Introducing Mark Carrington: Author and Entrepreneur; Frustrated Blogger; Investor and Fitness Fanatic
My name is Mark Carrington. I have made a video introducing myself to Steem.
60 years is a lot of story to cover in an introduce yourself video/post. So I thought I would do something a little
bit different - the video shows some of my profiles and some of the things I do and some of my passions.
What I'm all about is and passionate about is sharing ways to live a healthier, richer and happier life principally because I've been able to do that much for myself. Who would have thought that at age 60 I can look back at the last 15 years of not having to work for someone else? So I'll start off with my Facebook profile. It has a bicycle and an open road and a picture of the book - so it shows I am a published author.
In fact I have two books published. First is a book called The Banking Revolution: Salvation or Slaughter, which is a technical book about the role of technology as applied to British Banking. I was one of the co-authors with two other gentleman by the name of Thomas Steiner and Philip Langguth.
The other book which comes from two years ago is called The Inspiration Bible and it's a it's a book of stories to inspire people and my story is on page 360 and it is called Inspired to Ride. It's all about my journey as a long distance and endurance cyclist
Now for little bit about my background: I grew up in South Africa. I studied business and law and accounting and I worked as a management consultant (I did that for 24 years). I moved to the UK nearly 30 years ago and lived in the UK and worked all across Europe for 13 years. Now I live in Australia - been here since 2000.
The main part of that European story is that in the second half of my time in Europe I started with a bunch of mates a management consulting business (Mitchell Madison Group) to compete at the top end of the management consulting world and in six years we built a very successful business with offices in 16 locations across the world and 750 consultants. We sold the business in 1999. For me, it meant that at age 45 I was pretty well able to retire. That is my story as an entrepreneur - I know what can be and what can be done and what it takes to win - focus and hard work.
My real passion though is cycling. I'm always heading out on my bicycle. This is how I stay fit and it is where I do my thinking and it is where I find my peace. I have cycled across Australia 7 times . I have cycled Europe and New Zealand and South Africa. I have crewed the Race Across America twice. The pinnacle of my endurance cycling was qualifying for and participating in Paris Brest Paris (a 1200 km non-stop endurance ride) in 2007.
I also have a strong interest in technology - so a book on banking and technology is no surprise. I managed 3 different teams in the late 1990's that built the first Internet Shopping search engines in UK and South Africa - about the time that Amazon was only a bookstore. The world of Internet gets me excited.
Now in my "retirement years", I focus on two things
Internet marketing and blogging and eCommerce and those sorts of areas. Quite frankly I just have to say
that I'm a frustrated blogger. Frustrated because I have so many interests and have not really been that focused. Frustrated because I'm not seeing strong ways to get rewards for the effort that I put inI also manage all my own portfolios. I have become a seasoned investor and a trader in foreign exchange , in stocks, in options, in interest rates, in commodities and more recently in Bitcoin and in other cryptocurrencies.
Steem fits in really well for me as it brings both worlds together - blogging and cyptocurrency. I blog on a
regular basis about Bitcoin and I have a Youtube channel which covers Bitcoin markets and Bitcoin trading. I do these videos when there is market action to talk about - about once a week or ten days.
I am an active Twitter user and have a number of profiles which cover different parts of my story. [Check the video for the verification for some of my profiles - or follow me]
For example,
- https://twitter.com/MarkSCarrington (34k followers) I cover lifestyle topics like health and fitness and cycling.
- https://twitter.com/Stratocharge (67k followers) talks about ways to build income streams through things like affiliate marketing and investing and Bitcoin mining
- https://twitter.com/Go4Forexprofits (73k folowers) is my forex trading profile where I talk markets and trading psychology.
I have a number of blogs covering a wide range of topics. In the video you can check some of them out. Topics are varied and include Bodyweight Training; Cooking; Coffee; Yoga; Forex; Bitcoin; Depression; Drones and Quadcopters (I love photography - taking to the skies now)
Coming back to my real passion - cycling across Australia. I have cycled seven times across Australia in every direction (except the East Coast). More recently I have used cycling as a platform for charity fund raising. Every big ride i do I set it up as charity event and have generated significant contributions to charity through a mix of email and social media marketing. The main causes are children's cancer and helping disabled
children get bicycles that they can ride safely
So that's an introduction to 60 years of life.
What i'm really looking for out of STEEM is a community to share these passions and a way to generate an income
based on the quality of content. I do believe that I have large experience base to draw on to deliver great value. It will also create a discipline for me to blog more and succeed more
I appreciate your time
Welcome to the community. I like your presentation and will follow you... for some reason or another I'm digging your vibe which is strange to me. Anyways, keep plugging in the post and I'll keep reading. Maybe you can check out my story and struggles that I'm currently trying to promote Episode 4 - I'm Having a Baby Boy
A series I am currently writing, filming and promoting under the hashtag #nobodysperfect which is my project to bring awareness to mental health and other disorders. Please have a look and follow if you are interested. Thanks,
@MrWang
Thanks for the support. Mental health plays a key part in all our lives - mostly we do not even know about it. Who is prone to anxiety or depression? Is it you? Is it your fellow workers? Is it your partner? And then when you find out - BAM - nobody wants to talk about it.
Hey @carrinm great job getting onto the platofrm and getting ivolved by bringing your story. Cheers!
Thanks Michael - thanks for the leg up to get it started in a strong way.
You toke the time time to make a video, also doing things for charity take my upvote!!!!! We hope your ride go's well man would like to see updates on your mission for charity. Our company is very big on helping out with charity so you're aye okay in our book. Welcome to steemit! We will be following you for sure.
Thanks for the support and the welcome. I stumbled across riding for Charity when I cycled across Australia in 2013. I rode for Freedom Wheels campaign that builds bicycles for disabled children. This is my first receipt.
