If You Know What Would Make You Happy, Why Wait?
“Oh, I’ll live my dream someday,” you’ll often here. “I’d love to open a bed and breakfast on the beach, but it’s just not practical right now.” “I’m definitely going to open my own brewery someday, but that’s obviously at least 15 years down the line.”
“But, wouldn’t owning your own micro-brewery make you the happiest man alive,” you might reply? (I mean seriously, what man wouldn’t want their own brewery?) Why wait? If you know you want to do something eventually, why wouldn’t you just go ahead and do it? Tomorrow has a nasty habit of never coming.
But I Can’t Do That Right Now!
How do you know? Have you tried? What’s the worst that could happen? It may not be as bad as you think. What exactly are you afraid of? Poverty? Billions of people around the globe survive and thrive on less than your worst-case-scenario even if everything blows up in your face. Starting over isn’t all that bad because using what you’ve (just) learned, you can climb back towards the top pretty quickly. Every failure gets you closer to success.
When it comes right down to it, you have far less to lose than you think you do. A job you probably don’t like, a car you bought for the good gas mileage, and a house that probably isn’t your dream home is the most you stand to lose, if you’re like most Americans. Big deal? You could get those back in matter of years (if not sooner) if you had to. You lose very little by failing. Oh, but those “what if I’d done…” questions will bug the crap out of you for the rest of your life. Count on it.
Mitigating The Risk Of Failure
Fortunately, living your dream needn’t be an all-or-nothing endeavor. Some, like Tim Ferriss of Four Hour Work Week fame, are perfectly content with the constant threat of financial collapse (they may deny it, but deep down they are). I applaud that quality in a human being, but me being me, I’m a bit more conservative than that. If I fail, I only want to fall halfway down the ladder. Call it a cheap insurance policy (much cheaper than auto insurance, at least).
Ferriss calls them muses, Frugal Dad calls them side hustles, and I say call them whatever the hell you want to call them, so long as they pay the bills. The 40-hour-per-week, 40 year career is dead as a doornail, or at least it should be. My generation (35 and younger) are bound to live a volatile life as far as work goes. Where many decry the loss of the 30-year company man (those people tend to lack imagination), I applaud it. Why not work for a year or two on a project you enjoy and then, 2 years later and just when you’re beginning to lose interest, take a 6 month mini-retirement? Or maybe just spend a month or two at home working on more sources of alternative income between contract jobs? These income streams will pay your bills when you aren’t working regularly, and maybe even fund construction and see you through the early lean months of that new brew-pub you’ve been dreaming of. It’s easier than you think.
Alternative Income Resources
I’ve opted to go the online income route, but there are many roads to Jerusalem, including investment income (if you have sufficient capital, this is by far the lowest-maintenance way to go), speaking gigs, freelance writing gigs you can do from anywhere with an internet connection, freelance web design, and virtually limitless other ways to make a buck without holding down a traditional job. Here are some resources to get you started.
- Problogger – If your goal is to make money blogging, this is your first stop. It’s where I started.
- 10 Ways To Earn Extra Income by Dough Roller
- 50 Resources To Raise Your Income by My Super-Charged Life. Everything from boosting your investments, to negotiating a higher salary at your job, to home business ideas.
- 40+ Alternative Income Ideas And Resources by Moolanomy
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Hey, Great post! You touch on a few things here that I am always mulling over.
Risk of failure: A lot of times people dont act on their dreams because of fear of success. It sounds weird but more often than not people can procrastinate or make excuses because they are actually afraid of getting what they want and letting go of the security blanket of complaining about their current situation.
and the lifetime employee: who ever thought that was a ever a good idea was an idiot. I certainly am glad that I am alive now as this model is being deleted from our mental hardware. I dont think that there is anything wrong with working at a company for 30 years but it certainly should not be a standard that is enforced on anyone
While I like some of the general enthusiam and perspective in your blog, I have to point out that you’re bringing a very idealist scenario to the table.
Most can’t afford to take a “mini-vacation” between jobs and while they could spend that time searching for an alternate source income, more realistically they will spend that time trying to line up their next job. And as far as it being “easier than you think”… please, quit your software job and dedicate all your resources and energy to opening a bar or restuarant and report on that experience.
Why can’t most people afford to take a mini-vacation between jobs? Have they ever tried? If not, how do they know they can’t afford it? I bet if somebody put a gun to their head and said “figure it out or I’ll pull the trigger,” they would come up with a workable solution. The problem, then, is motivation. It is certainly possible. People do it all the time.
“please, quit your software job and dedicate all your resources and energy to opening a bar or restaurant and report on that experience.”
I done that (albeit not a restaurant or bar). It worked well. My software job accounts for less than half my income these days.
Kyle, good for you! It’s great that you don’t let the naysayers stop you.
@Kyle, I totally agree! Everyone complains, but no one is actually motivated to do something about it, great point!
Excellent post, we are proud to be doing what we love and helping seniors get out of complicated financial situations and secure their retirement. People put off doing what they love, fear is what holds them back, but if they go for it they would never look back .