SWHi
New Contributor
This is a bit of a thought i've been juggling with that i've never bothered to post or really speak about anywhere else although the books and this place has really caught my attention and I feel like there would be some level headed constructive criticism for me here so I thought i'd breakdown the situation i'm in.
I have been working in the building industry since I was 18, i'm currently self employed and have been steadily building up contacts and building a reputation as a small business owner for about 2 years now. I quite like the skills involved with my work, especially now that i'm really getting the feel for it all and my ability to solve the daily problems that come with the job is really getting better. I'm definitely not a miserable wreck although i've got a couple things that are troubling me lately.
First off which is probably obvious to all of you is that the business model that I am currently running under is 'slowlane' trade time for money sort of thing, only really just sort of came obvious to me lately after reading the books which makes perfect sense. There's definitely ways to scale in the building industry, although I just don't think that I have enough drive for this industry to want to scale to that degree. I'm open to trying new things, learning and building new skills which i'm in the process of but that leads me to the main problem:
I guess you could say my 'passion' is MMA (mixed martial arts) mainly jiu jitsu but I train striking and wrestling on top, about 9 months ago, I did an overseas trip to train at some of the top gyms in the world with some of the top level athletes, mainly to try and gather what they were doing that was allowing them to get to such a high level, the results were basically just absolute consistency, training multiple times a day and great training partners around. I decided at the time that while I still had my youth and knew I had the ability to reach a high level in the sport, I would seek out the best training possible in my country and try to pursue that. I've joined a team and been training with them since my return which has been great, imagine playing basketball and being able to train with the Lakers week in week out, thats basically what this team is compared to in MMA, very high level training partners, the best quality coaching, a former UFC champion etc. I am so grateful to of been accepted to train with these guys, the problem is though, they are professional fighters, aka they don't work day jobs like I do.
Being self employed, I manage to scrape by and make it work with minimal hours but its just a big stress and a struggle, i've been trying to learn some new skills in my in between time so that I could work/launch something online that would allow me to train and do my thing. The whole training and competing thing is something that i'm obsessed over, I want to achieve mastery and compete at the highest level that I can, but even at my age now (25) I don't see myself ever getting to the point where I could make a career from fighting. So thats where my question sort of lies, I know that i'll regret not pursuing this with all that I have now, but how do you manage pursuing something that from a financial standpoint is probably a zero sum game.
Obviously don't want to be stuck working my job 'slowlaning' forever, but I know that I am where I want to be when it comes to training, I don't even really aspire to be a millionaire or in that 1% financially, obviously would be nice but I know you can't have everything. The aim is to try and get the ball rolling so that I can afford the time to focus in on mastering my physical skillsets.
The obvious issue is time, from your guys outside perspective, does it make more sense to invest the time in the 'passion' while i'm young enough to chase it wholeheartedly, does anybody even have a similar story of balancing earning income whilst chasing personal goals and also building a business? Minds all over the place right now! Any feedback is appreciated!
I have been working in the building industry since I was 18, i'm currently self employed and have been steadily building up contacts and building a reputation as a small business owner for about 2 years now. I quite like the skills involved with my work, especially now that i'm really getting the feel for it all and my ability to solve the daily problems that come with the job is really getting better. I'm definitely not a miserable wreck although i've got a couple things that are troubling me lately.
First off which is probably obvious to all of you is that the business model that I am currently running under is 'slowlane' trade time for money sort of thing, only really just sort of came obvious to me lately after reading the books which makes perfect sense. There's definitely ways to scale in the building industry, although I just don't think that I have enough drive for this industry to want to scale to that degree. I'm open to trying new things, learning and building new skills which i'm in the process of but that leads me to the main problem:
I guess you could say my 'passion' is MMA (mixed martial arts) mainly jiu jitsu but I train striking and wrestling on top, about 9 months ago, I did an overseas trip to train at some of the top gyms in the world with some of the top level athletes, mainly to try and gather what they were doing that was allowing them to get to such a high level, the results were basically just absolute consistency, training multiple times a day and great training partners around. I decided at the time that while I still had my youth and knew I had the ability to reach a high level in the sport, I would seek out the best training possible in my country and try to pursue that. I've joined a team and been training with them since my return which has been great, imagine playing basketball and being able to train with the Lakers week in week out, thats basically what this team is compared to in MMA, very high level training partners, the best quality coaching, a former UFC champion etc. I am so grateful to of been accepted to train with these guys, the problem is though, they are professional fighters, aka they don't work day jobs like I do.
Being self employed, I manage to scrape by and make it work with minimal hours but its just a big stress and a struggle, i've been trying to learn some new skills in my in between time so that I could work/launch something online that would allow me to train and do my thing. The whole training and competing thing is something that i'm obsessed over, I want to achieve mastery and compete at the highest level that I can, but even at my age now (25) I don't see myself ever getting to the point where I could make a career from fighting. So thats where my question sort of lies, I know that i'll regret not pursuing this with all that I have now, but how do you manage pursuing something that from a financial standpoint is probably a zero sum game.
Obviously don't want to be stuck working my job 'slowlaning' forever, but I know that I am where I want to be when it comes to training, I don't even really aspire to be a millionaire or in that 1% financially, obviously would be nice but I know you can't have everything. The aim is to try and get the ball rolling so that I can afford the time to focus in on mastering my physical skillsets.
The obvious issue is time, from your guys outside perspective, does it make more sense to invest the time in the 'passion' while i'm young enough to chase it wholeheartedly, does anybody even have a similar story of balancing earning income whilst chasing personal goals and also building a business? Minds all over the place right now! Any feedback is appreciated!
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