Laziness… My Gift Or My Curse?

How many people at 26 can say they paid off all of their debt? How many people at 26 can say they own their own business? How many people at 26 can honestly say, they could stop work for the next 2 years and not be strapped for money if they wanted to? I’m not sure of the numbers but unlike most people, I can say yes to all three of these questions. At 26, I have been able to establish a lucrative real estate business, which has allowed me to experience true financial liberation. How did I accomplish this? By being lazy. Yes, L-A-Z-Y, lazy!

When I was younger being lazy never worked for me. Both my mother and father frequently vocalized their concerns about my laziness. My father worked as a contractor and often invited me to assist him on the weekends. My slothful pace and lack of passion at work sites resulted in my father yelling and becoming frustrated. I can still hear him saying “Mike, hurry up! You’re not moving fast enough.” Eventually, (God answered my prayers) and my father stopped taking me to work with him. However, this pattern continued. When I was a freshman in high school my mother got me my first job. The job was simple – load brochures onto a cart. After a week, guess what my supervisor told me…“Mike, you’re not getting the job done…you’re not doing it fast enough.” Even after trying me in a different position, I was soon let go. My next job was at a movie theater and yes, history repeated itself. At this age I wasn’t bothered by not working but I was bothered by not having money. I didn’t want to work for other people but at my age I didn’t have many options. So I had to get creative – real creative. I started selling my huge collection of basketball and football trading cards on EBay and once I was exposed to the making profits on the World Wide Web – my passion found me. Working for myself gave me more motivation and get-up-and-go than a 5 hour energy drink! After selling my sports cards, I started buying games from my friends and selling them for profit. I purchased things from EBay and sold them to my friends and others in my community and I was finally doing what I wanted to do – working for myself and making money, money, money, moooonnaaaaaayyyy!

This experience taught me a lot and influenced my decision to major in business management in college. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do but I knew I wanted to be in business for myself. During college, I obtained an internship which turned into a full-time job. Though I liked my job, it wasn’t until I found out about real estate that I was able to fully tap into my passion and motivation. However, I wasn’t able to focus on it full time because of my job. So again, I had to get creative – real creative. I began to research outsourcing and ended up hiring virtual assistants from the Philippines. My new employees were extremely professional. They spoke with clients, identified buyers, handled marketing, and negotiated contracts– they basically ran my entire business. Applying this business model on a larger scale enabled me to expand into other markets, which grew my business. Hiring other people to do work that I didn’t want to do or wasn’t good at allowed me to take what used to be a curse and turn it into a profitable blessing. In other words, my laziness became the impetus for business growth, sustainability, and personal happiness.