“Thank God I Don’t Have a Job”

When my friend said this, I froze.

Hot chicken dripped down my face as I raised an eyebrow. Though we sat in a loud restaurant just west of Nashville, that sentence reached my ears clearly.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yep,” he said, pushing his unfinished fries to my side of the table. “I would never be able to afford life otherwise.”

First, this:

I still have a “traditional” job. There’s an office, a boss, and a guaranteed paycheck. There are a lot of good things about this type of job.

There is, however, one thing in particular which most don’t notice (or don’t acknowledge). As a creative person who fears a cage the most, this is the aspect of corporate America which makes me squirm:

The ceiling.

There is always a ceiling, no matter how much you love your job or how hard you work.

My friend, as I learned on our lunch date, makes somewhere around $10,000 every month. Much of that money comes from a product he has already created, and is sold by an automated process he built. He works very hard, but also has the freedom to meet up for lunch in the middle of the day.

In Corporateville, every single dollar is attached to more responsibility. Most people I know who make $10,000 a month at a job operate under a high amount of stress. They are almost always on call. They work late hours. They see their families very little.

(Sorry — “most people” is misleading. I know 3 people who make that much in traditional jobs. Each of their lives is exactly like that.)

A question for you:

How much more do you think you can squeeze out of your current job? Another 3%? Another $2,000 a year? Another raise? Another promotion? More importantly, how much do you think you can squeeze out of yourself, knowing that income is directly proportional to the time and attention you spend?

In a company — the payoffs for your ideas rarely match the value or freedom those ideas bring in the open market.

Last week, on a hunch, I made a few tweaks to my website and email list. I sold 5 books the next day. Immediate experiments, immediate results.

You rarely see that sort of instant opportunity with an employer.

Let’s play a game.

The average yearly salary for a single person in America is roughly $35,000, according to USA Today. In our imaginary scenario, you work 40 years for a few different companies. You get some promotions along the way because you are a bright person who works very hard.

We’ll say your lifetime total of earning is:

$1,999,999

Here’s an interesting question to ask yourself:

Where is my 2 millionth dollar?

Maybe manipulating your hobby into a full-time job feels like too much. I get it. That’s a hard road. You’ll probably invest a lot of money up front. Plus, what if you twist and torture a more enjoyable piece of your life into something which feels like work?

That’s a scary thought.

But what if your hobby could pay your gas bill? Your electric bill? Could a few changes here or there buy you a house if applied over 10 or 15 years?

Another interesting question to ask yourself:

Why couldn’t you?

Why couldn’t you learn a few skills to sell what you do have?

Why couldn’t you make your hobby profitable?

Why couldn’t you buy something, fix it, and then sell it for more?

Why couldn’t you unlock the cage before the ceiling caves in on you?

I don’t know where your 2 millionth dollar is…

But for most people it lies under an idea.

Ideas + action + love = abundance.

I believe ideas are the key piece of this equation. That’s why I’m giving away my book — The Ultimate Guide to Infinite Ideas — for the price of an email address.

Get your copy at toddbrison.com/infiniteideas.