Defining Success in Life
June 12th 2009 23:39
What criteria is used to measure the success of an individual? I think this question has as many answers as there are people on the planet. For some it would be the amount of money they make, others might measure success by the companionship of others, and yet others might be motivated by the experiences of their life. For me success is not an end goal but a state of being. I want to be able to do what I want, when I want. If I want to travel to Europe and follow my favorite Soccer team around for a month, or go to Australia and spend 3 months seeing the country I want the means and freedom to do these things. For many people this seems to mean being rich, as in having mountains of money. I do not see it that way at all...
To reach a lifestyle goal you need income that is free of location. Amazingly this is fairly simple to accomplish. It also doesn't hurt to have passive income, that is to say, income that does not need your direct input to occur. This is considerably more difficult to accomplish, but there are many paths that lead to it. Another major part of reaching this type of lifestyle is a very low "base overhead" cost of living. If your basic living needs are inexpensive, then you obviously need less income to cover these needs than someone with a higher cost of living.
Now this is where most people fail, they tend to think of the items they buy as the goal itself. If that is the case for you, well, I have no help to offer. Items, unless they have actual value in trade or sale, are of low importance to me. Don't get me wrong I like nice cars, and have a beautiful home on 5 forested acres, and my computers are top notch. I don't want to live like some Luddite hiding in a tee-pee in the hinterland. I want and like modern amenities. Though having wilderness adventures is part of my lifestyle goal, so is keeping my wife happy
In fact it is the size of my mortgage payment that has slowed accent to my current goals. This fixed cost is high enough that the various activities and adventures we plan have to be scheduled out a bit further in advance than I'd ideally prefer. Regardless we have many grand adventures. Every day takes me closer to my long term success goals, and every day the amount of effort I put forth to earn the necessary income decreases.
I am a serial entrepreneur, an artist and an inventor. I have done the 9-5 gig. I spent years working for some of the largest companies on Earth. Some as a programmer, web developer and graphic artist. Others in management. All of them with the hope that in 20-30 years, if I wasn't laid off along the way, I might be able to retire, and then do what I want when I want... One day it clicked. I don't need to wait 20 years hoping to reach that goal. I can make that happen soon, I just need to take a major leap of faith, trust in myself, and make it happen.
I have always tried to solve problems. As a child I tore apart radios, computers, TV's, anything, just to see how it works. I also seem to have an inate sense of "how to make a buck". My parents love to tell the story of me and my brother being tossed out of daycare. I was probably 8 and my younger brother 5 or so. Both my parents worked, so during the summer when we were younger we went to daycare. I seriously think I can smell opportunity. We started making Origami throwing stars. Something I had picked up in grade-school. At first we both made them and sold them for a quarter a piece, or something like that. Rapidly our production capabilities were not capable of keeping up with demand. So we "hired" a couple of other kids to make them for us. Probably paid them a dime a piece. I remember drawing up a catalog with choices of colors and sizes.
When the "teacher" found out what we were doing, she got mad, called our mother in, and made us stop selling the. OK, can't sell them. But now there is this huge pent up demand. So we started charging kids to teach them how to make them.
A few years later at Summer Camp we had a new opportunity. Water Balloons were expressly verboten. We were not allowed to bring them to camp. But before our group of campers had arrived there had been some sort of birthday party at the main dining hall. Balloons everywhere. My brother and I offered to clean it up, figured we could get a few brownie points... and collect the balloons. It took us a few hours to untie and deflate the several hundred balloons. but we did a thorough job. Made sure we had one garbage bag with all the balloons in it, clearly marked with a yellow ribbon tying it closed. Needless to say we made a decent income (by our standards at that time) that summer.
My life has been full of things like this. But after university, I saw opportunity in the internet, and followed that path for a decade. Going from tiny start-ups, to larger, and larger companies until one day, I was sitting in a cube, wearing a tie, working a job I'd never retire from, at a company I despised. It was time to tear it all down and start again. So I said, "I'll be an Artist" took the voluntary lay-off the big company was offering and before the ink was dry on my severance check, I had a new job doing "Multi-Media" for yet another large company. Well at least this job involved art. I did Medical Illustration, animation, and some graphic Design. But I was still sitting in a cube, wearing a tie, working for a company I would never retire from.
1 year ago I walked away from that path for the last time. I made the decision to work for myself. To try and make the decisions that effect my lifestyle, for myself. To take all the risk myself, and potentially all the reward. I did this during one of the worst recessions in modern US history. I had no guarantee of success, in fact we had little hope of surviving the first six months. It was a huge risk. It was the best decision I ever made.
Anyone who thinks working for yourself is easy, is a liar or a fool. I am the worst boss I've ever had. I demand more time, more proficiency and greater accountability of myself than any other employer. One bad decision can be the end of your venture, especially when you are doing it on a shoe-string budget. You have to be able to dance with the marketplace, and jockey for every customer all while dodging a minefield of dishonest customers, suppliers, and employees.
