What I’VE LEARNED FRom risking it all to chase my dreams

Over the last couple of years, I have learned a lot from risking it all to chase after my dreams. It wasn’t easy, that is for sure, but along the way I realized how much I had to give up to chase my dreams. There’s this notion that staying in a 9 – 5 jobs saves you from all the problems that come with chasing your dreams. Well, it depends on a lot of factors. The truth is nothing is certain, when you go after your dreams, it takes a lot out of you. More than it would if you were in a 9 – 5 job. Here’s the thing, you aren’t sure that you will make it in the end. You aren’t sure you will keep your job. 

I don’t have a story about doing a corporate job and losing it or quitting. Most millennials are told they need to go to university and get a job. Then once they do, everything will be settled. I went to a great university and graduated at the top of my dream. I got three internships and I was ready to take on the world, but I didn’t get a job. All I heard was crickets, but I am not the only millennial who has gone through this.

You might be wondering if I am not risking a stable job then what is the point of this article. Risk can come in so many different shapes and forms. It all depends on the way you look at it.

I have realized that most times you have to do things that seem like they won’t work out so you can be certain they will. You can’t be successful if you don’t try. Even if the odds are up against you then you have to keep trying in order to make sure that you go after what you want. I have learned a lot of things from risking it all. You can use my examples as a way to understand what you will learn from risking it as well.

Risking the chance of being employed

I once listened to a podcast by Pete Voogd, in it, he said that they are two types of people; those that build other people’s dreams and those who build their own. He said often people work so hard to build someone else’s dream and that hit home. I realized I was doing that, not everyone can do the 9 to 5 thing. I certainly couldn’t, sure I was an intern, but it wasn’t even a really bad internship. I wasn’t sent on errands, it was more like a proper job with less pay.

I have never been so bored in my life. There were days when I would stare at the computer screen wondering why I was doing it. My family thought I was crazy, jobs are meant to be boring and that’s what growing up is all about. That might be a valid point, but the journey for me has been filled with so many roadblocks that I just couldn’t deal with doing a 9 to 5.

It was a stable career path. I always got paid every two weeks and I could do what I wanted with my money. Being an entrepreneur is unstable, for one thing, I can’t be certain I will have money this month or the next. At least this is how it is in the beginning.

However, I feel so alive doing this even though I know that it requires me to do a lot of work. Working on entrepreneurship means spending less time working on looking for a job. I learned this from risking it all. You can’t avoid it so you have to decide what you want. To be employed or unemployed for some time. It also depends on your circumstance, for some people they already have a job when they are working on their business. Remember, not to compare yourself going forward. 

Also Related: Why You Should Break Out Of Your Comfort Zone?

Risk of failing

This would be the third blog I have done, but it gave me an opportunity to understand how to set up a website. I know more about websites than I did two years ago. I wasn’t techno-savvy and yet, because I had to learn I became one. I learned about Photoshop, how to do graphics and the list goes on. I am not bragging, but the little I knew about computers was basic.

Grade level kind of basic and with time I no longer say I am not techno-savvy. Not because I am a genius because I am not. I have failed so many times that it’s strange I didn’t quit. Here’s the thing that I have learned, we all fail. It is a lot easier to swallow when our friends know about it and that’s it. When people outside of our circle know it stings. I published a book and it flopped so hard. I was miserable about it for a while, hesitant to do it again because I failed.

I realized with time my strategy sucked and that is why I failed. It still hurt, I posted it on Facebook. Thinking I would at least get a couple of dollars, it didn’t even earn a hundred. I want to be honest with you because most bloggers don’t share their pains just their gains. 

It occurred to me that I did fail, but that is the only way I could learn how to do it better next time. In the beginning, it will be a lot harder to gain momentum, but with the time that is what will happen. What I learned from risking it all is that failing is one thing that you cannot avoid. 

Also Related: Five Ways To Make Peace With Failure

Donating personal time 

When you chase after your dreams it means you donate your time. That is what happens because you are focusing on pushing yourself so that you get to where you want to go. It sounds crazy, right. In the beginning, you might not have enough time, to begin with, and that is where it gets even weirder. Doing all this means I have had to go to bed early. 

Often, I joke about how it has aged me because my bedtime went from 12 am down to 9 pm and then now it sits at 7 pm. A lot of people either think that I really love sleeping or I am delusional. I have had to learn to wake myself up really early because if I want to get all my things done then I have to work like a crazy person. I have three side gigs I am doing besides this blog so I never run out of cash flow. Sure, it is hard, but whoever said that this was easy clearly was lying.

