From Grocery Clerk to Financial Freedom at 30 (My Story)

If you feel stuck in your career…

If you don’t see the path to making more money, doing something you enjoy…

If you’re secretly envious of entrepreneurs who seem to have all this money, freedom, and lifestyle..

I’m going to tell you what it really takes for you to be one of them….

For you to shift from where you are today— to a life of high income, freedom, and a whole lot of fun.

It’s important to start on this journey, and here’s why…

You might feel depressed about your situation now…

How will you feel if another 2, 5, or 10 years goes by — and nothing changes?

How will you feel if you have kids and don’t get to see them much, because you still haven’t created a lifestyle that allows you to watch them grow up?

I felt so trapped in my corporate healthcare job. I worked in a cubicle processing insurance claims for 3.5 years.

I sat there 45 hours a week. I made less than 40K/year. The work I did was empty of meaning.

I actually felt depressed on a regular basis.

I quit that job at my lowest point, and got a job at a grocery store making 9 bucks an hour. Sounds kinda dumb, but I needed space to think.

Something snapped inside of me at that grocery store.

As I stood in the kitchen (wearing an apron and hydrating heads of lettuce), I knew things would never be the same. I drew a line in the sand.

I wasn’t going to work for anyone ever again. I was going to find a way out of the grocery store (and the traditional working world) forever.

For the first time in years, I picked up a non-fiction book. It was Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki. The book taught me powerful stuff about making money. I saw that I had been going about it all wrong.

Aside from reading, I found myself doing other new things. I talked to a lot of the customers who came in the store.

As an introvert, I don’t do things like this.

But I was curious about what they did for a living. I wanted to meet entrepreneurs. I wanted to ask them how they made the switch — from a job to entrepreneurship.

I met a guy who owned a candle-making business. I met a couple hippies in their 20’s (who reeked of B.O.) that started a successful juice bar.

Then, I met a young guy in his 20’s who flipped houses. I was super interested in his business because Rich Dad, Poor Dad talked about real estate investing.

The guy agreed to mentor me. He taught me how to find real estate deals. Over the course of a year, I found him 8 deals and he paid me 1K each time.

I only made 8K from real estate in my first year, but I learned a ton. The very next year I quit the grocery store and started my own real estate investing business.

That year I brought in 125K, three times more than I had ever made in a year. I was starting to see how powerful this thing called “entrepreneurship” really could be.

The following year I doubled my income, and then doubled it again 2 years after that. I was earning more than the CEO’s of most companies, in my 20’s.

I started to purchase rental properties and built a portfolio of 35 houses. By the time I was 30 years old, I was financially free.

You might be saying: “well, you timed the market right”

As I write this, I’m sitting across from my good friend Ryan at the coffee shop — who has built a portfolio of 10 properties inside the last 2 years — during a bad real estate market.

You might say: “you’re lucky to have found the guy who mentored you”

That’s true. Yet, there are plenty of successful people out there — in any field — ready and willing to mentor. Humans crave the opportunity to teach and mentor others. It’s in our DNA.

You can come up with a million other explanations for why I was able to have this success, but for some reason you can’t.

But here’s the real reason my friend Ryan and I sit at the coffee shop today — earning an above average income — working around 4 hours per day.

We got so fed up with our current situation that we drew a line in the sand. We refused to keep “getting jobs”. We knew that was a dead end.

We stopped waiting for someone to come and save us, and decided to save ourselves.

We started devouring books about making money and self-help.

We got vulnerable and asked for help. We got successful people to mentor us. We started going to seminars and making connections with other driven people.

We both started meditating and filling out a gratitude journal — so we could change our mindset, away from a scarcity and towards possibility.

We made a permanent internal shift. Things got bad enough, and we said “no more”.

We burned our boats and took a journey into the unknown.

This is the same way that our ancestors discovered the land we now call home. Someone had to carry a torch into the darkness.

That’s what it’s going to feel like, for you to make the shift. It’s going to scare the shit out of you.

They call it your “comfort zone” for a reason.

Most people will never break free of their comfort zone because they don’t want to get uncomfortable.

They're never truly committed. They're permanently in the land of "I have so many ideas", yet keeping one foot in and one foot out.

There’s not a comfortable path from where you are today to a whole new reality. It doesn’t come easy like that.

But, what’s more uncomfortable? A year or two of extreme discomfort while you break free, or another 30-40 years of being unhappy in your “comfort zone”?

Also, I have some good news.

We live in such an amazing time.

There are easier paths to creating a business that generates a high income while giving you a great lifestyle.

It’s the online education business, and it’s booming.

It’s growing year over year. It’s expected to do over 1B/day in sales within the next couple of years.

1 billion per day.

The best part? It costs nothing to start. There’s no downside, other than your time.

If you like the idea of starting a coaching business, creating a podcast, writing a book, mentoring others, and making your mark on the world…

The first place to start is by picking your niche. This refers to who you will help, and what you will do for them.

You can’t create something to sell until you know your niche.

If you want a comprehensive guide, check out my book Nail Your Niche.

You can grab a copy for less than your daily latte here:

 https://www.nailyourniche.net​ 

Here’s to you making a great income, making an impact, and having a great lifestyle…

Brian