Want to be a millionaire? Start out by following your dreams!
Let’s get one thing straight before we begin. I’m not a millionaire –- not yet anyway! But I certainly earn more now as a self employed writer than I ever did in any other job I’ve ever done.
This is why I am constantly thankful that I never listened to any of the other well meaning but misinformed people who advised me to play it safe and get what they called a “proper” job. This was something I heard a lot around twenty years ago, when I was first seriously considering writing for a living. Little did I know that I would have to wait more than fifteen years before I could start doing just that. But in the meantime I did start to earn a nice part time income very quickly indeed –- I just didn’t know how to get the rest of the way to making a full time living at it.
Follow Your Dreams, Ignore the Cynics!
Let’s talk about following your dreams for a moment. When you’ve got a passion, it can become the key to making sure you can develop a successful shot at becoming a millionaire. There are quite a lot of people out there today who have the ability and the talent to go it alone and become entrepreneurs. Even those who fall short of the million mark still manage in many cases to do better than they did as employees.
In truth, it all depends on whether you’ve developed skills and abilities, and most importantly, your passions. What are you really passionate about? I have always wanted to write (to be a writer). If I had listened to all those well meaning people, I would currently be sitting in a drab cubicle somewhere answering telephones and typing, instead of sitting here in a nice home office writing to you.
The trouble is that well meaning people are by their very nature cynical people –- even if they don’t know it. They constantly think they are doing well for you by warning you of all the things that could –- and probably will –- go wrong. Perhaps they are risk averse, but they could be projecting their own expectations for themselves upon you. They see it as their duty to try and persuade you to stay on the same path they are on –- namely, to stay in a drab (and seemingly secure) job until it’s time to collect their pension. But the fact is, no job is guaranteed either, and many employees have found themselves facing job layoffs and pink slip parties during the last recession. Job security is a myth!
So here’s the thing. If you have a passion inside you –- just as I did about my writing and my ability to do it for a living –- you have to follow it to see where it leads. I wrote part time for many years before the internet came along and gave me the full time income I had so desperately wanted for so long. I always knew it would happen, even as I held onto dreams of being a novelist for a long time. Hey ho, maybe it will still happen and I will reach millionaire status as a result. As they say, “one can dream”!
Cynical people always assume that everything can and will go wrong. They never try anything because they are afraid to fail. But I suspect that a tiny part of them doesn’t want any of us to go forward, claim our dreams and become wealthier as a result. I think that if we do and we prove them wrong, it causes them to question their own lives.
So don’t be too hard on the cynics should you come across any of them. Stay true to your dreams and ambitions and remember that you should really feel a little sorry for them instead.
If you enjoyed this post, you can get free regular updates through our RSS Feed, or you can have our latest posts delivered to your email inbox by supplying your address here. Your address will only be used for this purpose, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Are you being cynical to cynics?