to money (even family). It's a constant struggle of balance between business and friends, but it's something that everyone goes through (I was just a little less prepared).

I opened up WhateverLife.com in 2004...I had it as sort of a "look at my graphics" and "I have a website!" website. I used to get so excited when I had two visitor's online (one being myself...:P) In August, 2005- My friends had told me about Myspace, and how I should create layouts for it...so I did; no money, no revenue...just a text link back. And that's when it started to grow. There were no SEO tricks, seed money, or anything else involved in my site. Many people find it hard to believe, but it was a long time ago-back before all of the sites started competing, so surely I had some advantage then! Well, as it grew, my friend (who was hosting me) told me how we should expand and I should place "Adsense" ads on my site. Boy, did I flip out at the mere $0.18 a day! I'm not kidding. I was the kid who had to dig for quarters to go the gas station with my friends! Lmao!
Now I recently told my closest friend how much I actually make a month, and she couldn't believe it. I guess I don't see it much as a big deal, because I've done this all along, and it's great securing my future. My mom always reminds me "it's a big deal Ash" and then I say "I'm going to the mall, be back in a bit"- Have to keep that normalcy and regular life lol. :) I'm not that big on designer things, I still love Target and shop at Forever 21 (which I love)...but that's cool 8)

Anyways, that's really my story. It keeps growing and I'm thankful everyday, trying to come up with new innovative ideas to impress my audience; and enjoying every last minute of business opportunities, meetings and conferences. Although three years ago I would have been too shy to EVER do any of this, the business sort of forces you out of your comfort zone, and you really learn how to deal with the hardships of every aspect of your business (from financial to taxes to payroll to advertising...never to lose thought of graphic design of course!)

A lot of my family has drifted from me as time goes by. It's a shame really, I was close with most of them. But like I said, sometimes it's hard for them to see that I've taken an unconventional way of living up (not going to regular high school, working a lot, going to meetings, etc.)-And I suppose it's just sort of hard to understand if you're not familiar with the internet at all. Regardless, I think what we have here (all of us) is an amazing opportunity to really shine, and it's great. I hope everyone stays successful and grows as well! :D

By the way, I just turned 17 June 4th. I hope that to any of you, you can see age has no limits on your success. Much love :P


Excellent, excellent post.

[Ad disengaged]

I wish I were my familys success story

[Dale]

Jeeze people, have more confidence in yourselves ROFL

[dumb-diddy-doo]

Well........

I can't really say that I am my families success story since I cam from a family with a lot of success, money, and ambition. But I am by far the biggest achiever who came the furtherest, even when none thought I would ever amount to anything.

I was a high school drop out. Raised myself on the street from age 13 to 15. Returned to school after being forced back home. Couldn't cope, so I left and got married. Diverced numerous times from abusive relationships, where drinking and drugs were used daily. I am a recover drug addict, 21 years. When I was 26 I began working towards gettingt my GED. After achieving my GED I went to college and recieved my Associates Degree in Computer Science.

I spent one year as a computer programmer. I then moved into the Systems Engineer department (self taught in this area). This being during a time that women in server rooms was unheard of. I ended up heading up server teams in places such as DEC, Hewlett Packard, Army Resource Center, and BellSouth.

I was heading up the File and Print server team at BellSouth when they decided to outsource all of their IT. I decided at this time to take the buy-out package, so that I could persue a career from home as a web developer (self taught in this area). This was a difficult decision because we had only purchased our home 9 months before this happened. But my immediate family fully supported me in this decision.

I have been a professional self employed web developer for 7 years and endured much success. Enough so that I am debt free and have been for some time now, just purchased two 07' trucks (paid cash), and own a huge 3 story home on an acre of land. I am still drug free, have two fantastic grown children, and I have found more happiness then I could have ever imagined seeing how I came from so little.

The moral of the story....No matter where you come from or what you have been through, you can do anything that you set your mond to. Yes it requires a lot of work, dedications, and commitment. But more then anything, it required a great desire to succeed.

Not that anyone will really read this, but I like hearing it myself because even I at times need reminding of what I have accomplished.

[Selena]

Well, I posted awhile back but I'll post an updated story.

I guess you could say I'm a semi-success story at this point in time. With my stepdad not having a job and my mom handicapped and getting her disability check every month, I'm basically the one who makes the money these days. My mom feels she's having her pride taken away by having her child pay for things, but I have no problem paying for things and supporting our family since she's done it for me for so long.

I'm making more money than most teenagers, and maintaining a steady income lately so that we can manage. We aren't rich, although it felt like it when we had our 80k from insurance money from the hurricane. Once that ran out we were broke, and now it all depends on me. My mom usually finds some way to get the money back to me, but until then I just let her spend what I make as she needs to, and I don't honestly care if I get it back.