I was humbled at how supportive people were and how keen they were to support my causes. It was a life changer for me and I hope that many more people would join the challenges - you do not need to have money to make a difference - we all have time to spend to promote a cause and the Internet makes it super easy to reach people.
Oh yeah you will find the internet makes it really easy to earn for charities an causes. We shared your post on the steemit.chat an on bitcoin talk by the way good luck on your post.
welcome mark, yup this post is going to the moon! you really gave it your all here, good luck to you!
Thanks to you - to the moon and back - a bit tricky pedalling a bicycle that way
Welcome Mark. Looks like you will bring a lot of value and quality to the community. Look forward to seeing you work here.
Welcome great sir. I can see you will Bring in some awesome content welcome aboard!
Nice intro Mark .. I too am a blogger with varied interests. It's hard to honour them and be focused enough to help others in a meaningful way... balance.. the ever present struggle :)
Thanks. After 60 years I have collected a pile of interests and a few passions. My head is so full of ideas - you would shudder to see how many domains names I have registered. Maybe I would be better off teaching others how to pursue their stuff - give me a whiff and I have an idea. Not sure if I have the energy for that - FOCUS is the key lesson
I currently have 7 domains in play. I've had others but let them go because I didn't want to tie the money up in them ... something has to hold me back LOL
Closer to 50 here - 40 have no content and 10 have not had a manual update in a week. But I did make this great intro.
Welcome Mark I have been interacting and playing the Twitter game with you for a while. I look forward to the content you produce for Steemit. This place is a breath of fresh air!
Thanks Randy - your #introduceyourself post was one of the early ones I saw. It made me step back from writing up a short one pager and put the effort in - find out what is expected and find out what will set it apart . Thanks for the help
No problem Mark, quality will win in the end. It always does.
I have just gone through your professional introduction Mark, still to visit Randy. Some thought will have to go into this one. As for the 60+ XYZ well join the club, so much to do, so little time!
There are multiple elements of your post I love, but first and foremost your values are in alignment with mine, though in my journey I haven't reached "rich" in physical dollars, I am rich in time and mental and emotional happiness and freedom, and rich in beauty. I believe the rest will follow inevitably, I expect it.
I have many valuable friends who are amazing authors and content creators and I want to be wealthier because there's so much value in other ideas I see that just need investing in.
I know the basic concept of what Bitcoin is and use it and exchange it fine, though I don't know my way around an exchange well at all.
I am very inspired by how Steemit works and my first post on here paid me $330 in the first 12 hours. This has me on fire for Steemit, but it stimulated my interest in really understanding how to make money off of investing/trading in the cryptocurrency arena.
I don't know if others on this post will chime in on this, but I have an idea to propose to you that might be worthy of considering, if you haven't already done it.
Let's say I am ignorant about trading/investing, and I'm starting with $200 in Bitcoin, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Without the ability to pay someone to assist me, I'm thrown to the wind. Would it possibly be significantly beneficial and inspiring for both you and I, if you agreed to guide me through very specific coaching, and in return I agreed to give you a percentage of whatever I make based on following your coaching?
I realize you said you post content about this kind of thing and write on other platforms, but I'm specifically talking about picking a few members of the internet community and inviting them to be your apprentice more like. Have you done such things before and enjoyed it?
I don't mean that I'm asking you right now to do this for me (though, actually, I would be open for that), but to use that as an example as something you could potentially do for multiple people, if that is something that is relatively easy for you, and inspiring or fun. And of course, you assisting someone who is clueless in becoming more financially free by providing them invaluable tools is sure to pay you back handsomely. When people no longer have to worry about needing money, they tend to be happy to give it away to those who helped them arrive at such a point, as I'm sure you understand already.
Anyway, it's just an idea, but one that might be something you could connect to Steemit in some setup of some kind.
My husband and I are in love with the West and we live in and adore Arizona. He just started mountain biking and is enjoying it a lot. I love to see men over 40 doing what any man should be doing-- staying healthy, vital, inspired, and strong. More men of that sort of caliber are certainly needed in the world.
I'll follow you, I may learn a lot.
Thanks for your support.
I am hesitant about trying an apprentice model for a number of reasons. The regulations that are in place to protect investors makes it a minefield for anyone acting in an adviser role. Next is everyone's position is completely different and your $200 worth of Bitcoin will have very different meaning to my $200 worth of Bitcoin. You will only really know what that meaning is when you lose it on a trade. The hardest part of trading (let's take foreign exchange as a market) is that the very best traders are right 60% of the time. This means they are wrong 40% of the time. A trader can make money being right only 50% of the time - i.e., they are wrong 50% of the time. This makes teaching trading a very difficult proposition - the teacher can only declare success when the trader is making money by being WRONG half the time. the hard part is one does not know in advance if you are right or wrong.
Investing has different dynamics. For example, I bought my first Bitcoin at $319 and am still holding it. I bought my first Apple shares at $23 (effectively $3 after the 7 for 1 split) - it is now at $105 and it has been higher. In both cases i have been right though it could be argued that holding on after a big run up in price was not clever. This is based on an assessment of fundamentals that say something is under valued or is going to go up in value. This is easier to teach. I can point you to resources that work really well for doing that - for example my friend Ann Wilson - The Wealth Chef has an excellent series of videos on Youtube. She will be easy to find.
That said, I will be posting regular reviews on the way I see the Bitcoin and related markets. Watching and reading the lessons will in time impart a lot of what I have learned over the last 5 years especially.
Good luck and lesson one is to look after your capital.
That was a lot of very helpful information, I really appreciate it. I will look into it, and I wish you success here on Steemit!
Welcome!!