From (almost) lineman to writing for CEOs

“I don’t think you’ll like being an engineer”

I felt the wind go out of sails when he said that.

I was 18 years old.

And getting some feedback on my direction from a mentor.

Feedback that I basically ignored. But I thought I knew better.

I really liked math, my dad was an electrician, and it seemed like engineers made a lot of money.

So, despite the advice, I went to engineering school.

And was an engineer for 9 years. (still am an engineer, really)

Now, engineering is a great profession.

But, the longer I was in it, the more I realized…

My mentor was right.

He could see the traits and strong suits I had (even at 18) that I couldn’t see myself.

I wish I would have asked him better questions, and knew where to look for answers.

But I didn’t. Because of my beliefs.

• I believed that engineering was the only viable path for me out of poverty.

• I believed that I knew more than an investment banking multimillionaire (i was an idiot).

• I didn’t believe that I could make a living by doing the things that I loved (reading/writing/building relationships).

So, I enrolled in an associate’s degree. I was going to be a lineman for the electric company. Climbing poles and working with high voltage.

Once I was done with that, I transferred to a university and got my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Then spent the next 7 years working in chemical plants, warehouses, and government facilities.

But during that time, I was still reading and listening to podcasts. This, in addition to a few life changing events led to a series of transformations:

1. I discovered the book Third Circle Theory by Pejman Ghadimi from a friend’s Facebook post. This introduced me to large scale entrepreneurship. And then a podcast guest of Pejman’s introduced me to Tim Ferriss.

2. This opened my eyes up to a new world. Each guest on the Tim Ferriss show altered my reality. I was introduced to meditation, writing as a skill, knowledge management, awareness, etc. I also realized that all of my heroes were writers.

3. I started writing after my dad died. Needed to establish what I believed.

4. Discovered I didn’t want to do engineering my whole life, so I enrolled in an MBA program. Really loved the marketing classes. Which led me to buying a bunch of Seth Godin books and learning even more.

5. While learning how to write on Medium, I discovered Tim Denning which opened up a whole new world of writing online through Twitter and LinkedIn.

6. Seeing people make money online and actually talking to those people, I decided to start my own business. I bought a $5,500 coaching offer (which was WILD) to help me learn how to scale.

7. Got my first 3-4 clients. Now working on scaling.

And these are just the high points.

There’s lots of other turning points in there that has led me to this point in my journey from engineer to marketer.

A few key beliefs I changed during this journey:

• I moved from believing in a predetermined career path (lineman to electrical engineer) to embracing flexibility and entrepreneurship.

• My belief about how money is made shifted from a fixed salary model to understanding the potential of online businesses and entrepreneurship (project/product-based).

• My belief was turned on its head that job security was more important than finding meaning and personal fulfillment through my work.

None of this was quick.

And it sure wasn’t easy.

I knew that going in.

It was going to be a lot of incremental changes, a lot of introspection, and a lot of writing.

And I’m not done.

I’m still doing those things. Probably still will for the rest of my life. Hopefully.

But it all starts with learning what you believe.

That’s an investment that is always worth it.

To your super success,

Swanagan