Thread: Easy money distracting you from your goal

Does anyone have this same problem? Im making side money now in big hits, but it takes time, wand is not so scalable or stable for that matter. I have a different business in mind that i have been working on but have slowed down getting it all together. When i go and collect some money from my regular business i guess it puts me at ease, maybe too much because the other guy (my competition of my other goal) is broke and working 24/7 to get the business launched.

Has anyone ever dealt with this? If this was confusing, i have one business now, making good money but it will never be a "fastlane" business but the other has every opportunity to be huge. The problem is i'm making great money with my regular biz and find it hard to not try to grow that too. Should i step back from the regular biz and work on the "fastlane" biz? I am young and work from 7am to late at night and there are just not enough hours in the day at this point.
After some time as a member here, I am now a firm believer in "do one thing and do it better than anyone else" but what scares me is im not doing that, i am doing multiple things.

I think there is an important analysis that must be conducted before leaving any stable income stream:

-to whom are you responsible? Are you solo, or do you have a family to support with your income?
-how much money can you reasonibly make with your successful business? How difficult will it be to achieve that income?
-how much money can you reasonibly make with your "fastlane" business? Why? How much effort will it take? What sacrifices will you have to make, and are you comfortable with making those sacrifices? What is the risk of abject failure?
-are you positive that there are no ways to "fastlane" your current successful business? Imagine a senario where you currently make $60k/year in your current "slowlane" business. You build the business to where you are making $120k. You then hire a manager to do exactly what you were doing at a total compensation of $60k. You receive the balance ($60k) passively. The passive nature of the income - not the total compensation - is what makes something fastlane. With this senario, you are now making as much as when you started to "fastlane" your business, and can spend your free time building your new business in a lower risk financial setting.

I am a proponent of careful analysis before making business desisions. Some might argue that fastlane is always the way to go, and while I totally agree in the medium to long term, in the short term you need to carefully assess the situation to make sure that you are not forced to be a wageslave at a crappy "job" because of poor strategic planning. Business success is just as much a function of timing and srategic planning as it is the function of a particular business model, product, or service.

To whom you are responsible

I would look at this one when making your decision. Money doesn't mean a damn thing without family.

Im single, if i do not do it now i may never also, my fastlane is not going to wait for me, it will be done by someone else if i do not do it now. My other business can for sure be grown but its too much involvement with people to be turned over to a manager or something. People want to talk to me the owner, plus i have that well rounded knowledge that you can't teach to others so decision making is done on the fly. Here is the thing, i just started this business making money, recent graduate, so if i stop tomorrow $0 will come in 0 phone calls will be made today, im fighting everyday but im making money. I am afraid consuming my time with something that takes time and is not so stable in my opinion can lead to going no where in life. Yeah great i made X amount of dollar in 1 hour but theres only so many hours in a day and once im maxed out i can not go above that. Im trying to make a switch right now and pay someone "when i need them" and see if the business will run easier. To me its all or nothing, i hate working on two things at once, maybe that just me but i get so unfocused when doing two different projects.


"you are now making as much as when you started to "fastlane" your business, and can spend your free time building your new business in a lower risk financial setting."

this was the goal, and is, but im afraid if i do not act on the fastlane idea now its going to be too late, then im going to be making "good" money forever when i know the fastlane idea can make real money.

This is why I listed it as the first decision in the decision list. The reason why I personally am so determined to make a fastlane business is exactly because of my current and future obligations to support my family. I do have to carefully consider my immediate and short term financial health when making decisions, primarily to ensure that my family is taken care of now.
But, I also know that the BEST way to ensure my family's future security is to invest time and money now into a viable stream of passive income. This is why I think fastlane thinking is so vital - it demonstrates that the status quo, slowlane, common thinking about wealth creation is NOT the best way to protect your family in the medium to long term in most instances.
I will also say, not to get too off topic, but being a male with a new family (wife with the possibility of kids in the next few years) has completely changed my outlook on the urgency and nessesity I feel to create an income stream overwhich I am in complete control. Perhaps it is my "manly" urges to "protect and provide" for my family (to borrow pop psychology male sterotypes - which I'm sure apply to women just as equally) but my thinking immediately after getting married went from "how will this action benefit me" to "how will this action ensure my family's future comfort and safety".
This change, more than anything else, is what drives me to succeed whereas before I might have accepted mediocraty. I can accept being single and making a decent amount of money, sitting on my couch after working at a "job" where I exchange time for money at a rate set by my boss, but I will NOT accept supporting my family, the family that I feel I am personally responsible for, that way. So in a way, family (to me in my life) IS the most important factor.

I can say i got pretty lucky with that, there is no lack of ambition with me, and i have always tried to see things big, bigger than i ever need. I am opposite i do not think i will have a family until things are set up to where my family and i can live a particular life, (passive income-enough to survive on+ x amount owning a biz). The problem is money is money and when your making money its hard to turn down. IMO im pretty good with businesses, i am confident my idea, just worried about walking away from money. I have read so many success storied of people working the worst jobs and being on their last penny right before hitting it off and it makes me think why. I've come to the conclusion that there was no other outlet, they were most likely busting their ass to get it done while the other guy was not taking it as serious because of other incomes. This worries me.

While there are a lot of success stories like that, we all know that there are hundreds of stories where people are on their last penny, work hard, develop a great service or product, and then fail for every one success story we read (the difference is usually those people don't find forums like this and post their failures).

Make a risk management decision. Why take on more additional risk than nessesary - you could save up some money, so you can work full time on your new idea after quitting without worrying about income. Or, you could scale back your hours at your current job and use the saved hours to work on the new project. You havn't really explained what your current job is - are you actually running the whole business? Do you have employees? How much could you really scale up your current business? Are you positive it could NEVER be a fastlane business model? Are you positive you could never sell the business, and use those funds to live off of and fund your new venture? Have you really exhausted all opportunities with the current business? Are you extremely unhappy where you are at?

I think as entrepreneurs we all lack focus from time to time. We see the world differently then most people - we see everything as a potential opportunity, all the time. Therefore, it's natural to think from time to time "hey! This is a great idea - if only I could switch I'd make a ton of money/be happier/etc". Is there really, truly, a good reason to abandon your current business/employment? If so, then go for it, but do it in a way that gives yourself as many "outs" as possible.