I Rebelled Against The Corporate System And Found Lifestyle

2012-10-05 06.35.26

From corporate to lifestyle….

(See My Video Below)

Seems like years ago… yet also seems like yesterday…

I was sitting in a cubicle where I prepared briefs and documents for the attorney’s I worked for.

I was meeting with clients, taking affidavits, receiving evidence and monitoring a very tight calendar of deadlines.

I loved my job.

I loved the work I was doing.

The only problem was, I didn’t have freedom with that.

I was still reporting to a job.

I was still asking for time off.

I was still expected to dress and look the part.

I was still receiving a capped income.

At the end of the day, I was trading time for dollars and building a million dollar empire for my boss using the skills I learned to perform my job.

At the end of the day, he drove home in his luxury car, I drove home in my little red camero. He booked vacations to Europe, I booked vacations in Santa Monica. He ate out a Ruth Chris Steak House and ate at Outback.

There were stark contrasts because he had the college degree that earned him the right to make more, yet on the flip side of the coin, he couldn’t possibly do his job without me doing my job. In fact, much of the work I was doing was ‘the work’ putting together a case. And often, I would come in early and stay late to get the work done.

I wanted more freedom. It was an inner calling… a destiny. I dreamed about it. I wanted it. I just wasn’t sure how that would look because I hadn’t really explored to the extent of taking action…

But then… I had an idea. I didn’t want to go back to college to get a law degree. So what could I do that required a 3-6 month education and position me to make the money I wanted? Real estate.

I got my real estate license and went full time. I earned more my first year in real estate than I did 3 years of being a legal assistant. And, I could work my career around the
kids.

… or was I deceiving myself. Looking back… I bought myself a job.

Here’s the deal with real estate.

1) Buyers tell you what they want but because they have unrealistic expectations of
what their money will buy, they spin your wheels. And if you’re at their beck and call,
they think you’re not a good agent.

2) Sellers expect you to be at their beck and call also. In addition, they expect you
to be showing their house everyday which they believe to be worth way more than
the market is indicating. They expect you to spend thousands of dollars to market
an overpriced home and can’t understand hiccups with home inspections,
appraisals and buyers stupid decisions to go buy a car 2 weeks before closing
throwing their loan qualifying numbers off.

3) Appraisers come in and determine the real value of the home and hopefully
you have done your job as a seller to make sure the selling price and the
appraised price works. Otherwise you have a problem.

4) Home inspectors always put tension and wrenches into the deal because of
course, no home is perfect. The seller will tell the buyer that the things they find
are minor. The buyers will tell the seller they are deal breakers. So after a fuss
and stress and calls in the middle of anything I’m trying to do with the family,
hopefully that gets resolved.

5) Pest inspections reveal termite damage that nobody counted on and tosses
a contract sideways.

6) It’s not over til it’s over. Even at the closing table things can go wrong. You’ve
seen TV shows about buying and selling homes… this stuff is real.

So while I made good money… my time really wasn’t my time. I couldn’t go home and ‘shut off’. My phone was on all the time because everyday it seemed there were fires to put out. You don’t want crazy buyers and sellers stewing for too long when they sense a problem.

I would often talk about this with close friends. It seemed I was chained in the same manner I was when I was a legal assistant… just in a different way. My time was not
my own. I could only make as much money as the houses I could put under contract and there was only ONE of me. I had no leverage.

It wasn’t until the real estate market crashed and I was forced to find replacement income. The only thing that came to mind was a completely new path….

… the world of online marketing. Selling stuff using the internet. And not Ebay stuff. I wanted to find a high ticket value based product and sell it online and make thousands of dollars.

It was during this time and the thought of going to a job that I absolutely knew that was NOT a solution.

I would never punch a clock again because common sense told me they could never pay me what I valued my time as.
I would never be chained to demands of bosses and clients.
I would never be told what to wear and look the part.
I would never be told how much I can make.
I would never be told when to wake up and go to bed.
I would never be told when I can take a vacation.
I would never have anyone complain about me not being available at precisely a specific time.

I WOULD CALL MY OWN SHOTS.

I WOULD LEVERAGE OTHERS FOR INCOME

I WOULD BE THE ‘ME’ THAT FITS ‘ME’.

The first year of online marketing was a bust. I spent another $35K and made no money. I chalk this up to my college tuition.

The next year I found that replacement income and lived happily ever after.

Watch My Video

4 Hour Work Week Tips For Success from Debbie Turner on Vimeo.

The 4 Hour Work Week

I read a book called The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss several years back.

In his book, he teaches you many lifestyle concepts. I’ve adopted many of these.

1) Take mini retirement trips several times a year. I take 6-7 extended vacations a year. DONE.

2) Stop watching the news and reading newspapers. If there’s something major happening that concerns me, someone will tell me. There’s lots of awesome great stuff going on in the world that nobody wants to talk about. DONE

3) Stop wasting time on ‘busy work’. Set a time frame to get done what has to be done, do it and go play. Most people that go to job only get about 1 hour of productive work done. The rest of the time it’s filler. DONE

4) Set up automation in your business. Ads to capture pages to sales pages to following up, to building relationships, and team training. These things you can set and forget while you live your life. DONE.

5) Stop checking email and phone messages all day. There is nothing so important that you have to respond which disrupts the life you’re living. DONE.

6) Stop saying “yes” to everything anyone wants you to do. I learned to say no to almost everything. This frees me up to create the life I want doing the things I want to do. I have learned to ask others… “Let’s do this”. DONE.

7) Ask people to send you an email with all the questions and concerns they have before a phone call to outline what they want to accomplish. I can then send a reply and take care of thse in about 3 minutes, then have a 5 minute conversation and save time. DONE.

8) Stop playing footsie with people. They either want the lifestyle they say they want or they don’t. You can’t help the ones that don’t. The ones that do will get started on the path and learn and implement. There’s no free ride. One has to get in the drivers set and apply pressure to the accelerator.

When you can get to a point in your life that you’ve had others control you enough…and you have dreams sitting on the shelf… and time is passing by and you begin to realize that….maybe then you will be brave enough to simply learn a new skill. That’s all it is my friend. It’s just learning a new skill.

When you put it in that perspective, it sounds silly to not explore it right?

When it’s just a matter of learning a new skill… a skill that help you get everything in life you want… what’s there to fear?

If you wanted to learn woodworking, you’d buy your tools, take your courses, hire a mentor/coach and you’d learn workworking. What’s the big deal?

Same thing. Going after your dreams is learning a new skill… one that will provide you with the time and income freedom to achieve what you want.

Make a decision what you want to do… and do it.

Will that be a life of living the status quo?

Or will that be the life you dream about.. the life you deserve?

The choice is yours!

I believe in you!

I’m cheering you on my friend!

Have a “business idea” day!