Realization #2: I am self-employed but I am still trading my time for money.
You can give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. You can give a man a fishing rod and he’ll eat until he can no longer physically fish. Or you can show the man how to build a fish trap so he doesn’t have to spend his entire life fishing alongside the stinkin’ river.
I need to get me some fish traps.
Case study: my father. A man with a high school education. Thirty years ago he was making $80,000
a year, in 1979 dollars, in Texas. Believe you me, that was a good living…probably equivalent to making at least $300,000 a year today in Pennsylvania. He operated a small, successful construction business and realized early on that life is composed of winners and losers. A simplistic notion, but one that worked for him. You bid a contract and emerge as low bidder….good. You finish that contract spending less money than you rake in….even better. He worked his undereducated ass off and got burned out and retired too early…but honestly, my dear departed mom (his business partner and the smarter of the two) was the spark plug that made their business work. Good timing, HARD WORK, taking chances, cultivating the right relationships, being completely focused, and being in the right place at the right time were the ingredients that made his business successful.
He started his business at age FORTY. So you’re ahead of the curve.