I’m not your typical internet marketer I reckon…
I don’t drive a flash car. We have a new one for going places in and an 11-year old one for chucking garden waste and stuff in the back and doing countryside ‘workhorse’ stuff
I don’t live in a big fancy house. We have a comfortable cottage in a nice village with enough garden to grow veggies and easily fit in a trampoline for the kids.
My kids wear second-hand school uniforms sometimes….
They grow so fast that we’re constantly swapping school T-shirts, jumpers and stuff with other parents whose kids also grow out of their uniforms in a matter of months
Makes sense
Some people are horrified about letting their kids wear second-hand clothes but I did as a kid and MY sprogs are fine with it – until they get a bit older and clothes start to matter more than spiders, tadpoles and secret diaries
I often take my kids to school.
It’s mostly mums who do this and I figured out a few years ago that quite a few of the parents think I’m an umemployed loser (I look scruffy most days)
I don’t mind 🙂
I’ve never missed a school sports day, a Christmas play, a parent’s evening, a book day, a ‘Dad’s day’, a prize giving or anything like that.
Not once.
I remember talking to my daughter’s teacher at an open evening last year when some other dad I’d never seen before in an expensive suit and clutching a mobile phone came striding up and started talking over me to the teacher…
…I soon cut him off and he apologised but said he had an important meeting at work (this was around 7pm) and he was in a rush
I let him take my place because I felt sorry for him, his fancy suit, his self-importance and his forever beeping phone because he’d got his priorities SO wrong
I’d never seen him with his kids at school in four years – apparantly he travels a lot with his high-status job
Do you think his little girl gave a shit about how important he was at work?
…or how he strode around clutching his phone to his ear making ‘important’ decisions?
Nah, she just wanted some time with her dad.
Sure work is important but it’s not THAT important
And that’s the whole point of why I’m writing this.
Time. It’s what life is about.
It’s what life IS.
When you’ve had your last minute on Earth there’s no point phoning customer services on your fancy friggin mobile and demanding another two years…
because it’s not coming
…I realised this a long time ago which is why I worked my arse off before our kids came along to get myself into the position where I’d never need to work for anyone else as long as I lived
If I HADN’T done that then guess what?
(this is important)
I’d be doing it NOW
If I worked a 9-5 job now I’d be spending every spare hour replacing my salary from my online earnings (because that’s all you need to get out of your 9-5)…
Because that two or three grand a month you earn working for someone else is your cell door
It’s the barrier between you and your precious time
Time to spend with my friends and family
Time to get creative, think, dream and build my business without being too knackered after working 50 hours a week
A job is about swapping your time for money
(and at some point your time will STOP forever)
But a business is about creating a SYSTEM where time ISN’T related to money.
Please read this next bit – it’s vital:
A job is where you toil endlessly exchanging your money for time. All you have to offer is your time and until you retire or drop dead that means you have to work endlessly in order to earn a wage
A business is where you build a SYSTEM – a process that drives wealth towards you
The difference is, with a business, the toil is in building the system itself. You just need to do it once
After that you just reap the rewards and tweak it
So do you work endlessly, week after week, year after year exchanging your precious time for money?
Or do you work (bloody hard) for several months or years to build your system?
…for example a list of 100,000 that will bring you a whole weeks wages for just one email…
…or a website with organic traffic that pays you a hands-free $7,000 a month in Adsense fees?
…or by selling your own custom-built software in a chosen niche?
Because once you’ve built it, 80% of the work is then done
You have time to plan, to build, to enjoy, to love and to LIVE
On your terms and by owning your own time
I wish I could show you what it’s like from this side of the marketing fence guys
(remember I’m no smarter than you, no braver, and I live a pretty simple life)
…because it’d change some of you forever.
I know because I had someone show me their lifestyle around 10 years ago
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Great post, as always.
Nice to see you blogging again. Like the new layout and theme too.
I seem to remember the pic at the top of the post is actually inside one of the Kickstart modules. Or at least it used to be. I have a bloody weird memory for this sort of thing.
Kickstart is a great course and one I highly recommend, I think I was making money after just five weeks from following it.
Oh Tony, I have been waiting for you to put something out like this!!!! How awesome! I am going to be joining for sure. Yipee!!!!
Nice to finally meet the man behind all the wisdom I’ve been reading all this time in the flesh Tony 🙂 I do actually remember seeing you last year as well chatting away to people…. I wish I had cottoned on to who you were then !
