How to escape a rat race, find your passion and turn it into a profitable business.
If you don’t like your job, live from weekend to weekend, from paycheck to paycheck and work long hours giving more attention to your boss than your family, we have something in common.
Not long ago, I was stuck in this rut.
I hated my unfulfilling job and struggled to make enough money to pay my bills.
But today, I’m going to share with you some insights that have changed my life and propelled me to start my own business.
These insights are 14-year-long mistakes that hunted me for so long because I was ignoring important signs and compromising my values.
When I was 40 years old, I realised that my professional career in management had completely crushed my soul.
I remember reading an article about employees’ well-being, which outlines the 10 symptoms of burnt-out managers. Immediately, I recognised that I had 9 of the 10 symptoms.
These were things like insomnia, low energy, lack of motivation and fatigue.
You probably heard your boss say that work is about “Give and Take”.
They are not wrong, but what You may have experienced is “You give, they take”!
I’ve been on different levels of the corporate hierarchy, from the very bottom to the top. But I’ve realized that there’s no direct link between working hard and making enough money, not to mention fulfilment!
I was consistently climbing up the corporate ladder, working 50–60-hour weeks and hoping that the next promotion will reward me with financial and lifestyle freedom.
However, each promotion came with little money and at least double the responsibilities. I’d be sacrificing my time and energy in exchange for stress and unfulfillment.
I remember my mother asking me what I wanted to be when I grow up when I was a kid. Without hesitating, I said that I want to travel around the world.
She smiled sadly and said: “I was like you once, hoping to marry a prince and live like a movie star, but it never happened”.
I looked back at the last 20 years of my professional career and realized that I had tried to achieve time, financial and geographical freedom, my life values since childhood! And yet, I found myself in the same position as my mum 30 years after.
Is this what life is about?
I felt stuck, and frustrated and started blaming myself for my failures.
Like in Thoreau’s quote
I was one of the masses of men living a life of quiet desperation
…being a hostage to my bills and responsibilities.
I began to give up on my dream and started compromising on my values, which made me sadder and sadder. My kids would rarely see me smiling.
But then I understood that my career strategy was counterproductive! I was looking for freedom and wealth in a place where they do not exist!
More than that, I was giving my life away to build my boss’s dream!
I decided that instead of sacrificing another 5-10 years of my life in a dreadful job, I was going to invest in my personal growth and start doing something that I’m passionate about.
The problem was, I didn’t know what my passions were and how to begin.
Since wealth was very important to me, I began by eradicating financial anxiety.
Assuming that starting my own business would give me leverage to do this.
I almost ended up buying a franchise, but I was lucky enough to recognise the similarities in all the traditional business models. I realized that I was just going to buy myself another job and burden myself with more financial responsibility.
I needed something different. Something, that I could achieve with a little investment as a side hustle, spending a few hours outside of my full-time job. And no, I wasn’t going to become a taxi driver as I wanted to do something that I was passionate about.
I always knew that a business could give me opportunities and fulfilment, and being my own boss could give me the freedom I was looking for.
I knew about the online business boom that had resulted from many different reasons in the past 5-10 years and I knew that it will only be growing. Soon, I discovered that online business models could provide me with the life I was after.
But the laptop lifestyle dream sounded too good to be true.
And to be honest with you, cliches are cliches for a reason.
I was sceptical about it as I was filled with doubt. Excuses like “I don’t know how” “I don’t have a great idea” and “I don’t have enough technical skills or money to get it done” kept holding me back. But eventually, I recognised the main belief that was stopping me from making money, which was “I don’t actually believe that I can change anything and don’t even know where to start from” in other words “I’m just not good enough to live my best life”.
What surprised me in the end, was that none of these beliefs was actually true.
The first thing I did was surround myself with people who had already achieved what I was dreaming of.
I discovered a community of online entrepreneurs who were building businesses around their passions.
There I found my mentor, who made an 8-figure online business from scratch and taught me his blueprints.
I dedicated a few hours of my time to watching free online training sessions that gave me clarity about online business models. But most importantly, it gave me the belief that I could do it with the amount of time, money and technical skills I had.
And from there everything changed!
What became crystal clear was that:
- Firstly – Time, money and geographical freedom are real and within reach!
- And secondly – I realized that I’m capable of doing it!
Since then, my life has never been the same.
I can’t get over the powerful feeling of knowing that there is a way out of a “life of quiet desperation” that has given me. By making a small investment, I regained control of my destiny.
I hadn’t felt like this since I was a kid, and it was amazing!
I signed up for an online course and began learning new skills, following a step-by-step system and most importantly being supported by great mentors and a community of like-minded people.
I felt much happier, as I woke up every morning and did something that was very meaningful to me and my family, and not my boss.
Following my mentor’s guidance, I set up a website and an automated marketing system, which prepared the launch of my dream.
In three months, time, I’ve gained more knowledge about digital marketing and online business models than ever before.
FREE TRAINING SERIES ABOUT ONLINE BUSINESS MODELS
However, it was not easy. There are many roadblocks in this way. As many as in any traditional type of business.
Perhaps, one of the main dangerous ones is a low entry-level as you can literally start learning these skills for free or for as much as a cost of a dinner in a restaurant.
So, you may end up having a false expectation that you can find a get reach-quick-scheme, but in reality, you have to put in a lot of effort and learn a lot of skills before you even get close to a first online sale which probably will cost you a fortune to make your first $20 online.
Many people fall into this trap starting with the attitude “I’ll give it a try” and quit not being serious enough to overcome the first obstacle.
It is not for everyone. You can only expect to succeed if you are a go-getter hard working person who is serious about changing your life and prepared to put work into it. Otherwise, don’t even try.
However, once you know how to do it, you’ve got a skill that can work for you 24/7, 365.
For me, what was the most important part was that it wasn’t all about money!
I eventually found my mission to coach and inspire people, so they can follow their dreams and live their best life!
Starting something new is never easy, so you have to be opened-minded enough to recognise the limiting beliefs that hold you back.
But if you align yourself and what you do with your true values, and start doing what you really love, you will become better and better every day.
Just ask yourself, how much time do you have left to create your best life? How much more of your life do you want to dedicate to making someone else’s dreams come true?
Since I understand that, my work is devoted to helping people who want to find a way out of a life of quiet desperation. I love it when I help people use their potential to achieve their dreams!
If my story resonates with you, I can’t recommend enough these free training series that have changed my life and propelled me to start my business.
GET AN ACCESS TO THE FREE TRAINING SERIES
It will give you clarity on how to find your passion and turn it into a profitable online business.
If you are looking for a solution to how to change your life, I hope that I was able to inspire you to follow your dream and make the first step towards it.
Just remember, if you are not following YOUR dream, you are following someone else’s.