You guys are so lucky.....

If it makes you feel any better, I didn't get into that business school at the Uni in Cambridge that you go to. No problem, I went somewhere else.

Has it stopped me from becoming successful? I certainly don't think so.

An the end of the day, it's what we make of our lives and our talents not what other people's ideals and norms make us to be.

 

i reckon i oughta be terrorizing the streets in an f-car by 30 (just a couple years away... gulp), thinking of a mondial to start me off, dunno yet.

till then will have to "put up with" my 3/4 scale /f/i/a/t/ version.

 

Bubba, I am very sorry to hear about your brother. His enthusiasm in cars must have had such a big influence on you. No doubt, he would have loved to travel with you in the TR.

Hold on to your TR and look after it like your brother would.

 

Quote:"You guys are so lucky.."

Most ferrari owners will tell you that luck has nothing to do with it. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I was not born into a highly wealthy family, but at 19 I decided I had to have a Ferrari. A year later I had saved enough to realize that dream. Im 21 now, have had my Fcar for about a year and love every day of ownership. My moto in life is; set your goals high and aim for the sky, even if you miss you'll land among the stars.

 

Thank you, Mickey, for your kind words. I certainly will hold on to the car and cherish it as a symbol for my bro's enthusiasm in cars. Like myself, the TR/512TR is the model he craved most since we laid our eyes on the first TR pic 20 years ago. Though, he didn't have the opportunity to really enjoy it, he can at least depart knowing that he has achieved one of his biggest childhood dreams.

Every time, I take the car out, I can just imagine his sitting next to me, feeling the torque and enjoying the roar.

 

i think I am the first one to say this.

You guys are so lucky>>>

yes we are.

john

 

Lemme see, almost flunked out of community college, got my act together, got degree, worked aerospace ten years, got laid off, went to med school in Mexico, became orthopaedic surgeon, bought 206 dino (still have after 17 years), now retireing from group practice after 22 years, starting private practice in small town in central oregon. Anything is possible! Dream on and make your own luck.
Mike

 

Well, you can move out of NYC or places where living cost is high, but remember, you are likely not getting paid $40k to do the samething you do in NYC. So it's double edged sword, you can go somewhere a nice home cost $150k, but people there think it's crazy to pay a secretary $40k.

And you are right about sacrifice, but I didn't realize we are talking about extreme situation.
I mean, technically, you can rent a room in the worst area for few hundred, you can eat TV dinner every night, you don't need TV, internet or even a phone. If you will try live the bare minial life, sure, you can really put away some money on a $40k salary. But that is extreme if you ask me, and I think it is sad to live like that just so one day you have money for a F-car.

 

How exactly did he start a business with $400?
I am not doubting that, but I assume it's not a normal situation that everyone can duplicate the same.

 

I was logged off and I'm now taking a break from my own business. I would be happy to discuss this in detail if you want to email me and then we can talk. Explaining it in general terms he started a cleaning business. He worked a part time job and then would clean small businesses in the evening. He used a really clever marketing technique to get new business -- he literally walked into the business, he did not call, and would ask for their business! He got turned down most of the time and yet he remained undeterred. I think people not from this country understand that if you are willing to knock on enough doors you'll eventually find a few doors open. They are not easily discouraged when 50 doors in a row are slammed shut because they know eventually opportunity will present itself. It's a numbers game. The problem some of us have is that we expect success to come so easily that we set ourselves up for failure. It can happen, it will happen, but there is a level of committment most of us are not willing to undertake. Was it Woody Allen who said half of success is just showing up? Anyway, it's very true. Take care! Mike

 

I agree 100%. The people I mentioned didn't do it to have an F-car, they did it to be able to bring their families to this wonderful country and give them a future and opportunities they didn't previously have.

 

Precisely!

 

I'll share a different perspective, which I have not heard here so far. While I have great respect for the people who have posted their "I started with nothing, busted my ass, and now I'm rich" stories, I'm not so sure that everyone could follow that example. It takes a certain kind of person to do that, and some people have that personality type, and some don't. It is not (necessarily) a symptom of failure or laziness to not be a hard-charging entrepreneur, and if you don't have the right personality, it is possible to waste a lot of energy and time banging your head against that wall, with only unhappiness to show for it.

