Serve No Master: How to Escape the 9-5, Start up an Online Business, Fire Your Boss and Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur or Digital Nomad

by Jonathan Green

  6

  Manifesting Your Dream

  Every human, starting from birth, is driven by two sets of dreams. We have the dreams that are birthed within us, the ones that make our souls sing. And then we have the desires that society has ground into our brains.

  Television, teachers, and politicians force-feed us dreams about the kind of car we should drive, the house we should own and the college we should attend. None of those dreams come from within. They don’t come from your heart, and they are merely distractions.

  What I want you to do is think about what you want for just a moment. Two driving forces should determine every financial decision you make from now on. Do you desire freedom or finances? They are not mutually exclusive, but they are also very different.

  I have a lot of freedom. I used to make a lot more money by working a lot more hours. It wasn’t making me happy. I’m in the freedom camp. It doesn’t matter which camp you’re in. There isn’t a good one or a bad one. You just have to think about which idea makes you happier.

  Would you like to retire in the next five years and live modestly on an island somewhere? Maybe in the mountains where you can go fishing every day or focus on one of your hobbies? Or would you rather have a great house and a luxurious car with the ability to travel five-star every time?

  I work with people on both sides of the fence all the time. You should see how I negotiate. When I partner with someone on a project, the first thing I explain is that I’m not interested in being the captain. I’ll do a specific amount of work, but I never want that majority share. When you are the boss, you have the responsibility and the stress. I’ll just enjoy my smaller percentage from the comfort of my hammock on the beach, thank you very much.

  Let’s start with a simple, but vital question:

  If you never had to work again and nobody would ever judge you, what would you spend the rest of your life doing?

  The answer to that question is the first step to finding your core value. It will help you to figure out what drives you. As we dig deeper into this book, we will get more specific with your dream. We will turn your desire into specific numbers. And then we’ll develop a plan to hit those financial targets. But for now, I just want you to take a few minutes and let your imagination run free. You know how you used to imagine all the stuff you’d do if you won the lottery, invented something cool, or got that promotion? Get yourself in that kind of mindset as we continue.

  7

  Out with a Whimper

  I was twenty-nine, and my career was over.

  "You're fired,"

  "Hand over your keys and any other company property, and get out of here,” my boss said.

  I will never forget driving through that snowstorm in February of 2010 on my way home to a brand new apartment in a brand new car - neither of which I could afford anymore.

  With a mountain of debt hanging over my head, I walked into that empty apartment… and those words rang in my head over and over again - like the judgment of the totality of me as a person.

  To make things even worse, I’d already turned down the only other job opportunity within a hundred miles. The job I spent ten years working toward disappeared in an instant. I started to suspect that I might just be a failure as a human being. My whole life, the years of education, the late nights at work… everything was fading away in front of me. I wanted to die.

  I was on trial back at that office, but somehow they forgot the part where you get to defend yourself. Before they said a single word, they’d already reached a verdict. You wouldn’t believe the fake reason they invented to fire me. I could tell they’d spent at least a week cooking up something. They decided to fire me, and then they looked for a reason. The sentence was determined before the trial.

  And what could I do about it? They had the power, and I didn’t.

  I thought I was set for life. During the job interview a month earlier they had talked about how we were family now and how people stayed there for ten or twenty years. I would never have to worry about looking for another job again.

  It turns out; they were right…

  I

  What is Job Security

  People clinging to job security, savings, retirement plans, and other relics will be the ones financially-ravaged from 2010-2020, the most volatile world-changing decade in history.

  - Robert Kiyosaki

  8

  The Lie of Jobs for Life

  Do you remember a few decades ago when we started to hear about Japanese companies that gave you a job for life? They used to have a system in Japan where a big company would hire you at eighteen, and you were set until you retired. You could work without the fear of that ax hanging over your head.

  So many people drive to work every day laughing at guys like me. They still believe that we have jobs for life in this country, too. There’s this idea that if you work for a big enough company, as long as you work hard and make them a lot of dough, you will be protected.

  Unfortunately, reality is quite different.

  A job interview is a lot like a first date. We make a lot of promises that we have no intention of keeping, and do everything we can to hide the worst parts of our personality. The truth is that your company doesn’t care about you. The CEO of your company makes 400 times more than the average worker there. That salary is driven by greed, and if you study economics, those CEO salaries are one of the main reasons the economy has been stalling or shrinking for thirty-five years. That boss isn’t going to buy five hundred more pairs of jeans than you are or eat five hundred more meals. And they certainly don’t work five hundred times harder than anybody! That money doesn’t go back into the economy.

