Why These Shorter Chats Matter

Yo, yo, yo, welcome back to the Further Your Lifestyle Podcast Conversations on Lifestyle, Passions, and Hustles. My name's Chris. I am your host, and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 280 today, which is a big number. Super excited to be able to come and have this conversation with you. And continuing on out my kind of like shorter version of these podcasts at the moment, just picking up kind of different things that I've been working through myself and challenges that I've been trying to overcome to help myself further my own lifestyle. I feel like these have been really fun, really been great to be able to share back. And it's motivating me to go out there and get it done myself. And there's no better way to actually keep myself accountable than actually come here and talk about it. So I think these things can probably help keep you inspired, motivated, and hopefully plant some seeds for you to go after what it is that you want to achieve. Now, today we're talking about it's it's one thing, but it's three kind of points that kind of get into it together. It's kind of like money creates opportunity for us, but it's also what holds us back from our full potential. And I guess to break that down is just like, you know, you want to find joy and happiness in what you do and when you do it. And if you do that, you're you're you're going to obviously thrive in all that you do. Now, sometimes that means the money does not come, not for a while anyway. But the other thing you need to realize is the time is going to pass anyways, and as you get older, it seems to go quicker, and then the next thing, you haven't actually gone after the things that you want to achieve. Now, this is kind of like a comeback story. Sorry, not a comeback story, this is kind of like another repeat episode where I'm talking about my own journey and why I'm so very grateful of the journey that I have taken. But it's also things that if I knew the outcome that I would have now, what I would have done differently. And that's that's kind of why I wanted to share it. If you are new here, please hit like, subscribe if you enjoy the episode. Otherwise, feel free to leave a comment down below and you can also share this with someone else if you think they need a nice little motivation here. So we're gonna roll the intro and let's get into it.

From Uni Dreams To Consulting

So for me, I've looked my my background is corporate tech consulting project management before going out on my own. Prior to that, I started a Bachelor of IT, a Bachelor of Information Technology, and really focused on business analysis side of that. And prior to that, I had a huge interest in actually the outdoors. And when I was growing up, I wanted to either be a park ranger, a marine biologist, or I wanted to be a video game maker. So like it was kind of like a good, really the hobbies that I loved to do. And I remember when I first started going to university, I got a scholarship and I was able to really just tap into that and learn everything that I thought, and then realize that okay, well, I'm not going to be good enough to be able to do video game development because I just didn't have the ability to co. I just was never good at it. And marine biology was never going to be possible because when it came to the science side, it was not my not my cup of tea. But what I did realize is where I went well was working with people and having conversations and also trying to solve problems. Anyway, so I ended up getting a job in consulting firm. But since day one of working there, I was already planning on how do I get out of this and go after my own dreams and build something of my own. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to have my own business, I wanted to build a legacy, I wanted to create something of my own. And I was always thinking about something, and I've had numerous businesses in trying to create that. And sometimes the businesses didn't work out because they weren't my joy and they didn't create the happiness that I wanted. But I knew the time was going to pass anyway, so I'm always going to keep trying that next thing until something sticks. And anyway, so I got a job and I'm working seven years, eight years in the consulting firm. And throughout there, I started my own clothing brand. I started, I had a I was buying and selling computers, I was like repairing them. I had a few other little side things as well, but they weren't really taking off. Not nothing for me to really kind of step away on and leave the business, that's for sure.

Money Creates Opportunity And Fear

But the thing that was holding me back was the income, the money side of things. And that's why I think this is an important episode because money does create us opportunities. It gives us the ability to access things, it gives us the ability to sometimes get ahead quicker. But it also holds us back from the potential if we don't have it. And it's a catch 22 because you need the money to be able to survive because of the cost of living and everything like that. But at the same time, if you want to go after your dreams, you don't get going to have that income straight away. Now, this is not a conversation around like you need to go after what it is that you want, but it has to make you money. This is literally about if you can do it earlier, if if I was able to take what I knew now and was able to apply this earlier, I would have pursued my passion for the things that I wanted sooner than later. However, some of that did change because I was happy to be a lifer also at that organization. I was thinking maybe I'll get to managing director, be earning like $250,000 a year or something, and then I can go after my dreams after that. But then I realized during the pandemic that that's that's not kind of how it's gonna work. Because I don't have any control of this other than as long as I do a good job, I'm gonna get my paycheck every month. And that's when I decided no stuff this. Cold turkey, leave, let's go build something for myself, figure it out as I go. Now, sure, I had saved up money, which gave me the ability to be able to do this with a bit more free, free realm in some sense, because I wasn't worried about money. I didn't have to worry about money. But of course, if you're starting out and you think, oh, you've got friends that are getting graduate roles at $50,000, $60,000, $70,000, and you're going after your dreams and passions and you're having to spend money to make money, it can be a little bit deflating.

