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Narrowing your focus on a 'zero sum game'?

Anything related to matters of the mind

SWHi

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This is a bit of a thought i've been juggling with that i've never bothered to post or really speak about anywhere else although the books and this place has really caught my attention and I feel like there would be some level headed constructive criticism for me here so I thought i'd breakdown the situation i'm in.

I have been working in the building industry since I was 18, i'm currently self employed and have been steadily building up contacts and building a reputation as a small business owner for about 2 years now. I quite like the skills involved with my work, especially now that i'm really getting the feel for it all and my ability to solve the daily problems that come with the job is really getting better. I'm definitely not a miserable wreck although i've got a couple things that are troubling me lately.

First off which is probably obvious to all of you is that the business model that I am currently running under is 'slowlane' trade time for money sort of thing, only really just sort of came obvious to me lately after reading the books which makes perfect sense. There's definitely ways to scale in the building industry, although I just don't think that I have enough drive for this industry to want to scale to that degree. I'm open to trying new things, learning and building new skills which i'm in the process of but that leads me to the main problem:

I guess you could say my 'passion' is MMA (mixed martial arts) mainly jiu jitsu but I train striking and wrestling on top, about 9 months ago, I did an overseas trip to train at some of the top gyms in the world with some of the top level athletes, mainly to try and gather what they were doing that was allowing them to get to such a high level, the results were basically just absolute consistency, training multiple times a day and great training partners around. I decided at the time that while I still had my youth and knew I had the ability to reach a high level in the sport, I would seek out the best training possible in my country and try to pursue that. I've joined a team and been training with them since my return which has been great, imagine playing basketball and being able to train with the Lakers week in week out, thats basically what this team is compared to in MMA, very high level training partners, the best quality coaching, a former UFC champion etc. I am so grateful to of been accepted to train with these guys, the problem is though, they are professional fighters, aka they don't work day jobs like I do.

Being self employed, I manage to scrape by and make it work with minimal hours but its just a big stress and a struggle, i've been trying to learn some new skills in my in between time so that I could work/launch something online that would allow me to train and do my thing. The whole training and competing thing is something that i'm obsessed over, I want to achieve mastery and compete at the highest level that I can, but even at my age now (25) I don't see myself ever getting to the point where I could make a career from fighting. So thats where my question sort of lies, I know that i'll regret not pursuing this with all that I have now, but how do you manage pursuing something that from a financial standpoint is probably a zero sum game.

Obviously don't want to be stuck working my job 'slowlaning' forever, but I know that I am where I want to be when it comes to training, I don't even really aspire to be a millionaire or in that 1% financially, obviously would be nice but I know you can't have everything. The aim is to try and get the ball rolling so that I can afford the time to focus in on mastering my physical skillsets.

The obvious issue is time, from your guys outside perspective, does it make more sense to invest the time in the 'passion' while i'm young enough to chase it wholeheartedly, does anybody even have a similar story of balancing earning income whilst chasing personal goals and also building a business? Minds all over the place right now! Any feedback is appreciated!
 
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Kevin88660

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This is a bit of a thought i've been juggling with that i've never bothered to post or really speak about anywhere else although the books and this place has really caught my attention and I feel like there would be some level headed constructive criticism for me here so I thought i'd breakdown the situation i'm in.

I have been working in the building industry since I was 18, i'm currently self employed and have been steadily building up contacts and building a reputation as a small business owner for about 2 years now. I quite like the skills involved with my work, especially now that i'm really getting the feel for it all and my ability to solve the daily problems that come with the job is really getting better. I'm definitely not a miserable wreck although i've got a couple things that are troubling me lately.

First off which is probably obvious to all of you is that the business model that I am currently running under is 'slowlane' trade time for money sort of thing, only really just sort of came obvious to me lately after reading the books which makes perfect sense. There's definitely ways to scale in the building industry, although I just don't think that I have enough drive for this industry to want to scale to that degree. I'm open to trying new things, learning and building new skills which i'm in the process of but that leads me to the main problem:

I guess you could say my 'passion' is MMA (mixed martial arts) mainly jiu jitsu but I train striking and wrestling on top, about 9 months ago, I did an overseas trip to train at some of the top gyms in the world with some of the top level athletes, mainly to try and gather what they were doing that was allowing them to get to such a high level, the results were basically just absolute consistency, training multiple times a day and great training partners around. I decided at the time that while I still had my youth and knew I had the ability to reach a high level in the sport, I would seek out the best training possible in my country and try to pursue that. I've joined a team and been training with them since my return which has been great, imagine playing basketball and being able to train with the Lakers week in week out, thats basically what this team is compared to in MMA, very high level training partners, the best quality coaching, a former UFC champion etc. I am so grateful to of been accepted to train with these guys, the problem is though, they are professional fighters, aka they don't work day jobs like I do.

Being self employed, I manage to scrape by and make it work with minimal hours but its just a big stress and a struggle, i've been trying to learn some new skills in my in between time so that I could work/launch something online that would allow me to train and do my thing. The whole training and competing thing is something that i'm obsessed over, I want to achieve mastery and compete at the highest level that I can, but even at my age now (25) I don't see myself ever getting to the point where I could make a career from fighting. So thats where my question sort of lies, I know that i'll regret not pursuing this with all that I have now, but how do you manage pursuing something that from a financial standpoint is probably a zero sum game.

