Because I lived in poverty, I got used to that reality. But some deeper part of me wanted to escape from it and get rich!
When I turned 18, I immediately applied for a job. It wasn’t an official job; I promoted the goods of big companies and brought them to the attention of an audience. We worked for a company that signed a contract with big companies. I promoted Whiskas and Pedigree, later the Duracell batteries, and later the cell phones Fly. I earned roughly $300 a month.
The most exciting thing for me was earning my own money! I got some freedom from my parents. But of course, I understood that thanks to that kind of money, I couldn’t afford a great lifestyle. So, I was searching for something else.
And the chance came in.
My first try to achieve freedom
One day I got a call from an unknown girl. She called me on behalf of my good friend. She asked me if I was interested in earning good money. Of course, I was! So we met, and she presented me with the MLM business plan. I was super excited because she showed me the way to escape my poor reality and achieve financial freedom.
For 3 years, I was struggling in MLM and didn’t achieve any measurable results. I worked really hard, and I tried to build my consumer network, but I failed. $100 dollars was the maximum I earned per month in MLM.
What beliefs prevented me from achieving success?
I was an A-student in school. I got ready for every lesson, test, and exam. And I succeeded in school using this model. But in life, you can not prepare for anything.
Every day in the MLM business was a tough challenge for me. I invited people to meet and show them a business plan, and they refused to come. Others agreed to come, but they didn’t come, and I didn’t get any response from them what’s so ever.
Some people even showed enthusiasm, but they didn’t follow up with me.
People were irresponsible.
Did I attract such people? I think so. Most of my classmates were very similar to that.
A few times, I met really rich people and showed them a business plan, but it was so emotionally uncomfortable that I prayed to God they said “no.” I didn’t want to meet rich people anymore. I couldn’t control them and tell them what to do.
I had a belief: everything should be under my control. If something was not, I escaped.
If you were born into a poor family and communicated all your life with poor people, it’s super tough to communicate with rich people. They have a different set of rules which you don’t know.
We had a mentor from Poland, and he was really successful. From time to time, he came to us to teach us and to help us build the business, but I couldn’t afford to come to him and ask for help. He was so successful, and I was a loser. I didn’t want to waste his time.
My mom taught me: “You should do everything by yourself.”
In my reality, it was comfortable to communicate with poor people like me. So, I met them, but they didn’t want to work to earn money. They wanted money for nothing. That’s why I failed in the MLM business: I wasn’t comfortable with rich people, so I escaped; But the poor people I was comfortable with didn’t want to take responsibility for themselves.
So, I ended up with nothing.
Do you see how my limiting beliefs prevented me from achieving success?
My first real job
My mom told me since my childhood: “Study perfectly at school, and you’ll enter the prestige university. You’ll graduate from the university and find a high-paid job”.
And seemed like I found that great job. I started really well and climbed the career ladder very fast.
Since I was the only person, except the boss, who spoke English well enough, I was offered an opportunity to communicate with customers. I started as a support manager, and later I substituted for the boss when he left for Canada or was out of office. I was assigned sort of CEO in our small office.
Of course, my salary and bonuses raised significantly. When I got the job, I earned $300 and at the peak of my success, I made $1200 per month. That was a really high salary in our city.
But I made some calculations and they showed me, that it would take me 12 years to save to buy my own flat. And not a luxurious flat, but a very simple one. “And what if some crisis breaks out? What if the prices for real estate go up? And what if I meet the girl and my expenses skyrocket?” I thought.
I had big doubts that I would be able to make it in 12 years.
I remember one day when the boss gathered us together in a living room in our office and told us that we were going to switch to the new project of building a social network. And I had to do research because I was the one who did successful research for our e-commerce project. So, no more communication with customers, no more sales. I returned back to the boring technical stuff.
I had no more illusions about the job. Previously, I was dreaming about earning $10’000 a month, but that evening I had a clear understanding that I had deluded myself.
I understood that my beliefs about life were totally wrong:
- If I study well, I will enter a prestige university
- If I graduate from a prestige university, I will have a good job
- If I have a good job, I will earn lots of money and will afford to live a fabulous lifestyle
Shortly, I quit that job. All my beliefs about money and life were inaccurate, so I came to a dead end.
What else had I believed in that was wrong?
- Work hard, try your best, and you’ll have a decent income
- It doesn’t matter whether you love what you’re doing or not – what does matter is your professionalism.
- It doesn’t matter what you want or doesn’t want – you must have the work done!
- You chose your way to be a programmer, so follow it.
- Be grateful for what you have, and don’t complain
These were my beliefs from my parents and grandparents.
My personal development business
Working at the job, I started my personal development business. It started more like a hobby. For the first year, I didn’t earn any money. Maybe, $100 from month to month, thanks to Google ads.
I wrote articles on personal development and published them on my website. I was too scared of criticism, which was why I didn’t post any information about myself as an author – no name, no email, just nothing, so people could not reach me.
That was another belief I got from my childhood – keep your head down, stay out of sight, it’s dangerous, people can hurt you. And really, every time I was initiative at school, I got into trouble. So, I learned to stay down.
But if people don’t see me or even know I exist, how could they pay me? No way!
When only I thought about writing my own e-book, I got tons of limiting thoughts that pushed me away from that idea.
- How could you write a book? You don’t have enough experience
- You’re not a writer.
- You achieve nothing in life. You are working at the job.
- You are a failure! You failed in the MLM business.
- You’re very young for writing your book
- What could you teach people? Older people know much more about life than you do!
- How would you sell the book? You’re not a businessman! You hate selling.
- You will fail! You’d better not start at all because of the pain. When you fail it will be unbearable.
Conclusion: How did my beliefs prevent me from achieving freedom?
- I started with a very low paid job because I wanted to earn my own money
- I got into the wrong business, where I failed miserably and lost 3 years of my life because of my wrong mindset.
- I got a job that led nowhere. I truly believed that I could succeed and achieve freedom, but that was an illusion. I believed in it because I was taught to.
- For 1,5 years, I worked in my own business trying to earn enough money to live.
- I had great resistance to writing a book.
Because of my poor mindset, I attracted wrong ideas. I really worked hard, but I was destined to fail.