Not everyone is made out for this type of life. But if you want to truly be successful you have to believe in yourself and follow your dreams, whatever they may be. If you have a similar dream to mine, please follow along the path with me for a while. Tell everyone here your story and maybe we can all help each other reach our goals for success.
To reach a lifestyle goal you need income that is free of location. Amazingly this is fairly simple to accomplish. It also doesn't hurt to have passive income, that is to say, income that does not need your direct input to occur. This is considerably more difficult to accomplish, but there are many paths that lead to it. Another major part of reaching this type of lifestyle is a very low "base overhead" cost of living. If your basic living needs are inexpensive, then you obviously need less income to cover these needs than someone with a higher cost of living.
Now this is where most people fail, they tend to think of the items they buy as the goal itself. If that is the case for you, well, I have no help to offer. Items, unless they have actual value in trade or sale, are of low importance to me. Don't get me wrong I like nice cars, and have a beautiful home on 5 forested acres, and my computers are top notch. I don't want to live like some Luddite hiding in a tee-pee in the hinterland. I want and like modern amenities. Though having wilderness adventures is part of my lifestyle goal, so is keeping my wife happy
In fact it is the size of my mortgage payment that has slowed accent to my current goals. This fixed cost is high enough that the various activities and adventures we plan have to be scheduled out a bit further in advance than I'd ideally prefer. Regardless we have many grand adventures. Every day takes me closer to my long term success goals, and every day the amount of effort I put forth to earn the necessary income decreases.
I am a serial entrepreneur, an artist and an inventor. I have done the 9-5 gig. I spent years working for some of the largest companies on Earth. Some as a programmer, web developer and graphic artist. Others in management. All of them with the hope that in 20-30 years, if I wasn't laid off along the way, I might be able to retire, and then do what I want when I want... One day it clicked. I don't need to wait 20 years hoping to reach that goal. I can make that happen soon, I just need to take a major leap of faith, trust in myself, and make it happen.
I have always tried to solve problems. As a child I tore apart radios, computers, TV's, anything, just to see how it works. I also seem to have an inate sense of "how to make a buck". My parents love to tell the story of me and my brother being tossed out of daycare. I was probably 8 and my younger brother 5 or so. Both my parents worked, so during the summer when we were younger we went to daycare. I seriously think I can smell opportunity. We started making Origami throwing stars. Something I had picked up in grade-school. At first we both made them and sold them for a quarter a piece, or something like that. Rapidly our production capabilities were not capable of keeping up with demand. So we "hired" a couple of other kids to make them for us. Probably paid them a dime a piece. I remember drawing up a catalog with choices of colors and sizes.
When the "teacher" found out what we were doing, she got mad, called our mother in, and made us stop selling the. OK, can't sell them. But now there is this huge pent up demand. So we started charging kids to teach them how to make them.
A few years later at Summer Camp we had a new opportunity. Water Balloons were expressly verboten. We were not allowed to bring them to camp. But before our group of campers had arrived there had been some sort of birthday party at the main dining hall. Balloons everywhere. My brother and I offered to clean it up, figured we could get a few brownie points... and collect the balloons. It took us a few hours to untie and deflate the several hundred balloons. but we did a thorough job. Made sure we had one garbage bag with all the balloons in it, clearly marked with a yellow ribbon tying it closed. Needless to say we made a decent income (by our standards at that time) that summer.
My life has been full of things like this. But after university, I saw opportunity in the internet, and followed that path for a decade. Going from tiny start-ups, to larger, and larger companies until one day, I was sitting in a cube, wearing a tie, working a job I'd never retire from, at a company I despised. It was time to tear it all down and start again. So I said, "I'll be an Artist" took the voluntary lay-off the big company was offering and before the ink was dry on my severance check, I had a new job doing "Multi-Media" for yet another large company. Well at least this job involved art. I did Medical Illustration, animation, and some graphic Design. But I was still sitting in a cube, wearing a tie, working for a company I would never retire from.
1 year ago I walked away from that path for the last time. I made the decision to work for myself. To try and make the decisions that effect my lifestyle, for myself. To take all the risk myself, and potentially all the reward. I did this during one of the worst recessions in modern US history. I had no guarantee of success, in fact we had little hope of surviving the first six months. It was a huge risk. It was the best decision I ever made.
Anyone who thinks working for yourself is easy, is a liar or a fool. I am the worst boss I've ever had. I demand more time, more proficiency and greater accountability of myself than any other employer. One bad decision can be the end of your venture, especially when you are doing it on a shoe-string budget. You have to be able to dance with the marketplace, and jockey for every customer all while dodging a minefield of dishonest customers, suppliers, and employees.
Not everyone is made out for this type of life. But if you want to truly be successful you have to believe in yourself and follow your dreams, whatever they may be. If you have a similar dream to mine, please follow along the path with me for a while. Tell everyone here your story and maybe we can all help each other reach our goals for success.
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