[Silverlining_m2]

I quit my job as a carpenter when I was 22 to take an unpaid tattoo apprenticeship. I worked part time at a restaurant to have any money at all at that time, and was full time at the studio. I was officially homeless (couch surfing and car sleeping) for at least 6 months.

It's been 18 years. I own my second studio now, this time with no partners and without saying I make a specific amount of money, I will say I make more than someone with my "technical" education should and more than I ever would have as a carpenter... Substantially. Sometimes you really gotta take a chance, no matter what naysayers will tell you.

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by MRii328i

I quit my job as a carpenter when I was 22 to take an unpaid tattoo apprenticeship. I worked part time at a restaurant to have any money at all at that time, and was full time at the studio I was officially homeless (couch surfing) for at least 6 months.

It's been 18 years. I own my second studio now, this time with no partners and without saying I make a specific amount of money, I will say I make more than someone with my "technical" education should. Substantially. I'm now going to start looking into investing, even though it's at this late stage for me. Sometimes you really gotta take a chance, no matter what naysayers will tell you.

If you are a good artist, the sky is the limit. You don't even have to advertise, you can set your own hours, pay rate, etc.

[Silverlining_m2]

Originally Posted by Rmtt

If you are a good artist, the sky is the limit. You don't even have to advertise, you can set your own hours, pay rate, etc.

You are not wrong

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by Humdizzle

running from the police. only once though. I was just not in the mood for dealing with them that day. GTR 1, cops 0.

I did this once too, not in a sexy GTR though, rather the opposite, a mercury mountaineer

[P1]

I see the term “risk” being very generously applied in this thread.

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by P1

I see the term “risk” being very generously applied in this thread.

There are varying degrees for risk tolerance. For 1 person taking an acting class might feel like a tremendous risk, for another giving a speech at a funeral might be a big risk. For someone else it could be selling their house and investing their money while living in a bad part of town. This thread is for those who want to discuss various risks theyve taken on all levels, that have paid off. After all, you never know what decision or small risk, can lead to a huge reward.

[GenXer]

Originally Posted by Darth One

Me and 10 of my friends decided to rob this douchebag casino owner named Terry Benedict. It did not go as smooth as planned but we pulled it off!

Let me guess, you switched the video feed to the CCTV right?

[Lady Jane]

Not sure if that counts.

I avoided getting pregnant. I worked part time jobs at night to pay for my college education instead of partying. Had enough money for a down payment on a condo upon graduation. Made good money on a few flips. Lived within my means and never had credit card debts. Finished my Masters in nursing and now I have a comfy life and can afford toys.

[flybigjet]

I was at the point where I had to decide to go career military (which would have taken me out of the cockpit and into a staff tour) or take a chance, get out, and try to get an airline job.

I got out, snagged an Air Force Reserve job (i.e. flying for food) and eventually picked up an airline gig a little under a year after I got out.

It's been a rockety ride, but it worked out very much in my favor overall.

(Mostly) loved the Active Duty Air Force, LOVED the Reserves, and REALLY enjoy my airline job (which is admittedly a LOT more fun from the left seat than from the right-- it only took me about 20 years to "jump the center console".)

R.

[King Rudi]

Number one, full-length back tattoo of the Hawaiian Punch guy! 10% real fruit juice, motherfuckers!

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by King Rudi

Number one, full-length back tattoo

I showed you mine and now I want to see yours.

[UncleWede]

Not me, but the girlfriend-in-law last night:
I'm thinking of dropping the Petco manager position to be a paid-intern at the animal hospital. I watched a surgery, gave some vaccinations, and got shit on by a patient today. It's a drop in pay of about $.75/hour to start"

Girl, you have a place to stay here, with no worries about paying rent or anything. Tell Petco you are pursuing a CAREER change with the animal hospital. Give them 2-3 weeks notice, don't burn that bridge. Either A) they offer you +$2 to stay, or B) acknowledge you are STILL a valuable future employee and say Good Luck!

Oh, and what kind of burrito do you want from the roach-coach, I'm STARVING!

[King Rudi]

Originally Posted by Lady Jane

I showed you mine and now I want to see yours.

I must say, the tables have turned. This would be a first for me hearing from a female. I kid on the Hawaiian Punch guy. It's a Will Ferrell line from The Goods. I do have a few (13 or 15) tattoos. Seems like I started a tattoo thread a while back and forgot to post any of mine. My apologies. I only get on here while at work and now my workload prevents me from spending the same amount of time on here that I used to. I'll try to get some pics up soon.

[Lady Jane]

Originally Posted by King Rudi

I must say, the tables have turned. This would be a first for me hearing from a female.

Well...You know I'm different. he he he

[bobowar135]

I bought a late model BMW that iwas out of warranty.

[floridaorange]

^Risks, not cases of insanity, please.

[unluky]

My "Dream Job" after 13 years was bought out by a public company. After about a month of accountants telling me the "customer first" approach we had used in that time to increase sales 6 fold (70 year old company) was not the right strategy and that watching costs was far more important - I turned in my notice. It shocked everyone and I had absolutely no job lined up or plans other than selling my house and moving back closer to where I grew up. I never minded living and breathing my job for 24/7, but that was because I loved it. This "accountants tell sales how to sell" was never going to work for me. I had also just lost my father, which really made me think about what I wanted out of life for some reason.

