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Previous $5M Successful business. Feeling it's not enough.

Anything related to matters of the mind

MarkLucas

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Hi guys,

I'm writing this post because I've been struggling with what to do for some time now.
From 2007-2012, I worked with affiliate marketing and earned a total of $5M in revenue, but couldn't sell my business because of the nature of affiliate marketing. I still receive about $20K per month as residual income from that business.
The problem is while I have earned what most people would think should be "enough", I sometimes get this greedy feeling, especially when reading this forum or Unscripted , that I should be doing more. I get caught thinking "yeah, 10K/month as passive income sure is nice, but what if I had double that amount?".
At the same time, I feel that is the Hedonic Treadmill speaking, meaning that if I had $10M, I would probably be wondering about what it would be to have $20M, etc.
My problem is that this leads me to being "stuck": I don't have a FU moment, since I live pretty comfortably and am pretty happy, and feel I'm too lazy to start something from zero, dreading the hard work it would take to get me to the level of income I have now. Smaller ventures just seem "not worth it of my time".
To put in a little context, I live in the UK, I am 28, married. In the last years, I studied 2 foreign languages and have been focusing on studying and playing classical music most of my time.

What do you think I should do? Do you think I should try to learn to be happy with what I have, or should I listen to this annoying greedy part of me?

Thank you so much!
 
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daru

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I don't personally really know because I'm just starting out. But I listened to the foreverjobless podcast and Billy talks about that here (?). @snowbank

I imagine that I would look into Stoicism and negative visualization to appreciate what I already got. In fact. this can be done in every stage of wealth?
 

Denim Chicken

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Dude, i think you should learn to have fun. Which I found a lot of people have trouble with. Pick up some hobbies and dedicate yourself to enjoying life. Is there a reason you need more money? I have so many life goals that aren't making money that I would be doing if I was retired.

But I'm more impressed you got to $5 mil in revenue from affiliate marketing alone.
 

MarkLucas

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I don't personally really know because I'm just starting out. But I listened to the foreverjobless podcast and Billy talks about that here (?). @snowbank

I imagine that I would look into Stoicism and negative visualization to appreciate what I already got. In fact. this can be done in every stage of wealth?
Yes, in fact I have read two books on Stoicism this past month. The message is great, negative visualization indeed helps.
The problem is that sometimes I read about other people's success and get envious
 
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MarkLucas

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Dude, i think you should learn to have fun. Which I found a lot of people have trouble with. Pick up some hobbies and dedicate yourself to enjoying life. Is there a reason you need more money? I have so many life goals that aren't making money that I would be doing if I was retired.

But I'm more impressed you got to $5 mil in revenue from affiliate marketing alone.

I'll be honest here.
Before I had all the success I had, I thought that earning all that income would solve all my life's problems, and that I would be spending my days doing whatever pleases me.
Indeed I do it, I travel a lot, I dine out a lot, I cook, I play videogames, I cycle, I play music, I even started a University course just out of curiosity.
But what really troubles me is a deeper thing, it's not about what to do with my time on a daily basis, but more of a greater meaning of "am I just wasting my life doing things for my own enjoyment".
 

Denim Chicken

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I'll be honest here.
Before I had all the success I had, I thought that earning all that income would solve all my life's problems, and that I would be spending my days doing whatever pleases me.
Indeed I do it, I travel a lot, I dine out a lot, I cook, I play videogames, I cycle, I play music, I even started a University course just out of curiosity.
But what really troubles me is a deeper thing, it's not about what to do with my time on a daily basis, but more of a greater meaning of "am I just wasting my life doing things for my own enjoyment".
Interesting. I hear this a lot on various podcasts and its very common among wealthy people to start giving back and participating in charities and causes that matter to them. After a certain point of self fulfillment and hedonism, human beings want more I guess.

Me personally, would do something with animal care just as a volunteer or a donor. Looks like you solved the business and success question, now you're working on finding yourself, which as cheesy as it sounds.. becomes glaringly obvious when one spends enough time alone with nothing to work for.

I've experienced moments of it when the dust of work settles. The unsettling feeling or the need to chase a goal of some sort. It's a human issue that I'm sure some philosophers can root back to the basic question of "what is the meaning of life?"
 

MarkLucas

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Interesting. I hear this a lot on various podcasts and its very common among wealthy people to start giving back and participating in charities and causes that matter to them. After a certain point of self fulfillment and hedonism, human beings want more I guess.

