I Have a Great Title, Awesome Paycheck and Great Benefits. Then Why Am I So Freaking Unhappy?

hughtrain777

A friend of mine made this comment to me last week. Great question isn’t it?

A couple of answers came to mind right away.

One is that, you are not stepping up to your purpose. Meaning you are not doing meaningful work, and if you’d like to dig deeper then define what “meaningful” means to you.

The second would be that since we can remember, we’ve been fed the story that the steady 40 hour a week  job in a suit and tie, driving the fifty thousand dollar car, with the average size home and weekends off, with 2 weeks vacation a year, and happy hour drinks with a bunch of friends in the same boat is actually something you can call a LIFE! -of course all of that is a bunch of BS!

If you think that’s success my friend we are in a serious disagreement and you are DELUSIONAL…!

The thing is most people wont admit how miserable and unhappy they are. They compare their lives with someone’s who’s doing far worse than they are, never with someone whom they could aspire to be like.

So that way of thinking keeps them sheltered from the truth… which is that THEY – YOU are living a life without purpose!

There are people out there that make a lot of money, but they have no time. There other’s that have a lot of time, but don’t make enough money. And there is the worse kind… which is where most of us were or still are, which is “we have no time and make no money”. I call that place Middle Class Purgatory!

I always suggest to go back to what’s meaningful to you. Take stock of what lit the fire in you once and try to rekindle that feeling.

There are many ways to make a meaningful living these days… you don’t have to be a millionaire, you just have to know what you want!

There hasn’t been a better time in history than now, where the cost of producing and selling information, advise and specific skills is easier and more scalable than ever!

A book I recommend as a top read on the topic and to get your juices flowing is:

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future – Chris Guilleabeau takes us through real life examples of regular people who are not only making money doing what they love, but have attained financial independence and personal freedom in the process. Great read if you still have doubts about getting something going and finally getting off your butt and start doing what you were meant to do… which believe me, it’s probably not what you are doing right now for someone else!

Make a move soon before you REALLY run out of time… If you need to talk about it, you know how to reach me! 🙂

 

Please follow and like us:

Why New College Grads MUST Build a Lifestyle Business Way Before Landing Their Dream Job

Think about that word for a second Dream Job… maybe is just me, but the word “job” should never be anywhere near the worddream jobdream

What does that even mean?

Go back for a second, when you were a bit younger and less indoctrinated… remember how you felt when thinking about the things you wanted to with your life, the dreams you had, the things that really made you smile and get up in the morning all pumped up… or better yet, not having gone to bed at all!

Does the word “Job” fit anywhere around that vision?

Yet you do a Google search for the word “dream job” and you get this:

About 730,000,000 results (0.65 seconds)

No one that’s happy living their dream and making amazing amounts of money at it sees it as a job!

So what do you say –should we start changing the way we think about doing the things everyone else is doing and getting nowhere?

So now that we’ve cleared that up I wanted to accomplish a few things here:

  • share some hard data regarding the job market out there for newly minted grads,
  • what the numbers really mean, and
  • what I would do with that info if I was graduating college in 2014.

Then bring it all together in order to deliver to you what the title of the post promises… deal?

Let’s start with defining what is a lifestyle business is:

A lifestyle business is how you choose to spend your most precious asset –time, while generating a desired income amount.

In other words you fit your work to your lifestyle, not your lifestyle to your work.

You can see the dilemma in choosing how you spend your time while working for someone else right!

It’s a very common narrative, you start with a vague notion of what you like, figure out how much it pays, find out how long you have to study and how much is going to cost you.

Sometimes is not even your idea to study a specific career, sometimes the idea was seeded by your parents, teachers, friends, a movie, who knows!

If you are in your early to mid twenties you don’t have to figure it all out right now… don’t let anyone put that kind of pressure on you!

Give yourself the time to explore and learn about the things you are good at vs. the things you are great at.

But while figuring all that out always focus on cracking the “how do I make a living code”

Your chosen career or business MUST lead to these 8 outcomes:

  • Live life on your terms
  • Above average or unlimited income
  • Financial freedom
  • Your own business
  • More spare time
  • Personal growth and development
  • Helping others
  • Freedom from debts

If your choice doesn’t lead to every single one of these 8 benefits, then is back to the drawing board.

