I had just hit the snooze button for the third time…<\/p>\n
Although I had a busy day ahead of me which I knew would be good for my business, I dreaded the thought of even getting out of bed and going to work.<\/p>\n
For some reason that particular morning, I just couldn’t stand the thought of getting up out of bed going through my normal morning routine, kissing the wife and kids goodbye and heading off to a job that I had over the course of the previous few months had very little interest in doing.<\/p>\n
I hated the thought of telling my kids to “follow their dreams” and here I was not even doing it. Frankly, I felt like a fraud for not pursuing what I really wanted in life and could be totally passionate about.<\/p>\n
For some reason that day, I just hated the thought of getting in my van and making another pitch for a product and service I no longer had passion for.<\/p>\n
I was just burnt out.<\/p>\n
Something had to change.<\/p>\n
Rewind a few years prior, I had just departed my family’s flooring business, moved to a new town and started looking for work. I actually started interviewing for jobs with flooring manufacturers after running my family’s business!<\/p>\n
I soon found that I was actually over-qualified for some of the jobs I was interviewing for. Needless to say, I didn’t get any job offers.<\/p>\n
After the fourth interviewer had told me I was over qualified for working for them, I thought to myself: “Why the hell am I trying to go work for someone else? I should just start up my own flooring business!”<\/p>\n
After all, I was a flooring guy, right?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So I did start my own franchised flooring business and made it pretty darned successful.<\/p>\n But two years later, there I was lying in bed, feeling completely trapped and unfulfilled. I was right back to doing the same thing I was doing before.<\/p>\n Worst of all, I was lying to myself. I was back to doing a “job” even though that job was my own business, it was still a J-O-B because I had no passion and no enthusiasm for it whatsoever.<\/p>\n I had always been fascinated by real estate though…<\/p>\n I had tried to sweep it under the carpet…because I was a flooring guy.<\/em><\/p>\n But was I?<\/p>\n Deep down, I knew I wasn’t really a flooring guy<\/em>, it’s just what I did for work. But after that first little taste back in the late 90s, I had gotten a glimpse of what it was all about.<\/p>\n And that little taste had convinced me that what I really wanted was to be a real estate investor. But for some reason something for the last year or two I had stifled it.<\/p>\n But here it was coming back again….<\/p>\n It’s not like I hated my job \u2013 it was just that I was tired of doing something that I didn’t really love to do anymore. The only reason I had done it is because up until that point, it was all I knew.<\/p>\n But just because people kept telling me I should stay in flooring because it was “all I knew”<\/em> – I knew that was no reason to not do what you love.<\/p>\n Deep down, I knew I could do it – I just had no idea HOW to do it.<\/p>\n Plus, I had just turned 40 and I was at the point in my life where I was about halfway through my work life. And I thought to myself: is this all there is?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n It wasn’t about the money at all. It was about passion<\/span><\/strong>. I am confident I could have made that business into a million dollar business – I’m convinced of it. In fact, I was already halfway there<\/em>. I just had zero interest in doing that.<\/p>\n I knew what I wanted to do – and it had nothing to do with money. Sure, I knew plenty of people “making a killing”<\/em> in real estate investing<\/a>. But that wasn’t it. It wasn’t about the money, it was all about doing what you love to do<\/strong>.<\/p>\n I knew what I wanted, but there was just one problem. I had no idea how to get there and how to do it while supporting my family. After all, I was completely switching careers and taking this flyer in the real estate investing business without a real safety net – which quite honestly, scared the crap out of me…<\/p>\n Later that day, after a long talk with my wife – “the day of the alarm clock”<\/em>, I made the decision to wind down my flooring business and make plans to go headlong into the real estate investing business.<\/p>\n And although success did not happen immediately, I could actually say I was a full-time real estate investor<\/a> – and best of all, I was doing what I loved to do…and still do to this day.<\/p>\n Not too shabby for “a flooring guy”.<\/em><\/p>\n Are you doing what you really love to do?<\/strong> Are you not listening to that inner voice that’s been telling you to follow your passion?<\/em> Or have you done it, made the scary leap and never looked back?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Please leave a comment below and share YOUR story<\/strong><\/span> of how you did it or if you haven’t done it yet, leave a comment as well. Perhaps together, we can get you to follow that inner voice and pursue your dream too…<\/p>\nDo What You Love and You’ll Never Work a Day the Rest of Your Life<\/h2>\n
“What Are You Gonna Do, It’s All You Know”<\/h2>\n
Passion and Hard Work Beats Cluelessness Every Time<\/h2>\n