The indestructible mind.

No, I haven't struck it rich yet. I haven't even fully launched my business yet. However, I can talk to you practically as someone who is still going through the difficult part of "making it". 

It's been about 7 months since I quit my job. Immediately I quit, things were difficult financially. My wife and I weren't making a lot of money. The job market isn't what it used to be. We'll be 28 this year and both of us were still toiling around with what used to be called "entry-level" pay. What really chokes our finances though is debt. It's up to our eyeballs. I'm ashamed to say a figure.  Lets just say, if I ever had kids, I'd strongly recommend that they either be very good athletes so as to get scholarships, or, go to cheaper schools. I didn't do either of those. And honestly, I'd probably be better off if I skipped college. I'm not really using my degree. But that's a different topic altogether. 

What I'm saying is it wasn't like we had a good amount of money saved up for the rainy day. My wife kept working (she was a teacher and felt it was right to finish out the year). So we had her income for another few months. We had to cut out half of our monthly expenses and live very conservatively. No cable, no internet, no gym memberships. Those things aren't the difficult bit. The difficult part is the games your mind plays with you. This is okay for now, but how long will this last? Will I have the same willpower I have now in 6 months? A year? I started doing research on the rich, and how they got there. What I found was encouraging. Many, many people have been where I am and have made it to success. The type that gives them real time to spend it how they want, as I elaborated on in my last post. So, then I started thinking, well, how many heads do those people have (my mom used to always say that)? What makes them able to do it and not me? And I started cultivating my mind and started believing in myself and in my ability to make my dreams come true. I did all this after the fact - after I'd already quit, and before I actually figured out what business I would start. 

I think that was a necessary step for me. And I think that anyone who is going to take on this journey needs to go through that step. Cultivating your mind is not easy. It's hard to change your perspective on life and your way of thinking. So many people know what kind of future they want, but they can't get themselves to actually do anything about it. They daydream, and wish, just like I used to. They may even talk about doing it - starting a business and going for it, but they just can't actually take the plunge. Some envy the rich, and they may even make comments about the rich to make themselves feel better about not trying. Comments like, "They inherited it", or, "I'd rather be happy than be rich", or, "Must be nice". I used to do this. I hated seeing a really nice car drive by, and I didn't like seeing big mansions either in person or on TV, because I subconsciously envied the people who owned them and couldn't see myself ever getting there. It reminded me of how frustrated I was in my financial situation and in my career. My frame of mind was different. I planned on being in the same career for 5, 7, 10+ years - maybe even 20-30 years, hoping to eventually be making enough money to pay off debt and start making some profitable financial decisions. Or, just retire and die. Now? I think way differently. I now think being in the same stressful career for that long is just plain scary. I feel like I'd eventually be depressed - an unhappy human being, no matter how much money I'd be making. Much more, I'd regret not trying earlier to make something of my life myself. I'd feel like I wasted so many years. Cultivating your mind to start thinking like the rich think, to start seeing the opportunity, to believe in your potential enough to actually take the big, scary risks... This is an important step. 

It took me weeks. I read books. I researched every rich person I could think of trying to learn their story. I wanted to know how they made it. What struggled did they overcome? I realized that most of them had to battle and beat challenges far bigger than mine. Some actually went to the extent of being homeless and living in their car! Some had kids and were just in a much weirder spot and it was much more difficult to start a business. I started looking at myself as blessed and fortunate, that I had it as easy as I had it, relatively speaking. I had a very supportive wife. No kids. Just a ton of bills. I wasn't totally drained. I could use my brain, and figure out ways to make this happen. I started truly believing I was going to make it. 

I also had to cultivate my mind to have a no-quit mentality. I read a lot of Mark Cuban's words on becoming rich. He always talks about effort - that making it to success isn't about skills or qualifications. It's all about willpower. Are you willing to do the research necessary to learn your business, your competitors, and your market? Are you willing to give up life's everyday luxuries and live like "crap" for an undetermined period of time? Are you willing to persevere when your first idea doesn't work? How about after your second, or third? Are you willing to keep pushing until you make it, no matter how long it takes? Are you willing to fail and learn and try again? I started realizing an obvious fact. Being successful is not easy. If it were, everybody would be successful. I started getting it. Its all about your mindset and your effort. It's like the mentality Will Smith talks about. If we're both on a treadmill and we're seeing who can stay on longest, you'll quit before me. I'll either win, or die trying. I will not get off that treadmill. It's the mind that separates the rich from the middle class and the poor. The rich think about things different. They don't split up the ideas of being happy and being rich. They think you can have both at the same time. They don't wish, they act. They make moves. They learn from their mistakes and they try again. They don't quit. Eventually, they make it, because they made the necessary adjustments and figured out the winning formula. And, then they duplicate that formula and create passive income streams for themselves. 

