love it. thanks for taking the time.

If I could ever give advice to the younger set being 43 wow.

First off travel take a year or 1/2 year off and head to Australia or Europe. I wish i had and never did. Many say well you can still do it but its not the same.

Take more chances in life and trust your gut.
Never loan a girlfriend money
Maintain your health and fitness. So much harder to do wen you get older than younger.
Give 5-10% of what you make to charity and save 10%.
Read

just read the first 4 without stopping, my head hurts. i'm young and confused still but great story !

lol

In my 5 years on 2p2 this is the best thread i've ever read. I remember reading the initial post a long time ago but must have gotten distracted somehow and stopped...Anyway, i just read the entire thing in one sitting. I'll definitely be buyinh your book whenever it comes out.

Awesome!!!!

God, what a terrible thread. Adsman, you are stupid and your stories are boring. Just kill yourself.

I hope you are saving and investing a lot of your income. You should set a goal and create a plan to invest enough money in passive income generating sources. What you want is to eventually have your investments cover all of your living expenses with some left over to grow. This will free you from the hourly rate trap, since every hour you work will no longer just be to earn one hour's worth of income, but to get one hour closer to freedom. It will also prepare you for the possible day when online poker might no longer be viable for you.

Yeah i am, i turned 23 two weeks ago and I own some rental property for a few years already. Atm i am consolidating before looking to buy again.

QFMFT

How close are you to finishing?

I have paused my efforts on the novel I was working on, and instead started a non-fiction book about our trip. It's coming a lot easier than the novel was, but it's still mind-boggling how much work there is. Even after I get all the pages and stories down, there is a massive amount of editing, not to mention book proposal, etc....

Here's hoping you're in the home stretch!

Hey, I read through where your stories end and it was wonderful, thanks. A couple questions that I don't think came out (haven't finished the thread completely).

No pictures, ok. But what size are you? Are you some big mountain of a man? Or was it more likely your personality that caused you to be charge whenever **** went down?

Is the name of your rafting company in Italy posted in this thread? Plenty of us have the means to travel and are always looking for that next trip. Thanks

Great story adsman, looking forward to reading more from all the other older members.

Excellent thread. Thanks adsman!

I think I can relate. I only just turned 21 and likely make less money than you do from poker. That said, I still have a significantly higher (and increasing) hourly rate than I am likely to make in a long time at any corporate job even though I am studying at one of if not the best university in Finland.

Basically I'm skeptical about the long-term future of online poker, so the phrase: "strike when he iron is hot" comes to mind. Not getting in lots of hours of play now, when I'm making even this much per hour would seem like a massive waste of money if and when the option is no longer there. Sadly, this conflicts quite a bit with "seizing the moment" -type ideas: clearly I'm living the best years of my life, and thus not experiencing tons of stuff would be a waste of precious youth.

Cliff notes: studying, getting in lots of hours of poker, spending time with the girlfriend and getting some sleep every now and then doesn't leave much time for "seizing the moment" and experiencing tons of cool stuff.

I don't mean to whine, though, as I think this is a positive problem of having the choice of many good ways to allocate my time. Someone might even see this post as a thinly veiled brag.

I'm just over 5 foot nine and weigh in at a light 140 pounds, so I would say that it was my terrier personality that causes me to charge.

www.raftingcenter.it is the company where i work. There is a little blog there under "tribu". We have BIG water this year and a nice flip that was captured on video and posted on the blog this week. Check it out.

SomethingClever,

Thanks bro. I'm not as far along as i wanted to be at this stage. With the summer season here the writing has to take a back foot but my aim is to finish it up in six weeks in september and october.

Wow. Thanks adsman, great read. Couldn't stop reading. Definitely buying the book. Maybe even visiting your bar, I'm moving to Malta in September, so it won't be too far..

^^^ +1

Funny how we both started to read the thread but never finished and decided to read it in one sitting on the same night.

Anyways, great stories mate. I hope the second chapter of your life is where you make up for the lost time in attaining wealth/professional achievement and pwn that too. Good luck!

www.raftingcenter.it - I just checked this site out.... So are you Adam Russell?



Valentini Ryo is cute imo.

I was just linked to this thread, what a sick read.

Awesome story, I can't believe you drove into a war zone, so sick.

I read this thread when it was one page way back when. Thanks to whoever bumped it, as I don't see this forum regularly.

Adsman: your story is inspirational and absolutely captivating. A comment and a question.

First, you disparage your own grammar and spelling. Even if it was as bad as you humbly suggest (it's not), I assure you that proper English does not a writer make. If your content is boring, perfect English gets you nowhere. Your content is far from boring, and your perfect use of colloquial terms and colorful storytelling sets you apart.

Second, how about an email alert list for when the book is published? I guarantee a purchase, but will forget/miss it without a nudge.

Best wishes.

Bump that

^^Seconded. Excellent read.

Thank you so much to whomever bumped this. Best TR ever.

Addressing the person who said it was 150k words:

wat.

It's 26,000 fwiw. Firefox addon ftw.

Such an awesome, inspiring story.
Looking forward to the book!

How have I not read this before?

This is hands down the best thread ever. Thanks adsman, I will recommend the book to anyone and everyone.

really really awesome story, going to buy the book when it's out. lost a bit of sleep reading this thread in one sitting last night heh