What would your life be like if you woke up every day to a “job” you love? True freedom in your work doesn’t have to be a fantasy.
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For most of our life together, my wife has hated what I did for “work.” We met at Burger King while I was seventeen and fell in love. After getting married—the day after I turned 18—it was time for me to get a higher paying job. I got a job driving a truck for Sara Lee. With a $55,000-a-year annual salary, life was good.
I remember getting a $1,600 paycheck for one week’s worth of work and going nuts.
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Every day I would wake up at midnight to deliver bread to grocery stores. The life of a vendor can be sucky. You can’t ever run out of the product and the hours don’t jive with family life. Two years into the job, I had an opportunity to start a business in the same industry—it was a franchise for a different bread company.
The money was killer! I remember getting a $1,600 paycheck for one week’s worth of work and going nuts—I lived like a baller that week. The thing I failed to grasp was that this money was pre-tax and expenses. At the end of that first year, I got a rude awakening when Uncle Sam demanded his cut.
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I had this business for 12 years. Each year I failed to manage my finances correctly and at the end of those 12 years, I was $180,000 in debt. After feeling sorry for myself and crying most of the beginning part of 2011, I decided to do something about my situation. I realized if I was going to climb out of this hole, I had a choice to make: give in or give up?
It took three years, but today we are debt-free. Today, life is much different and free. In 2011, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming an author. Self-publishing was starting to become popular, and I thought, “Why not?” I ended up self-publishing my first book in the fall of that year.
I’ll spare you the details about the colossal failure the book launch was—no one bought it. Instead of crying some more, I dedicated my time to learn online marketing and how to sell books. By the end of 2012, I had sold 45,000 copies of my two self-published books and landed a book deal with a traditional publisher.
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Today, I write, speak, consult, and coach from my home in Maui, Hawaii. I wake up every day with complete freedom in my “work.” If I decide I don’t want to work, I don’t have to. I have created passive income, which means I make money on those days I don’t feel like working.
I don’t want you to read this and think it was easy or that it will be easy for you. The income can be sporadic, and most people who start online businesses wash out because it’s hard and takes time to make traction. I don’t believe in all the B.S. you see every day in your Facebook feed through ads by marketers who are exaggerating their success.
The economy is not the greatest, and good jobs/business are hard to find.
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Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. There are some guys who would prefer the security that comes from a nine-to-five. If your desire is to have freedom with your schedule and life, then an online business (or some other form of entrepreneurship) might be the answer.
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My wife loves the freedom we now experience. The point that I hope you take away from this article is that you don’t have to and shouldn’t spend 40 plus hours of your week doing work you can’t stand. Spending that much of your time in one place has an effect on every other area of your life.
The economy is not the greatest, and good jobs/business are hard to find. If you’re skeptical, you’ll never allow yourself to get into a place in your mind that lets you take action. It starts in your mind because what you believe affects the actions you take. You don’t need to win the lottery; you just need to decide what you believe about yourself and your dream.
After you’ve conquered any mindset traps, research your ideal “work” situation. Put a plan in place and take action on that plan. Pick yourself up when you stumble and don’t look back. It’s going to be one of the hardest things you’ve done, but nothing beats real freedom. You can experience that freedom if you do something about it.
What would be your ideal work situation?
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Photo: Flickr/ hafecheese