Me personally, would do something with animal care just as a volunteer or a donor. Looks like you solved the business and success question, now you're working on finding yourself, which as cheesy as it sounds.. becomes glaringly obvious when one spends enough time alone with nothing to work for.

I've experienced moments of it when the dust of work settles. The unsettling feeling or the need to chase a goal of some sort. It's a human issue that I'm sure some philosophers can root back to the basic question of "what is the meaning of life?"
Exactly, I think I will look a little into voluntary work, that might help me.
 
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jclean

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I'll be honest here.
Before I had all the success I had, I thought that earning all that income would solve all my life's problems, and that I would be spending my days doing whatever pleases me.
Indeed I do it, I travel a lot, I dine out a lot, I cook, I play videogames, I cycle, I play music, I even started a University course just out of curiosity.
But what really troubles me is a deeper thing, it's not about what to do with my time on a daily basis, but more of a greater meaning of "am I just wasting my life doing things for my own enjoyment".
Maybe you can mentor other entrepreneurs ? or write an "how to earn passive income" ebook.
Or be part off the solution what frustrates you the most on planet earth.
 

Argue

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Check out @V8Bill free PDF. He has an awesome money hack! :thumbsup:
 

SteveO

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I'll be honest here.
Before I had all the success I had, I thought that earning all that income would solve all my life's problems, and that I would be spending my days doing whatever pleases me.
Indeed I do it, I travel a lot, I dine out a lot, I cook, I play videogames, I cycle, I play music, I even started a University course just out of curiosity.
But what really troubles me is a deeper thing, it's not about what to do with my time on a daily basis, but more of a greater meaning of "am I just wasting my life doing things for my own enjoyment".
I had that feeling at one point. Got past it though. Your life is about you. Do what you want.
 
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Chazmania

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What do you think I should do? Do you think I should try to learn to be happy with what I have, or should I listen to this annoying greedy part of me?

I think you should do both. Be happy with what you have and be grateful for it, and actually enjoy it, but still go for more and find ways to help others by doing it. It could be the same pursuit.
 
G

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I still receive about $20K per month as residual income from that business.
How much of it are you spending each month? Do you have a money system?

Imposter syndrome is real and can make us feel like we don't deserve it, and therefore don't respect it.

Maybe if you create a system and give it a job to do, it'll feel different.
 

MarkLucas

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Check out @V8Bill free PDF. He has an awesome money hack! :thumbsup:
Just finished reading it, I think it helps, but I already feel financially free.
Like others are mentioning, I think my main issue is with feeling useful for society now.
 
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Argue

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Just finished reading it, I think it helps, but I already feel financially free.
Like others are mentioning, I think my main issue is with feeling useful for society now.
Maybe volunteer? Or open up a food bank? Giving back always makes us feel happy. Just never give it all away haha.
 

MarkLucas

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How much of it are you spending each month? Do you have a money system?

Imposter syndrome is real and can make us feel like we don't deserve it, and therefore don't respect it.

Maybe if you create a system and give it a job to do, it'll feel different.
I have a money system, I've read a lot in the past years on early retirement, financial independence, etc, so for now what I do is I more or less spend 4% of my total assets per year (I know it's not a perfect rule, but it's simple enough).
The thing is it's pretty easy to increase your spending knowing you can do it, since the rules "justify it", but that's exactly what makes me want to have even more, I know I would be able to spend it easily.
I currently rent a really great flat in London with my wife that costs us about 4000 GBP per month, but every time I pass by a large detached house I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be able to live there instead (along with double the rent price we pay). It's pretty silly, honestly, but I feel I'm a bit of a victim of consumerism, and wanting to always have more.
 
G

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The thing is it's pretty easy to increase your spending knowing you can do it
If you make 20k, and want 30k worth of things, then it's perfectly ok to want to make more to invest more to ultimately spend more.

If you're spending out of compulsion, it's not about money.
 
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AdamMaxum

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No one can answer this for you, but as others have mentioned, you'll figure it out eventually. It sounds like you've been comfortable for awhile and have dabbled in all of your pastime hobbies already. My advice would be to see if you enjoy helping others and find something in that arena, not for making money necessarily, but because seeing others succeed may give you some satisfaction. This could be teaching, donating time, helping others some way.

The other option would be to tackle a big problem. You now have the capital to work on something bigger than marketing. Find difficult problems and attempt to solve those or contribute to solving those problems for a bigger purpose (think elon musk type stuff). Businesses that can have a positive impact on the World or large groups of people over time. This should keep you busy and more importantly, give you a higher purpose/goal with life in general.
 

