Actions: Re-think assumptions ingrained into us about work and making money. Learn new terms.
Goal: Gain some understanding about the game of life design and terms used.
First things first. I admit I want to jump right to building easily managed companies, making loads of passive income and traveling around the world for experience and fun. I have to admit also, I have no freaking idea how to do that, yet. Stage 1 of life style design is to wrap your head around changing some traditionally ingrained thoughts on “work”. We can’t do that unless we understand some new rules, or to put it bluntly understand why what other people are doing sucks.
I deem this the more boring part of lifestyle design, as freeing yourself from the rat-race (ie. 9-5) is what draws the most attention. Now that i’ve said that, understand that unless you’ve laid the groundwork, you don’t know where you’re going. Don’t worry though, stage 1 is just about taking in a few eye opening ideas, generating income will be covered in detail. We’ll see how some successfully work free people did it, and how we’re going to do it. Nothing here is blindingly new, but actually thinking it through will change you’re world.
«New Rich» versus «Deferrers»
- Deferrers work arduously until their retirement – their goal is to shorten the time until they retire. The New Rich spice up their lives with frequent mini-retirements – they use forms of automated (easily manage business’s) or location independent (consulting?) income to allow for untraditional hours.
- The untraditional hours allow for new experiences, traveling, taking classes, living out dreams.
- Deferrers want to work for themselves, New Rich want to have others work for them.
- Deferrers want to become bosses, the New Rich neither want to be bosses nor employees, but owners.
“Everything popular is wrong” – Oscar Wilde
It’s amazing how “set” people get. Generation after generation of people confident they are doing something right won’t ever pick their head up to realize there’s another route. Here are some popular things you see that are just wrong.
- Busy-ness is mistaken for productivity. Excessive overtime is considered admirable, less working hours as a symptom of lazyness, independent of the respective results. In post corporate positions, as long as you’re there 40-60 hours a week, you’re doing okay, despite your results.
- Instead of utilizing personal strengths to the maximum, people waste their lives on the improvement of their weaknesses.
- Think like a teenager. I remember no matter what job I had I constantly thought about the hourly rate. It kept me maximizing my efforts. Take your, and everyone else’s corporate job into consideration for you’re hourly rate.
- Asking for permission by default means to be confronted with naysayers by default.
Eye opening Questions we asked ourselves
1) How has being realistic kept you from the life you want.
- R – i don’t do fun things, i always thing there are more tasks to do. i don’t own a company. i don’t go on vacation every other month. i dont see my friends all the time. i get bored with life and people and want to get lost in fantasy video games. i save money because its safe, never considering potentially good risks.
- B – I have become “un-passionate” and don’t care about doing things or about people as much as I want. I have started to wait for each day to be over. I have not met many new people in the last two years
2)What would happen if I did the opposite of the people around me?
- R – i would seem weird, like i spent a lot of money perhaps, was all over the place. never worked. was always switching projects, pursuing ideas.
- B – I would not care about the future. I would not complain or be tired all the time.
3) What will I sacrifice if I continue on this track for 5, 10, or 20 years?
- R – i would sacrifice far fetched dreams, traveling, learning multiple skills, i could become cornered in one career, possibly be locked into one company.
- B – I could possibly die alone and wake up every day bored not appreciating anything about life.