I gave 6 weeks notice (finished out the year) and my last week as the word got out - another company in the same town approached me. I knew they could not afford me (much smaller company) but I told them my free time was valuable to me now and we worked out what was going to be more of a short term consulting job with them with very loose hours and a commission based pay system with NO cap. I didn't have to sell my house or move - so why not?

3 years later I am still here, just had my 2nd most profitable year ever, and probably put in less time at the office than I have in 2-3 decades. When I do I wear jeans and sneaks to work (and take my dog in a lot) and love the freedom of a privately held company again. I work better fast and loose.

Sometimes you have to dive in the water to see what's in there. Life is more than climbing the corp ladder. Glad I did it, but glad I moved on too.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by dinonz

It wasn't too bad apart from learning a new language, and learning to drive on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road. Otherwise it was pretty easy.

I think he meant after you got to TX, not while you were still in NZ. Not sure why you had a backwards car and learned to drive in the wrong lane to begin with!

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by unluky

My "Dream Job" after 13 years was bought out by a public company. After about a month of accountants telling me the "customer first" approach we had used in that time to increase sales 6 fold (70 year old company) was not the right strategy and that watching costs was far more important - I turned in my notice. It shocked everyone and I had absolutely no job lined up or plans other than selling my house and moving back closer to where I grew up. I never minded living and breathing my job for 24/7, but that was because I loved it. This "accountants tell sales how to sell" was never going to work for me. I had also just lost my father, which really made me think about what I wanted out of life for some reason.

I gave 6 weeks notice (finished out the year) and my last week as the word got out - another company in the same town approached me. I knew they could not afford me (much smaller company) but I told them my free time was valuable to me now and we worked out what was going to be more of a short term consulting job with them with very loose hours and a commission based pay system with NO cap. I didn't have to sell my house or move - so why not?

3 years later I am still here, just had my 2nd most profitable year ever, and probably put in less time at the office than I have in 2-3 decades. When I do I wear jeans and sneaks to work (and take my dog in a lot) and love the freedom of a privately held company again. I work better fast and loose.

Sometimes you have to dive in the water to see what's in there. Life is more than climbing the corp ladder. Glad I did it, but glad I moved on too.

Good move no doubt... the moment any company that you work with or that was recently acquired starts to focus on cutting costs to improve profitability instead of generating more revenue and just scaling efficiencies... you need to get out asap...

Typically acquisitions are cost cutting exercises... get out as soon as possible. Glad it worked out for you.

[zx10guy]

Graduated during the 92 recession. Couldn't find a job without having to look into relocating. Due to family reasons that was out. I took on temp jobs to make ends meet. Was offered a perm position at this firm I had temp'd for. Decided to decline even though it was tempting to have set steady income. Decided to take the risk and apply for a summer intern position not paying much doing technical/research work. The project leads questioned why I would want such a position with a 4 year degree. I said I just needed to do something technical to keep my sanity. They hired me and I impressed them enough where they lobbied upper management to hire me on permanently and accepted the job.

I took a gamble and obligated myself to $6k in tuition for MCSE training during the NT 4.0 period. This was a major gamble on my part as I was still on the hook for $25k in student loans and had a car payment. I was still living with my parents but didn't need to get further into debt as I've made some foolish financial decisions as someone young. This move spring boarded my IT career as I met someone in the class that worked for a defense contractor. A few of us provided resumes to him but I don't know if any of them got interviews. I got an interview and a job offer. They also sponsored my security clearance (I already had some at the time) which was highly sought after where it commanded salary premiums as not many people had one. This set me up for the rest of my IT career due to the experience I got. I had left them after a year. But now I'm able to work in a space where I had lots of access to new technology. My last project in that space I gained a ton of experience as I was the head guy that did the needed upgrades to networking, storage, and servers along with building out a new data center and migrating two physical locations.

From the above, I made the decision to leave decades of Federal contracting work to gamble at working in IT sales. To me this was a huge gamble as I've never had any sales experience. It has paid off in spades where I've been working from home ever since the change. My income has sky rocketed. And the exposure to various technologies has increased.

[unluky]

Originally Posted by ASAP

Good move no doubt... the moment any company that you work with or that was recently acquired starts to focus on cutting costs to improve profitability instead of generating more revenue and just scaling efficiencies... you need to get out asap...

Typically acquisitions are cost cutting exercises... get out as soon as possible. Glad it worked out for you.

Agreed. The first 2 months (and while we were pitching the company to them) all they could rave about was the steady growth and increased profitability by expanding our market share with custom products. Then they immediately talked about changing everything that got us there. I knew it was not for me.

I've since snagged 3 others from them that were not feeling it either. Very sad, but it is what it is.

[dinonz]

Originally Posted by bosstones

I think he meant after you got to TX, not while you were still in NZ. Not sure why you had a backwards car and learned to drive in the wrong lane to begin with!

Nice try

Allow me to explain why the US has it wrong

1. Most people are right handed, and so when driving right hand drive means the right hand (your more dominant coordinated hand) can stay on the wheel while the left hand changes gears, assuming of course you have a clutch and gear lever and aren't driving a grannie car.

2. Money shifts are nigh on impossible in a right hand drive. I won't say impossible because I'm sure some idiot could do it, but the cause of money shifting is tension and pulling the lever towards yourself instead of straight back (made worse by "pistol grip" shifters which deliberately place the hand in the wrong position), which is only likely to cause a 3rd to 6th mistake, not a 3rd to 2nd mistake when trying to grab 4th.