What makes you stand out in a crowd? What makes you stand out in your circle of friends? As we grow older and richer with our friends, family, and the people whom we know, there out to be a few individuals or families that really stand out. Yes, I am talking about those “lucky” people, those people who “is set.” My friends were shocked when I told them that I am now semi-retired, just bought a resort condo in Long Beach, living my dream life.
Yes, we all have those desires of being rich, being financially independent, of being able to travel around the world, not worry about money, being able to retire early. I had those dreams, too. But here is what I did different, I don’t just dream. I took action. It is crazy to expect things to be different when you are doing the same thing every day. What I mean is, if you dream to be wealthy, to be financially independent in the next 5 to 10 years, it is time to wake up and face the reality. Ask yourself that if you want to get there, what actions do you need to take today and tomorrow, and for the next 5 to 10 years to get to where you want to be?
For the most of us, ask yourself, “If I want to be financiallly free, to provide better for my family, is having a full-time job going to cut it?” Even now people are feeling a littled pressured to pick up a second a job or “start something on the side” because of inflation, of high home prices. It is sad to see so many people falling into the “rat race” as Robert Kiyosaki would call it. People would go to work, get a paid check that has a huge chunk taken out for taxes, use the take home pay to pay their expenses such as car, insurance, mortgage, food, gas, etc. They do this day in, day out.
Whatever your lifestyle may be at this point, if it is not the lifestyle that you wanted it to be, then you must do something different to change it. Most people get a 2nd job, or “start something on the side” If you have a choice between getting a 2nd job, or “start something on the side,” which would you choose? I’d choose “start something on the side” because most likely it will be a business that you are starting. And, as previously discussed, businesses are assets. Your 2nd job would give you an immediate solution to your cashflow problem, however, only temporary.
There is a saying that everyone’s heard of, “Knowledge is power” and “Time is money.” They are only partially correct. Knowledge becomes very powerful when it is applied. And time is more valuable than money. Most of us are accustomed of getting paid for our time. I mean, we go to work, put in our time for whoever we work for, and we get paid. We have traded our time for money. So we think we are getting a good deal, right? Well, let me ask you this. Do you think whoever we work for makes more than what he or she, or the company pays you? Think about that for a second. Does it make sense for a person or a company to pay you every 2 weeks if they are not making more money than what they are paying you? Thank you. You are underpaid! Yes, you are underpaid no matter if you are happy or not happy with how much you make from your job. Now, if you are the CEO or the President of the company, that may be a different story, but I am not talking about them. I am talking about the rest of us.
So, what must you do to get paid what you deserve? Let me tell you straight up because your supervisor or your boss will most likely not tell you. Instead of working for someone else, work for yourself, and have people work for you. How you accomplish this is another discussion because it can be lengthy. But I believe all of us has some hidden “potential” that is waiting to be unlocked. Remember, like knowledge, potential is really useless until it is applied. There will be a whole discussion on that later on.