Who The Heck Is Dave Kotecki?

I joined the Army 3 weeks out of high school. In my almost 12 years of service, I saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and Operation Desert Storm. I made the rank of Staff Sergeant and attended the Primary Leadership Development Course and the Basic Non-Commissioned Officer's Course. My MOS (military occupational specialty) was 63TH8. That means I was a mechanic for anything with tracks or wheels up to but not including tanks. The H8 on the end means I was a recovery specialist, and spent a lot of time pulling broken down vehicles out of mud, etc. and towing the broken ones back to a maintenance area, or motor pool. While in the Army i learned how to train, motivate and most importantly, lead soldiers. I really loved the Army, but all things must come to an end, so near the end of 1994, I decided to ETS (end of time in service) from the Army and move on to something new.

I wanted to become a truck driver. I know, some of you may be wondering why. Well, if you ever wanted to know what it's like to feel free all of the time and be in control of what you do to a large extent every day, then trucking might be for you. I averaged 140,000 miles per year in my truck. I was on track to break 1 million miles in less than 8 years. But life happens. After almost 6 years on the road, traveling coast to coast and everywhere in between, it was time to hang up my keys for good. I still miss it sometimes, and I keep my CDL (commercial driver license) up to date.

I really didn't want to go back to turning wrenches, but you take what you can when the getting is good. The best job I could find on short notice was with a defense contractor on Ft Irwin supporting the Army. Since I liked the Army and I was familiar with the equipment, it was an easy decision to take a job back on the fort. I really didn't like that job much. The pay was OK, but let me tell you, I just am not cut out for working in a normal environment. Even though I had a weird schedule (10 hours a day 4 days a week) and my time schedule changed constantly, it was still a bunch of people with a corporate employee mindset that was just sucking my soul dry. Honestly. The things those people thought were important!

All during my life I have always wanted to be my own boss. Who doesn't, right? I don't think there's a single person alive over the age of 30 that hasn't dreamed of running their own show and telling the boss to "Take this job and Shove It!" at least once. I tried many things, and I learned a lot about how to use debt and how to invest in the stock and commodities markets. But I never had enough money to invest to live off the earnings from it. Then, after drifting for 7 years, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, the bug bit me again. And this time it bit HARD.

I was introduced to yet another network marketing company. This one was in communications. Even though I had tried a telecom company before, I joined because they had a cool product. It took all of about 90 days to figure out that company wasn't for me. But by then I was back in full swing and never looked back. Since then, I've studied some of the biggest and best of the internet marketing elite through live seminars, online webinars, teleseminars and courses too numerous to name. I don't even like to think about what I've spent on marketing training. But it was worth it. I've had access to the top minds online. I've met many of them. I've talked to them. But most importantly, I've learned from them. I have a PhD in Internet Marketing, and it's really beginning to pay off. Bigtime.

Ok, back to the story, which ends here in the present.

I am currently writing this from a shipping container that has been built to be our breakroom. I'm still working for a defense contractor, but now I'm in Afghanistan supporting our Armed Forces in the war on terror. I'm smack in the middle of where the 30,000 extra Marines are being sent. I fix the armored trucks the Army and other services use to go out and search for IED's (improvised explosive devices). When the bomb finds them before they find it, they bring their equipment back to me and the rest of my team to be put back together and readied for more combat. A lot of it isn't pretty. But these trucks save our soldiers lives, and I'm glad to be doing something right here on the ground to support them, even if I'm not in the fight.

I came over here to earn the money to finance my business.
Not to pay off my house.
Not to get out of debt, or pay off my bills.
Not to buy all kinds of new, worthless stuff that will make me broker in the end.

I am using the extra money I'm making to pay for my marketing education, tools and to beef up my balance sheet so I can quit working for other people for good in June of 2010. When I'm working full time on my business I'll be able to accelerate my success to a level that's simply impossible when you're still working for someone else. Finally! I will own my life. Then look out. Because from then on there will be no stopping me.

If you'd like to follow along with my adventures and learn some cool marketing tips and strategies at the same time, visit my blog by clicking on the REALLY BIG LINK below.

Hop aboard and ride the road to freedom with me.