A Turning Point In My Life
Let me start by introducing myself and then I will go into why I started this newsletter. This post may be a little lengthy, but you will get to know me and my mission better.
My name is Mujibur Rahman, I live in a small town called Chigwell Row in Essex, England.
I am currently working as a security officer, it’s a typical trading time for money job. I work long hours to earn enough to just about cover my monthly expenses.
I work 12-hour long night shifts, working around 60 hours weekly. I know I can do better for myself, but something has always been stopping me from making progress!
My Life Before 2003
I was born in Bangladesh and joined my father in England when I was 6 years old. I returned to Bangladesh with my mother when I was 8 years old. I didn’t have any choice in this.
I returned to England when I was 12 years old. I had to start over again as I lost touch with the English that I learned previously.
I managed to get through high school, whilst working part-time in a restaurant. I worked multiple jobs to finance my way through College and later University.
I managed to get hired by Cap Gemini as an IT Consultant, after going through their graduate recruitment program.
I earned a good salary and worked there until 1999. Eventually, I decided to work for myself as an IT Contractor. I taught myself multiple programming languages like C++, Java, ASP, Visual Basic, Perl, HTML, JavaScript… I worked day and night to learn everything about Relational Databases, ODBC, and Internet Server Side Programming.
I worked as an IT contractor setting up real estate management systems, student management systems, and various database and website-related projects.
The money was flowing in rapidly and I was spending it foolishly. I did not have any financial plans in place.
3rd March 2003 - The Day It All Changed
It was Monday 3rd March 2003, a lovely fresh day. I drove with my family to visit my mum and dad. We took them some groceries and fruits and had tea with them.
After spending some time with them, I got into my car with my wife, young son, and daughter and started driving back home. The kids enjoyed their time with their grandparents and just relaxed in the car.
All was well…. suddenly a car hit us on the side at high speed. I don’t know how I managed to escape the crash with my legs intact, as the driver’s side was dented in.
I managed to get out of the car and get my kids out, they were in shock and suffered glass cuts to their faces. My wife was unconscious and the door was dented in, I was unable to pull her out. I did not want to move her much as I knew she was in a bad condition.
My wife spent over a month in hospital, she had glass in her eyes and broken bones. It took her 9 months to get to walk again after many physiotherapy sessions.
On 24th December 2003 my father passed away, he had been the pillar that held our family together.
I was in deep shock, but I had to be there for my family. I took my wife and kids to therapy and counseling sessions to try and get things back to normal again.
The pain I was going through was unbearable, but I did not have anyone to talk to. I just kept a straight face and carried on the best that I could.
I fell into a deep depression, I lost the zest of life. I got into a downward spiral that eventually left me without a professional job. I worked in various restaurants to make ends meet.
Gradually I managed to save up enough money to start bricks and mortar businesses. I started a grocery, but it failed, and I lost a lot of money. I started a take-away food business, but it also failed and left me broke.
There were many reasons for the failures as they were partnership businesses. I used to blame a lot of people for the failures. I accept the fact now, that I should not have been in the situation that I was in. It was my fault for going into business with the people that I went into business with.
I lost all my life savings and piled on heavy debts, but still had to get on with life. I started working as a security officer from 2013 onwards.
From 2013 to 2024, while working as a security officer, I worked with many online ventures but had little success.
This is just a summary of some of the unfortunate things that I went through in life. There is much more to it, maybe I will reveal some of the other incidents when I have gathered enough confidence and when I am ready to do so.
The Grow Your Thoughts Newsletter
I know that I need to transform my mindset to enable me to become the confident and action-taking person that I was before I was involved in the car accident.
I have made a decision to read 1,000 books on Personal Development, Growth Mindset, Success Principles, Goal Setting, Time Management, Wealth Building… everything that will enable me to get out of depression and develop a winning mindset.
I will share the knowledge that I acquire on the journey with others via this newsletter. I will also share my insights and would appreciate your input and support.
It’s not all going to be about book reviews, I will write other relevant articles and share my thoughts. I will also share snippets of my life as I progress through this personal development journey.
I encourage you to leave your comments, as I need some encouragement, feedback and company on this lonesome journey.
I have attached this newsletter to my domain www.growyourthoughts.com, I don’t know why the domain with the www (growyourthoughts.com) is not working.
I won’t let this get in the way, I will get on with creating this newsletter. There is still more work to do on the banners and other customizations.
Currently, I am working 12-hour-long shifts as a security officer. It takes me 2 hours to travel back and forth from work.
14 hours of my day is taken up by work. I can devote 2 hours daily to my goal of reading 1,000 books.
I will purchase hard copies of the books and also get them on Kindle so that I can read them on the go.
I will start by posting a minimum of once weekly until I have more time to devote to this work.
I will start by reading “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen. This is a short book and will get me into the flow of this journey.
I would appreciate your suggestion on the books that I should read on this journey towards transforming my mindset and helping others to also do the same.
I don’t know how long it will take me to read 1,000 books as I am working around 60 hours weekly in my employment as a security officer.
10,000 Subscribers
You can subscribe to this newsletter for free. My goal is to reach 10,000 free subscribers.
Once I hit 10,000 subscribers, I will add a $5 monthly subscription for premium content and ebook downloads.
I still thinking about the value that I can provide to enable me to monetize this newsletter to earn a monthly income of around $4,000 to enable me to quit my current employment and work on this personal development journey on a full-time basis.
For now, I am going to leave it free. If you get value from the content, you can leave a donation to support my work.
I need your help to get to 10,000 subscribers. Please subscribe and share my posts with others that may be interested in this type of content.
The journey to 10,000 subscribers starts with the 1st subscriber. Maybe the 2nd subscriber as I am the first subscriber to this newsletter!
Future Monetization Plans
Once I have the paid subscription option in place for the premium content, I want 1,000 paid subscribers so that I will be able to quit my job as a security officer and fully focus on this journey.
A paid subscription costs $5 monthly or $50 yearly.
1,000 paid subscribers will earn me around $4,000 monthly. This will enable me to quit my job and read the books on a full-time basis, and devote more time to this newsletter.
It may take me a few years to read 1,000 books, but I will continue reading daily. The progress maybe a little slow during this initial stage.
You can make a difference by subscribing and sharing this newsletter with others.
Thanks for reading this initial post. I know it is in bare skeletal form. I will be adding the banners and other stuff as I go through the training.
Disclaimer
This post is for you to read a gather knowledge that is useful to you. Use what works and discard what does not.
I am sharing ideas that I come across to create a better version of myself from books on Personal Development, Mind Science, Goal Setting, Self-Help, Time Management, Wealth Building…. and more.