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The following is an introduction of who I am to give you a better idea of how to answer the topic question. If you already know me, then you can skip down to The Discussion, though I also talk about recent events you may not know about.
Introduction
For those who don’t know me, I’m a 26-year old, self-employed owner of a moderately successful carpet cleaning business. I’ve also had unsuccessful ventures into the other two asset classes: real estate and paper assets. The physical reason I failed in the latter areas and am not growing in my current business is because of my lack of marketing ability or the ability to outsource it. NOTE: That is not the purpose of this discussion, so let’s avoid the topic, please.
Very recently, I grew tired of simply getting by on my business. Sure, I was easily surviving in a 3-bedroom townhome, working only 20 hours per week, but I felt greatly dissatisfied with it. I wasn’t getting ahead and my life seemed to lack direction.
Since I strongly felt that I could not grow the business any longer, I turn to my old college degree in Electronic Engineering Technology for help. Originally, I got the degree to provide a better future for myself, only to find a terrible job market. For no apparent reason, I was extraordinarily lucky to find not only a job interview, but one that was perfectly suited for my degree. Currently, I’m working 40 hours per week at the job and still working the business on the side.
The results of working both at the same time has been unexpected. I anticipated being completely miserable, working both my business and the job at the same time. So far, there has been no conflict between the two. My clients leave a message on my voice mail, and I discretely check it every couple hours during my breaks to take appointments. They seem very understanding to work with my new schedule, because of this economy.
Would I say that I’m happier with the new job? The job in and of itself doesn’t make me happier. Rather, it prevents me from focusing on my sadness. Granted, I’d like to have more free time, but when I only had the business, I had so much free time, that I didn’t know what to do with it, besides focusing on how poor business was. Taking action only resulted in futile results, making me further depressed. On a side note, since starting the new job, I’ve already lost five pounds. Apparently, despite being a more sedentary job, it provides more of a distraction which keeps me from turning to food for pleasure.
The Discussion
As a result of these new emotional findings, I decided to return to the beginning: why. Why do I want to become wealthy if doing so only made me more bitter and depressed?
For me, it was simply a matter of logic. At the time I got my college degree, I had a choice. Either I get a job with my degree, working 50 hours per week, earning $35K per year, or I could join my dad’s carpet cleaning business, working 30 hours per week, earning $30K per year. The choice seemed clear to me. Even when I bought the business, it made perfect sense, given the numbers at the time.
As a minor side-motivation, it also seemed to be the ethical thing to do. The impression that I get from the rich is that poor and middle class people are bad people. They are only poor, because they are lazy. They conspire to steal wealth from those in power through taxes, entitlements, and other government functions. They feel that money is the root of all evil, because they don’t have it. Obviously, no rational person would consciously choose to be a bad one. Thus, I decided I wanted to be wealthy.
The problem is that logic and ethics aren’t nearly enough of a motivation to build wealth without the passion to back it up. You need an incredibly strong desire to have it more than anything else, which I do not have. This further depressed me, because I felt like a bad person for not having that desire.
Back to the question in the topic: How do I find or manufacture that desire?
My first inclination was to look at other people’s motivations and borrow them. Most people seem to want financial freedom so that they can buy more things, get better health care, or have more free time to travel the world, be with their family, or do whatever they really want to do with their life.
Honestly, none of that interests me in the slightest. I already have all the material possessions I want, except for things that cost under $30. My health care seems adequate right now, though I’m still young. I know I can’t physically work forever, but that’s so far away, it provides no motivation to me today. Having a family is of no interest to me, nor is traveling the world.
What else is there? What do I do if I continue to lack the passion for building wealth? Am I simply doomed to be middle class for eternity?
Thanks for the discussion.
Introduction
For those who don’t know me, I’m a 26-year old, self-employed owner of a moderately successful carpet cleaning business. I’ve also had unsuccessful ventures into the other two asset classes: real estate and paper assets. The physical reason I failed in the latter areas and am not growing in my current business is because of my lack of marketing ability or the ability to outsource it. NOTE: That is not the purpose of this discussion, so let’s avoid the topic, please.
Very recently, I grew tired of simply getting by on my business. Sure, I was easily surviving in a 3-bedroom townhome, working only 20 hours per week, but I felt greatly dissatisfied with it. I wasn’t getting ahead and my life seemed to lack direction.
Since I strongly felt that I could not grow the business any longer, I turn to my old college degree in Electronic Engineering Technology for help. Originally, I got the degree to provide a better future for myself, only to find a terrible job market. For no apparent reason, I was extraordinarily lucky to find not only a job interview, but one that was perfectly suited for my degree. Currently, I’m working 40 hours per week at the job and still working the business on the side.
The results of working both at the same time has been unexpected. I anticipated being completely miserable, working both my business and the job at the same time. So far, there has been no conflict between the two. My clients leave a message on my voice mail, and I discretely check it every couple hours during my breaks to take appointments. They seem very understanding to work with my new schedule, because of this economy.
Would I say that I’m happier with the new job? The job in and of itself doesn’t make me happier. Rather, it prevents me from focusing on my sadness. Granted, I’d like to have more free time, but when I only had the business, I had so much free time, that I didn’t know what to do with it, besides focusing on how poor business was. Taking action only resulted in futile results, making me further depressed. On a side note, since starting the new job, I’ve already lost five pounds. Apparently, despite being a more sedentary job, it provides more of a distraction which keeps me from turning to food for pleasure.
The Discussion
As a result of these new emotional findings, I decided to return to the beginning: why. Why do I want to become wealthy if doing so only made me more bitter and depressed?
For me, it was simply a matter of logic. At the time I got my college degree, I had a choice. Either I get a job with my degree, working 50 hours per week, earning $35K per year, or I could join my dad’s carpet cleaning business, working 30 hours per week, earning $30K per year. The choice seemed clear to me. Even when I bought the business, it made perfect sense, given the numbers at the time.
As a minor side-motivation, it also seemed to be the ethical thing to do. The impression that I get from the rich is that poor and middle class people are bad people. They are only poor, because they are lazy. They conspire to steal wealth from those in power through taxes, entitlements, and other government functions. They feel that money is the root of all evil, because they don’t have it. Obviously, no rational person would consciously choose to be a bad one. Thus, I decided I wanted to be wealthy.
The problem is that logic and ethics aren’t nearly enough of a motivation to build wealth without the passion to back it up. You need an incredibly strong desire to have it more than anything else, which I do not have. This further depressed me, because I felt like a bad person for not having that desire.
Back to the question in the topic: How do I find or manufacture that desire?
My first inclination was to look at other people’s motivations and borrow them. Most people seem to want financial freedom so that they can buy more things, get better health care, or have more free time to travel the world, be with their family, or do whatever they really want to do with their life.
Honestly, none of that interests me in the slightest. I already have all the material possessions I want, except for things that cost under $30. My health care seems adequate right now, though I’m still young. I know I can’t physically work forever, but that’s so far away, it provides no motivation to me today. Having a family is of no interest to me, nor is traveling the world.
What else is there? What do I do if I continue to lack the passion for building wealth? Am I simply doomed to be middle class for eternity?
Thanks for the discussion.
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