Purpose Matters More Than A Jackpot

But the thing I've realized is if you remove the money, right? I mean, if I was to ask you what would you be doing if money wasn't an issue, if you didn't have to pay for anything, you'd say, I'll probably go do this, I'll probably go do that. Most people say, Oh, I'll just play video games or people would just say they'll they'll do whatever they want. But the reality is a lot of the time people need a sense of purpose. And even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I won, let's say I won $25 million, I wouldn't just stop working. I would still go out and build the dream that I have. And I would probably leverage some of that money. I'll put that money aside so it's able to set me up so I don't have to think about money, but I would still go out and try and build this business because it's what I want. I I I love it. I I enjoy the problem solving. It would give me opportunity maybe to get ahead, to try new things and try all this different stuff, but I think that's not necessarily the best way to do it. Building from bottom up, starting from scratch, understanding the ins and outs gives you the ability to get experience, to get wisdom, to learn the nitty-gritty details that it's going to require for you to know and understand when you get up to a director level. All right, I'm the director of my company, I have my team, I have my staff, and my job now is to take us to that next level. How do we get this to a better position so everyone's in a better position? That is my responsibility. And I'm only able to do that because I know the detail, I know the level of what we're trying to build and the expectation of what my customers expect, and making sure that that's trickling down through to all of my team members. So these things are a challenge, these things aren't easy, but I've found that when we do go after what it is that we want, in hindsight's side, you're like, I wish I did it earlier. Now, this isn't a message to you to say quit your job and go after your dreams. This isn't a message to say don't go to university and go after your dreams. A lot of the time to get to our dreams, we do need to go have a job. We do need to get experience in the things that is relevant to our dream. We do need to potentially go study to figure out that maybe what our dream really is. Because a lot of the time at an early age, we don't even know what we want. All I knew was I didn't want to be working for someone else for the rest of my life. I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to build something, I wanted to create something. And it took 10, 15 years to figure out what that would be. Well, actually, I didn't start the business till 2021. So it's it's it's taken me a long time. It took me 30 years to figure that out. I started the business at 30, and imagine if I had started at 20, I would be 10 years ahead. But also I wouldn't have had the experience and the understanding and the details behind everything else that I had learned to be able to apply to this. But I probably would have learned it quicker anyway.

Strip Money Away And Take Steps

My point is, and my encouragement is if you have a dream, a goal, an aspiration, something that you would love to work towards, strip away the money side. What is stopping you from doing it? Right? And I I would urge you to please find a way to do a little bit for it every single day. I see the success of people that are just killing it at the moment because they decided to not take the advice of the society and just go go do this, go do that to get that, to get this. Meaning, get a job, go study, get a family, buy a house and settle down. Right? I mean, you can still do all those things. My point is, is if you if you have an ambition of something that you want to do, find jobs that are gonna get you closer to building that journey. If you have a dream to be something else, surround yourself with the people that are going to get you closer to that. You have to take the steps that are gonna get you closer to where you want to be. If you don't, you will never get it, and then you will regret it. And when it comes to the money side, the money will come. And I know that's it's still hard to swallow because I'm still not making the money that I wish I had. But again, I'm not. Sure, I'm doing it for money, but I'm also not because as I said, if I won a million dollars, like I'm gonna keep doing this. It's not about the money, it's about creating something that's of greatness, something that I'm proud of, something that enables opportunity for other people, gives other people jobs, create something that's bigger, make something, make something that is making an impact, and actually, I wouldn't say necessarily changing lives, but it does influence, it does impact, it does provide value, it provides identity for people, it creates opportunity for people. That's something way bigger and better than money. However, money is required to run the business. Money is required to make that happen. So it is a bit of a catch 22. That's my two cents on this one. I would love to chat to anyone that's curious about this, thinking about it. This is probably for maybe some of the younger ones, but also, like I said, I I quit my job when I was 30 and went after it. So it's never too late. I think you just got to be willing to have the drive and understand that there is a small percentage that hit the lottery when it comes to going after their dreams. And the rest of us, it's a long journey, and you need to be willing to be willing to do that journey if you want what you want. It's that simple.

Closing Thoughts And How To Connect

I appreciate you being here. If you did have any questions or you wanted to continue the conversation, feel free to jump down to the comments below here on the YouTube. Happy to have a conversation. Otherwise, feel free to like, subscribe. And if you enjoyed this, or if you think someone else needs to have a little little kick up the butt, a little bit of motivation, please share it with them. That would mean the absolute world to me. I'll be back here again next week and we'll do it all again. Ciao