Make Your Own Trades

The web is flooded with articles imposing arbitrary goals on new creators, loyal team members and budding entrepreneurs.

They sensationalise the quick win.

The lucky break.

The hustler who sacrificed everything.

Is all that necessary?

#1 Play by your own rules

We’re not all playing the same game.

That means it’s silly to compare someone else’s rules (and goals) with your own.

Choose your own goals. Choose your own sacrifices. Make your own trades.

We don’t have to change our life goals or the rules we play by, just because someone on the internet said so.

I don’t want a Lamborghini. They’re loud depreciating liabilities. I’d rather be playing a card game with my family.

But I do like financial freedom and long walks in nature. So that’s what we have.

Choose your own lifestyle based on what makes you happy. Not on what the Popular tab of Instagram shows you.

You may hear online that there’s a secret skill or industry necessary to reach your goals.

You may be looking for it in business magazines or blog headlines.

You won’t find it.

We’ve made clothes, websites, coaching programs, NFTs, fitness studios, software…

We’ve sold them using email, social, partnerships, advertising, live events, door-to-door, phone…

Choose your thing. Choose your space. There’s no secret, there is only work.

Any anxiety associated with the comparison between your journey and the journey of others is either FOMO (‘fear of missing out’) or envy.

Neither are good for you.

Neither improve your life.

But both diminish your appreciation of the things you decided were special to you.