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The Financial Samurai Underdog Tour

Started by Sam, February 05, 2019, 11:18:37 AM

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RealWealthManagement

#20
Sam,
The middle 80% of the Haas Full time MBA GMAT scores range from 680 - 760. The middle 80% of the Haas Part Time / Weekend MBA GMAT scores range from 640 - 780. Your GMAT score of 600 (58% out of 100% percentile)  would put you in the bottom 10% among your Haas classmates. I bring this up because you are the Ultimate Underdog who seems to beat all odds stacked against you (i.e. B-School, Blogging Business, etc.). I would assume that you also had to work / study at least twice as hard than your Haas classmates to get the same grades. You are a true inspiration to me!     

RWM

69.4% make Zero from their blogging business.
22.6% make Less than $10,000
2.5% makes between $10,000 - $30,000
1.5 % makes between $30,000 - $80,000
2.2 % makes between $80,000 - $150,000
1.2 % makes more than $150,000
0.6 % makes more than a million.


Quote from: Sam on May 21, 2019, 10:10:58 PM
Quote from: RealWealthManagement on May 19, 2019, 11:36:47 AM
Sam,

I wanted first thank you for being so real on your posts. Your SAT article caught my attention as my scores were also exactly the same as yours: 1040 (first attempt @ 16 junior year) and 1160 (second attempt). We are also the same age.

I was just curious if you remember what you scored on your GMAT?

My SAT scores were not good enough to get me into the School of Liberal Art and Sciences at the University of Michigan, so I applied to the school of Art and Design with my AP Art/Portfolio my freshman year. The college I wanted to attended was the Rhode Island of School of Design as a graphic designer, but my parents told me that I could not put food on the table as graphic designer and encouraged me to study business. When applying to the School of Art and Design at the U of M, they give 1/3 weight to your SAT score, GPA, and your design portfolio. I transferred internally to the school of LSA my sophomore year, then got accepted the BBA Program School of Business my junior year with a concentration in Finance.

Sam, seeing the success you have already achieved.. it clearly shows me that there is no correlation between how high your SAT scores are vs how successful you become as an adult.

Again, thanks for writing that article.

RWM.

Howdy! I got a 600 or so on my first try for my GMATs and just left it at that. Good enough! I applied and go into Berkeley's MBA program part-time.

GL on your journey!

Sam

Yes RWM - I'm definitely not very smart, and the last one to ever be viewed as smart. So it's taken a lot of effort to keep up with others.

The one thing I'm oddly most proud of is getting to a USTA 5.0 rating in tennis and staying there for the past four years. It's a treacherous level filled with 20-something Division I players. https://www.financialsamurai.com/some-things-money-cant-buy-a-usta-5-0-tennis-rating/

But enough about me, how about you? Tell us more about yourself.
Regards,

Sam

Sam

The first FS Underdog Post is live! https://www.financialsamurai.com/what-drug-alcohol-addiction-taught-me-about-risk-reward/

Thanks Deanna for sharing your underdog story.

Fight on!
Regards,

Sam

dropoutandretireearly1539

#23
Quote from: Sam on February 05, 2019, 11:18:37 AM
Hi Folks,

I just thought of something for all you bloggers and side-hustlers out there looking to make money to accelerate your financial freedom or simply do something different from your jobs.

I remember when I first started Financial Samurai in 2009, I got hardly any love when it came time to guest post on other sites or become a staff writer. I applied and got rejected from everyone.

Even after a year of writing diligently about personal finance as someone who worked in investment banking and got an MBA, I still didn't receive any love. It was disheartening.

The established bloggers all had their cliques and wouldn't let anybody new in. They hardly ever gave the smaller guys props either. Therefore, I decided to blaze my own trail with Financial Samurai and create the now defunct Yakezie Network to help other bloggers out.

I always told myself that if Financial Samurai ever got to a significant size, I'd remember where I came from and do more to help other new bloggers out.

Well, after reaching my 10th year anniversary writing in 2019, I'd like to formalize a way to do more for others through the Financial Samurai Underdog Tour. I've been publishing the random guest post here and there over the years, but this is a better system because it'll help people who truly care instead of those who just want to do a drive by.

Three conditions to enter the FS Underdog Tour:

1) Be a regular participant in the FS Forum for at least 3 months. Goal is to help build the community and get to know you better. It's important to cultivate the habit of sharing.

2) Have a website up for at least 6-12 months and promise to operate it for at least another year. Goal is to encourage you to stay consistent and never quit with your side hustle.

3) Tell me why you're an underdog. I'm looking for folks who faced some type of above-average struggle. Maybe you have a disability. Maybe English is your second language and you came to America late. Maybe you had to overcome abuse. Maybe you grew up poor. Maybe you got in trouble with the law. Maybe you are a minority who faced a lot of discrimination growing up. I'm always rooting for the underdog!

Upon meeting these three conditions, I'd like to invite you to do a guest post on Financial Samurai. The benefits are many: traffic, domain authority, link backs, fame, and perhaps fortune and love one day if you keep at it!  :)

I enjoy posts that tell a story, provides answers to problems, and is inspirational. My goal is to publish one FS Underdog post a month starting in the summer of 2019.

Because Financial Samurai is relatively widely read, there's a good chance you'll hit the radar of big media reporters and other sites. All you need is one big break. So make your post awesome.

My break was getting a mention in the LA Times in 2010, and pretty soon other media outlets came interviewing because they thought, "Well if the LA Times mentioned Sam, I guess he's better than a poke in the eye."

If interested in participating in the FS Underdog Tour, feel free to let me know in this thread and tell me your underdog story. I might create a Google Docs application page as well.

Example of an underdog story: English is my second language and I still struggle with grammar all the time. It's pretty embarrassing that I haven't mastered the language yet, but I fight on with editing help from my father and wife because I know I'll always struggle with language.

I faced plenty of racial discrimination growing up in Virginia while attending public high school and public university as a minority. But I fought back because I didn't want to let racism defeat me. I knew one of the best ways to break free was to study hard, get a good job, and save as much money as possible. So that's what I did.

It took me seven rounds and 55 interviews to land my first job out of college. Why?  Because I came from a non-target public school and the employer clearly didn't think I was as qualified as the other candidates. It took a month after I graduated from college to actually get my offer letter.

Although things are better now, I still view myself as an underdog online because I don't do public TV or go on public tours. I'm also kind of allergic to self-promotion. Maybe it's a cultural thing, so I'm doing my best to do more as I now have a little one to provide for. The main way Financial Samurai can grow is through content quality instead of through public self-promotion. Therefore, each article must be more interesting and more thorough than the average article in the space. I love the meritocracy of the search engines.

Fight on underdogs! Whether you think you can or can't, you are right.

Sam

WOW !!!!! What a great idea for a story !!!!! I had a great idea for a book that would be called FROM METH TO MILLIONS !!!!!! I was a full blown Meth addict from the age of 15 to 17 and I broke that nasty habit and I grew up for most of my life on food stamps and welfare until I was 18. I dropped out of school at 15 got a GED and RETIRED AT 39 !!!!! YooHoo !!!!! LOL !!!!!  My wife free based cocaine for 7 years before I met her. The 1st night we met we were doing a bunch of lines of crank. What a crazy time that was. YOU FINANCIAL SAMARAI should do a story on my wife and I. We Fired before fire was a thing and we bought 6 houses and started a 40 car carlot. We learned a ton along the way. By the way I copyrighted my book name from METH TO MILLIONS. Growing wealth is all about choices and sticking with your choirs with massive discipline.

If you want to get a hold of me for an interview I'm at

https://www.facebook.com/dropoutandretireearly/