The term ‘the greatest time of my life’, when referring to university, is a phrase that undergraduates have heard regularly before, during and after their time in higher education. Usually in a pensive, lamenting tone from older people as they look back on a time of freedom and optimism before full-time job destroyed their hopes and dreams. I am fairly certain that those who are graduating in 2017 will look back with the same rose colored glasses and regale their co-workers with stories of the epic life they lived in university.
Why do we refer to the past as, ‘the greatest time of my life,’ as if the remaining sixty or so years of our lives simply won’t ever compare to the three or so years of dirty pints and luminous green vomit. Work is the reason. The fulltime, never fulfilling, cog-in-the-machine drudgery.
The transition between university and work is like going to sleep on a fluffy Disney-like cloud and waking up on a wet cardboard-box around the back of a dirty ally.
We will zoom in to one person to continue our narrative. Let me introduce James. James graduated from university a few years ago, after having a lot of fun, he found himself at a job working the typical 9-5 among many others that share his story. Waking up early, heading into meetings, sitting at his desk working the phone and key board trying to meet his targets.
He leaves work, probably catches pints with his boys once in a while, reminisce the crazy times they had in University, heads home eats and sleeps. The next day wash, rinse and repeat. One day after a particularly annoying meeting with his superiors he starts to think,’ is this all there is to my live? Have I already spent the best time of my life? after thinking this for a few minutes blankly staring at his computer screen,
a small voice inside him says, no, there is more to life than this. Suddenly he has more vigor to push on and find a way out of the rat race he is currently stuck in.
The first step James considers is figuring out where he is exactly financial, if he is ever going to get out of his currently situation he figures he has to at least know how deep he had dug himself. The student loan alone comes to around $351.00 per month, adding, rent entertainment and miscellaneous, James’ income of $2,000 gets depleted in totality.
After documenting his current expense and his income, he looks at his assets and liabilities. ‘In order to make it easy, we will reference to assets as anything that puts money in your pocket and liabilities anything that takes money out of your pocket’.
After James has a real one-on-one with his finances, he realizes that the 9-5 is a donkey and carrot game, were if you meet your targets they will be raised forcing you to work harder and harder while spending less and less time living but at the same time the 9-5 is a necessary evil at the beginning to meet his expenses.
In order for him to be free though, he needs to increase his assets. He learns from Robert Kiyosaki’s book Financial I.Q that the first financial I.Q is to make more money. He begins by looking at his interests, what would he continuously learn about or do for hours without being bored. His journey of self-discovery takes a few weeks as he finds his interests. He looks for an asset that produces cash flow, diving into Bitcoin mining, adding value by writing on steemit, you tube ads, network marketing, tenders, affiliate marketing, consulting, bitconnect lending, etc.
He chooses the ones that match his interest. Once he has begun earning from his assets. He uses the funds to buy more assets, increase income. His first & only goal is to surpass his expenses with passive income, if it is steemit, producing content that adds value, he decides to post 1 article per day thus increasing his circle of influence and at the same time changing the lives on the people that read his articles.
The process may take time say 6 months to maybe even 5 years but the best line I have ever heard is, ‘the time will pass anyway so you better put in the work’. One more thing, success is a habit it’s not wish upon a star & the celestial bodies are aligned you become an instant success, what you do daily determines what you will have.
Write down what you need to do to reach your goal e.g. write 5 minute content for steemit every day, learn how to market on YouTube Learn how to code on python, then consult on various projects, learn how to run a niche shopify store and so on.
There is a saying I love,’ what gets measured gets done’. Measure your progress; track it every day as you forge towards your goal.
In future posts we will look at how James is doing and what steps he took next.
This will put you ahead of the pack. I hope this added value to you
Kindly share your thoughts in the comment section.
Sources:
https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not, by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. Warner Business Books, 2000