CaptainAmerica

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I also encourage volunteering. It provides meaning and inclusion that money can never buy, though the money can certainly help. I volunteer with Search and Rescue, which is like... volunteering on steroids. Last night, we had 2 callouts, back to back. We ended up looking for a group at midnight on the Pacific Crest Trail. I would not normally be hiking at night, in the snow. But it was magical. (yes, we found them)
 

100k

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Become an investor. Find other hungry entrepreneurs that have good ideas and a team with a solid track record and help them grow in return for some equity.
 
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MTF

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Do you think I should try to learn to be happy with what I have, or should I listen to this annoying greedy part of me?

The question is: what makes you happier?

I have some bold goals I'd like to accomplish, but I'm not sure if I ever act on many of them. I know that if I were to start acting on them, I would probably lose what I enjoy now: freedom to do what I want without any headaches, pressure, etc. In the end, I'm not sure if they're worth it so at the moment I'm not pursuing them - which is also a signal in itself that perhaps I really don't desire them as much as otherwise I'd act on them right away.

I had that feeling at one point. Got past it though. Your life is about you. Do what you want.

Same with me. As simple as Steve's words are, they're super important. Figure out what YOU personally want. This is not about what you think you "should" do ("should" usually comes from what you think others want of you, like proving that you can build a bigger business).

Become an investor. Find other hungry entrepreneurs that have good ideas and a team with a solid track record and help them grow in return for some equity.

Great idea. If you have a lot of money left to invest in other things, use it to support other people who have the energy to build big things. You don't have to be at the steer if you don't want to. In fact, arguably you can help more by supporting several businesses like that than by running one yourself. Or instead of investing in businesses support solid grassroots non-profits (not bloated charities). This way, you can feel useful, create a positive change, but still enjoy your largely worry-free lifestyle.
 

fastbo

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What a good problem to have! The answer is going to be a philosophical one, and personal to what you want out of life.

There is no end to hedonism. I watched a good youtube video about how relative wealth is. To a Billionaire, you as a multi millionaire, are a cockroach. A million dollars to a billionaire is like $1,000 to a millionaire. A $B earns more off passive income than you earn working your butt off. Even a Mark Cuban has only 2.5% of the wealth of Jeff Bezos. Making a million/year, it'll take 1000 years to make a billion. So forget about #'s, think about lifestyle goals and how much it takes to achieve it.

I've hit several "retirement" goals and keep upping it. But my reason is I changed my goal from personal freedom to generational wealth.

You need to figure out what's important to you. If you want to travel and enjoy life, you have to sacrifice active income.

Being that you're 28, my advice to you would be to take 5 years off and get your bucket list over. You have youth and health, so enjoy it. As MJ says, money is unlimited but youth and health are depreciating assets. You will NEVER be 28 again.

When you hit your mid 30's and you may have an itch to get back in the game, go for it. It's so much easier to get back in the game with resources and capital than scraping it from nothing. And who knows maybe when you're out there enjoying life you may stumble on the next Gopro.




Hi guys,

I'm writing this post because I've been struggling with what to do for some time now.
From 2007-2012, I worked with affiliate marketing and earned a total of $5M in revenue, but couldn't sell my business because of the nature of affiliate marketing. I still receive about $20K per month as residual income from that business.


Thank you so much!
 
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ExaltedLife

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It's not money that you want, it's the joy of taking on a challenge and succeeding that you miss.

So it seems to me, seeing as your first choice when you became financially free was to study and play classical music, the obvious next step for you is composing.

EDIT: I'm going to expand on this.

There is nothing on earth that is more satisfying to a human being than creating something of value. And creating excellent art is probably one of the most enjoyable experiences of that category.

One of my best friends decided several years ago to be a composer. He is a composer, and an excellent one. He currently makes no money at it. He has read the Millionaire Fastlane , but he doesn't care. He knows that ultimately as long as he is alive, his greatest joy in life will come from composing. And he'll probably make a good living at it one day, because he's great at it and he loves it. And especially because, as we've agreed, I'm going to spend a significant amount of money on commissioning pieces from him once I am rich, because 1. I love his music, and 2. It would make me feel like a boss to be able to actually commission a great work of art.

Either way, it doesn't matter. He understands the value of time, and knows how he wants to spend his. He's probably one of the wisest people I know. And he also happens to LOVE money - just not as much as he loves composing, and if he got hit by a meteor tomorrow, he wouldn't want to have wasted his time doing ANYTHING but the single most important thing there is to him.

