Your employer don’t want you to read this…
In this article, I’m going to share 3 turning points and questions to get unstuck in life and open new pages, esp if you have been thinking about how to make more money.
Hope my story inspires you.
- Projecting 10 years forward
If you want to know whether you're doing what you want to do, you can just look at people who are 10 years ahead of you. And project you a live 10 years forward - it's this a life that you want to live?
The first Turning Point is when I was working as a trainee in a law firm at that time I already know that I have lots of expectation in the industry because it's filled with smart people but they are trading time for money. I don't want to trade my time for money because I know that there's a ceiling to how much you can make even if you're not sleeping not eating not showering. I looked at the partner of the law firm at that time - he is definitely more than 10 years ahead of me. Although his already the partner of a law firm and his making millions of Dollars each year, he is still working very hard from Dawn till dusk, either trading his time counting his working hours so that he can charge his clients the hourly rate or going out to social and get the next client. And I ask myself is this the life that I want to live 10 years later? The answer is an absolutely no.
So I followed up to ask myself what do I hate about that life? Yes, he's making millions of dollars and his living in a mansion with his family but he has little time to spend with his family, and he has very little time in his beautiful mansion. In other words, he doesn't get to enjoy the money that he make. The problem is his business cannot continue to operate without his presence. He cannot withdraw his himself from the business of the law firm because the clients would need to contact him any time when there is any urgent legal problems or complaints.
Even though he has delegated some of the task to the associates in the Firm, he still need to keep an eye on and supervisor because there is no standard operation system per se for the cases. There would have different facts of its own, different handling, and different strategies.
One of the reason why the fees charging can be so high is partly because it's professional and there are jargons, and also partly because it is customised tailored solution (which cannot be standardised).
What if he hire someone really capable and just 10 over the work to that Associates so that he can have more time off? That would be more desirable for me, but still in the legal industry we talk about vicarious liability which means that if you make a mistakes your supervisor would also be liable for your mistake as well - that uphold the professionalism and make sure that checking is in place to ensure the equality of work, but also it traps the professional inside the business.
The legal industry has been existing for hundreds of years and still very little has changed.
I'm not going to say that I'm the one who's going to change the industry because it's very hard to change something that has been existing and unchanged for hundreds of years, so I know I'm not going to like what I see when I project 10 years forward.
That is a turning point for me when I've decided that this is not for me and I need to look for another way.
2. the Failure seeds
The second turning point is when I see a blogger / content creator making multi 6 figures working anytime anywhere she wants. That freedom attracts me (as it attracts many people as well).
I was too superficial and didn't see the downside of it (I didn't see the sweat behind the scene, I didn't see the discipline, I didn't see the persistence or consistency behind, I didn't see the obstacles, I didn't see the mindset, I didn't see a lot of things at that time), I only see how much money that one could make and also the flexibility and their freedom with this operating model.
And so I decided I want to do something like this.
I paid $3997 for course created that by the blogger to learn how to start a blog.
3 months in, I spent a few hundred dollars setting the blog up and making zero dollars income.
6 months in, I started to be not so consistent in my content creation because my content was receiving so little attention that I wasn't feeling motivated and I got distracted by other shiny strategies that claims to make money quicker and easier.
9 months in, completely abandoned the blog and just jumped into other things.
I considered at the failure even though I voluntary gave it up because I didn't get the result that I was hoping for which is like making multi-6 figure from the blog working anytime anywhere I want.
I decided that it wasn't for me and so I tried something else.
That was a turning point for me because I had a glimpse of the other possible ways of living and making money and it was a new way that is not shown to me while I was at school.
This is not the traditional way of making money. It is some newer opportunities that arise in the era with technology advancement. So it was the first time that I’ve seen (and kinda experienced first hand) what can be done, what is possible, that is different from the past generation and that is different from what my parents the school told me. It planted a seed inside of me. Even though that seeds didn’t germinate at that time, it did after a few years.
Sometimes we may think that we have faced a failure, but it could be a vital seed that is planted in you that could bloom into beautiful flowers later.
So ask yourself: what have you been trying to do before that has failed?
Maybe that failed attempt and failed experience is what you need to pick up.
Side Note:
Years later I got more mature and I have some experience of starting a blog and being a content creator myself and I appreciate how hard it could be. I ask myself what do I like about this and the answer changed so much: It was less about the Freedom because there are a lot of discipline that is needed behind the scene. And most of the people who started their side hustle or start being content creator or start turning the knowledge or passion into income has been taking it like a business, like a job, so that they could succeed in this.
Without that mentality of taking it seriously like a business, like an actual real serious job, one couldn't make it through to monetisation or cannot make significant amount of money (not the hundreds of dollars we are talking about from ads). So what really attracts me is less about the Freedom, the more about self-expression, the satisfaction and generosity to share something valuable and helpful to others.
3. KISS
My third turning point is when I started hiring mentors.
Yes it is higher financial investment in terms of money, but my quickest growth in life has been facilitated by the mentors that I hire.
It's weird sometimes how we value expensive experience more than something that cost less, even though the information and content maybe similar or even the same.
I was in the endless loop of learning and keep learning forever and not really starting or I would be starting to do things but quickly withdrawal to the shell of comfort zone because I got distracted or wasn't sure.
It's with the mentor that I realized my pattern of going in circles - feeling like learning a lot, reading a lot and hustling doing a lot but then it wasn't showing in the results.
I learned how to learn in a way that would reflect and get the results that I want, and it doesn't have to be hard or busy.
I learned that a lot of my previous impression and perspective about making money is not accurate.
For instances, I used to think that making money is exciting, starting business growing business is exciting, but in fact , the process of really making money and really growing the business is boring when you know what you're doing. I learned how to get unstuck and untangled. The message was simple in fact, but I made it so complicated before because I used to think that making money has to be complicated and hard, has to do 1000 actions and tasks (which is not true).
I share all of this in Profitable Learner, because I figured if I have this problem other people may have the same problem. And if I fix my problem, I can share the solution for others to fix their problem as well.
Anyhow, if I were to tell my five-year younger self, I would definitely say " keep it simple sweetie" (KISS).
From there I really kept things simple - the truth is the simpler it is, the easier it is to get the results.
So the question to ask yourself is: what is the simplest version of this?
Or how can I make it simpler?
So the 3 turning points in life to get unstuck is:
project 10 years forward
discover the failure seeds
To your success,
Connie
