Bolaji Oyejide

Escaping the Rat Race - Bolaji's Personal Journey.

This is my story.

My name is Bolaji.
Husband.
Dad.
Lover of life. Kids. Board games. Travel. Soccer. Language. Disney World. (Can't stand roller coasters.)
 

I can't wait on the world to change - I'm working on doing my part to change it.

I'm also a Rat Racer.

But I won't be for much longer.
 

I guess you could say my escape from the Rat Race started at age 10. When I realized I could sell my cartoon drawings to classmates - and buy more snacks during lunch break.
 

(Thank you Spider Man.) ;)

In case you're wondering, yes, I still read comic books. I'm a kid-at-heart.
 

My first cubicle.

My

real

career started out after graduating from college. Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, I

jumped into corporate America

!

Ready to change the world. I was taking no prisoners! :) I got a good job, making "good money".
 

You should have seen my first cubicle. It was magnificent (to me, anyway).
 

I had my own name plate on the wall. I had my own phone, my own desktop computer, and a picture of my girlfriend on the desk.
 

And the swivel chair? TO DIE FOR.
 

This was my domain. I felt like a lion in the jungle. This cubicle would be my bat cave. My command central. My headquarters for world domination!! (insert evil laugh here.)

As a young guy, eager and ambitious, that kept me satisfied.

For a little while.

But I quickly got restless.

The cubicle walls started to close in...

While I had the skill, know-how and abilities to do my job very well...

I simply wasn't fulfilled by it!
 

I wasn't into the titles...

I wasn't into the office politics...

I wasn't into the being on call (tech support), and working at odd hours of the night to troubleshoot sick server computers...

I wasn't into the idea of working long hours, just to earn the right to work longer hours...

I wasn't into having to deal with temperamental management, whose priorities changed on a daily basis...
 

I wasn't into working just for a paycheck.
 

I was getting sick and tired of the rat race.

I felt there had to be more.

I KNEW there had to be more.
 

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The makings of a rat race escape.

This whole time, I'd been playing around with the Internet quite a bit (mid-to-late nineties). I was an avid web designer. I had even earned some money in college, designing web sites for SGA candidates, and business students.
 

While attending a gathering of old college friends one weekend, someone exclaimed that it would be great to have a way to keep in touch with everyone - now that we were spread out all over the country.
 

My brain started working...
 

And after I got back home, my fingers started talking... (on the keyboard)
 

A few months later, my girlfriend and I launched one of the first niche social networks. I still remember - this was December, 1998. (And yes, we partied like PRINCE on that new year's!) :)
 

The first few months were thrilling! People LOVED the web site. The buzz was off the meter! Everyone was registering, and telling their friends! I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. "Maybe I DON'T have to live in a cubicle after all!"

Over the next few years, this became our baby.

We invested sweat and tears into this web site.

We invested nights and weekends into this web site.

We printed business cards...We got company shirts...We hung up our virtual NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign.
 

And while those first months were heady and exciting, we weren't exactly rolling in it.
 

A rat race jailbreak deferred.

At this point, it had been years into the web site. We loved what we did. We met all kinds of interesting and motivated college alumni (which was the niche we had focused on). We had a positive impact on many people's lives. We brought many other people together.
 

But we just weren't financially viable.
 

We learned so much in the years we ran that web site. All the hard way. My technical know-how may actually have been a hindrance to me - as I focused so much on the nuts-and-bolts of the web site, and less on the nuts-and-bolts of building a financially viable business.
 

So here we were. Years later.

Still trapped in the cubicle.
 

Cubicle eviction.

Through this journey, I actually went through a couple of lay-offs.
 

This was very hard on me, as I've always been one to excel academically. It took quite a while, each time, for me to get back to my normal cheerful and positive self. I started to doubt my abilities. And question my purpose.
 

I still believed there had to be something better than the rat race.
 

But having tried, and "failed", I was at my wits end. I didn't know what to try next.
 

So I got another cubicle job. A good job, that paid "good money".

I put my head down, poured myself into my rat race work, and hoped that the next 20+ years of this would not sap away the little "world-changing" fire that I used to have in such abundance, a decade earlier.
 

A better way.

While browsing the web one day, I stumbled upon a free eBook / course about affiliate marketing, by someone named Ken Evoy. I was amazed at the amount of detail. And the quality of the information as well. But most of all by the price. I hadn't seen such valuable info given away for free before.
 

I didn't become an affiliate marketer right then and there though.

A few weeks passed. My rat race work consumed me again. Then, I came up for air. And did some more research.

This time, I checked out the video tour about this tool discussed in the affiliate marketing eBook. (Which was called SiteBuildIt!, or SBI!
 

Despite skepticism (I'm a skeptic by nature), and after much research, I felt comfortable trying Site Build It.
 

To me - this it wasn't about making more money. To me - it was about earning the freedom to do what matters.
 

I felt that little voice... the one that was so loud 10 years ago... the one that wanted to change the world.

I felt it start to stir.

So I signed up.

Taking the plunge.

In October 2007, I started creating this very web site you are on, using

Site Build It!

And I've been thrilled with my experience.
 

Rat Race Escape Artists is all about helping other cubicle-dwellers, who feel there is more for them out there. For those who feel a calling to do more with their limited time on this earth.
 

It's for people like me; rat racers who are hungry for a better way.

Here's to your escaping the rat race... and finding your buried cheese.
 

About Site Build It - the engine of my escape. :)

Life happens outside the cubicle...