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On doing what you really want

by Mark on July 21, 2011 in Outlook

I’m kicking myself right now for not writing more on the entrepreneurial journey that I’ve gone through this year. Suffice to say, it has been absolutely incredible. In fact, beyond incredible. 2011 as a whole has completely eclipsed 2010 in every regard.

Back in January, my 2 co-founders and I went full time on our itsy bitsy little SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company. I really had no idea how this would grow and what the end result would be. Fast forward 6 months and we now have an office with 2 other awesome startups, an amazing team in Hungary/UK/USA, a client list that most companies would drool over and are positioned to continue our meteoric rise to the top. We started this with zero investment and were profitable from day 1. We’ve never had a cash flow problem and nobody has sued us…yet.

13 month ago, I was an unemployed farmer. Yeah, seriously!

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clover

Hello 2011, pleased to meet you

by Mark on February 9, 2011 in Outlook

2010 ended in a frantic rush around the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Two taxis were weaving through traffic, desperately trying to make it to a club before the stroke of midnight. After a frantic twenty or so minutes we made it inside. I then proceeded to drop a full bottle of Johnny Walker onto the tiled floor.

As luck would have it, it didn’t break. Since that moment I have embarked on what many people would likely consider to be, a lucky streak.

Back in 2006, I met a couple of drunken Germans at a bar in Shanghai. One of them told me about an awesome film he just watched called Matchpoint. I ended up finding it a few months later and watching it out of curiosity. It one of those movies that makes you think. Essentially, it is all about luck. How it changes, what effects it and how important it is in our lives.

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looking back

Looking back at 2010 – My best year ever

by Mark on December 30, 2010 in Outlook

This time last year I looked back on 2009 and said to myself that it had been the best year of my life. The main reason was that I quit my day job to travel the world. I had a lot of fun those first few months but then decided I needed to find some way to make some money. From September 2009 to December 2009 I tried numerous internet based business ideas but nothing came to fruition. If I’m being honest the last week of 2009 was a bit of a downer for me as I had no clue what I was going to do.

2010 kicked off with a crazy new year party where, despite the average age being 40+, everyone seemed to end up in the pool. It was also the first “old people” party that I’ve been to with podium dancers and smoke machines!

Four days later I met up with Pete (Pedro/crazy Pete/yeah that guy) in Singapore and kicked off what would become an awesome few months. Pete is about as high energy as you can possibly get so whatever you are doing, it is always more fun with him around. We headed to Koh Tao in Thailand for some more diving and had a pretty awesome time. It was here that I learned a hell of a lot more about nutrition and fitness – something that 2011 will be all about for me. I learned about the job opportunities in Australia for temporary tractor drivers. I can still hardly believe that I can put “farmer” on my resume now, but it really was a great job.

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borat

Entrepreneurial musings – I am a champion!

by Mark on November 12, 2010 in Outlook, Work

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart and I have always known, unmistakably, that when I grew up I wanted to own my own business. The most common question people would ask me when I said that was “Doing what?”.

I never really knew how to answer this. While it’s true that I didn’t have a clue what kind of business I wanted to run, I didn’t really feel like it mattered. Judging from the various enterprising schemes I ran as a kid, I could have ended up doing just about anything. Fortunately, I haven’t ended up as a Pokemon card distributor or a DVD pirate.

For those who don’t know, I’ve been playing around a lot with internet marketing techniques as a way to make money from various websites I own (this being one of them). I’ve had a lot of failed attempt and thousands of hours or work have yielded little results. Until now that is.

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minimalism

Being a minimalist rocks…. sometimes….ok, always!

by Mark on October 22, 2010 in Outlook

A couple of years ago, my work relocated me from to another town. This meant finding a new apartment and moving everything I owned. I had so much random stuff that it this became a real headache. I was resolved to throw away all the old junk I had amassed over the years.

Alas, once I arrived at my new place, I simply put it all in the closet and forgot about it. Then, one Sunday evening after doing the laundry, I ran out of coat hangers. I removed an old shirt that I hadn’t worn in years and was about to put it in a storage box. Then it came to me. Why not throw it away, I would probably never wear it again. So I did.

This began a chain reaction of events that lead me to throw out half of my wardrobe, as well as many electrical goods including a full stereo system. If I had been thinking ahead I could have sold everything on ebay or at least given it to a charity shop. However that night I was so determined to get rid of this stuff that I simply threw it all away. Despite knowing throwing hundreds of Pounds worth of stuff away, I felt awesome!

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beach

Why I decided to quit my job and travel the world forever

by Mark on October 8, 2010 in Outlook

September 10th, 2007. It’s 10.30 am and I have been official employed for 90 minutes. I had finally made it through onto a graduate program at a Swiss Insurance company. After countless applications, numerous interviews and tests, I had secured a job and was finally on my way towards a solid career. Everything in my life had been leading up to this.

Every school exam paper, every university lecture, every extra curricular activity was designed and focused on putting me on the working ladder. Depending on your point of view, you may even consider this a fast track position to the top. The world was at my feet and all I had to do was start walking.

So why did this feel so horribly wrong ?!?

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