Ok, so I was still in school in 1998 and didn't start using google until 2001/2

10 years ago I was thinner, had more hair on my head!! I had been online in e-business for about 2 years selling business books online - was the first Aussie merchant to use a payments system called e-cash - it was great - shame it never took off. The challenge in those days was not competition, but lack of people online. Pages were all made for 14.4k speeds. You can see how it looked almost 11 years ago here and not long after had the beginnings of an online mall though in those days affiliate schemes had not really kicked off....

Ten years ago my youngest son was 6 months old,so he is 10 years old now. I had never been on a computer. Still live in the same suburb,just a bigger house. Have more money now than then but spend more now too. Interesting topic

> graduated high school

> graduated university

> got my first job out of university doing yard maintenance at a hotel (lived in a trailer...that i shared)

> used my little spare time to learn stock trading and finally got a job as a trader

> quite that and started a mineral exploration company in BC Canada

> sold that and created my current online business

> moved to a new country (continent)

> learned a new language (in progress...)

> got married (which is of course the highlight of those 10years...in case the wife is reading this)

> got in better shape

> visited 18 different countries within that time

> published my first book for my uncle and took it to #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles

overall matured a lot. Worked like a donkey and still do, but looking back (thanks to this thread) it has been worth it. Looking forward to the progress another 10 can make...


@ Matte - for 10 year old sites, I must say those look pretty darn good to me- well done!

10 years ago?  well, I was much slimmer, with more hair on my head and less on my face.  I was in the Air Force, working at Edwards AFB, I had just moved from the B-2 flight test team to the F-22 flight test team.  I was mostly performing statistical analysis and database management on Oracle.  I developed a couple of asp pages for internal use, but nothing on the internet yet.

Haha. Wow. 10 years. I was quite young and inexperienced with the web.

In fact, 10 years ago I generally used the internet for AIM, research purposes, and email. I would have never believed that I could make a living from the web.

was AIM around 10 years ago??

Oh yeh. Remember dialup? AOL was one of the only ways to get online. I was using AIM as early as '97. Maybe I was one of the early adopters. lol. But by late '98, most of my friends were using it. (Living on a campus, its so much easier to use AIM then talk on the phone.)

How far have I come in 10 years? Well... looking back on 1997 (which is when I fled Chicago), I would say approximately 1733 flight miles.

Nic wrote:

> graduated high school

> graduated university

> got my first job out of university doing yard maintenance at a hotel (lived in a trailer...that i shared)

> used my little spare time to learn stock trading and finally got a job as a trader

> quite that and started a mineral exploration company in BC Canada

> sold that and created my current online business

> moved to a new country (continent)

> learned a new language (in progress...)

> got married (which is of course the highlight of those 10years...in case the wife is reading this)

> got in better shape

> visited 18 different countries within that time

> published my first book for my uncle and took it to #1 on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles

overall matured a lot. Worked like a donkey and still do, but looking back (thanks to this thread) it has been worth it. Looking forward to the progress another 10 can make...:toast


@ Matte - for 10 year old sites, I must say those look pretty darn good to me- well done!

I was impressed,you have done so much in the last 10 years,here's to the next 10,Cheers!

Thanks Janet! Granted I had little responsibilities > no kids, no mortgages, I didn't even both buying a car until recently.

Add support from friends and family and it makes it a lot easier to take chances and focus on your own goals

Time has passed so fast, I am not sure how to answer the question. It was fun and I have no regrets.

10 years ago tomorrow, I had my first customer at my fledgling business. (Under priced my service, so it cost as much to deliver the work as to do it, but, time wise - well that customer got a great deal. LOL)

The year before and for 9 months of 1999, I spent quite a lot of time online, using AOL, to learn how to establish and grow my business. It was also the time I made my first website - all of one page, with a mess of trouble trying to get the list's bullets looking even on an invisible table.

By the middle of 1999, I had already had my first gall bladder attack (cholic), never knowing that minor surgery would kill the business in the same month it went from in the red to in the black, and change me forever.

Since then I've learned -

> and am learning to adapt

> how quickly our retirement money flew out the door, while hubby became sick, and then ultimately disabled too

> all about governmental red tape when it comes to forms and info needed to get assistance (but Thank God there is assistence!)

> how "helpful" family can be

> if I really have to, I can do a lot, but the following week, my body will punish me for it LOL

> it's much harder to watch someone I love go through terrible pain, then to go through it myself

> how wonderful having enough money to live on feels, after living so long without

> learning is much harder then it used to be, but I can still learn

> it doesn't matter who you are and how much time you have each day, there is never enough time to get everything done that you want to get done

> and, that a good day merely requires a good laugh or two, and a bad day is over within a few hours, after noticing it was a bad day

I am not where I planned to be 10 years ago, but that's not all bad. To intentionally, misquote Frost, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
God shoved me kicking and screaming, down the one less traveled by, but that path has made all the difference anyway." LOL

At best, I'm not as gray-haired as I expected to be at this age, but I'm a lot heavier. I'm not as wise as I thought I ought to be by now, but I'm wise enough to know that. I'm a lot more flexible philosophically, but a lot less flexible physically. And, the best news was, I panicked when I turned 30 and still didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up; I intentionally forced a path after turning 40; and 50?! Well, after what happened in my 40s, the 50s are a piece of cake. Ultimately, I do as little "growing up" as possible, while maintaining the necessities in life. LOL

Last few days, I've been thinking of this forum occasionally, and the people on it. Just want to say, you are some of the smartest, sweetest, most giving people I've ever met. Thank you!