When I was in college, working at a call center to pay the rent/fund my second business, my friend Champ and I used to always go to the BMW and Mercedes lots to look at the cars we thought we would never have. We would go after hours so that we could browse freely without the usual annoyance of a car salesman walking up to us (not that any of them thought for a second that we were buying these cars anyway, but carry on). I remember peering into the locked windows, hands around my face, thinking to myself… “I’ve got to get one of these!” I would imagine myself sitting on those soft, imported leather seats, hands gripping the wheel and the stick shift, pedal floored… It was such a rush just imaging the experience that I couldn’t even fathom the real thing. Leaving that parking lot always left me with such a motivation high. I knew I would never reach the financial success that I always dreamed about by going to college and getting a fancy career behind a desk. In my eyes, the bottom line was that if I didn’t want to have some guy who calls himself my boss, and most likely takes his job wayyyy too serious, telling me what to do, when to do it, what time to come in, what time to leave, when I could take a break to eat, how long that break would be!… (wow, I feel like I’m in a nightmare right now! But that’s another story!)… basically if I wanted to be in control of my own destiny, I needed to take my business full time, which meant dropping out of college. At the time, it was one of the hardest choices I had ever faced. “My parents want me to be an engineer. What will they think of me if I turn out to be a complete failure? They paid thousands of dollars for me to attend a private college with an accredited engineering program. Wow… this decision is really going to change my life!”. It’s a good thing my wife (then girlfriend) truly believed in me, because I made that decision to drop out of school in order to take my business full time, and it did change my life. That one decision molded the person that I am today. So how did it all happen? Well, I was driving to work one humid, summer day in 2004, talking on the phone with my wife, telling her how much I hated my job and wanted to take my business to the next level. Then she said the magic words. “F%$& it. Make a U-turn and go home. Go work on your business. You can do it, baby.” So that’s exactly what I did. And I never looked back.
Material things shouldn’t be the core of our motivation, but you know, you only live once. You must reward yourself for your hard work, especially when it is paying off. Taxes and pizza shouldn’t be the only things you spend your hard earned money on! I can’t help but think back to when I used to look at all of those cars on the lot, dreaming about being able to purchase them at the drop of a dime, and how I could work smart and get myself to that point. While peering into the windows of expensive cars is still heaps of fun (it has to be done after hours, preferably after midnight, to get the full effect), I must say that my desires, along with my expectations of myself, have come ahead quite a bit. Today I found an image of an incredible home that I consider the epitome of the term “motivation”. I can’t even tell you what my wife said she would do if I bought her this house =). Anyhow, if this property doesn’t make you re(vamp) your 5 year plan, either you’re a lost cause, or you already own a similar property (and myself, the wife and son, the puppy, and about 100 or so people that I do and don’t really know will be on the way this summer with around 50 liters of tequila, 60 liters of vodka, chips, cheese dip, salsa, between 5 and 10 thousand beers, and 1 and 3/4 blowup dolls, ready to parrrrrrty)! Get the yacht and the jet skis ready… jonnyyboyy is on the way!
Hey, who ever said getting carried away ever hurt anybody?! What are some of the things that get your motivational gears turning?
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Tags: dream house, motivation, taxes & pizza