I have realized that if I want to be successful, I need to work hard now so I can get to where I want to go. It may seem like I have always had self-discipline, but I will be honest with you that wasn’t the case. I was lazy. I was the type of person who watched television all day and never got bored. I would sleep at 5 am during the holidays just watching television. Nothing else seemed to matter. 

Now I dedicate my time to working on my dreams so that in the next couple of months or years I have achieved my goal. If I can do this then you can. You just have to believe you can. Sounds corny I know, but the word has been changed simply by having faith that you can make it. I learned from risking it all that sometimes giving up your personal time is something you need to do if you want to be successful. 

Being misunderstood

As a kid, the one thing that I hated was being misunderstood, but I welcome it now. Not because I am a crazy person, but I have realized that people will always have an opinion on you and it sucks. It sucks when your family thinks that you are a workaholic or your friends see you as someone who is chasing a dream that will never be fulfilled. 

A lot of people won’t support your dream, they have their own reasons and it is valid to them. You will lose friends along the way because they will misunderstand you. That is something you can’t avoid. I have learned that the hard way, but it is your decision what you do next. Even your parents might not support you the way you want them to.

What I have learned is everyone is doing the best they can and sometimes they are wrapped up in their problems. So, they can’t support you the way you want them to. Does that mean they are terrible people, no? But when you are dealing with your own problems, you can’t be someone’s support system. 

When you go down a different route then most people will misunderstand you. The hard realization is that you need to learn to be okay with it. Being okay with it makes you stronger.

As Kelly Clarkson said once upon a song, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Whatever happens in your life it will make you stronger, but in the end, we all risk things every day. The stakes are a lot higher for people who go after their dreams. There’s fear, failure seems imminent and you aren’t sure what tomorrow will look like. Does that mean you should give up? The thing is you can’t avoid risk, it will always be there, but it is far better to risk it all going after your dreams. You cannot avoid being misunderstood. Your family will think you are being childish, but you need to ask yourself what is important. I learned this from risking it all. Sometimes you have to deal with the heart ache for a little while to achieve what you want in the long haul. 

What risks are you willing to take to chase after your dreams? Loved to know. Comment below.

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                                                          Vanessa

13 habits of self-made millionaires in 2020

We are entering not only a new year, but a whole new decade and it is so much easier now to become a millionaire. Think about how many five year old kids have bank accounts bigger than yours. I mean, if a five year old can be a millionaire than what are we waiting for. In all fairness, they started so much earlier but still doors have been opened for people to change their lives.

Here’s the thing it all comes down to choices. The choices we make affect us more than we like to admit and it is here that we choose whether what we want to believe.

If you believe you can’t be successful than you won’t. That is why I compiled this list of the 13 habits of self-made millionaires in 2020. Some of them will surprise you and others won’t. It all comes down to your perspective, but this list will motivate you to make the choice to build a future where you can impact someone’s life. So here we go.

They invest in education

More many people this depends on the type of learner you are. Not everyone enjoys reading, I have come to understand that. Though if you are reading this blog than you are a reader. I digress, investing in education is so important and that is the one habit of self-made millionaires that can be spotted across the board.

From Gary Vee to Oprah to Grant Cardone. Education is so important. I am not talking here about getting a four-year degree from a university where you had to spend more money than you had.

That is what was great about the 2010’s, they changed the way we looked at education. It was no longer seen as formal, but could even be informal. The past decade people spent money learning online. There’s so much you can learn online from any skills you can think of to and any topic you can imagine. You can invest your money on books, courses, summits or conferences.

It doesn’t matter, education is a better investment than entertainment.

They hang out with other successful people

Want to be a millionaire or successful than you need to hang out with people who either are or want to be successful. Not sure where to find those people?

There are dozens of applications and websites built in the last decade to help you out. 

I did tell you that the 2010’s were an incredible era. The reason why you need to do this is because birds of a feather flock together. No kidding, there’s actually truth to that. I once heard that you are the average of the five people you spend your time with. Here’s a fact, you won’t become rich if you are spending time with people who are broke and who don’t want to change their life.

Habits tend to be very contagious. Have you ever seen a non-alcoholic spend time with alcoholics. No, right. What about a healthy person who spends time with unhealthy people. I could go on and on. If you surround yourself with people who exercise you will do. The same can be said for anything. Building relationships with people who are working towards something is as contagious as it gets.

