Things Are Changing
I was at my dairy farm a few days back. I was needed to make a few executive decisions, given most of the decision are delegated to the farm manager.
A vet from Nestle was visiting my small farm, and I met up with him to discuss further improvements. He told me that he now gives my example to other dairy farmers, and then he told me that he considers my farm as one of the best-maintained in his region (covering the district of Pakpatan).
This was excellent news, Alhumdulillah.
And at night, as I was trying to sleep (and failing), I logged in to see my Clickbank stats (earnings from my affiliate sites) and reply to a few emails that I receive regarding this blog.
Then it hit me. Hard.
I love what I do.
And no matter how much you have paid for your education, no matter how big a business you are running and no matter how much money you are making as an employee or employer, loving what you do, relishing the work part of your life so it becomes play, is what this is all about.
And I realized that I wanted to share this with you. To the hundreds who have somehow connected with me via my blog.
Where Are We Going?
Being self-employed is great, doing a high-paying job is OK, but doing what you love, and then actually being in a position to make money off of it, haqq halaal kee rozee, honest and transparent earnings, NOTHING beats that.
If you want to be self-employed, or are self-employed, then you’ll probably appreciate the following…
I am not a millionaire. I do not have high-grossing businesses. I am self-employed, I currently have 5 different sources of income, and all are small enough to not even qualify for Sales Tax registration (as per the legal opinion of one of my lawyer friends). Two of these income streams are online.
Yes, I am not a millionaire, but I might just have a millionaire lifestyle.
I say this not to brag. I say this so you know where I am coming from, and most importantly, that all this is possible.
You do not need a million dollars (not even a million rupees!) to travel business class to exotic destinations, meet with industry leaders, play your favorite sport three times a week and still have time for family, friends, to read, study and ponder over your favorite subjects.
All of this, without a gut-wrenching 9 to 5, without a “deferred life plan”, without working 40 years of your life to enjoy the remaining 15 (or 5!), without working a job you don’t like, without sacrificing your now for tomorrow and other cooked-up, half-baked stories. No.
I want to use this blog to help you become self-employed.
Not so you can make tons of money, but so maybe you can have a ‘wholesome life’. Or at least try to have something that is worth working for; a wholesome, balanced life.
Everyone’s talking about lifestyle design, about making money online, about staying fit using the latest techniques, but no one is talking about them in the way that ‘fits’.
And I want to encourage you, share with you and perhaps try to show you that there IS a better way. But who the hell am I to tell you? What ‘qualifications’ do I have?
Fair question.
I am not an expert. I have been self-employed my whole life and have had my fair share of experiences in business. I have been in a unique position of interacting with a lot of different people from exceptionally varied backgrounds.
And there are not many people who are doing offline ‘traditional’ businesses AND doing internet marketing and treating their blogs as a business.
I am just a student. Of all of this. I like to learn and I hunt for ‘actionable information’. I will be sharing that here.
Being self-employed is great, yes, but loving what you do, relishing moments that seem so casual AND then being able to afford luxuries, being able to care for your family, look out for your friends, is not that reason enough to rejoice? Isn’t that what all of this is about?
Is not this reason enough to be as grateful as you can be? Grateful to the people who buy from you, people who encourage you (like this total stranger, Greg, who thanked me for “guiding him in the right direction” after he had subscribed via my BlogAsABusiness eCourse).
What a wonderful position to be in when your words are being read by hundreds of people, and they actually take the time out to write back to you, to tell you that you are doing good.
And the cherry on the cake? One time I am writing about dairy farming, the other time about making money with blogging and then about rats. Ha! Bernard Shaw tells us that the core of happiness is staying interested.
The opposite of happy is not sad, it is boredom.
The sheer variance of my normal work day is enough proof that Mr Shaw is dead-on; being happy has a very positive correlation to being interested.
All of this, and a lot, lot more needs to be shared. In hopes that more people can somehow achieve this feeling. This feeling where you just want to sit down, look up, close your eyes and just say “Thank You”. Unadulterated. Pure. Just a plain, simple “Thank You God”. Alhumdulillah.
And the rational mind quickly reminds you that you are not where you could have been! Regret rears its magnificently ugly head to jolt you out of your Thankfulness and show you rosy pictures of “what could have been”. You realize you could be so much more.
But then again, you realize you could have been so, so much worse. Anything you have can fall apart faster than a house of cards. And that’s scary. Being scared and being scared shitless is part and parcel of being self-employed. This uncertainty is what feeds the creativity, in fact.
I guess we need to appreciate our knowledge of our own uncertainty and build from there.
And don’t worry, I am not selling you anything here (that is possibly a mistake).
I am now trying to take this to the next level, where I try to help you, the people who have subscribed to my blog, in:
- starting their own businesses
- starting their own online businesses
- starting their blogs
- being more productive
- being healthier
And I want to help you in any way I can.
I will be starting new experiments (I have told you I love experiments, haven’t I?), in starting online businesses using Facebook (or Google+ even!), on planning your travels and then financing them using different projects, on how to start the right type of fitness regimes, on which types of food have actually helped me lose fat. I will be hoping to add to your overall experience of this wonderful thing we call life.
I hope you join me by subscribing to this blog. And if you are already subscribed, you already know that I am listening. Thank you.
Next Experiments: Setting up a home gym (cheap!) | How to Use Social Media to Make Money | Videos on dairy farming! Subscribe to stay up to date. Thanks.
