It’s Your Life so why work?
I have just received an email from Sara Brown from Kickstartcourse.com
I just felt that a lot of people will probably relate to it and hopefully by reading it would help them make a decision.
“Hi – Sara here.
I often get emails asking for advice from people who are in the process of either being made bankrupt or going through the awful process of losing their homes because of financial problems. I got two last week.
While reading them something struck me. I looked through my old emails and found over a dozen similar ones. They
were all very similar in a way (apart from the obvious) that I hadn’t realised before.
Were they from Ebay sellers who were having a bad patch and couldn’t pay their bills since the new download regs came in?
Perhaps they were from an Internet Marketer whose sales had been hit by someone stealing his website or product?
Nope.
Every single one of the emails I’d had from people with money problems came from someone with a NINE TO FIVE JOB. It knocks everything you believe about job security into a cocked hat.
If you’ve read any of my ebooks you’ll know that I don’t believe in job security. I think there’s more chance of finding the Loch Ness Monster than finding a secure job today.
Things haven’t always been like this. Three hundred years ago if you couldn’t find a shirt that fitted you, you made one yourself.
You wouldn’t walk around naked. You’d also grow a large percentage of your own food. This was before the industrial age. People were much more responsible for their own lives. Today we’ve lost that–and this loss is the main reason that so many people end up in financial ruin.
And who gets the blame? Credit card companies for offering ‘easy credit’ or the education system for not offering
‘financial awareness lessons’ ?(actually there is a degree of truth to that).
People write to their MP’s or senators to ‘demand action’ . They demand a scapegoat–someone who is responsible for all the financial trouble that people are in. The REAL answer is obvious but no-one wants to admit it.
Several years ago I ran up a fortune in credit card debt. I sat sobbing on the floor one day as I realised there was not a chance I could pay it back from my then salary. Well, I could, but I would be 129 years old by the chance I was debt free.
I contacted someadvice lines and got some great advice. I worked out a payment plan of what I could afford and wrote to the credit card companies asking if they’d accept a small amount each month.
They did. I wasSO relieved.
After a year of paying back a small amount to each company I became aware of things. Firstly I would be in debt for
the rest of my life. That chilled me to the bone. Secondly I started to resent the fact that a large percentage of my small
income would be going to pay these people back FOREVER. I was working to pay the credit card company.
I worked out that I was slaving away in a job I hated until Wednesday afternoon to pay the credit card companies! Then from Wednesday afternoon until Friday evening I worked for the tax man!
If I wanted any money for myself I had to work overtime on Saturday and sometimes Sunday.
It was no life. I got very depressed and started to blame other people. It took quite a while before I realised one of the greatest lessons of my life.
I WAS RESPONSIBLE. Me–nobody else–just me.
I was the one who borrowed the money. I was the one who OWED the money backto the people who lent it to me. Yes the interest charges were steep, Yes the credit card companies are only in it for the profit and Yes they ’stack the deck ‘ so the minimum payment means that a balance of £1000 can take over 18 years to pay off if you only pay the minimum payment. Scary stuff eh?
All the above things aren’t nice, but at the end of the day it was ME ME ME who got MYSELF into debt.
The moment I realised it was my responsibility to get myself out of debt my life changed. It was one of the key factors that got me into Internet Marketing.
So I am sitting here at my PC being horrible to the people who sent me emails while in such dire financial straights? Well no, I’m not.
This how I see it.
We are all lied to from birth. We are told to be good at school, get a good education and a good job. This, in my opinion is the most evil lie that society ‘pushes’. A bit strong calling it ‘evil’ ? I don’t think so.
It might have been the way to go a hundred years ago but you just need to look around you to see that employment doesn’t work these days for anyone except the employer.
You pay 50% of your earnings to the government in one way or another and give around a third of your waking hours to your employer. This time can never be claimed back. Ever.
It’s a part of your life that is gone forever. And you spend it in quiet resentment doing tasks you’d not consider in a million years if you had the choice.
I can think of 100 other things I’d rather be doing than working for someone else. Change the record Sara eh? I can hear you saying it, but I feel I must tell you that my life didn’t start to change until I took responsibility for my own actions.