They want to change the world

I told you that some would surprise you. We all think that the rich are selfish, maybe because of reality television shows. That changed our perspective a bit.

However, many self-made millionaires want to impact the world. They want to change it. They know that giving back is the best way they can show how grateful they are for the success they have.

All we have to do is look at Bill Gates, who is a billionaire. The amount of money and resources he gives back is unbelievable. Many people who own businesses want to help people achieve their success and they give back as much as they can.

Many self-made millionaires teach themselves to practice gratitude and that changes their perspective. Makes them charitable as they realize how short life is and doing something that matters is far better than the money they have in their bank accounts.

They are dreamers and practice creative visualization

When I was a kid I was told that dreamers never do anything with their lives. I spent a decade, looking at the habits and most of them are

dreamers. Well, you have to be if you are going to be a self-made millionaire. I can imagine them telling people about their dreams.

“So, what do you want to do with your life?”

“I want to start a business.”

There’s usually an eye roll involved when they’d reply back. “Really and what business and how are you going to do that when you dropped out of college.”

Many self-made millionaires either didn’t go to college or they dropped out. So, they’d have to be dreamers and practice creative visualization for their dreams to come true.

Creative visualization is the process of dreaming about what you want your life to be like. It might appear nonsensical, but when you think about what you want the future to be like, you are training yourself to work towards it.

They pursue their goals

Wait what? Yes, they pursue all their goals, no matter how nonsensical or difficult it might appear. If you want to be successful then you need to crack down on moving towards something. You have to follow-through so that you too can enjoy the success many self-made millionaires enjoy.

If you want to run a marathon then do that. Do you want to learn how to play guitar? Than learn how to do that. Maybe, you want to learn how to code. As long as you have full use of your hands then you can do that. Follow-through and you’d be surprised at what you will achieve by working on your goals.

When you work your way through your goals, something happens. It changes your perspective and you will grow a lot quicker. You’d be shocked at what you

achieve, if you start following-through with all your goals. Sure, take it in your strides, but it is still important to pursue your goals. Be comfortable with rejection and failure. it will help you follow-through.

They wake up early

I have yet to see any mammal that doesn’t love sleeping unless you are a whale. That however is a story for another day. Humans are no different. We love our sleep, very few of us can get away with little sleep and many of us struggle to wake up early.

I struggled for the longest time to wake up early. It was only until I was a lot older that I started getting used to and my life changed for the better. It was as if I was walking in the dark then I had a light bulb moment. Everything came into full swing and I changed the way I saw life even myself.

Every self-made millionaire wakes up early. I know, that’s a long list and a generalization, but in this case it is so true. They understand that their mind and body is more active if they wake up early so that is what they do. 

Research says that there’s far more benefit to waking up early. For example, you get more done than most people because while everyone is sleeping you are working. You also don’t rush into things because you would have had enough time to get ready. So, yes waking up early is really beneficial.

They have multiple sources of income

This one certainly surprised, I had spent so much time, thinking that most successful people had one source of income then I learned that they usually have seven or more sources of income.

As impossible as that seems, it isn’t really. It all comes down to understanding how to make money online which is a lengthy topic and one that you can read more about in detail by clicking the link below. Many successful people own more than one business, they also have written a book and are public speakers. They also invest in stocks, own e-commerce businesses.

This can be anything from selling clothes to accessories or even mugs with an interesting quote on them. The list goes on and on. Look at many successful YouTubers, many own a blog as well and that is another source of income. This is one of the habits that have people self-made millionaires.

When you have multiple sources of income, this is how your income grows a whole lot faster. If you learn this early on then you can become a self-made millionaire a lot quicker.

Many successful people do affiliate marketing, but they sell their own courses and programs as well. These are two separate sources of income. I could go and on about this. But you get the point.

Also Related: Quick Side-Hustle Ideas to Start At Home

They find and check up with mentors

If you are starting out and can’t afford a mentor then you can still invest your time. What I mean by this is you can go to YouTube and read books so you can learn something. A mentor does help you get to your destination a lot quicker, but many people can’t afford the price tag attached to it. So, I understand.

Still, investing your time is a great alternative and you can watch videos on any subject on YouTube. Learn as much as you can. You will have to do more work though, if you are learning on YouTube because sometimes the advice isn’t as clear cut as it could be.

