If you don’t want to read it, you can watch this video.
I’m going to tell you my story. I retired early. Then I came back because sitting around doing nothing is not the way I want to live my life. Now, how did I do that?
In 1999, I was homeless. I was living in a boarding house. From about 2000 to 2010, I got to the point where I could retire early for three years. Now how did I do that? The first thing I did was pick something that motivated me. It took a few twists and turns to get there. At first, I was like many of you and I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be a writer. I knew I wanted to create books and write stories.
I was limited on skill sets. I had the desire to be a writer. But, I did not have the ability or the discipline. In the mean-time, I knew I had to do something. I had to do something to make some money.
So, I went on Monster.com and I lied. I know it is unethical. I went on the site and I created five different resumes for jobs I knew I could do. I did not have the experience or a reference. Then I created my own reference. I got one job, then leveraged that job into a better job. These were all high-paying jobs that gave me skill sets that I still use to this day.
Then I leveraged that into my own business. The first business that was making bread was GC Office Solutions. I was selling used office furniture. Then I decided to sell new office furniture. That did not work out the way I hoped. I made a lot of sales, but I did not make a lot of profit.
Used office furniture yielded great profits. It was amazing. I got into the storage auction business looking for used furniture. I got into the business and made a lot of money. I met a lot of interesting people and applied a lot of what I did in my other sales jobs to that business.
Then I got sick and my partner was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Suddenly, we’re out of business. Of all the stuff, I did with Upsell Garage Sales, I did not create buyers. There was no one to run the business when we were down.
So, we liquidated everything and got some money in the bank. I was able to help my partner. Then from 2009 to the middle of 2010, I busted my ass creating this channel and content and writing these books. I’m giving you all the details that people don’t want to give you.
Then the storage auction shows came on. So, I went from $2K to $5K per month in sales to $30K or $40K a month in sales. Then I started adding courses and consulting services. Then my sales increased. Then I got to a point where I was literally working 10 hours a week and I was making $30K to $50K a week. I was able to be a good friend to my partner and take her to her doctor appointments and hang out.
That’s how I retired in a decade. It came from building a business. Many people do not seem to understand this concept. Now let’s talk about why this other stuff does not work as well as starting a business.
Once again, in 1999, I was homeless. I was going through a divorce and there were all kinds of crazy stuff in my life. In a decade, I built enough intellectual capital and experience levels to create something that allowed me to retire. Just on my book sales alone, for my storage auction book, I earned $1.5 million in sales.
The lesson here is if you know how to market, you can have a crappy website and make money. If you know how to sell, you can write a crappy book with typos and make money.
Many people are looking for perfect situations. Business isn’t perfect. It isn’t close to perfect. If you’re going to survive in the business world, you’ve got to learn to rock and roll in hard times. You wake up and say, “Oh. I didn’t expect this crazy thing to happen.” That is the life of a business owner. Many people are not built for it.
Let’s get back to our discussion on retirement. In my opinion, you are better off starting a business to get rich. Essentially, you are creating your own job. If you get to six or seven figures in income, you are rich. You are not wealthy because you don’t have assets that make money. When you have enough income to create your own job and economy, then you can start doing some amazing things. You can set your kids up.
For about two and a half or three years, I was wealthy. I had an asset that made money whether I worked or not. That is wealth. If you are working, you are more than likely rich. Being rich isn’t bad. It’s not bad at all.
Here’s the trick. You’ve got to increase your income while also managing your money. Many people increase their income, but they mismanage their money. There was this couple I talked about on my Facebook page who were making $500,000 a year and they were living paycheck to paycheck. That’s ridiculous. They were losing like $185K in taxes. Start a small business and get some of that money back.
They were in the position where if they did the right things they could have bought a $100K to $150K rental property with cash every year. In ten years, you’ve got a net worth of seven figures of property that is paid off.
You have to have a foundation to get started. In 2000, I had that foundation. When I got paid, I put my money in certain accounts. I had to teach myself how to hold onto money. When you’re poor and your money is always being paid out, you become accustomed to not having money. It becomes your normal.
You’ve got to figure out what business works for you. One of the things you see is people getting into businesses because they make bread, but they really have no interest in it. When you decide what to do, it has to be about helping other people. Somebody said, if you want to make a million dollars, you have to help someone else make two million dollars. It’s all about service.
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