Obviously don't want to be stuck working my job 'slowlaning' forever, but I know that I am where I want to be when it comes to training, I don't even really aspire to be a millionaire or in that 1% financially, obviously would be nice but I know you can't have everything. The aim is to try and get the ball rolling so that I can afford the time to focus in on mastering my physical skillsets.

The obvious issue is time, from your guys outside perspective, does it make more sense to invest the time in the 'passion' while i'm young enough to chase it wholeheartedly, does anybody even have a similar story of balancing earning income whilst chasing personal goals and also building a business? Minds all over the place right now! Any feedback is appreciated!
Welcome.

I did some Muay Thai a few years back. Just the strokes and I do not even do sparring. Totally enjoy the workout experience only.

It is a question of values. The recent female mma champ Zhang basically struggled with life after she wouldn't make it In sanda. She was given a job in gym first, then given a chance to train and then she made it in mma.

Unless you have a rich sponsor..and you got to be lucky To be so likeable. Sorry to sound harsh but you are competing with full timer who has a Thai coach on strikes and a Brazilian coach on grappling. It is a team project these days.
 

kleine2

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It sounds like your real passion right now is your martial arts and you have a major opportunity to pursue that. If this is really what is most important to you right now, then find a way to make enough money to be able to spend more time on it.
Can you lower your expenses so that you need to do less work? Can you raise your prices?
imo while you are young go for it with everything you've got.
 

SWHi

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Welcome.

I did some Muay Thai a few years back. Just the strokes and I do not even do sparring. Totally enjoy the workout experience only.

It is a question of values. The recent female mma champ Zhang basically struggled with life after she wouldn't make it In sanda. She was given a job in gym first, then given a chance to train and then she made it in mma.

Unless you have a rich sponsor..and you got to be lucky To be so likeable. Sorry to sound harsh but you are competing with full timer who has a Thai coach on strikes and a Brazilian coach on grappling. It is a team project these days.

Appreciate the feedback especially from someone who can relate to my experiences!

The goal isn't to make it big as a fighter, I have a lot of competition experience especially in jiu jitsu but no MMA fights, I think the biggest confusion for me is actually the goal in itself, its not to make a living from fighting, all I know is that all I care about and everything in my life at this moment is centred towards training with my team, improving and maintaining the lifestyle of basically a full time athlete which i'm currently doing at the moment. I will be fighting soon and plan to do as well as I can and have confidence that I can take it pretty far but still not to the point of making it on huge promotions or anything like that.

When i'm living like this, I feel like i'm exactly where I want to be, I don't ever really have a regret whilst i'm in this grind sort of mode, I guess the problem sort of lies within the future, i'm not the type of person to not plan ahead at all, and there isn't really a big plan in terms of finances and business. I'm currently making more than enough money and have the freedom to maintain my lifestyle while saving money which is great, but I definitely want to be able to build something that is a little more lucrative than trading my time for $ week in week out.

I've been recently looking into maybe trying to learn some new skills in my free time that might translate to business later on, looking at copywriting at the moment. Didn't even know what copywriting was until a few months ago lol... but seems like it could be something to dive into
 
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SWHi

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It sounds like your real passion right now is your martial arts and you have a major opportunity to pursue that. If this is really what is most important to you right now, then find a way to make enough money to be able to spend more time on it.
Can you lower your expenses so that you need to do less work? Can you raise your prices?
imo while you are young go for it with everything you've got.

Yeah it definitely is, when i'm in the week in week out grind mode training multiple times a day there's never really any part of me that says that i'm wasting my time or not doing what is true to me, I definitely feel like i'm on the right path, the main issue is just obviously trying to keep the future in mind financially, definitely not a whole lot of financially smart options to pursue in this field from what I can see unless I make it big.

Yeah tbh right now money isn't too much of an issue, i'm self employed and make more than enough most weeks to pay all of my bills and have money left over, just sort of get caught up thinking about the bigger picture from a business/entrepreneurial standpoint, like what things I can start putting in place for myself to learn and grow financially as time goes on without slaving away trading time for money and having to give up my current training lifestyle
 

MJ DeMarco

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Gee I don't know, something about getting pummeled in the head a thousand times doesn't sound like a good-long term plan. There is no wealth without health.

Unlike the NFL where you can make millions and get compensated for the health risk, honestly, I don't think that is there for MMA ... unless you become the next superstar. You asked for my opinion...
 

Madman1996

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Gee I don't know, something about getting pummeled in the head a thousand times doesn't sound like a good-long term plan. There is no wealth without health.

Unlike the NFL where you can make millions and get compensated for the health risk, honestly, I don't think that is there for MMA ... unless you become the next superstar. You asked for my opinion...
Hii MJ true that you can abuse your body to build muscle but you can't abuse your brain you got one of it and there is no second chance of getting a new brain God-given body's where not made to take such a great impact to the head I go to my boxing gym only to enjoy the technique and the heavy bag and avoid sparring I do to enjoy my self and to learn how to defend my self and build confidence
 
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