I have learned that often the excuses we make for ourselves makes it a lot harder to escape the situation we are in. If you want the 2020’s to be your decade than you need to escape this way of thinking.

This is one of the habits many self-made millionaires have. Who you surround yourself with determines your course of action. This habit helps people become people become self-made millionaires faster. The reason is because when you ask for advice from those who are where you want to be, you can learn what to do and what not to do.

They are positive

I have yet to see a negative self-made millionaire. The habits that are self-made millionaires possess is their positivity. They don’t live the doom and gloom lifestyle many of us adopted in the 2010’s. Sure life gets hard and sometimes it feels good to say how much it sucks, but that can only take you so far until it doesn’t.

This is coming from someone who was extremely negative and I didn’t go far. I didn’t pursue my goals and I became friends with people who were just like me. It was like that for sometime until I realized I wasn’t evolving. I wasn’t growing or building. I was stuck in the same rut I had been with and I hated it. So, I decided I needed to change that. It wasn’t easier, but that is life. Nothing is easy in the beginning, it takes time and effort to change the way we operate.

If you want to be successful then out with the old and in with the new. The new you should be positive because if you are then you will achieve your goals no matter no matter what obstacles come your way. It is all a state of mind. If you want to be a self-made millionaire then you need to focus on this habit. This habit will anyone who wants to become a self-made millionaire focus on what is and isn’t important. 

They don’t follow the herd

Another habit of self-made millionaires is they don’t follow the herd. They don’t mind being outliers or even being seen as a little strange. They don’t mind people not understanding what they are working towards. They know what they want and even if they have to color outside the lines, they don’t care. 

Too many of us spend so much of time carrying too much what everyone else does or thinks. We want to be like everyone else and that is what we do. The problem with this kind of thinking is that we never step outside of our comfort zone or do what scares of us. We don’t build a business and regret usually follows.

So, if you want to be a self-made millionaire in the future then you need to learn that you don’t need to follow the herd. In fact, don’t follow the herd.

They spend time thinking and reflect

Yes, the world is always noisy, but still how many of us dedicate time to thinking. Not just thinking about our problems, That is ingrained in us, that many of us know how to do it without much thought. What I mean is many of us don’t ever consider our solutions or think about ideas. We never think about new business opportunities or wonder how we make more time.

Many of us struggle with time management, but there’s a way around it, that we never consider. You can only solve the problem if you spend time thinking about the solution. I had to learn how to do this and in the beginning it wasn’t easy, but life became so much easier once I did it. I then realized that many of us never think of solutions to our problems or ideas.

When you spend time thinking, your life changes. This habit of self-made millionaire will make you rich. Look at any successful person, many of them are self-aware and always come up with new ideas. Here’s a thing you might never have considered, it is a lot easier to come up with business ideas when you practice reflection.

They value feedback

Many of us hate feedback of any kind. That is understandable, but if you ever want to go anywhere then you need to realize that there’s so much you need to accept.

You also need to value feedback. I am not saying you should take everything in, but rather you value feedback. It is your choice what you should take note of and what you shouldn’t.

Constructive criticism will only make you better. I can promise you on that one, but you need to understand you will grow so much faster if you do that. You will learn so much as well as you go through all the motions. It does take time to process everything, but once you do then you will learn what you need to change. Feedback can help you tweak certain things whether it is project or an idea.

Those changes can help your product stand out a lot better. So, yes, it helps to value feedback. This habit is one that have self-made millionaire has adopted because they understand its importance

They never give up

Want to be successful then you should never give up. This habit is what makes self-made millionaires what they are. If they gave up then they wouldn’t be self-made millionaires. It is so much easier to give up. To throw in the towel and ignore the tiny voice that keeps saying to push forward.  If you want to be successful then you need to keep pushing forward even when the odds are stacked up against you.

The odds in the beginning will always be stacked up against you. If that wasn’t the case then we all would be successful. That isn’t how it works unfortunately, so you need to realize that you have to see it through. If you give up then you will never know what could have come from working on our dreams.

Every successful person has had to struggle, but they made it to the end of the line, by realizing that they can’t give up. Keep working on your dreams and I promise that you won’t regret it.

Also Related: How To Master The Art Of Never Giving Up

What is your main takeaway from this and what habits are you planning on working on? What are your goals for 2020, comment below.

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                                                             Vanessa