> Personally, Dien, I preferred the
> combination of "astronaut and
> basketball star and president."

> :)

> I just found something I wrote when I was
> under 10...

> One of many things I liked to do as a child
> was to draw. I have an aunt who is actually
> an artist, but that's not where I developed
> it. I just liked to draw. My parents
> encouraged me. I went to one of those
> preschools where you drew a picture of
> something every day. (and fought over the
> "good" toys)

> So here I was at age 10 let's say. I like to
> draw. And I need some money to buy
> basketball cards. (Hey, Sarunas Marciulionis
> was my hero, I'm Lithuanian... but Michael
> Jordan was ok too.)

> I created a letter to my aunt Indre.

> Every time I read it, I beam with pride in
> myself.

> It went as follows. I don’t think I ever
> actually gave it to her. It was lost for a
> while, I think.

> (Printed in what was pretty neat handwriting
> for a kid, but still not completely straight
> in a cute way)

> “Dear Indre,

> Us here at Lukas Ink would like to have you
> as one of our customers. We make high
> quality paintings and drawings of whatever
> you want. I can draw lots of things. We can
> make postcards, paintings, or surprise you.

> How we figure out the prices is by time.
> It’s $1 for half an hour of working on a
> drawing. And it’s $2 for half an hour of
> painting. I can make large and small
> pictures.

> We look forward to having you as a customer.

> Thank you,

> Erik Lukas
> CEO Lukas Ink” Yes, for any of you who want
> to reverse engineer my post that makes me 20
> years old. Whoops, bag of worms.

> I hope you don't view that in a negative
> light. I'm going to just include the whole
> story copied and pasted from an email to my
> friend Anthony, no editing:

>
> --------------------------------------------------

> Anthony,

> I’ll make this short and sweet. As much as I
> can.

> I’m 20 years old. I’m a sophomore in
> college.

> Shocked, yet?

> I just wanted to level with you in case you
> thought I was a little older (which I’m sure
> you did). I’ll shoot straight.

> Yes, if I’m 20 now, I must have been, hmmm,
> let’s see, 15 years old when I wrote my
> book. Yes, that’s right. 14 or so when I
> joined the Internet Marketing Warriors when
> they were just starting up.

> Prior to that, I’d been studying direct
> marketing for around 4 years.

> I started applying concepts from direct
> marketing to my first internet biz. If
> you’ll recall, and you might not, I was one
> of those search engine positioning cowboys
> who tried to lasso good spots for myself and
> my clients. I picked up a few clients. Made
> a few dollars all the while trying to help
> other people market their internet biz
> ideas. I found that was a strong area for
> me. I could write well and not only that, my
> marketing ideas also worked.

> I knew who was making money and how they
> were doing it. Back then, the markets were
> smaller and one person could know a lot of
> the competition almost personally.

> I started writing little daily posts for the
> warriors while continuing my own study.

> Pretty soon I realized that the information
> I had gathered in my quest for knowledge
> would be worth a lot to others by saving
> them time.

> So I naively started selling my little ebook
> for $19.95. Picked up a few sales here and
> there and then found I was converting a good
> % of visitors.

> I posted this on Bill Myers board when it
> was free and open to the public. He
> basically bashed me thinking my 9%+ claim
> was an outright lie. I don’t blame him for
> being skeptical. But luckily, I had
> everything perfectly in place to prove him
> wrong.

> I replied with a link to my counter stats as
> well as a saved copy of my clickbank orders.

> Proof. And Bill was man enough to leave it
> up. The next day when I checked my email I
> had around $900 in orders. I remember
> actually jumping up and down pumping my fist
> in the air. It was a great feeling and a
> great day.

> Over the next year (not sure which one, I
> lose track), I made around $10,000 in pretax
> income. I was happier than a pig in ****.

> For a while, my enthusiasm increased. But
> soon I grew tired of the daily battle that
> was search engine positioning.

> I found other teenage hyjinks to distract
> me. True even without those “mistakes” I
> would’ve been another person in another
> place now, but I still can’t say I’m super
> fond of them.