  When you come out of college, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, you think that if you can just get hired you will be set for life. That getting your foot in the door will be enough. Once you’re in there, you can prove yourself. Many people even take jobs as interns. Toiling long hours for a company that makes millions for free! Hoping that six months later you might get offered a job.

  That’s some Grade A horse manure.

  Now, I have to be honest with you for just a moment. I have interns at my company. Every six months or so, I take on a new intern. The reason I have to get a new one every six months is that they keep getting rich. Every one of my previous interns now makes more than ten thousand dollars a month.

  What’s my secret? I don’t teach people how to work for me. What’s the fun in that? I teach people how to be rich. That’s what I like to brag about. My interns learn so much that I can’t afford to hire them anymore. The end up firing me and it’s the happiest day of the relationship. I get another intern, and then that one gets rich and moves on. My interns go out and buy houses and start families and quit stupid jobs. I’m changing the world. It makes me so proud when they break free.

  That’s the reason this book is in your hands right now. I wanted to start scaling up. Instead of helping two people a year, I want to help two million.

  When you start working for a company, all of the guarantees are in one direction. You make a lot of promises about behavior, and they promise to pay you a certain amount every month. They don’t make any promises about their behavior in return. But we sure do imagine them. “If I treat my company right, they’ll return the favor.” That’s a charming thought – it just has no relation to reality.

  Every week we hear about a new company downsizing. That word is so adorable. I just love how they made a fun name for destroying lives. It's a shame that they don’t just call it “career murdering” or “future destroying” or simply “soul crushing.” Those are closer to the truth. One of my closest friends in the world is also one of the top experts on jobs. He helps thousands of people get back to work every year.

  I see a lot of their resumes and what I see there is shocking. These people have resumes that make me shiver with fear. They are twice as educated and ten times as smart as me. They worked for the kinds of companies that blow your mind. And y
et each one of them got kicked to the curb because some guy in an office halfway across the country didn’t hit a financial projection.

  So ten percent of the company had to get the ax. Or twenty percent. The company you work for right now has zero affection for you. They pay you for a service. The moment you think there is an emotional element to the relationship is the moment you are in trouble.

  How many people do you know who have worked for the same company for more than ten years? Those days are long gone. If the people aren’t jumping from ship to ship, the captains are kicking them off the boat.

  9

  Does your boss care about you?

  I know what you are about to say – your boss isn’t like that. Your boss is different. Your boss cares about you. Your manager has your back, and he’d do anything for you.

  Really? Would he take a pay cut so he could give you a raise?

  If you think the answer to that one is yes, then go to work tomorrow and ask him. You better finish this book fast, though, because tomorrow night you are coming home with a cardboard box full of your stuff.

  In my twenties, I worked for a host of bosses, and fortunately I had a few great ones. They were the exceptions, not the rule. Most bosses are nice enough people. Plenty of them are incompetent to one degree or another. Most of them like to steal the credit for your work. But overall, they aren’t evil.

  At the end of the day, it’s every man for himself in the office. If your boss has to choose between firing you and quitting, he’s going to terminate you every time. Your boss goes to work for one reason - to make money. It’s the same reason that you go to work. He’s there for himself.

  When you start to assume that your boss cares about you on an emotional level, you open yourself up to some serious heartbreak. When the money stops flowing, it doesn’t matter how much he likes you - you’re out the door.

  It’s time to stop thinking of your boss as your life raft or even your lifejacket. If the ship starts sinking, you are going to find out just how cold the Atlantic gets in the winter.

  The idea that your loyalty will be repaid is ridiculous. Look at how many people have been fired across the world in the last ten years. These massive companies "downsize" huge swaths of their employees, and then get the ones who still have a job to do twice as much work for the same pay.

  Fear is a powerful motivator. As long as a company controls your paycheck, it holds all the power.

  10

  Incompetently Promoted

  You might still have a sliver of hope for yourself. After all, if you’re great at your job, you get promoted. If you’re a tireless worker, they’ll often put you in charge of two or three other people. And as long as you keep doing great, you will keep moving up the ladder.

  But what happens when you reach the point where you can’t do a good job anymore? The promotions stop, but you won’t get demoted. This is exactly where about ninety percent of managers are right now. They’re too incompetent for a promotion because they’re too incompetent for the job they have right now.

  Most bosses are operating just beyond the level of their ability for this reason. That’s why they make mistakes, take credit for your work and limit your creative ideas.

  They’re grasping for their own survival, doing everything they can to protect their job. One of the most important aspects of that is making sure that his boss doesn’t realize that you’re better suited for that management position.