I don't currently have his permission to share his music, but here is some music that both he and I love. Perhaps it will help you to decide whether composing music would fulfill you. I'm betting it would.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJpJ8REjvqo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWerj8FcprM


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq2WTXtKurk
 
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AFMKelvin

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So you have freedom and energy. Like others have said this is a philosophical question.

You should read up on Eastern religions. Even though you see monks walking around with just a bowl, the majority of Eastern philosophies were created for Kings. Kings had the same problem you're having right now. No need for resources and pleasures on demand.

Think hard of what makes you deep down. What energy is your soul made out of?

The energy to create, to conquer, to gain, or to serve. Once you find out what you're made of deep down you'll find fulfilment in whatever activity you choose.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Connect your feedback loop via value and pay attention to how you feel -- if might lay bare the answer.
 

ExaltedLife

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Connect your feedback loop via value and pay attention to how you feel -- if might lay bare the answer.

Yeah! Compose at least ONE piece ;) haha
 

V8Bill

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or should I listen to this annoying greedy part of me?

Growth isn't greed. Greed has nothing to do with it. Greed is a word and construct created by those who don't believe in themselves and want to keep us (who like to grow and build things) down at their level or lower.

You're only greedy if you think it's ok to make money by hurting people on purpose.
If you set out to rip people off just for personal enrichment then yeah, you're greedy but that's not what you're talking about (or the vibe I get from you) so let's keep the word "greed" out of it. It's natural to want to grow, that's what you're hearing and feeling - not "greed" at all.

Just sayin'. You have an itch to grow - scratch it if you have to - there's nothing wrong with it. By all means add more value to the world.
 
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I'll be honest here.
Before I had all the success I had, I thought that earning all that income would solve all my life's problems, and that I would be spending my days doing whatever pleases me.
Indeed I do it, I travel a lot, I dine out a lot, I cook, I play videogames, I cycle, I play music, I even started a University course just out of curiosity.
But what really troubles me is a deeper thing, it's not about what to do with my time on a daily basis, but more of a greater meaning of "am I just wasting my life doing things for my own enjoyment".

Hey Mark I feel I've recently overcome these feelings you're having. I grew up really poor and learned to reduce my expenses so low that I could live off very little while I grow a business.
Then I started to have success and I had to force myself to add things to my life and treat myself a little. Now I eat steak when I want, I get massages, I travel a lot, I upgraded my car and most things in my life. But we all have our comfort level.

It sounds like you're comfortable and content.
Have you ever heard that comfort kills?

My fear is that I'm going to waste my life and my good years and my potential. Don't waste your gifts man.

I recently went to a business conference and spoke with a guy who makes over $10M per year and I asked him.. why do you do it? Why do you keep pushing and working so hard if you already have everything you and your family needs and wants?

And he turned the question on me and said.. it's great and fine that you're making good money and hustling and have a great life and travel the world.. but.. WHO ARE YOU SERVING other than yourself? Who are you helping? Who would miss you if you were gone? How many lives have you impacted?

It made me realize that I've lived a pretty selfish life. And it's required to a point.. to guard your time and spend your time growing yourself and your business.. but contribution is also important.

Man there are hundreds of thousands of people who would pay to learn how to live a life like you and make money like you. Teach what you've learned. Give back. Spend your time helping others get where you're at. Do you have a YouTube channel or blog?
You can impact thousands and still make money and use your creative mind and feel fulfilled and significant at the same time.
You can have whatever you want, If you help enough other people get what they want.

P.S. I'd like to learn to make an extra $2k per month setting up some affiliate marketing systems. :) Why not?
 

MarkLucas

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Hi again,

This forum seems to be really interested in helping me, that's great!

I've pondered about what you all said, and I agree that I should provide value to others, but what I think is that I would prefer to provide this value now not as an enterpreneur - I'll check out charities related to teaching music near where I live, I think that will help me feel useful.
Some people PMed me asking for advice, or coaching, etc regarding affiliate marketing - I honestly don't feel I have any way of helping nowadays. Years ago I discovered some kind of "trick" in adwords that really helped me, and I credit most of my success to that, but it doesn't work anymore. Also, what made me earn the most was promoting Online Gambling websites, which most people wouldn't want to get involved with.

And @ExaltedLife :
I studied some composing lately in my university course, thanks for the suggestion. I actually enjoy a lot more being challenged with different pieces and performing them with orchestras than composing my own. But I see what you mean :)
For me the greatest joy in music is found when I play with other people, especially in small groups.
 

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