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 🙂

 

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