How I Escaped the Rat Race at Age 28
Since age 24, I was making over 6-figures as a headhunter.
Despite the seemingly high commissions I earned from my sales job, I began hating my life as an employee. The lack of freedom, the office politics, the inability to obtain any equity in a business I contributed to building, finally got to me around year 3 of being employed.
The reality I realized was:
I will, always and forever, be at the mercy of my employer as long as I need to rely on someone or thing other than myself for financial reasons.
That feeling of dependence was unsettling as much as it was binding. I had to live within the confines of others’ expectations, feelings, and opinions. As a fiercely independent person, the older I got, the more I realized I had to escape the rat race because I was beginning to hate my daily existence.
Therefore, no matter how tasty the gravy train was, I knew I would eventually have to jump off.
And hopefully not crash and burn when I did decide to take the jump…
Thankfully, I achieved my dream of retiring young from corporate life at age 28 due to these 3 strategies and motivations:
#1. Parlay income earned from comfortable corporate job quickly and diligently in $$-producing assets, not depreciating assets. My $$-producing assets consist of stocks (10%) and real estate (90%). I’m talking about profitable, income-producing real estate as investment properties. My rental value yields a profit of anywhere from 10–20% of my initial investment. Due to having passive income untied to any corporate entity, I am able to pursue options outside of a restrictive 9–5. Now my passion is growing my career coaching company, Dandan Global, totally self-funded through me and my team’s blood, sweat, and tears.
This strategy requires: Learning and Doing.
#2. Maintain (abnormally) low cost of living. I noticed something interesting as I started making more money every year. My colleagues’ salaries were growing with mine as we all became better salespeople and grew our headhunting revenues. However, hardly any of my colleagues actually built any wealth. As they grew richer, they also spent more on acquiring depreciating assets (rent, furniture, vacations, clothes, material goods that have no resale value). Ironically, they were spending more than they were making, thus becoming, NET POORER! Many people need the 9–5 construct to maintain their self-created spending/living habits.
That was a scary phenomenon to witness. People would try to convince me ALL THE TIME to “move to Manhattan”, “enjoy life”, “splurge”, and saying things like “I could never do what you do, live where you live, in your situation with roommates”. Many had no financial education in terms of investment vehicles to stash their extra money either. So it was actually crazy to essentially see the majority of people waste their riches and continue along this rat race and constant financial house of cards situation disguised as a seemingly beautiful life of corporate enslavement.
I still live in the same spot I lived in 5 years ago with 2 roommates, I still buy second hand furniture on Craigslist (I ain’t scared of bed bugs). I still ask for discounts and buy clearance clothing. I still drive my Toyota Prius 2007.
This strategy requires: Discipline and the ability to delay gratification.
#3. Pursue something you’re super passionate about. In the last year of my corporate job, I realized how bored and unhappy I was. I gained weight, I became complacent, I lost motivation, I started to become miserable. The only light at the end of the tunnel was my passion for real estate and thinking of my own future company.
Once I was ready per Strategy #1 and #2, I was so happy to quit my job and start living again. So now, despite not having a cushy, guaranteed income hitting my bank account every month, I have honestly never been happier. Every day, I am motivated intrinsically to share my stories, experience, and advice with job-seekers who want to learn more about how headhunting works and how the hiring game actually operates in the real world. I’m in a unique position where I am one of the very few headhunters who have made it out of the corporate game to now work directly with consumers on career coaching.
