What stops you from living the life you want?
You already know the life I want: I want to have no pressure to work for money, and still have my salary paid no matter what so that I live the good life.
Yet, what stops me from pursuing this dream?
A few years ago, I had a blog called “Retiring before my boss: a journey of a Portuguese expat”. For a few reasons, I stopped the blog for 2 years, until I decided to open fromcentstoretirement.com for business. I started to blog about my net worth and this gives keeps me motivated to keep keeping track and presenting my numbers, and crush it. Yes, my dream is to wake up to do what I love the most, while my dividends, ranging from stocks of pure energy minerals to real estate, clear on my account no matter what. For now, I am another FI fighter, writing a cash flow blog with income reports… but a hell of a motivated one!
The question
However, most people don’t do shit about getting a better life. Why is it that the graveyard is the richest place on earth?
Recently, somebody asked on Quora what stops people from having the life they want. I answer: comfort and fear.
You see, most people don’t do anything, although they have big dreams. It took me 2 years to re-activate my blog even though it was something I really wanted to. I want to establish my own investment company for more than 2 years now, but only recently I had the courage to cancel my contract and finally start living the life I love. 2 years… (!) While I was never comfortable in my current situation, I did fear not being able to make enough money to live off of.
I am not comfortable working for somebody else. However, I did fear not being able to make enough money to paid my bills (eventually, I lost my fear and canceled my contract, but hey…it took me two years).
Most people don’t start their own businesses because they can’t get over the fact that they may not be able to pay for their rent for a few months. They are afraid they won’t have money to pay the bills. But that is what it takes to set up a business (unless you set it up after you worked for a long time for somebody else – or you had a well over average salary for a little period).
Other people won’t move their asses because let us just be honest, doing more than the average is hard and requires a lotta hustle. Most people are comfy with their current situation; they are satisfied… even though they wake every day to a job they really don’t like and makes them sick. Yet, they ask “Why would I change my salary of 4k/month for the unknown?
Well, you’re not living your dream. You’re contributing to somebody else’s dream…
Being an entrepreneur and walking away from a high salary is not for all, though. Even if you skip fear and comfort, it will be very hard and you’ll regret it. Elon Musk and his brother rented an office for his first company; they slept there and showered at the university I believe. They had a website and one computer. The website was up during the day and at night, they used to code. This is a bit of what takes to start living the life you love.
I will leave you with a piece of motivation. Never walk away from your dreams!
Your biggest fan,
Ben