That included starting my own business part-time and leaving paid employment the first chance I got. It wasn’t until I did that, that I had the TIME to start earning real money. All my time was taken up earning a salary when I could have been generating my own income streams, which weren’t based on anyone’s else’s perception of a ‘good rate’ or overtime
pay.
I think that inside all of us is an instinct that tells us that working for an employer is folly. Why else would faithful employees who are having serious financial problems get in touch with me for advice? Why don’t they go to their employer? The person who has benefited from their hard works for years, sometimes decades?
They do do this because they know deep down inside that the employer doesn’t care about them. Oh he cares that you don’t show into work because you’re having a breakdown because of your money worries, but not for the reasons you think he does. He’s more bothered about whether he should get someone to replace you. They email me because it’s started to dawn on them that they have to help themselves.
Not the best circumstances to realise it, but the end result is the same.
It’s the realisation that you need to take things into your own hands and it’s always a good thing. You can recover from financial problems (I’ve done it) but it’s like coming off drugs–if you go straight back to the pusher you’ve no chance. Likewise if you go straight back into the employee trap, chances are you’ll end up in the same financial situation several years down the line.
We’re taught to be an employee, to consume, to earn more, then consume more–bigger house, bigger car, bigger debt!
You have the advantage of learning from the mistakes I and many others have made. It’s not too late to get off the employee/debt cycle.
1. Cut your spending.
2. Start paying off your debts.
3. Start your own business part time.
To get rich you first have to become debt-free.
Remember what it’s like when you’re about to take delivery of a new car, or buy a new house? You’re excited and just can’t imagine how your life will be with your new possession or location. That’s what Internet Marketing is like.
That’s what earning your money from Ebay sales is like. The first time I earned over £5,000 in a little under 24 hours I felt guilty. I felt as though I’d done something wrong. That’s because we are programmed to work for tiny amounts of
money. It’s become the norm for me to earn such sums now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still nice to see it come in, but my mind has adapted to it and I’m comfortable with these sums. It’s not a novelty anymore, it’s what I earn. It’s what I do for a living.
If you’re reading and have a job you hate and are in debt it seems like you can never achieve this goal. I’ve been in your shoes. I’m not saying this to be smug (look at me–aren’t I wonderful??!!’) I’m saying this to tell you that your mind can adapt to different circumstances but you’ve got to put in the effort to get things moving.
It’s Sunday as I write this. My Sundays used to be horrible. From lunch time on I couldn’t enjoy them because I’d be thinking about work on Monday morning. Now I hardly know what day it is because I don’t need to. I don’t wear a watch. I was at a barbecue a few weeks ago. My neighbour was hosting it. He’s a doctor. Also there were a financial advisor, a teacher and a successful local artist.
Myself and the artist (who also worked from home) were the only ones who didn’t wear watches. The others constantly checked theirs, even though they didn’t need to be anywhere. It’s habit–it’s your brain telling you that you need to check whether you’re on your own time or are in someone else’s i.e. your employer.
The good news is that it’s easy to start as a home-worker. First you simply have to make the decision that you want to work for yourself. The second thing to do is not forget it. It’s easy to get sidetracked by other things and lose your focus. John Lennon said ‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’ .
I know we all need to live ‘real life’ we need to e able to pay the bills and the mortgage while making plans to work for ourselves, but just how ‘real’ is life when you’re signing yourself over to someone else as a willing slave 40 hours a week?
And best of all is the news that we are living in amazing times. We have entered the information age–where it’s possible to grow rich by playing around on your PC a few hours a day. The secret is to move with the times–the 9-5 grind belongs to a past age–the industrial age. It’s the people who move on who will survive and grow rich. Those who don’t will remain enslaved to both their employer, and to a way of life that is dying out quicker than technology moves forward.
That’s it – have a think about it see if you agree or not.
Best wishes and thanks again for opting in to this ezine
More soon.
Sara
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The first step? Start moving with the times
So real isn’t it - can you relate to it – isn’t it about time we all got off our backside and start thinking about providing for ourselves and our family without the stress.
