Update on where I am at, and the steps it took to get me here. Part 2

Part 2 – (See Part 1 HERE)

So we left off at me choosing a career path in order to give me the capital, time and knowledge necessary to continue to create (real) start-ups. I also wanted to choose a path that could possibly be something that I really wanted to continue to do in the future.

I really wanted to find something that I was immensely interested in doing. I would see and read about people all the time that their hobby, life, and work were all what they did and loved for a living, and they were usually very successful.

These people would would also attract people around them, they had followers. This was exactly what I wanted, but I really had no hobbies, or interest besides a small interest in finances, reading about new tech, listening to indie music, paleo health, and I have an interest in video games, not modern games like call of duty where people spend hours upon hours playing them, more like Zelda games, that take 15 hours to beat, then you dont play them again for years. All of these things I would read about and become knowledgeable, but none I felt that a product or service could apply.

So as you can see, I didn’t have a lot to work with here, and to find something within that small layer of choices was like finding a needle in a haystack. I had decided I really didnt want to move forward with a project unless I found something I was truly passionate about, and something I felt would actually benefit people. Something I would be passionate talking about and doing 12 hours a day 7 days a week. This was a dilemma.

So, I chose the CPA path to help get me to where I wanted. I had heard somewhere that if you open one door, ten more doors will be available to you, when you stop, and dont open any of those doors, you sit there and stare at the same ten doors the rest of your life. I was determined to at least move forward.

I studied for and passed the Enrolled Agent exam, this made me marketable, able to file tax returns, and able to represent people in front of the IRS and FTB. It put me in the top 25% in the tax industry. I started networking and applying for contract jobs where I could do tax returns for CPAs. I lucked out (considering the abismal networking skills that I had) and got a contract job. This was perfect for the time I needed to study for the CPA exam. I wanted to be in that top 10% category for accounting and tax, so building my firm would be easier.

For about a year and a half, since that time I received my Enrolled Agent’s license, I have been studying for the exam and doing contract work for a few firms. Overall, I have a ridiculous amount of time on my hands, and I make about twice as much as I was making when I was on unemployment, but still making about half of what I could have been making if I got a crappy sales job and continued that horrid career path. Overall, a bit better than before.

I am also building up my own firm, I created a website using the skills I learned from my previous exploits, and have about 35 of my own clients, including 2 businesses. I will be discussing this much more in future posts, possibly dedicating a post on what I have done so far in just my firm.

My next post will discuss where I am at right now, and what I have learned about myself.

Future posts:

• Where I am at right now
• My Philosophy on life
• My business and how I got here so far
• My passions, and how I may be able to turn this into something real
• Networking and Sales – all you need to know to be successful
• Adwords and how useless it is to the average entrepreneur (there is hope though)
• My other failed businesses

Edit 1 – 10/07/2011 – Grammar and fleshed out the story a little