Just when you thought you'd be financially free - you find yourself in the exact same spot as last year. In today's post, I'm going to share with you ONE piece of advice which will revolutionize the way you think about your career.
Before we get into it fellow Steemians, I'd like to thank you all for tolerating my recent inactivity. It's been around two weeks since I've last posted, a much needed time interval for introspection, execution, and self reflection. Yet, I come back to realize a RISE in my follower count. I thought I'd come back to zero followers and the sound of crickets chirping, but it did not turn out too bad :)
On that note, I really appreciate you guys. Whether or not you follow along with my content, I genuinely wish you tremendous success and happiness in life. I also wish that you wish this for others - because that is the first step for us to make an impact as we serve the greater good.
Onto the discussion.
Some of you know that I have studied graphic design, advertising and marketing during my university years; and I specialize in digital branding and illustration. I've been in the industry for over 8 years now and have done work in advertising/design agencies, universities and big freelance gigs, to name a few.
Some of you also know that on January 2017, I decided to become self employed and build a legacy as I pursue the road of entrepreneurship, because I felt like I had a lot to give to the world.
7 months have passed.
But progress was not as I expected.
Here's why.
Like many creatives, I fell into the trap of wanting to "be my own boss". But does being your own boss actually set you free from the chains of time?
The other day I attended an event with a friend who is taking a course in money management and forex. His instructor brought in a guest speaker.
The guest speaker turned out to be a cold hard entrepreneur with an invigorating success story, starting with watching his parents not eat dinner so they can have enough money to send him to school. Out of the darkened soil blossomed a successful investor, founder/CEO of Siyaha Invest, and the president of the Lamborghini club here in Lebanon.
The moment he walked in the room, his electric presence left many of us silent. He began his talk with the idea that in life, there is no luck. It's just about putting in the work.
This traditional black & white thinking kind of turned me off. I started to remember clients I worked with who just did not get the importance of spontaneous creativity when it comes to design, advertising, branding and marketing projects.
But here's what Mr. Manal said that hit me like a ton of bricks:
If you are a one man agency, you are not an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is about making money while you sleep. If you are, for example, a designer selling design services, you are a self employed designer - not an entrepreneur. The moment a system is in place and you're making money while you sleep, you are an entrepreneur.
He also said:
If you ask this person "Can you take a three week vacation next month?" and they answer "No man I've got a business to run!" this person is a slave to his or herself. Sure, he or she is their own boss and that's great, but they have to constantly be there to run the business. Without them, the business would fail."
That was it. That was all I needed to hear to shift gears and tweak my career approach toward entrepreneurship. From January 2017 until today, I have been working day in and day out, stuck to my laptop, serving clients and customers. That's not freedom now is it!
I would have to build a system so that, if I were to be absent from the business for some reason, it would still run and be profitable. That's the key!
On the same day, I made my first $500 in PASSIVE income.
Check this out:
A friend of mine was pulling his hair out a few months ago attempting to get done a data entry job entering movies into a website for money he needed urgently. He was getting payed $500 per 1,500 entries.
During our phone conversation, I suggested that I could make his work easier by finding him a virtual assistant to do the work. She asked for $100 for the same amount of work!
Ecstatic, he agreed and insisted that I get $100 from the $500 payment, $100 for the VA, and the final $300 for himself. I hired four other employees to help out, each at $100, and he trained them on what to do.
He, like me, is a hard worker. But this opportunity came out of nowhere and blessed us with clean money based on demand and arbitrage. Not to mention having discovered a hidden talent of mine in Human Resources.
The reason this worked is because a system was implemented. I've failed at starting companies so many times, blind to the vision of how and how fast the business will be profitable. I've deployed my resources, budgets, and creativity in ways that didn't serve the profitability or cashflow of the company.
Advice that would've saved 5 years from my life:
Never take a new company idea seriously until it makes you money - not the other way around.
There are a select fundamental steps that must take place for cashflow to be produced. We should focus on perfecting these steps and building a system that can generate cashflow, THEN thinking deeper about design, marketing and advertising routes.
If you do it the other way around, you, like me, will throw a lot of money into the vast sea of deceptive possibilities.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you got as much value out of today's blog post as I've gotten.
What is your take on entrepreneurship as a creative? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
Your long distance friend,
Mo
