roadawg1608

I am not interested in the term smart anymore, and what people typically mean by this. If you were an "A" student in high school, and into college but have a bad attitude, unwilling to take risks, give up when doing that suck or are painful for a long time, or don't know how to invest and manage money, are you really that smart? If you have significant problems in your life that you haven't figured out solutions to them in my view you don't even know where to start.

Anyone who has turned jack **** into millions or on their way to it is smart in my view. What problems have you solved? What are your achievements? What's your output or impact on the world or others around you. Great point that these things typically come with risk taking, hard work, thinking outside the box. Yes luck does play a small role though if I am honest personally but its mostly the other stuff.

And yes I do have real job but my work is mostly done.

HelpMeHelpU

I am grateful to be living my childhood dream. I am an independent equity sponsor, which is private equity without a dedicated fund, so I raise capital on a deal-by-deal basis. To prepare myself, I spent 15 years in M&A advisory, private equity, and corporate development learning how to buy companies.

Regarding "smart," I graduated in the ninth decile of my high school class and went to one of the few colleges that would accept me. The year I applied the school got a thousand applications and accepted 1,069 students. Fortunately, it was located 25 minutes from Stowe and also had a great ski team, of which I was a part. (One of my college ski team buddies races vintages Porsches, is a multi-time national champ, and has beaten Patrick Long in several Rennsport Reunion races. Of this friend, ProCoach says he's an excellent driver.)

I grew up in a family with no money and that, as Robert Frost said of the two roads that diverge in the woods, has made all the difference. Being the class dummy has cut both ways. It took me a very long time to realize how smart I was. But, more importantly, it helped me develop grit such that a former CEO coach I worked with (who had been president of a multi-billion dollar company) referred to me as a gritty MF (but he didn't abbreviate). It was, perhaps, the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.

Gbos1

Profession: Financial Engineer. Triathlon Winner. Fortune 50 Finance Executive. Steady Investing for many years. “Time is Money” Hustle! Hustle! Hustle! Invest in yourself and never stop learning. Strive to be the best at what you do! Key is be passionate about what you want to do in life and the rest will come easily. My saying “the most motivated people are the most successful in life!” Get out there and grab life by the horns! Be humble and give back.

Buzz367

I grew up surrounded by porches and BMWs as my dad was really into them, so I've been obsessed since a very young age. He was relatively successful in the wealth management business and I grew up exposed to markets and interesting clients of his, so naturally I went down that path as well. After building my own business for 10 years (something I wanted to do before joining my father) I was fortunate enough to be in a place where I could buy his business and now I'm running the firm and continually pushing for growth. I'm 34 so I really feel like I can create something great if I keep pushing. I employ my dad now and it's a rewarding experience for us both. Always had the dream of owning a Porsche like my dad and finally pulled the trigger on a dream car in '22 (2019 GT3 Touring).

I always thought there was a secret to successful business and the top dogs all knew something I didn't, but as I've been lucky and found success myself my biggest takeaway is it's a slow grind every day, and the consistent blocking and tackling and progress towards goals with baby steps are really the key. This group is an honor to be a part of and I aspire to be in a position to own multiple awesome P cars in the future.

wkf94025

As I mentioned in my earlier post here, I develop luxury resorts, in US and Mexico. And love Porsches. My 15yo daughter's friend is convinced that I launder money for the cartels. He said to my daughter "Your dad goes to Mexico a lot, is fluent in Spanish, drives nice cars, and you live in a nice home. Therefore..."

It's a fun rumor I don't spend too much energy refuting. ;-)

JayLiemy

Hey everyone, new guy here! Love the light hearted debate about real jobs and these incredible cars. While I can't exactly relate to the "affordability question" (living on ramen noodles for now!), this whole conversation makes me wonder – is a passion for cars enough to turn it into a career?

For someone who bleeds octane but has a day job in a different lane, are there realistic ways to break into the automotive world? Technical schools, apprenticeships (those still exist, right?) – any advice for a newbie to explore these options?
Just curious! Seems like this forum is full of folks with tons of experience.

P.S. Always dreamed of working with animals too, but that's a whole different story (https://www.veterinaryschoolsu.com/ might come in handy someday though!).

Hawkeye2

Retired Engineer / Operations Exec with multiplant experience in US and MX. I'm the only one in my family that ever had much interest in cars. When I was a kid, my parents drove Ford Pintos, Chevy Citations, etc., but my High School physics teacher had a '69 Z28 and a '70 Corvette with a 454, both which he bought new. He's the reason I got into cars, and my first one was a '70 Z28 that I completely loved, but it sucked up almost all my time and definitely all my money. At this point I'm trying to pass on the love of cars to my kids and grand kids.

bstone208

LOL! So funny.

Manifold

The more people there who are passionate about something, the more competition you have and harder it is to stand out in the crowd and make a really good living. This is why academia, music, arts, sports, and car-related careers are tough roads. Don't look at how the most successful people are doing, look at what percentage of people who try actually become reasonably successful.

bhart192

BS engineering started my own firm providing welding inspection services to the industrial clients, not the cleanest work but makes lost of cash , very few folks do this stuff , 2106 gt3 , 06 997s with x51 kit track car

RobbieRob

Veterinarian is a wonderful and rewarding profession. I would encourage you to go into small animal vet work though, less hours than a large animal vet and equivalent income(based on hours worked).

turtl631

ER doctor. Shareholder in a private/independent group which is fairly uncommon in these days of consolidated corporate medicine. Live in a low COL area and come from blue collar family so I still have some frugal habits. Just thrilled to have a GT3 and the opportunity to track it.

ldamelio

Nice. Hang onto that. Venture capital is the great Satan in American medicine silently killing patients and driving good people out of the profession.

I (now retired health care exec/trauma surgeon) had the privilege of canning one of the major players from my organization a few years ago. They were raping us financially, understaffing the ED putting us in jeopardy with stroke and trauma designations and raping the docs. I'm not completely against physician employment, just not by VC.