[Fanatik]

Sumimasen, wakarimasen. I've been on Boston for ~2 yrs now, so a lot of it wore off. I'd go back to Jappyland tomorrow if they gave my wife and I orders. It's an absolutely amazing country... The culture and level of respect is simply amazing. Leave a 10,000yen bill on the front seat of your car, with the windows rolled down in the middle of Tokyo, and it'll still be there 8 hrs later. Try that in an American city

Did you study Japanese??

[jasaunders]

nihongo ga wakarimasen.

Never studied it before, I just started trying to learn it. I've been listening to audio CD's on my hour long commutes each day. But I'm only a few weeks into it.

I was just in Japan for a couple weeks and was there last year briefly. I love the culture and politeness.

[Fanatik]

That's awesome. I took Spanish for 6 years, then had a very long break. Now I'm going to use Rosetta Stone to get back that knowledge. Japanese is a complicated language to me. It's a language that not many people consider taking. I think it's interesting that in Japan, they're required to take english classes throughout their school years, yet there's not a system like that in place in America.

[jasaunders]

Yeah, I agree. Although Japanese hasn't been too hard for me yet. The "vagueness" of not using subjects or nouns in sentences is a little strange, but hasn't been that bad for me. There is actually a really good book called Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell you.

Although I already gave up on trying to write or read Japanese. There are too many characters and too many alphabets. I'm sticking with just speaking Japanese.

[totters_traders]

i started quite late compared to some as i was a former athlete who didnt ever see much need for any other ideas to make money as i believed i would be a well paid pro untill i got injured.
so at 20 yrs of age started working a 9 to 5 !!! but working my day job wasnt earning me the money i wanted to earn, i was a bit of a party and girl animal , and was well known in my area of london by club owners , bouncers and i bleieved i new all the ''right people to know'' and so i thought of something i could do to make money while i had a free party so i started hosting and promoting parties and club nights with various well known bars and nightclubs that i was a frequent customer in. although it never earned me huge amount of money it made me some and allowed me to not spend all my £$ of drink and partying lifestyle.

after a while of doing this an oportunity came my way, a friend of mine had to leave the country pretty quick (if you no what i mean) and i arranged a family memebr of mine to buy this friends office for a really good price!!!! both gave me a cut for my trouble and that was when it hit me. real estate agent - in the uk you dont need a license.
so with the money i had saved i arranged to lease the office of my family member at a good rate with a friend of mine who already owned a real eatae office that was failing and he sold it and got out .
so with his knowledge of paper work, VAT registering etc and all the business startup and all that side of things we moved into the new office and got working on my new business.
he only had a few customers from his old office so i started taking photos of all my friends houses from the out side and inside and making profiles of houses for sale !!!!
my friend was using the sales letters, contracts from his old company we got some for ale boards made and started planting them all around the local area , outside apartment blocks where no one who lived there would question why one was up!!! and on some occasions outside houses lol that wernt for sale (by the time the owner or local authority called us to take the board down we had one day of advertising and another person in the area new who we were!! i would go to the persons house and take the board down appologise and have a good chat with them, get to know them and them me 75% of the time there were no hard feelings as they believed it was an accident).
all my friends houses etc were bringing in customers but unfortunatly for the customer that property had just been sold!!! so we took there deatils of what the customer wanted , and i started knocking on peoples doors. i would them i had a buyer and if they ever wanted to sell just let me no and i could arrange for someone to come and look at the house and give them a yes or no answer immedietley. sometimes if i had no buyer id arrange for a friend to view the house and be interested - by the time the potential buyer declared no interest in the house i was on good terms with the owner and they were calling me asking me to arrange put there house on the market to sell there house for them.

time went by and we were legitimetly getting new houses and selling them.
i was now calling and partnering up with other agents in differnet locations and sharing houses in different locations with them and this worked quite well for a little bit, we did this for a while. we bought a couple properties cheap and sold it on for more here and there but again the profits were not life changing.
Our partnership was strained as we were very different characters and i felt HE had no get up and go , and the wrong attitude to make this into a huge earner, and although he is the one who made it all legit by having contracts and doing the legal side of things i felt i was doing all the work ,so i sold out my share for a nice profit to his dad and i was on my way......

i will not bore you with what i am doing now but as i do what i am doing - im on sites like these looking to laern about business and websites etc as i have not had much education or worked in a proper professional environment where i have been taught or learned about business. im working avery hard, while trying to learn and will hopefully have a few new business up and running soon along with the ones im currently in or involved in.
hopefully this time next year ill be sitting in my office overseeing 3 or 4 small but profitable busineses.

[x3xsolxdierx3x]

bumping this thread

[BizGuy]

Its been great reading some of these awesome entrepreneurial stories!

Keep them coming, success stories and failure stories welcomed (we have all had them!).

Adam T.

[Assault on Reason]

Wow, great stories you guys!
Well, unlike everyone else, I am just starting my entrepreneurial career. I am 17 years old.
Currently, I am trading derivatives quite frequently, and flipping houses when a bargain is found. I also have started an online business, dedicated to helping people start making money for their children from the time that they are born. Just launching a new golf company, seeing as golf is my passion. We will see how it goes. Congratulations on everyones success stories! Good luck in the future!

P.S. Would also love to go to Japan, seeing as it is a theme in this thread.

[Fanatik]

I have a great story with no ending.. Here it goes.
My wife and I live on base, and there is a great community here with tons of kids. A kid came to my door one day and handed me a card he'd printed off of his mom and dad's computer. The card says, "Pet watching, dog walking and yard services. If you need any of these services, I am here to help. Please call XXXXX at XXXXX." I was STUNNED. Did I mention this kid couldn't have been more than 7 years old?!!?! That's just amazing to me, that this kid obviously has the spirit to know he needs to work for something he wants. Whether he's offering those services so he can garner enough $$$ to get a toy or whatever it may be - I found it simply amazing he'd do this. Granted, I wouldnt recommend letting kids go door to door in a regular community (on an Air Force base, he's quite safe! lol), but I was so happy to see that.

Aside from setting up a lemonade stand, he actually had to think about this little endeavor. Everyone has dogs around here, many people deploy and leave a spouse behind to take care of a lot of things, so he's alleviating their stress for a little bit of cash. How cool is that?! I haven't needed his services yet, but I kept that 'card' on my fridge!

Talk about some inspiration... and from someone as YOUNG as that! Simply amazing.