I hope to be my family's success story, although my grandma's is pretty hard to beat. Maybe one day I'll get rich and make a lot of money and be able to buy a house for my parents and be able to pay for my kids to have all the opportunities that I didn't, but until then I'm just supporting my family.

[Dale]

Not that anyone will really read this, but I like hearing it myself because even I at times need reminding of what I have accomplished.

Great story, I read it :)

@ Selena, woah, it's awesome that you're helping out :) It's nice to see that other teens are trying to help out as much as possible. I've seen alot of greedy teens in my 13 years of life so far [not so much on MSP]. But you're a great person for helping out your family like that :)

[laars]

I'm only 15, and I've made it nowhere as far as Ashley, but I still will be my family's success story.

My mother had me when she was 16. She finished high school and moved back home with her parents. My dad was 15 at the time when I was born and has always lived with his parents, and still does. When I was about 1 or 2 my mom got married to my step-dad. My mom, her husband, my brothers and I have lived with my grandparents for most of my life. About 2 years ago, my mom and step-dad were really bad on drugs and my mom actually overdosed, but the ambulance was able to get there in time to save her. I still have a problem with the fact that my step-dad was going to leave her there for dead and go out with his friends, but he did have the dencency to call my grandparents and they're the ones who called the ambulance. So, for a while, they were doing good and off drugs, my step-dad had a job but my mom still didn't, but we were doing ok financially because we lived with my grandparents. My grandparents eventually got tired of my step-dad taking advantage of them and made him leave. He and my mother were planning to get a divorce, but didn't go through with it. They moved from place to place and at times lived out of the car because they were too sorry to even look for a place to live, all the while my brothers and I stayed with our grandparents. During this time, or maybe before, they got back on drugs and my step-dad lost his job for stealing from the job. They eventually found a house and we all moved there, but they never pay the bills, and it won't be long before they're evicted. So, thats pretty much been my life until now. None of my immidiate family have been higher than high school, except my mom went to tech for a few months and my dad is currently enrolled in a certificate program at tech. I plan to go to a university to further my education and eventually move from this hell hole of a town to be the best I can be in my career, but I don't plan to stick with anything even in the remote field of computers or the web.

[Ad disengaged]

Well, I posted awhile back but I'll post an updated story.

I guess you could say I'm a semi-success story at this point in time. With my stepdad not having a job and my mom handicapped and getting her disability check every month, I'm basically the one who makes the money these days. My mom feels she's having her pride taken away by having her child pay for things, but I have no problem paying for things and supporting our family since she's done it for me for so long.

I'm making more money than most teenagers, and maintaining a steady income lately so that we can manage. We aren't rich, although it felt like it when we had our 80k from insurance money from the hurricane. Once that ran out we were broke, and now it all depends on me. My mom usually finds some way to get the money back to me, but until then I just let her spend what I make as she needs to, and I don't honestly care if I get it back.

I hope to be my family's success story, although my grandma's is pretty hard to beat. Maybe one day I'll get rich and make a lot of money and be able to buy a house for my parents and be able to pay for my kids to have all the opportunities that I didn't, but until then I'm just supporting my family.

That is an impressive story.

[deep]

I'm loving all the stories! :)

** Typos alert** :)

Well I started when I was 18 in my college dorm room. BTW im 20 now, just turned on june 15 :)
I always had interest in internet and loved to go beyond html/css so I started reading alot of tutorials in my 1st year college. I would read tutorials and has a shared server so I would try them out and play around with them. My college was a mess, I was just addicted to programming so college grades werent so good. My first semester was like 3.7GPA and then it dropped to like 3.4GPA which wasnt as bad but I know it was b/c I had started doing all the new stuff and thats all I think abut everyday. Even with all that I was still known as one of the best volleyball players on my campus ;)
I played a lot of sports from 14-18 and loved all of them. Played in many tournaments and was 3rd best on my high school tennis team which I just started playing for only 2yrs so I could pretty much do anything that I put my heart into.
The next challenge was programming and how far I can go. I did start myspace site around mar 06 which was basic html. After really working hard for few months then I kind of got away from it as I moved toward working on mycrib.net train site.

Some of my friends got me into mycrib.net which was started after myspace banning all those whores and high friends accts. So I made a whore train for mycrib just to see what I can do with it. Didnt know much PHP so it was like WTF am I doin lol. But as I went along, I read alot of tutorials online and finally had it launched to public. I had couple of my friends ready to test it out so it started getting traffic in just few days. After few weeks it was getting like 3-4k/day which was the best I have gotten so far. But then it all just went down hill :(

My parents decided to move to Mississippi from NJ. So the first thing that hit me was "I cant move while im so close to success." But had no choice since my parents have gotten a business there and I was almost 19 at that time making like $10 per day so I couldnt afford to live by myself. So I moved to MS and worked at my parents business for about 3 months which I hated every min of it b/c every min was so valuable for me at that time but coudlnt do anything about it. :(

After the summer was over in 06 and my college started, I got more time to work on my websites. But it was too late for the mycrib train site b/c when I went back to check it, It has dropped alot in traffic and there wasnt much I could do since there were so many bugs. It was my first PHP/MySQL project so I knew there would be errors in it and after like 4 months there was nothing much left of it. Plus I realized MyCrib wasnt going anywhere so I turned back to MySpace.

