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Building Your Dream Life
Most entrepreneurs get this wrong...
1,064 Words | 4 Min 27 Sec Read
Welcome to another issue of Passionate Income.
Today we’ll be discussing the dangers of following business gurus on social.
In particular, the importance of going deep into what you want long-term, then building your business around that vision.
Let’s dive in.
This issue is sponsored by us - Passionate Income!
Wish you could travel more?
Dream of seeing the world?
Yesterday we recorded a live training on the best business model for world travelers and digital nomads.
Click below to watch the replay now.
Started reading a really good book last night titled Rigging the Game.
The short version is that most people play the game of business based on how they see others playing it. Which, in turn, leads to frustration and angst.
However, if you can "wake up" and make decisions from a place of consciousness, you increase your odds of achieving long-term fulfillment.
Obviously these are are more abstract concepts relative to some of the things I write about here. At the same time, just because they're more esoteric does not mean they're any less important.
In fact, I would argue what we'll be talking about today is one of the most important concepts in business.
See, prior to the Internet - and social media in particular - entrepreneurship was not glamorous or something the masses aspired to.
Mainly because back then, building a business involved taking massive risks.
Without the Internet, you had to rent office space, pay for local or national advertising, hire full-time employees, etc.
Today, however, you can start for $0, online, without hiring anybody.
And because of that, the barrier to entry today is exponentially lower than it was before the 2000s. Layer in the fact traveling the world has become sexy, and everyone and their dog wants to be "online entrepreneur."
The problem is how few people have actually defined what kind of life they want, and whether or not the business they're building can make their dream lifestyle a reality.
Instead, most people choose their business model based on an unspoken societal pressure to live a certain way of have certain things.
They follow gurus who live ABC type of lavish lifestyle, and think that because they look up to these people, they too want the lavish lifestyle.
And it's not just the money people chase.
From accolades and awards, to social media fame, most people's decisions are driven by greed, vanity, etc. instead of a clearly defined vision.
As you can imagine, this can lead to negative (and potentially disastrous) outcomes. Mainly as it relates to building a business that:
Isn't fulfilling
Requires you to work longer hours than you desire
Doesn't allow you to move around / travel as much as you'd like
Prevents you from spending time on non-work pursuits (hobbies, etc)
Doesn't provide you with as much family/friend time as you'd like
Requires you to work on a bunch of tasks that are outside your Zone of Genius / do not put you into Flow State
And a whole host of other soul crushing behaviors.
All in the name of keeping up with joneses or achieving some kind of fake fame that provides little to no real life benefits.
So what's the solution?
First, I highly encourage you to pick up Rigging the Game (written by Dan Nicholson) and other similar books.*
*Not an affiliate link.
Second, understand most of what we're talking about here is not business work, but deep personal work.
It requires you to get quiet and project into the future to define what your Ideal Day looks like. And don't just think about this stuff, but journal it. Write it down and revisit over time to see if what you wrote down still resonates.
Consider a perfect world with no constraints as it relates to your finances, mobility, or even time itself. In such a world:
How many hours would you work?
How much would you make?
How often would you travel?
Would you live in a fixed location or be nomadic?
What level of contact do you want to have with other people as part of your work / daily tasks?
Do you want to have to answer to clients and customers?
Do you to fly solo, have a tiny team or a full blown staff?
Can the business model you envision get you to your financial goals?
These are just a handful of the questions you should consider before even remotely considering diving head first into building a business.
And if you're already neck deep in one, but feel you might have made a mistake, these are the questions you need to consider before pivoting.
In conclusion, what matters here is being self-aware.
It's caring for yourself enough that you give yourself permission to build the life you actually desire, instead of building the one you think will make you happy based on how a bunch of social media gurus live their lives.*
*Most of which is fake / does not tell the full story.
It should be noted you probably won't figure this stuff out overnight.
It can take days and weeks of reflecting on past experiences that fulfilled you, testing out your Dream Day to see if you actually enjoy it, and revisiting your Ideal Future over time to confirm you've set the correct end goal.
But let me tell ya: When you do these exercises, and make consistent progress toward the vision you've set out yourself, your business can become a profoundly deep source of satisfaction.
💡 Takeaway: Most people make important business decisions from a place of greed and vanity, and because of that, they end up dissatisfied regardless of their surface level success.
However, by taking the time to define your Ideal Future - and building your business around that vision - you're much more likely to build a career that fulfills you on a deep level.
🎁 Resources:
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