If you know a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Businessman, Teacher, Dentist, Chiropractor, Firefighter, Insurance agent, Financial Planner… ask them:

Are you covered on all these 8 points as far as having a fulfilling life through your profession?

If the answer is no, then… Why?

Don’t press them too hard for an answer, you don’t want to upset anyone, just make them think.

You need to build a Lifestyle Business because is the “Normal State of Existence” …not the “Common State of Existence” you are seeing from most of the people you know!

Here’s a secret hack on how to REALLY know if you’re a stepping to your purpose in life…

Ask yourself this question:

If time and money weren’t a consideration, would you be doing the same thing you are doing today or plan on doing in the near future?

If the answer is a resounding YES… then you are there, now scale it and keep learning!

If the answer is NO… then you are simply trading your time for money and making someone else’s purpose or dream come true.

But listen, don’t worry if at the onset this thinking doesn’t sit well with you… I get it and it’s normal. It should feel a bit awkward.

That’s because even though your generation is much more progressive than mine from a personal freedom and lifestyle perspective, you haven’t been trained to think like an entrepreneur.

Check this out, here are the College degrees with the highest starting salaries:

In 2013, only 29.3% had landed jobs prior to graduation. NACE also follows up post-graduation with a survey that asks recent grads whether they have landed a job. In 2011, the last year it compiled figures, NACE reported that 59% of grads had found jobs 6-8 months after graduation, meaning more than 40% were unemployed. This year that figure may be higher. In April, the Associated Press reported data it had gathered from government sources showing that 53.6% of the class of 2012 were jobless or underemployed 10 months after graduation. -source

Now I’ve never been good at math, but if it’s any consolation, the only Majors that showed positive growth are in the areas of business and technology.

But even then, any business that’s growing at only 2.30% a year is simply stagnant!

How can you possibly have a fulfilling life by earning $55,100 a year at a job where you work 40-50 hours a week, and only growing at a 2.3% pace?

How do you get out of that hole 5 years into it?

Is that the future you envisioned?

I’m guessing you feel just as dumbfounded and in some way bamboozled by an educational system and a life philosophy that does not prepare to be financially independent, on the contrary.

In my opinion, college should teach you how to learn, and how to apply that process to anything you decide to do. It shouldn’t be about get to an imaginary finish line, called a degree where you get a piece of paper which you spent 100K on that says you took the necessary credits to be X… Now go find someone that puts a price tag on your value and gives you permission to go on vacation.

I know you know there’s something not right here…

By the way I went to College. I was pre-med and took just about every science and elective available. I graduated with a Bachelor Degree, minored in Biology, BA in Liberal Arts after deciding not to pursue a Medical Degree. Best decision yet!

So I can speak with relative authority about the actual use of a traditional education. But I did learn how to learn, by reading books that were actually not in the curriculum… go figure!

But don’t go on a blame path… bureaucracies do what they do and so must you. Blaze your own trail!

If I was entering college in 2014 I would do exactly what we are teaching our 3 boys?

  • Be an independent thinker and a lifelong learner…
  • Go to College or continue on to University for the experience if you choose to do so.
  • Regardless, here are Mom and Dad’s and Grandparent’s personal life story of hardship all the way to success and abundance.
  • Here are the books you MUST read soon! Give them access to my kindle library.
  • Travel and teach them real life success and failure scenarios.
  • A promise is an unpaid debt, don’t make them lightly.
  • Healthy body, sharper mind!
  • Start a business NOW!
  • When you’ve left everything in the journey and you must leave it all… faith will carry you the rest of the way!
  • Teach them to fail elegantly and parley their successes.
  • Relationships come first, everything else second. Dump excess weight.
  • Crack the money code first, then step up to your purpose.
  • Don’t ever trade your time for money. If you must think of it as a transitional phase.
  • Find a girl that thinks she’s pretty, even if she’s not, and marry her! (…Dad got lucky. She thought it and she is)
  • Teach your kids the same things

Better stop here… or I’ll end up writing a book.