After I had some exp with php/mysql so then I decided to revamp my myspace site (officialpimpspace.com) to php. I played around with alot of stuff and got everything going and stuff.

Around feb 07, I had learned alot about php/mysql. I decided to take my site further with gens that only some big sites have and will get some attention. Thats when I came with flash slideshow, shoutbox and flash mp3 player gen. I also revamped the site using Simple Machines Forum and implemented my site with it. Offcourse it wasnt easy, revolving your whole site with a free forum script but it was I still took the challenge and was impressed once I was done :)

It was getting around 1k/uv at that time, and so I decided to change the domains to buffmyspace.com from oficialpimpspace.com just b/c I got tired of seeing the old domain lol. At that time I wasnt thinking much about money, I just wanted people to use my site and didnt care much about that rev.

Around april 07, I got into designing and graphics. My first start was with glitters which I stopped doing after few weeks since it was so girly lol ;)
Then I started with myspace sites and thats when all that stuff with myspacestop.com happened. When they got into fight and stuff. So I came around some of layouthits.com lyts. I was really impressed so that was that got me so excited about designing and I couldnt wait to start. I spent hrs making lyts and finally had designed quite a bit of em so I showed some on this forum too but I dont sell em here.
At that time I decided to see If I can get a job with a big site designing lyts for them. So I tried many of them and I didnt like their offers and I gave FWL. I liked their offer so I started working for them and still do now.

I'm not making big money right now but I do have the skills to pretty much do about anything and can pretty much learn anything I put my heart into.
I currently own two site: buffmyspace.com and got-comments.com
BuffMySpace is my heart and I have taken it so far that I sometimes get amazed with what I have done. Till this day I get offers from some of the top 10 sites about my gens and some even ask to exchange links but that dont happen when I tell them I get around 2k/uv lol, compared to their 200k :(
I just started so late even though I had known about it in 06, I just didnt have enough knowledge back then that I do now but still not giving up :)

For the main question, no im not a big success yet in my family but im probably the only one that has the ability to make the most money If I wanted to.
My parents and everyone just wonder why the hell I spend so much time on comp and barely get any money out of it. Im not going to say I dont care about money but I just want enough money to live a decent life and do this forever.
Right now I got 1yr left until I get my 2yr degree. Then im planning on moving back to NJ and I got couple of friends there that have interest in this so we gona work on some new ideas.

WOW I have written alot!
Well enjoy it and I Love this Forum and everyone on here :)

[piplewis]

Im not going to say I dont care about money but I just want enough money to live a decent life and do this forever.

Well said mate, I think you speak for the majority there!!

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I'm loving all the stories! :)

** Typos alert** :)

Well I started when I was 18 in my college dorm room. BTW im 20 now, just turned on june 15 :)
I always had interest in internet and loved to go beyond html/css so I started reading alot of tutorials in my 1st year college. I would read tutorials and has a shared server so I would try them out and play around with them. My college was a mess, I was just addicted to programming so college grades werent so good. My first semester was like 3.7GPA and then it dropped to like 3.4GPA which wasnt as bad but I know it was b/c I had started doing all the new stuff and thats all I think abut everyday. Even with all that I was still known as one of the best volleyball players on my campus ;)
I played a lot of sports from 14-18 and loved all of them. Played in many tournaments and was 3rd best on my high school tennis team which I just started playing for only 2yrs so I could pretty much do anything that I put my heart into.
The next challenge was programming and how far I can go. I did start myspace site around mar 06 which was basic html. After really working hard for few months then I kind of got away from it as I moved toward working on mycrib.net train site.

Some of my friends got me into mycrib.net which was started after myspace banning all those whores and high friends accts. So I made a whore train for mycrib just to see what I can do with it. Didnt know much PHP so it was like WTF am I doin lol. But as I went along, I read alot of tutorials online and finally had it launched to public. I had couple of my friends ready to test it out so it started getting traffic in just few days. After few weeks it was getting like 3-4k/day which was the best I have gotten so far. But then it all just went down hill :(

My parents decided to move to Mississippi from NJ. So the first thing that hit me was "I cant move while im so close to success." But had no choice since my parents have gotten a business there and I was almost 19 at that time making like $10 per day so I couldnt afford to live by myself. So I moved to MS and worked at my parents business for about 3 months which I hated every min of it b/c every min was so valuable for me at that time but coudlnt do anything about it. :(

After the summer was over in 06 and my college started, I got more time to work on my websites. But it was too late for the mycrib train site b/c when I went back to check it, It has dropped alot in traffic and there wasnt much I could do since there were so many bugs. It was my first PHP/MySQL project so I knew there would be errors in it and after like 4 months there was nothing much left of it. Plus I realized MyCrib wasnt going anywhere so I turned back to MySpace.