  11

  The Coworker Walkout

  You see this all the time in the movies. The main character’s had enough, and he’s leaving the terrible company and the incompetent boss he works for. He tells everybody off; he stands up and shouts, “Who’s with me?” And everybody is with him – they march right out there with him to start some new company together. Sometimes they roll the credits right after the walkout.

  Unfortunately, life doesn’t imitate art. People are constantly getting fired these days, not because of personal failures, but because the people driving the company have failed. These leaders buy overpriced companies, make poor investments or simply don’t realize that the market is changing. Their failures mean the company needs to cut down costs. So people lose their jobs.

  And not one single person who is on the spared list ever walks out with those fired in an act solidarity. When your boss decides to give you the boot, you will realize just how lonely this world is. Your friends from that company will never follow you out the door. Just like you, they work there for the money and no other reason. If they didn’t need the money to pay their bills, take care of their families and support their lifestyles they would have walked out the door by now.

  I’m not trying to crush all of your hopes and dreams here. I just want you to realize that when it comes to finances, alliances are very fickle. More than fifty percent of marriages fail. How can we expect the soft alliances we form at work to survive a lifetime?

  If your best friend at work was fired tomorrow for a stupid reason, would you quit in solidarity? Would you put your family’s financial welfare at risk out of a sense of loyalty? Or would you keep your head down and hope you don’t get fired by association?

  12

  Begging for a Raise

  Most people have a single revenue stream. We work for the company and take home a check every two weeks. That check or direct deposit is how we pay for our housing, feed our families and use whatever is left over to pay for some entertainment. If you want to increase your income, you have to go back to the same well. The only way you get an extra dime from your labor is to go into your boss’s office and beg for a raise.

  You can describe that process in whatever way makes you feel good, but you are asking someone in power to give you something. That’s my definition of begging. Your entire financial situation is outside of your control. How many times have you seen someone work as hard as they can, always show up on time, work weekends and still the office brownnoser gets the promotion?

  Your boss’s job is to provide you with the minimum amount of financial incentive to get you to perform your job well. If you will do the job at the same level for eleven dollars as you will for ten dollars an hour, not giving you a raise is the right decision. There is no benefit to him for giving you that raise. Your work won’t improve. He has control and can always threaten to fire you. As much as you want a raise, that fear of losing your job is quite powerful. If your fear of losing your job is greater than your desire for a raise, you are trapped. You‘re in the weaker negotiating position.

  I’ve been in that room asking for a raise before. You are on your knees, and it sucks. I hate that feeling, and I never want you to feel it again. By the end of this book, you are going to be able to open multiple revenue streams. That means you no longer depend on a single source of income. Let’s think about this with a little math. Don’t worry; I said a LITTLE math.

  Let’s say you make $1000 a week. You work for one company, and you get that nice fat paycheck every Friday. But then disaster strikes. The company loses a lawsuit and declares bankruptcy. Now you’re officially cooked. You’ve lost your entire revenue stream, and you have to live off your savings while you desperately hunt for a new job. On top of that, your resume is tainted. You worked at a company that collapsed. Future employers will think that you might be bad luck.

  That’s one way of living.

  The alternative is that you live the lifestyle I lead. You believe in multiple revenue streams. You only make $800 a week. But you make it from eight sources. You are making less than at the big job; that’s true. But when one of those employers collapses, instead of being broke you still get $700 every week. Instead of trying to find a new job that pays you $1000 a week, you only need to replace $100. Income diversity limits your vulnerability. We want to create multiple revenue streams so that even if one dries up, you are not toast. Instead of begging your boss for a raise when you need more money, you just spend an extra two hours every weekend on your side project. That makes you m
ore money, AND it protects you from single point vulnerability.

  13

  The boss versus the top employee

  My friend works for a very large company in Washington, DC. When it started, it was just him and the boss. He does the majority of the tech work while his boss drives the shop. They started out as just two guys, but now the company has over fifty employees. My friend brings home a six-figure paycheck. That’s pretty nice. His paycheck grows arithmetically. That means it grows in a straight line. The longer he works there, the more he makes. That’s a pretty good gig. He has a secure job, and he’s part of something that grows.

  His boss owns the company, and he’s now worth deep into eight figures. His financial growth is geometric. Everything the company makes on top of paying this staff, he gets to keep. So his growth looks like a rocket blasting into outer space. While my friend’s salary increases by about ten percent every year, his boss is growing by multiplication. It’s doubling and tripling.

  Every time you talk about starting your own business or doing your own thing, everyone likes to talk about the risk. If you quit your job tomorrow and try to start your own business, you could fail. That’s true. That’s all that your friends and coworkers will talk about. Fear controls them. But when hope controls you, you get to focus on the reward.