One of the best things about having a job is that no matter what you do, you will always get paid a base salary. The longer people stay at their jobs, the longer they understand this “benefit.” Managers understand this as well, which is why they are constantly looking for new blood to keep the workforce hungry.

Everybody knows somebody at work who just kicks backs to your chagrin. Despite paying their dues way longer than you, you’re still annoyed that s/he is more senior and gets paid better! Some people are stupid enough to have the mentality of, If he can do so well slacking off, then so can I! Pretty soon, your delusional self starts getting bad marks in your mid-year review, doesn’t get a raise, nor do you get a promotion.

The lack of congruency is what gets people in trouble. Thinking we deserve one thing, when we really deserve another really kills happiness.  We start complaining about perceived injustices, when we really have nobody to blame but ourselves. I remember being so mad at losing a tennis match, all I did was mentally blame him for “pushing” the ball back to me. The reality is, I was not in shape and could not maintain my level of performance for the entire battle.

WELCOME ENTREPRENEURSHIP!

A great cure for delusion is entrepreneurship. With no steady paycheck, we only eat what you kill.  No, that’s Socialism.  With no steady paycheck, we only eat what WE kill.

Perhaps schools and parents should be required to cut us off completely for six months before the age of 21 and see if we can survive on our own. We’ll be forced to work any job we can for a living. Our entitlement attitude easily gets vanquished when we’re flipping burgers for minimum wage.

Our appreciation for school will rise to a new level, when we feel the pain of using our minimum wage earnings from Burger King to pay for tuition or for that MBA degree. There’s no way we can slack off now can we?

Our love and respect for our parents will soar when we realize how much sacrifice they must have given to raise us. No more talking back and disobeying the rules!

Finally, we’ll never take for granted our jobs again, at least not for a long while. No more will we want to just quit after a couple years because things aren’t going away. We stick it out and fight.

THE SAFETY NET FILLED WITH HOLES

Every single month, my Paypal account resets to zero. I purposefully flush everything out so I know exactly how much income is coming in throughout the entire month. If I don’t flush the money out, then it becomes very easy to cheat and live off my old spoils.

The great thing about entrepreneurship is that there is a good correlation with effort once you get things off the ground. The more I write, connect, market, the more I get paid. The more I go on vacation and spend time on the tennis court playing with friends, the less I get paid.

Passive income is fantastic, but it is also a crutch for entrepreneurs. My crutch is that I have generated enough passive income from my years of savings and investing that I don’t have to work hard any longer. Although it took a lot of discipline to get to my passive income, but it’s all good now!

Now that I’m on my own, I am tempted on a weekly basis to just kick back like that co-worker we all know. I ask myself why I bother trying so hard, when there really isn’t any need to.  I don’t need millions of dollars, or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to be happy. I just need enough to provide for my basic needs and travel on occasion.

SWIM UNTIL YOU START SINKING

With each temptation, I just tell myself that I’m working hard because I can. I know there will be a point where I no longer have the energy or desire to continue. That is when I will shift gears, not now.

Entrepreneurship is one of the true avenues for showing what we are made of.  It can be scary building something from scratch.  However, it is also very rewarding and exhilarating. There will be tremendous times of stress, anxiety and worry, but the successes make up for it all. Just don’t forget to take a break, get some exercise, and do something completely separate from your endeavors once in a while! If you want to be one step ahead of the game, search for information about the benefits of pursuing a master of business administration. The lessons they teach you will give you the tools you need in order to be successful.

RESOURCES FOR A BETTER LIFE

Manage Your Finances In One Place: The best way to build wealth is to get a handle on your finances by signing up with Personal Capital. They are a free online platform which aggregates all your financial accounts in one place so you can see where you can optimize. Before Personal Capital, I had to log into eight different systems to track 28 different accounts (brokerage, multiple banks, 401K, etc) to track my finances. Now, I can just log into Personal Capital to see how my stock accounts are doing, how my net worth is progressing, and where I’m spending my money.

Negotiate A Severance Package: Don’t quit your job, get laid off and negotiate a severance package instead. Negotiating a severance enabled me to receive six years worth of living expenses from a company I dedicated 11 years of my life to. If I had quit, I wouldn’t get any severance, deferred compensation, medical benefits, job assistance training or unemployment benefits and neither will you. I believe so strongly in the message of never quitting that I spent a couple years writing this 100-page book entitled, “How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye.” I’m absolutely certain this book will help you recognize your rights as an employee and break free from the corporate grind to do something you truly want to do.

Updated for 2015 and beyond