I’ve got a problem that perhaps many of you share: the lack of motivation to give things my best day in and day out. This devil on my shoulder always likes to whisper, “Good enough is good enough!” “The world isn’t going to end if you don’t publish 3-4 post a week.”

At least three times this year I’ve been tempted by outsourcing my writing and making everything a little more generic on Financial Samurai. This way, I’ll get less comments to respond to. By “speaking from left to write” where I talk about the basics so that everybody can understand, I’ll have a larger mass market appeal. The temptation was strongest while I was traveling abroad in Europe this summer with only my iPhone.

But each time I felt like not editing a post to publish or skipping a week of writing I think back to one of my greatest blogging motivations of all.

RAISING YOUR MOTIVATION LEVEL

One of the strategies I’ve shared with my readers is to seek out rejection to get yourself motivated to try harder. If you live in a developed country, life is pretty easy. We’ve got subsidized healthcare, running water, electricity, public libraries, public parks, a stable legal system, and a relatively uncorrupt government. Many other countries don’t have such luxuries. To jolt ourselves into action, seek out people or institutions at the top of their game. Because they are inundated with requests, they’ll probably reject you and leave you a little bitter.

The best rejection I ever got was from a university who put me on their wait-list. For the next 10 years after graduating high school I used the rejection letter as fuel to get the best grades possible in order to land the best job possible after college and prove them wrong. It worked.

The reason why we give ourselves goals is to eradicate complacency. The Yakezie Challenge’s purpose is to motivate bloggers to write more and network better online. The 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 Alexa ranking benchmarks are just focus points to provide anybody who has a tendency to meander. But after a while, there will inevitably be a plateau. Then what? This has been my issue for the past year or so.

THE SLAP IN THE FACE

The best rejection I got was actually from a freelance writer who specializes in credit card reviews. I met him in 2012 at FinCon and I was thinking of doing what all veteran bloggers eventually do and that is hire someone to write generic credit card review posts to start making affiliate income online. Since I only used two credit cards at the time, I felt uncomfortable writing about credit cards I don’t own.

The freelance writer is a nice guy and I don’t know whether he said what he said due to being socially inept or just wanting to brag. But when I asked him his rates this is what he said,

“You can’t afford me.”

I was pretty floored. Was he used to only dealing with clients such as Eliot Spitzer? Did he really think I couldn’t afford $50, $100, or even $200 for an article as someone who just decided to call it a career after 13 years in finance to live off his passive income? I know I’m not JD, Flexo, Jim, Pete or Trent rich, but surely I can afford to pay a couple hundred dollars for a stinking credit card review article! The question is, do I want to spend even a single dollar on some crappy credit card review article that doesn’t fit the voice of my site? Hell no!

The freelancer saved my site from losing its personality and soul for money.

THE INSULT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

It’s been almost 1.5 years since I was told I couldn’t afford this freelance writer’s fees and I’ve got to say I’m ecstatic with the results! Four little words have given me so much motivation to keep on writing original content on Financial Samurai 3-4 times a week. I haven’t needed to hire anybody to give me a break because I remind myself that I can’t afford to hire anybody!

I’ll still have my ups and downs throughout the year like I did after I came back from such a fun adventure abroad this summer. But for the most part I’m feeling the reward of progress. Here’s to another year of motivation “you can’t afford me” will provide!

RECOMMENDATION FOR BUILDING WEALTH

Manage Your Finances In One Place: The best way to become financially independent and protect yourself 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 25+ difference accounts (brokerage, multiple banks, 401K, etc) to manage my finances. Now, I can just log into Personal Capital to see how my stock accounts are doing and how my net worth is progressing. I can also see how much I’m spending every month.

The best tool is their Portfolio Fee Analyzer which runs your investment portfolio through its software to see what you are paying. I found out I was paying $1,700 a year in portfolio fees I had no idea I was paying! There is no better financial tool online that has helped me more to achieve financial freedom.

It’s 2015 and the bull market continues. Make a decision to be wealthy by taking control of your finances!

Regards,

Sam