After I had some exp with php/mysql so then I decided to revamp my myspace site (officialpimpspace.com) to php. I played around with alot of stuff and got everything going and stuff.

Around feb 07, I had learned alot about php/mysql. I decided to take my site further with gens that only some big sites have and will get some attention. Thats when I came with flash slideshow, shoutbox and flash mp3 player gen. I also revamped the site using Simple Machines Forum and implemented my site with it. Offcourse it wasnt easy, revolving your whole site with a free forum script but it was I still took the challenge and was impressed once I was done :)

It was getting around 1k/uv at that time, and so I decided to change the domains to buffmyspace.com from oficialpimpspace.com just b/c I got tired of seeing the old domain lol. At that time I wasnt thinking much about money, I just wanted people to use my site and didnt care much about that rev.

Around april 07, I got into designing and graphics. My first start was with glitters which I stopped doing after few weeks since it was so girly lol ;)
Then I started with myspace sites and thats when all that stuff with myspacestop.com happened. When they got into fight and stuff. So I came around some of layouthits.com lyts. I was really impressed so that was that got me so excited about designing and I couldnt wait to start. I spent hrs making lyts and finally had designed quite a bit of em so I showed some on this forum too but I dont sell em here.
At that time I decided to see If I can get a job with a big site designing lyts for them. So I tried many of them and I didnt like their offers and I gave FWL. I liked their offer so I started working for them and still do now.

I'm not making big money right now but I do have the skills to pretty much do about anything and can pretty much learn anything I put my heart into.
I currently own two site: buffmyspace.com and got-comments.com
BuffMySpace is my heart and I have taken it so far that I sometimes get amazed with what I have done. Till this day I get offers from some of the top 10 sites about my gens and some even ask to exchange links but that dont happen when I tell them I get around 2k/uv lol, compared to their 200k :(
I just started so late even though I had known about it in 06, I just didnt have enough knowledge back then that I do now but still not giving up :)

For the main question, no im not a big success yet in my family but im probably the only one that has the ability to make the most money If I wanted to.
My parents and everyone just wonder why the hell I spend so much time on comp and barely get any money out of it. Im not going to say I dont care about money but I just want enough money to live a decent life and do this forever.
Right now I got 1yr left until I get my 2yr degree. Then im planning on moving back to NJ and I got couple of friends there that have interest in this so we gona work on some new ideas.

WOW I have written alot!
Well enjoy it and I Love this Forum and everyone on here :)

My advice is to keep working on your degree and treat the myspace related work as just a hobby.

[pimpyourdino]

Just read a whole bunch of stories and think i should share now! Well for my age and my family i guess I am the success story even though I'm not making millions or anything. Basically all my cousins either got pregnant the day they turned 18, been divorced 3 million times, or are just bums. I probably make more then any of my cousins and they r in their 20's :-/ My favorite cousin about 2 months ago wrote a paper for her economics class saying how i was the family entrepreneur and that I was going to dig our family out of the hole they've dug. Well I have no intentions of digging them out of their hole because I've seen how families can react to their nephews and nieces earning more money than them and I don't want to deal with it! My parents think its amazing how i can make money doing stuff on the computer that I love. When I started i had a basic coding software for like 80 bucks and my mom just recently told me that she thought it was just going to be another waste of money, but now she is so proud of what I have done with the past year. Well that is pretty much my story! :yes:

[Dale]

Great story deep and pimpyourdino ;) Keep posting stories people :P

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Very good stories

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So many unique people with thier own unique stories

[nsmchris]

I'm the grandson of a tobacco farmer and coal miner. Between them, my grandparents had 26 children, so I'm one of 50+ cousins. My father joined the army and got out of rural Kentucky (thank God) and ended up being a fireman in a small somewhat urban city. I grew up at the very bottom of what was considered middle class. We were a small family with much more love than money. My parents sacrificed much to make sure my sister and I were taken care. That taught me the value of hard work and I respect everyone that busts their *** to take care of their family. I went to college and got a degree in computer engineering and went to work (15 years and still at the same place). I started web design back in the days of Mosaic 2.0 and have stayed busy playing around with web consulting ever since. I took grad courses while working and graduated in Dec. That is also around