The old cliche for happiness is, do what you love. Well, sometimes nobody will pay you a decent wage or salary for what you love. In that case, it is entirely appropriate to structure your life so that you do what you love in your free time, and get a job that will pay the bills while allowing you the freedom to find happiness in other areas (such as, in my case, playing music, and books). Lots of people live like this, and while they may be happy they are rarely rich.

Until recently I thought that foregoing ultimate earning potential for the sake of quality of life would have precluded ever owning a Ferrari, but it turns out that's not the case.

I loved Ferraris as a kid, but they seemed out of reach, and I figured a car like that was one of the things I gave up by taking the path I chose. But last year, just for giggles, I did some poking around on the web about Ferraris, and lo and behold, several models had fallen into a price range that I could reasonably afford---including the 308, which I still think is one of the most beautiful automotive designs of all time. Later this year I will have finally paid off all my student loans, and when that happens I plan to reward myself with a new car, and barring catastrophe it's going to be a 308 GTS or a Mondial cabriolet. (I love open-air motoring.) And the time since I realized that this was possible has been one of the most exciting periods in my life.

(I feel obligated to insert here a caveat about how the price of the car is only one, and possibly not the largest, cost of Ferrari ownership, especially with regard to older cars. I'm going into that with my eyes open. Fortunately, another of the things I love to do is tinker with mechanical things.)

(I also feel obligated to insert a plug for Fchat: I might not have considered this step if I hadn't discovered the great community of enthusiasts here, especially the F-chatters here in Chicago.)

So, there are multiple paths to Ferrari ownership, and they don't all involve starting your own company at 21, or require that you eat, sleep and breathe high finance or investing (although that doesn't hurt, certainly; if I had paid more attention to such things I would have reached this point sooner). Maybe you are indeed much like the other posters who have followed that path to success. But if not, don't get discouraged, because that is not the only way to go.

Chuck King

 

Hi Mr2 guy, if you are ever in the Milwaukee area, please let me know and I would be happy to let you drive my Ferrari. And for anyone out there reading, Road America in mid July is a great time for Ferrari fans, with or without a car. It's a beautiful place to watch vintage and not so vintage F race cars and other race cars from F1 to Can Am.

 

Thats like me. My parents are wealthy but they dont spoil me and thats good. I have two jobs and I go to school. I live with my girlfriend.

My friends and I have been trying to start a real estate devlopment company. We bought a lot on Westheimer for $100,000 and sold it to Papa Johns Inc for a little over half a million dollars. After we split the funds four ways, thats a little over $100,000 we have each. Which is good considering im 16, and my friends are 18, 21 and 26.

Dont give up man. You have to strive. **** like Ferraris arent handed down, you have to earn em. Keep ya head up shorty.

 

Please don't bash me, I'm just trying to keep things in perspective. True I don't own a Ferrari yet, but I know that even if I did it would not be the most important thing in my life. Sure they're great and I'm sure everyone here that has one feels they're very important to them. What I'm trying to say is the no one should feel like any less of a person just because they don't own a Ferrari or whatever it may be that they want.

 

Chuck--- I appreciate your candor and enjoyed reading your perspective.

 

OK, can you tell me, where did you get $25k(I assume 4 of you splited that $100k cost) at age of 16?

 

From his job at "Occupation:
'Head Sucker' at Splash Car Wash "

 

I'm only 23 myself, and I hope to own a 360 Modena one day . In my opinion I don't really think there is a set path to success, if you look at some of the richest people in America, half of them are college drop-outs (Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, Ted Turner, etc). I think the key to success is vision, patience, and persistence. If you live by these 3 key principles, the skies the limit.

 

Ok, so you're 16 years old, and not spoiled by your parents, but you still magically have $100,000 to invest in real estate?

Yea right...

 

That's what I asked him too.
Heck, it is not hard to make money WITH money, it is hard to make money out of scratch.

On several occatons I have encountered kids from rich family, who claim they make lots of money on their own without being spolied by parents. I would be all admiring and etc, then ask a bit more in detail, either they made money in stock market with the $200k parents put in their account, or they made big commission in commercial real estate but the father's company is the buying party.... Not sure if anyone know what SELF-made millonare is anymore now days.

 

The financial ability to buy a Ferrari, or anything else for that matter, has nothing with luck. Most of us that have nice homes, cars and such have been successful as a result of hard work, not luck. It is a liberal lie that claims the rich are lucky and the poor are unlucky. The rich are rich because we keep doing things that keep us rich. The poor are poor because they keep doing things that keep them poor.