If you are new here, you may not know that I wasn't always a beloved, superstar global influencer (tongue in cheek, promise 😗).

No I used to have a "proper job" (thanks brother).

And so, in the last few years I have been on a bit of an adventure to reinvent myself. This is something that lots of us dream of doing at some point in our lives. It's not easy, but it is worth it.

So here are some of the big lessons I have learned that might help you:

1. Your friends and family may not support you to change. They like you as you are, whether you like you or not.
2. You may need new friends. People who see what you can become, not who you are now.
3. You can block your family on social media. Just tell them what they need to know at weddings and funerals. They will love you more if they don't know what you are doing.
4. Messing up in public is the only way to get better. So build up your tolerance for embarrassment. And block even more people if that helps. Why are you connected with Sarah from school on LinkedIn anyway?!
5. Nobody is thinking about you. That thing you messed up (see 4). Everyone has moved on. You can too.
6. Hold your goals lightly but your why tightly. If you are achieving your purpose, doing something different to your plan, you won.
7. It is better to experiment in public, learn, improve, pivot and experiment again, than to spend a long time building something in secret. You only really learn when your product/service hits paying customers.
8. When you launch a thing and it bombs, here's what you do. You feel sorry for yourself for 48 hours. Then you start again with your next experiment.
9. The purpose of every job is to make money. The reason for that is that you have to feed your family. This is noble. Get to work. Your higher purpose should emerge from the work, not the other way around. The world has enough starving hippies.
10. However long you think it will take to succeed you are wrong. Assume it will take 7 years. You have to make money faster than that, but actual success is a long way away.
11. It is great that success is a long way away, because if it wasn't, it would be boring and you wouldn't learn anything.
12. Yes you have to do jobs you don't like. Yes you have to work evenings. Yes you have to work weekends. No you can't switch off. Yes you do have to stop drinking so much (sorry it's a fact). There is nothing wrong with this. It is the only way to achieve 7 for the first year or two.
13. Everyone trying to sell you quick wins is a shark. The honest teachers tell you the truth. This is hard.
14. You will need to invest in help (coaching/training) and that might come at a price you are not used to. Find people with strong reputations, who don't pretend it is easy, and pay the premium. They are not sharks.
15. There is no finish line. You don't arrive. You don't attain a status where your troubles melt away. This is good. The point of the game is just to stay in the game.
16. Working on something for yourself, by yourself, is one of the toughest and most rewarding things you could ever do.
17. Good luck.

Let me know what you think of my random list. Have a great day,

Stephen

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