> Soon I found myself with a driver’s license.
> Soon after that, the foolish person that was
> me found himself in front of a judge with
> his brother on a charge of criminal
> mischief. Probation for a year. Luckily, I
> got past that rough part of my life and
> became a better person because of it.

> Another year later found my internet income
> steady around $5000 for the year.

> That’s when I started looking for a car.

> I met new friends that year and picked up a
> ’72 Oldsmobile Cutlass, which ate up a chunk
> of money that year, and every year after. I
> grew socially and had fun during this time,
> but not financially.

> I was still voraciously reading business
> books and articles. That was a steady habit,
> hard to kick, still haven’t managed to…
> There’ve been periods where I devoted in
> excess of 4-5 hours to it per day for months
> on end. Always at least 2 hours per day.

> I wasn’t the most normal 14 year old. And
> I’m not the most normal 20 year old.

> Right now, my internet income levels will
> barely manage $1,500 this year. Tuition at
> IU is a little pricey.

> That’s where the deck work came in…

> I made a pretty good amount of money for a
> summer’s worth of work, not sacrificing time
> with my family. I think I probably pocketed
> around $5,000 total. And a good amount of
> that has slipped through my fingers into
> expenses of one kind or another.

> Like my internet venture, I know my deck biz
> could’ve been much more successful.

> With the internet biz, it was a matter of
> waning enthusiasm.

> With the decks, it’s a matter of how much
> time I’m willing to give up. And my answer
> is, what would amount to surprisingly little
> in other people’s eyes.

> I am madly in love (what teenager isn’t?)
> and I love my family too. I enjoy my
> summer’s more than anything else. I have
> ever since I first splashed around in the
> water.

> If you want to know what the future holds
> for me now, Anthony, I’ll tell you.

> I plan to continue with more deck work in
> the spring in order to raise capital. I’ll
> save a little more this time. Until that
> time, I will be papertrading stocks until I
> am confident in my abilities. After that, I
> will put the money to work for me.

> Yes, I know, a dreamer I remain.

> But I will make it happen.

> So, here we are, Anthony, my friend.

> I stand before you, naked, as it were.

> You’ve been more than kind to me and helped
> offer me ideas and I’d be more than willing
> to do the same for you.

> So I guess it comes down to, do you still
> want my help or not?

> Success,

> Erik Lukas

> P.S. If you think you must warn the world of
> my age liability, feel free to do so
> (although I think if I had really thought
> about it I could’ve turned it into a
> positive by making it simply an item of
> interest that I was so young).

>
> --------------------------------------------------

> The projects I’ve currently got running
> through my head:

> - Stock trading (no, don’t bother warning
> me, I’m beyond hope.)
> - Joint Ventures (thanks to some pushing
> from a friend of mine)
> - Menu desk (still interested, mostly from
> curiosity)
> - Deck work (I actually enjoy it, but there
> is snow on the ground)
> - Real estate (fixer ups, I’ve actually
> built a rather large house before with my
> family so it’s not completely foreign to me)

> I’m not looking for responses. If you want
> to search your inventory of memories for
> something that makes me a flake or a phony,
> feel free to. But I haven’t misled anyone.
> I’ve always tried to give value for value,
> from where I am, from what I know.

> But I have omitted details of my life and I
> feel like you don’t know me as well as you
> should, so that’s why I’ve finally posted
> this doodad. I feel like a member of a very
> close knit group of entrepreneurs, and it’s
> been hard for me to hold back things about
> myself that would date me (as one of the
> diaper wearing corps).

> So, there, cat’s out the bag. He’ll probably
> claw me once or twice.

> Success,

> Erik Lukas

> P.S. Think back to all the direct selling
> posts I’ve participated in in the past. I
> think my viewing of my age as a liability
> has been one of the things which held me
> back from trying a number of ventures that
> could be a success. I’m working on changing
> that by doing. And dealing with all of you
> from who I really am is my first step.