I learned that your mind is immensely powerful. It's indestructible. Whatever the mind decides it wants, it gets. If you decide you'll never give up, you'll never give up. If you decide, "well, I tried", and give up, then your mind decided that its time to give up. The mind is an unstoppable force. I finally started taking the famous quote seriously - the one that parents tell their kids so often. "You can be anything you want to be." "You can do anything you set your mind to." I know those statements are so true. 

I can honestly say, that nothing will make me go back to the stressful, draining workforce. Nothing will make me submit to the corporate ladder ever again. My wife feels the same. She has now quit her job and is working on following her passions. We've seen the promised land and we aren't turning back. Nothing can ever make me regret the leap of faith I took. I know that we'll eventually make it. For me, I believe in myself, and in my idea because I've done the research to know its a good idea and it can work. But, I'm determined to learn. So if my idea doesn't work, I'll figure out why, and then I'll have a better chance at success the 2nd time around. One thing I am absolutely certain about - quitting is not an option. 

Better late than never.

So, I meant to start a blog months ago. But it slipped my mind. Stuff got in the way. But thanks for taking this journey with me! Let me get you caught up. I finally quit my job back in December of last year. I did it because I was tired of the rat race.. I had a promising upside in my career, but I was getting drained, daily. I tried to look ahead into the future. I realized that even though I'd probably be making more money in 5 years, I still would not enjoy what I was doing. I would still have to get up at 7:00 a.m. and not get home until about 6:00 p.m. Everyday. I would still be on someone else's time, doing someone else's work, getting paid by someone else. Everyday. I realized it wasn't as much about what I was doing. It was about being out of control. Therefore, it wasn't something that quitting and getting a job somewhere else would fix.

Control... What does that look like? I had dreams that someday my beautiful wife and I would soon be out of our ridiculously high student loan debt. We'd be doing what we want to do, not what someone else tells us we have to do. But it's not all about money for me. My ultimate dream is to have the worry-free time to enjoy life, and enjoy the company of family and friends. Time. It's a commodity that's more valuable than money. Would you rather make $2 million a year and have no time for your family and friends, and feel like you're always on the go, on someone else's deadlines and like you can never stop to enjoy your life? Or would you rather make half of that, but have all the time in the world to spend real quality time with the people you love and to do the things you love to do? Most people would probably say B, because most people know that life is not all about money. Unfortunately, in this society, one generally needs a good amount of money to have time.

That's what I want - control. I don't want someone else to be in charge of my time AND my money. I finally realized that I wasn't doing anything proactive to get me where I wanted to be. Some would say that quitting a stable job and trying to build your dreams on your own is risky. But I was sitting back waiting for life to happen to me, and THAT is what I consider risky. There's no telling how long it would take me to get the next promotion. I worked at a bank, and I was moving up pretty quick - 4 promotions in less than 2 years. But I realized that even if I would've worked my way all the way up to an executive corporate position like CEO or VP of retail banking, which would have taken years and years and would still a shot in the dark at that point, I still wouldn't enjoy my work and I still would technically have a "9-5" job. Yeah I'd be making 6-7 figures a year, but again, its not about money. Would I have time for my family? Or would I still be giving my wife the "sloppy seconds" of my time? You know, the 2 hours after just getting home from work where you need to sit and relax a bit. You don't feel like talking because you're mentally drained, and then you go to bed and do it all over again the next day. And then, I thought again, there's no guarantee I'll ever actually get there. I could get laid off! Who knows? There's only so much I could control.

I realized I wasn't getting any younger. I can't sit and wait around anymore, and daydream about what I want the future to look like. So, I tried to get one more promotion for a commission-based job with a more flexible time commitment, because I thought it would give me more time to work on starting my own business. I got offered the job, and then they retracted the offer. So, that was the last straw for me. I talked to my wife and she encouraged me to quit (she's so supportive). I just quit altogether after that - something I should've done a long time ago, but better late than never. I did some research and learned that if I really wanted the kind of life I talked about in this post, my best chance is to start my own business. So I did just that. Now, over 6 months later, my business idea is well underway. It has made exactly $0, but it doesn't matter. My wife has also decided she wants to quit her job. So, she quit, and now we're both wingin' it, together. I've already learned so much about business, and about life. I've realized it's not only about trying to reach your dreams, its about the journey. It's SO not easy. It's actually scary. It's unstable, and there's a lot of questions around finances. And, no matter how much research you do, there's no guarantee your business will work. It's all a massive risk! But it's so much more fun than working a stressful, draining job, and I'd definitely rather screw up in my own efforts than work for someone else. I've learned that starting a business is a win/win, because it either works, or, you get a valuable education. You learn a lot, and with that education you can go back in and try again, now being much smarter! More on that later! Stay tuned on my wild and wacky journey!