Ripped jeans, 5 year old Nikes, and a dirty library bag.
That’s what one of the most popular podcast hosts in the world wore to a lunch with me yesterday.
The entrepreneur movement he has created is enormous.
What struck me is how low-key he is. When I walked inside the cafe to get coffee he didn’t want one. When it came to buying lunch he didn’t need it. He bought a $2 container from Kmart full of home-cooked veggies to eat.
The cafe his assistant chose didn’t suit him either. So we ate lunch in the park behind his office.
I asked him how he built such a massive online business from hosting a podcast. Then I asked him what the hardest part was.
The second answer shocked me.
He had to fire most of his original employees, many of who were friends, because his online business had outgrown their skills.
I naturally thought his goal was to make a lot of money online.
“Nah, don’t care about that,” he said.
“We’re on a mission to create the next generation of entrepreneurs instead.”
He’d figured out, as I have, there’s more to life than making money online.
Sounds ridiculous coming from me
I write a lot about making money online. Dah.
So this article might sound strange coming from me. Surprise! But I deeply believe in this topic.
It’s way too easy to lock yourself up in your bat cave and waste your life away trying to move digits upwards on a stats graph. Trust me, I’ve tried.
The game of making money online never gets won.
You always need more. Then when you make more, you spend more. Or, like me, you take bigger investing risks than you perhaps should.
That’s what I did: Bet on a few stupid cryptos, when all I should have done is stuck with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Thankfully, it hasn’t been an expensive lesson.
Making money online can drive your brain bananas. It can bring out the inner ape.
Too much money equals too much bullsh*t
This one never gets spoken about.
The more money you make online the more you become a target for low-life morons. I’ve met plenty.
They do all sorts of crazy stuff. They say all sorts of odd things behind your back. A lot of noise enters your life. It can become deafening.
Sometimes you just want it all to shut the hell up.
Making money online teaches you to build your bank account.
My advice is to focus on using what you do online to generate more free time instead. Then when you own your free time, stop there before things get wild.
Or do what popular online writer Jeff Goins did and escape the internet forever.
Milking every opportunity for money is exhausting
This is what many side hustlers do.
They see nothing but dollars. Dollars everywhere. Dollar signs form in their eyes. They start trying to charge everybody.
A classic example is a guy I spoke to on LinkedIn. When I asked him a question he sent me a link to his Calendly. The Calendly had time slots for a 30-minute meeting.
Here’s the rub: you had to enter your credit card number and pay hundreds of dollars to make the appointment. LOL.
A calendar with a paywall, what will they think of next!
The delusional nice man thought he deserved to charge for every conversation. I wouldn’t be surprised if him leaving an emoji on your social media post costs $25. He could leave the credit card link in the comment. Mwahahaha.
I have a rule to solve this problem.
Let 95% of people you meet online get access to you and your work for free. Stop trying to charge everybody.
Build products for the small few. Let them pay if they want to.
You’d be surprised how much money 1000 loyal email subscribers can make. And you don’t have to jam the product down their throat until they vomit.
Why do we fall for this dumb trap?
Simple. Making money online content is everywhere.
Then we see other creators making money and say to ourselves, “Damn it, I knew it, I need to do what they’re doing.”
Making money online FOMO takes over our brain. All we can see is a competition that we should be a part of.
But you don’t need to go overboard. Making money online is more fun when you take it less seriously. Better yet, when you take yourself less seriously too.
Stop feeling like you’re missing out. You’re right on time. It takes a year or more to master making money online.
The best part isn’t the money but who you become in the process.
Who loses?
Friends and family lose.
They see us less. We lock the door. We hide from them. We emerge from our home office as zombies desperate for sleep.
All they want is our time. Making money online shouldn’t take over from the relationships that matter.
Sure, doing something you love online is great. But if your partner divorces you or your kids don’t know you, what’s the point of it all?
There is no bloody point.
Stop being passive income drunk.
Make money online — just don’t forget to live in the process. There will always be another killer opportunity you can invest in.
We’re drowning in online opportunities, and starving for meaning. Took me eight years to learn that.