Hope you found this interesting and applicable… gotta take Aaron to swimming practice, see you out there 🙂

 

Please follow and like us:

My Top 10 Reads for 2013 – “Reading for Profits”

As you know I’m big on  Reading for Profits, which means I like to read books, take one or two ideas from them and implementreading for profits on the street right away.

Why else would we read business books for?

That’s right, to get smarter and better at what we do!

I read a total of 35 books this year, but I’m going to share with you my “Reading for Profits –Top 10”

Every single one of these books will help re-shape the way you think about Money – Business – and People.

As you probably know, no good fortune will ever come to you unless you change the way you think… These books will help you do precisely that!

…but don’t take my word for it.

Here we go:

The 100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future – Chris Guilleabeau takes us through real life examples of regular people who are not only making money doing what they love, but have attained financial independence and personal freedom in the process. Great read if you still have doubts about getting something going and finally getting off your butt and start doing what you were meant to do… which believe me, it’s probably not what you are doing right now for someone else!

The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living – Randy Komisar is one of those guys I just need to meet one day. This book took me into the mind of a business genius in a story telling format rare for VC guys like him. Not only did I learn about the way Venture Capitalists think about business opportunities but I also had fun reading it! Highly recommended.

My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (Advertising Age Classics Library) – by Claude Hopkins. If you are in sales, marketing and advertising, this book is a must read. I read it once a year, together with The Magic of Thinking Big and How To Win Friends and Influence People.

Screw Business As Usual – by Sir Richard Branson. All aspiring entrepreneurs, business people and leadership pundits should read this one. It’s full of practical anecdotes, real life examples and people stories. The main message I got from it whether you run a small business or a fortune-500 one is: Be different and don’t lose your way! Remember why you did it in the first place and search for that passion.

Words That Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear – Rarely is a book so necessary as this one. Frank Luntz makes and inarguable case for how important and indispensable words and overall language are to get your message across. It’s an essential read because its value crosses genres and impacts so many different areas of our culture.

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think – Finally a book were optimism, abundance and hope are the main message regarding the outcome of our species. Written by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. I’m so tired of reading about wicked problems and the problems found in solutions that when reading this book I just felt instantly better, optimistic and with a renewed vigor and strength to fight for the things that are truly important in life.  These guys really do a good job of addressing some of the major challenges that we face as a people, but with a witty, insightful and problem solving mindset. Top 3 read for me this year!

Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People – By Rich DeVos. The greatness of this book lies in the simplicity of its message! How can Ten simple phrases be so powerful? – Probably has something to do with how much meaning is behind them. I’m not going to spoil it for you. Pick this one up, it truly is a game changer! Top 3 read for me this year!

How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It – Mark Cuban doesn’t pull any punches on this one. This book is written for all kinds of entrepreneurs and business people that are still not digging deep enough. I won’t hold it against him that he owns the Mavericks, me being a die-hard Heat fan and so on… but, he does get my respect and admiration for being a bad-ass business man! Definitely a guy I’d want to meet and play some golf with one day!

The New Wellness Revolution: How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry – The wellness industry is now a Trillion dollar industry. Paul Zane Pilzner makes an incredible case and backs it with more than enough data pointing to only one conclusion: If you are looking to start a business, your chances of success in this industry are drastically higher than in any other in the next 15 years… Make a move now!

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition – Jay Abraham is the Godfather of Business Strategy! This read not only shaped but completely rearranged how I look at strategy in small, medium and large businesses. Top 3 read for me this year!

If you are looking to make a move from Cubicle nation on to the entrepreneurial arena -Or maybe not a complete move but you are starting a business on the side, every single one of these books will be not only inspirational but practical in that endeavor.

As a business man or woman, reading is an essential part of your education, your growth and evolution as a person. Largely because new ideas in combination with your own mojo shape your mind and instigate action. If you don’t read, you don’t learn about options, outcomes, ideas, people, research, money and mostly… “yourself”

This wraps the 2013 “Reading for Profits” updates my friends… I’ll be sharing my monthly reads weekly from now on, so stay close!

Also, Subscribe Right Now to our Lifestyle Design and Marketing Strategies that Work Updates on the TOP RIGHT of this Page!

 

Please follow and like us: