Be Careful What You Get Good At
You are either building something for yourself, or for someone else. And if you want to get good at creating your own life, here are some ways you can make that happen.
There are certain pieces of wisdom that stick with us throughout our lives. Often, there is no conscious decision to make these things stick — they just do. And they can often have a major impact on our direction in life.
I am obsessed with these “aha” moments. I find them fascinating. And I want to dissect and look deeper into more of my own, and how they have impacted me.
This is one of those moments. I learned a deep lesson from this, and it has been one of the core philosophies in my life that led me out of the 9–5 and into “working from home” in my own businesses for the last 15 years.
A Younger, More Beautiful Me
When I was younger I was having a conversation with my uncle at a family gathering. He is one of my role models even though he probably wouldn’t know it.
He is one of the funniest and most charismatic people that I know. And I don’t say that lightly.
A short background: My uncle went from being a car salesman to one of the top medical sales reps in the country. He now owns and operates his own medical sales business and is extremely successful.
Which is why he is easily one of the best role models for me to have.
While we were shooting the shit he said to me, “Look. You can get good at being a truck driver, or you can get good at making money. Be careful what you get good at.”
And that, specifically the last line, has stuck hard with me ever since.
Where Do You Spend Your Time?
We all get to choose what we become. It starts with what you think/focus on, moves to where we spend our time, and ends with what we become years down the road.
Whether we make that choice on our own or not, what we “get good at” is based on where we spend our time.
For instance, take me. There have been some good things, and some bad things, that I have “become” in my life.
On the more negative side, I have a strong propensity to love and binge on competitive video games.
It starts on YouTube or some other form of media. As my thought and focus turns to video gaming, eventually, I start having a conversation in my head, begin to justify, and it ends with me picking up that damn controller.
And then weeks, months, years end up being wasted. Yes — wasted.
So, I had to find ways to change my focus in order to break my bad habits.
However, this also works the other way.
My entire life what I wanted was time. I hated working jobs, the 9–5, and I always wanted to become self-sufficient and find ways to create an income stream that wouldn’t need my direct attention every hour of every day.
That was my ultimate goal.
And because that was what I wanted to “get good at,” I put my focus, my time, and my energy into learning skills that would eventually lead me to where I am today.
“Be careful what you get good at.”
A Job as a “Stepping Stone”
I have nothing against working a job. If it makes you happy then great, do what you want.
But all too often I hear this same story over and over.
And, funny enough, I had this exact conversation last night at a family birthday party. We’ll call the other person Johnny because, why not?
Me: “What do you do for work?”
Johnny: “I do inventory for my dad’s company.”
Me: “Oh cool, do you like it?”
Johnny: “It’s ok. It’s a job.”
Me: “What do you want to do?”
Johnny: “I don’t know, something else. It’s just a stepping stone right now.”
Me: “Oh cool. Are you in school? What else do you do?”
Johnny: “No, not doing school. I am in a city volleyball league!”
End.
So many people want something else from their lives. But it’s almost like they don’t want to make that decision for themselves. They expect time, luck, or just some inopportune religious experience to change that for them.
It doesn’t.
In the words of Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
If you do not have a focus on something specific, then you will find yourself in 20 years becoming what you already are today. Just with a dash of bitterness and depression stemming from the lack of doing anything difficult or fulfilling in your life.
And you might say, “but what if in 20 years I ended up getting a raise and a promotion and it all works out fine.”
Great! It’s called a good accident. There are some amazing accidents — I love my nephew. But when it comes to your life, that is a massive risk to take. And, in almost all cases, it does not work out.
“Be careful what you get good at.”
Creating Your Own Opportunity is the Best Insurance
I always think it’s funny how the world views “jobs” as some kind of safe space to be in.
Years ago, I was talking to a landlord about renting a property from her. After looking at my “employment” section, she noticed I was self-employed.
After realizing this, she said, “Renting to someone without a steady job is too much of a risk.”
So, I said to her, “How is that more of a risk? If I need more money, I have the skills and know how to go make more money. But if you rent to someone with a job, and they lose that job, they are dependent on someone else to give them another job, or they won’t be able to make their rent payment.”
She laughed, and then acknowledged I was right. But, of course, she never called me back (lol).
You could have been the best employee at Enron, and you would have still lost your job when Enron went under. Why? Because you have no control over the real outcome of the company where you work.
And if you do manage to do something spectacular for that company, you will often not receive any major benefit for doing so.
If your end goal is to make someone else rich, then great. I know money isn’t everything, but people do not often make the money they are worth. In fact, in order for you to work at a company, you cannot ever make what you are worth. The entire point is for you to make less than you are worth so that the company can create a profit.
This is why I get bothered so much when people say, “we,” when referring to the company they work for. Like they are part of the god damn place. Employers love it, but, I hate to break it to you guy, you don’t own the place.
If a job is a true stepping stone, or something that you are using to hone a skill that you eventually want to use for your own personal profit and merit, then good for you. But if that is not your exact desire, purpose, and focus, then it will never become a reality.
There Are So Many Ways to Make Money
One of my closest friends, Justin, is always talking about interesting new ways to make a couple bucks. From charging Lime scooters, to taking surveys or delivering for Postmates, there are so many ways to make a few bucks.
These odd and interesting side hustles just reiterate how much money there is to be made in the world. But these aren’t the real business ideas that are going to propel you forward to complete self-sufficiency.
For the most part there are two kinds of businesses. Some do marketing, some do sales, and some do both.
Any of these will work.
Let’s break down these businesses. You can focus on “getting good at” any of these, and easily find yourself happily productive, owning your life, and having time in the future to do whatever you want.
Sales
If you are good at sales, then it just becomes finding something you can sell that will make you more money than your cost per lead (and time).
There are millions of places where you can buy leads online — for almost every industry imaginable.
Or you can hire someone to build a website, use social media, or do whatever it is that works to get leads for you.
Then, once you’re growing, you can work on finding new ways to lower your cost per lead, and even hire and train others to free up your time.
Boom. That’s really it.
Sales is hard. If you are good at sales then it’s pretty hard to lose. If you are having trouble getting leads or don’t know where to start, feel free to reach out to me, this is what I live for.
Marketing — Lead Generation
The other side of the coin is marketing. There are a million ways to generate leads. You can either learn to use these for your own business, or get good at one or more of these tactics and sell your services to existing business that need them.
And the internet is full of amazing material on ways to learn or improve on any of these marketing skills.
Adwords
Adwords is simply Google Ads. A great way to generate leads. It can be pricey, but it’s often the most targeted ad platform available.
This also included video ads, Adsense, and any other way Google can sell attention.
Facebook and other Social Platforms
Facebook is huge, and Gary Vaynerchuck talks a ton about it being very underpriced right now. A great place to learn lead gen.
There is also Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more will follow. Learning how to generate leads on these platforms is invaluable. And as one goes under, another will follow. These skills will always be valuable, even if the platform you learned on becomes obsolete.
Search Engine Optimization
Building links, content, and authority in order to get organic traffic from search engines is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Another great skill to have in the lead generation game.
Anything Internet Related
There are so many skills you can develop within this framework as well. Selling photography for websites to use, building websites, building apps, writing articles, doing outreach, email marketing — there are so many skills you can learn and create your own business around. However, you still have to sell and get leads for your services, which is why, inevitably, you will find yourself getting good at sales, marketing, or both regardless of what business you choose.
(For more on the idea behind getting good as a technician or getting good as an entrepreneur, definitely read “The E Myth Revisited.” One of the best business books ever written.)
Marketing — Attention
The other side of this is getting attention. Instagram influencers, YouTube channels, podcasts, websites, if you can get attention, marketers will pay you for ads that convert to leads.
If you can get people’s attention, there is always a way to profit from that.
Marketing — Selling Physical Products
There is also the physical products route. This often means the sale is happening online, after the marketing has done its job, without actual contact from a salesperson.
There are a million business ideas within this sphere. However, they often mean getting good at one or more of the marketing type strategies mentioned previously.
Create Your Own Opportunity
Anyone can create their own opportunity and their own life. Any life you want, it’s there for the taking. But you have to take the time to get good at something, on purpose, that will lead you there.
Luckily, I took my uncles words to heart at a young age and decided what I wanted to become. Not all of us get the opportunity to learn these entrepreneurial lessons at a young age. But no matter where you are today, you can change your focus, and be what you want to be tomorrow.
Believe in yourself.
