The Lie of “More”: Why I'm Purposefully Building Less (And Making More Money In The Process)
Trading the desperate grind of my 20s for the profitable peace of my 40s.
There is a common misconception in entrepreneurship that “more” is better.
More money, more opportunities, more assets, and more work.
I am currently in the process of purposefully having less.
In today’s issue, I want to talk about the journey that every entrepreneur must go through if they want to succeed in today’s world while simultaneously keeping their sanity, maintaining their peace, and building serenity into their lives.
LFG. 🔥
The Entrepreneurial Journey Of Your 20s, 30s, and 40s
For some, your 20s are a time of exploration.
It is when you have no responsibilities, and so you get to live carefree. You travel, party, and make bad decisions.
This was not my experience. Frankly, I do not agree with the American viewpoint of wasting your 20s.
For me, my 20s were when I got sober. I did not have any money and I did not have an education, so my only option was to work.
And I loved every second of it. My 20s were an incredibly exciting time because I was building my company and learning the ins and outs of business. It felt like every day was a new adventure.
I was broke, I was hungry (both metaphorically and literally), and I had this burning drive inside of me that knew I was either going to become a successful businessman or I was going to die in the process.
As Jim Rohn says, “I’ll do it, or die.”
That was me.
The Meme That Totally Changed My Perspective
In my 20s, I admit I saw a lot of people living different lifestyles than I was. At times I felt jealous.
A lot of my friends would go to South Beach on the weekends and go to house clubs. They would have parties on the beach or go out and hit on girls.
I did not do any of that. I was so desperate for money that I could not afford to go out, but I also had this strange guilt inside of me. I felt like I owed a debt to so many people who never gave up on me when I was doing drugs, getting arrested, and trying as hard as I could to either kill myself or end up with a lengthy prison sentence.
I felt like I had to work because I needed to make up for all the bad decisions I had made.
I wrestled with this guilt a lot. One day, I stumbled across an Instagram post that put it all into perspective for me.
It was not this exact image, but these were the exact words.
I will never forget seeing this meme.
Suddenly, everything made sense to me. I now had the perspective to realize what I was doing and, more importantly, why I was doing it.
I suddenly felt comfortable with the fact that I was not going to have those transformative experiences in my 20s. I was not going to backpack across the world, go to weeklong music festivals, or go on a lot of dates.
I was going to work. But the work was not in vain. There was a purpose to it.
That purpose was to set myself up for a future where I was living free of stress with financial independence and no financial fear.
I Turn 40 In May
I am not having the existential crisis that many people talk about. I am really looking forward to my 40s because I feel equipped to continue building the apparatus around me that generates cash flow, builds wealth, and cultivates amazing business relationships.
I admit that it did not quite turn out the way I thought.
I thought I would be living in a luxury high rise apartment somewhere with my wife and eating out at nice restaurants every night.
In time, you discover that what you think you want does not totally line up with what makes you happy. These days, I am taking my kids to school, sitting on Zoom meetings, talking business with a small group of friends, and teaching my kid how to ride his bike without training wheels. (One of the best moments of my entire life.)
Now that I am here, I continue to see more and more clutter in my life that I want to remove.
I am looking to keep what is essential and most profitable, and either offload the rest to my team or remove it altogether.
What To Remove And What To Keep
So that begs the question: if peace and serenity are the ultimate goals, what do I actually want to keep in my daily life, and what do I need to aggressively remove?
Here is my current breakdown.
What I want to keep …
The Relationships: As you get older, you learn the same lesson everyone learns. The only thing that really matters is the relationships you make and the connections you have built along the way.
Growing Quantum Leads: I love the healthcare space. As I have gotten older, I have gotten comfortable with this calling of mine to be fully committed to healthcare and to become the best healthcare marketing and business professional in the world.
Writing: TimStodz.com is just getting started. In addition, my healthcare newsletter is thriving, and my team and I are adding an AI newsletter to accompany The Shop and a directory builders newsletter to accompany directorly.app.
What I want to remove …
Notifications: I have made it a point to be available to people. I try my best to respond to emails, answer notifications, and answer questions from strangers. I do not want to do this anymore. It is going to feel weird because I feel like I am turning my back on people, but I need to prioritize the essentials.
The Daily Social Media Grind: My personal brand content is going great, but I am removing myself from the daily posting and distribution. I have a great cadence now where I create one video a day, and I am entirely handing off the distribution across all my channels to my team.
Task Management: As the CEO, I have made it a point to be available to all my clients and I will continue to do that. However, I need to bring in someone local to fully handle the execution, organization, and daily management of tasks and results. This is a huge priority for me right now. The less time I spend managing the daily tasks, the more time I have to call my clients, check in on them, and create an amazing customer experience.
The more time I spend thinking about where my priorities are, the more I can pinpoint exactly where to spend my time. I want to spend my time where I can have the biggest impact and provide the most value for my family and my customers.
In Conclusion: Grind In Your Twenties
If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.
I don’t feel any kind of regret that I didn’t get the experiences I wanted when I was younger. Currently, it’s 7:06 am. My daughter is laying on my wife’s lap on the couch behind me. Jules is drinking coffee next to the fireplace, and I feel like I’m going to burst with gratitude.
The mornings and quiet, the nights are rewarding, and the days are exciting.
I would trade peaceful 40s for adventurous 20s all day. But now that I’m here, I’m transitioning to a place where I want less, I do less, and I receive more in exchange.
I feel good.
Love you guys. Talk to you next week.
Tim