OK … I bought this course a while ago and its got some killer strategies in it I must say ! In fact I printed it all out and now its in a huge green folder that sits on the top step to my attic room -and I step over it every day 🙂
I’m gonna re read it as soon as my launch is over and see how much I’ve learned since I last read it… Great stuff as always.
Take care and speak soon I hope
cheers Carl
At last, a bit of sanity has been written. Crazy isn’t it? People getting “hooked” into a lifestyle that means nothing, leaves little, and serves just one individual. Tony, I’m forever flummoxed about why people do the things they do thinking that what they do will give them endless happiness. Nup!
Give me a veggie patch, an orchard, a bit of space, and a home I can call home – any day. Give me a little office in my home – any day. Give me my health, my family, my friends, and happiness – any day! Give me the wherewithall to help others – any day!
These things can not be traded. These things I write about … because they make a difference.
Thanks for the words Tony. Let’s hope they resonate far and wide.
HI Carl – Was very nice to meet you too mate. I saw you at the event last year too (good hat that was hard to miss!)
Thanks for your kind words about KickStart course 🙂
Tony
Des – we think the same way.
We’ve been brainwashed (clichéd word but it’s so true) to equate wealth with having ‘stuff’. It’s not, it’s about being free and having time.
Thanks for commenting!
Tony
Candace – you’ll be more than welcome on the KickStart Course – and we’ll take good care of you 🙂
Tony
Greetings Sir Tony!
I tip my hat to your way of life and mindset.
Over the years I have made a very nice living and can afford a pretty comfortable lifestyle, but have chosen to drive a 12 year old truck, grow many of our vegetables and still cut wood for winter warmth.
I guarantee all your readers one thing: Wealth is a state of mind, not a bank account:)
Keep it coming Tony and have a great day Mate!
Terry
Hi Tony,
Great and wise words. I have been working my online business now for 5 years. I am not wealthy in monetary terms (yet) but I AM so very wealthy when it comes to the lifestyle I am afforded by my business.
I have 4 kids, 21, 19, 14 and 6 and to be a major part of their lives every day is time that you never get back. My wife runs the business with me and together we discuss the ‘characters’ on the school run. Run being the operative word, as most people seem to be running in and running off! Those that dont are seen congregating on corners chatting for hours after they have dropped little Johnny off at school as they have nothing better to do!! Poor them!!
We LIVE our lives, we do not let life dictate our days.
So many parents (especially dads) are unable to have an active part in their kids lives these days and it makes me sad. They are missing out on so much.
My 14 year old already has a website and my 6 year old wants to run his own chocolate making company. How amazing.
I totally get your post and applaud you for your way of life. Idyllic.
Keep up the great work Tony and I look forward to your next “shoot from the hip” instalment. Love it!
Great post, and something I wish more people would grok. To each their own, I suppose.
Allow me to add another voice supporting the Kickstart Course. Great stuff.
I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this course.:-)
My husband and I are similar to Tony in that.. if we won a $mil tomorrow we’d still stay in our house. We’ve been here 23 years and it suits us, we can’t imagine living anywhere else….how lucky and wealthy are we already ?!
Would just like to live here more “comfortably”… with a few more choices, which need funds, available.
Cheers
Jenny
Hi Terry, Jon, Kevin…
We’re on the same wavelength here guys. What’s the poem?
‘We have no time to stand and stare’ ?
Thanks for posting!
Tony
Nice Post Tony, one of the things I like about your e-mails is the honesty, I agree totally, people think to much about ‘Wealth’ being rich(as in having loads of money and a big house etc), when in fact, giving Love and receiving Love is the key to all, money can’t buy happiness, we are all rich if we see it as it is! Your a very wealthy man Tony. Look forward to more posts 😉
It used to be jumble sales now it’s Charity shops. I’m still wearing the cotton fabric apron I made for one daughter for Cookery lessons at school. It is made from a 1960’s patterned dress. When another daughter went to Boarding School some uniform came from the school’s own thrift shop and I made her blouses skirts and dresses. When I went to Grammar School, homemade clothes were looked down upon – it meant you were poor. But, at Boarding School in the 1980’s they were valued and envied by most. It took time to realise that the others took homemade as a sign of caring. They had parents who just gave them the money to buy things. Love and caring matter most. Being poor is just a state of mind.
Nice comments Anne – very true 🙂
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I love this post, it resonates with exactly the sort of things I think and do myself lol