90% Grind 10% Sleep

[John Williams]

At the moment of typing this I have exactly $11.00 and 19 cigarettes to

my name and I am more enthusiastic than ever about my future. Some

people would say, "Well John, you're a fucking idiot." and I would

think the same thing if I was observing my situation rather than being

in it.

I've been spending the last 30ish sleepless hours evaluating my life

and have come to the conclusion that I have been very successful in the

last few years. I'll start from what I'd like to consider the beginning

of my success.

At 16 years old I was charged with 6 felonies, I had stolen $375,000

worth of computers and accessories and sold them to net myself a measly
$20,000 give or take, 8 months of house arrest, 680 hours of community

service and 2 years of high risk probation. Not really a success but an

important part of my life none the less.

My time on house arrest was spent alone in a town of less than 500

people in rural Iowa in the home of my grandmother. I was not allowed

to have any visitors nor was I allowed to use the phone or computer. I

spent most of my time reading.

My grandmother happens to be insane. She is obsessed with astrology,

affirmation, and self help books. Lucky for me, my immediate family is

poor(Strangely enough by choice.). So most of these self help books

were financial books with neat titles like "Debt into Wealth".

Going off on a tangent here my grandmother is a very smart business

woman with a very interesting life. She attended a very prestigious

college and graduated with masters degree and nearly her doctorate at

age 24. She was a well thought of highschool teacher and a highly

sought after CPA. She now owns a chain of daycare centers and is

developing a curriculum for pre-preschool children.

After reading these books and being discharged from my probation I

searched long and hard for a job and dropped out of college twice. I

found a few jobs, quit them, became a fairly successful competitive

gamer, had a fairly successful online poker run and eventually settled

into a job as a Union Carpenter and Millwright.

Being a construction worker in my opinion is a very worthwhile career

my father does the same thing I was doing and brings home from $80,000

to $100,000 a year depending on how much time he takes off.

What am I doing now? I am a Mac/PC Consultant and a Safety Consultant

for smaller companies here in Iowa each of them pays $20.00 an hour and

neither of them have me working at the moment.

So reading through all of that I don't see anything that would make

anyone think I'm successful in any way, shape or form; do you? Of

course not, we're getting to that part. One of my hobbies since my

house arrest has been watching the currency market in real time on my

computer and recording it with a program called FRAPS ("But John, I

thought you weren't supposed to use the computer." Pretend like I

didn't.) from the recordings and the venerable internet I've filled

journals with everything I've learned about the market a total of 113 9

3/4IN. x 7 1/2IN. 200 page journals. I am the proud owner of 4 years

worth of spot on market analysis.

Along with monitoring the market I have pretend invested in it and am

currently worth pretend $340,786,439. What does that mean? ("Well John

it means absolutely nothing.") To me it means that given the

opportunity I could invest money and become as successful as I pretend

am, even with the market in as bad of shape as it is I don't believe

that would hinder me a bit.

In conclusion:
I came to this site looking to expand my horizons. Any suggestions,

friendly or unfriendly comments, criticisms, opportunities or requests

you want to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Unless it has

anything to do with MLM or making money clicking ads, in that case, die

in a fire.

Post Script:
I know I haven't officially signed this yet, but I did type it in

notepad before I posted it. I wanted to add some moral value.
I want someone to read this and next year when they see my story in the

Famous Entrepreneur section of the forums they remember that I started

out as absolutely nothing but a 20 year old guy with $11.00 and soon to

be 18 cigarettes. I believe that if you focus hard enough on silly

dreams like mine they'll eventually become silly realities.

[Iamnotsatisfied]

It is because of posts like yours that make me come back to this forum. Interesting read.

I hope you find your success in life.

[RLorenzen]

Very interesting. You have the drive to succeed.

Make it happen. Good luck.

[1entrepreneur]

Thanks for sharing your very interesting background with us, John.

Seems like this community has a thing or two to learn from you.

Good to have you here.

[crackah]

Great story!

Thankful that it didnt end in a link or you trying to sell something!

Well done on the currency trading, Have you thought about using real cash?

Also agree with "anything to do with MLM or making money clicking ads, in that case, die
in a fire." Not enought of posts like yours are too many with rubbish like this. I think that YE needs to remove shit like MLM and that stuff.

Catch.

[GPowell]

This is a great post, very inspirational and I have a similar past. I didn't get charged but I 17 I was labeled a drug king, I would've done 5 years fed time for my first offense but joined the military to avoid prison. Then 6 months later I got an Adminastrative Discharge from there and now I am in school, studying business because I am good at that.

[clp11479]

$11 bucks and 19 cigarettes... CLASSIC!

Good luck! How much pretend money did you start out with to end up at $340 million? And how risky was the pretend trading? If you can save a grand or two and do the same thing...

[John Williams]

Thanks for the kind comments, I appreciate them.

To answer some questions:

1. I started out with $50,000 but I didn't know what I was doing till I was down to $9,000.
2. Pretend trading isn't very risky, in my opinion currency trading isn't very risky at all either. It's like the stock market by fisher price.
3. I have thought about using real cash but my cash flow is extremely limited, in fact it's so limited it doesn't exist at the moment. I would like to start trading for people who may have an idea of what they want to do but absolutely do not have the time to do it. Not so much like a broker more like a caddy, doing the work and handing out the advice.

[DebtFreeMe]

Just a thought,

Have you thought about writing a book or putting up a membership based website with your tips and ideas on currency trading? If your ideas are as good as they seem it wouldn't take long to create some buzz, and thus some income from you knowledge.

I'd probably go with a limited membership based website, because if your techniques become too wide spread they will probably stop working, like many systems that have worked on the stock market, until everyone starts using them. Also with limited membership you can ask for more money for each yearly membership.

Hope this helps.

[MASapparel]

Im not going to lie when I first started reading I thought you were full of it but mid way I could relate with a lot of the same stuff (besides felonies) and really support what you are trying to do.

I will be 20 in a couple weeks and just had my business that I built the last year taken out from under me due to new partners I teamed up with. I am now broke and have nothing to show for the last year (even though the business took off great and the year was awesome). I am now in the process of trying to rebuild everything and get back on my feet.

Best of luck to you man!

[Jay Brass]

"Well John, you're a fucking idiot."

This sounds really immature, but that made me chuckle.

Interesting read.

[John Williams]

This sounds really immature, but that made me chuckle.

Interesting read.

Don't worry, I'm into immature humor too.

[Op3nTheJar]

Maaaaan, I wish I knew people like you, intelligent people, everyone is so dumb. I'd like to hear more about you, you ARE like someone said, inspirational. I was at lunch with one of my co-workers today, and on my cell scanning the site to see what youngentrepreneurs had to say about currency trading. The title of this particular caught my eye, after reading I told him "you have to one bad MoFo to steal $300,000 worth of comp equipment with intent to sell it AT 16!". Your mastering the Forex market was cool to read about.

Thank You John.

[Brainy]

Well, welcome to "life". Interesting story, hope that your intentions turn into reality for you. Failure (so it's labeled) is generally the initial realization point that "many failures" are required to reach success...how else do "we" learn?

Lets keep failing....

[drewevans]

you need a programmer...

if what you have discovered per se is THAT good, then you need to write up a program, sell on a per year basis to every major corporation in the world.

etc etc... but again, you need money.