Preface

I quit my daytime job this year to focus on building businesses. I met a lot of resistance from my family and some friends when I announced that I'd do this. My family said that my education from the finest university in the country might go to waste if I did not practice it and climbed the corporate ladder. My close friends at the office said that maybe I could still do business while I was still working.

I agree that, from the point of view of somebody who has a purely employee mindset, what I did was INSANE since I had to give up the following:

• 7-months of bonuses (based on my count, but it could not be far from this),
• Travelling often as part of my work (sometimes I call this vacation while working),
• Company outings in places where the company spends lavishly on plane fare and 5-star hotel accomodations,
• Brushing elbows with high profile people and
• ASSURED SALARY EVERY MONTH

What did I tell them? It varied depending on who asked and how they asked:

• "I WILL NEVER GET RICH BY PLAINLY CLIMBING THE CORPORATE LADDER"
• " I AM TIRED OF BEING TOLD WHAT TO DO, HOW TO DO IT, WHEN TO DO IT AND WHERE TO DO IT",
• "I AM TIRED OF BUILDING ANOTHER PERSON'S (THE COMPANY OWNERS) DREAM"
• "I DON'T WANT TO WASTE MY TALENT DOING SOMEBODY ELSE'S BUSINESS'

Yes, my motivation in doing it my own included the above, but they're not the main reason. My main motivations are goals such as:

• Build a business school for the financially challenged,
• Compose gospel songs and own a record label,
• Paint on canvass and exhibit them,
• Design and build a car powered by fuel cell,
• Write books,
• Be a public servant ,
• Travel, in particular visit the Pyramids of Egypt, Jerusalem, the North Pole and Donald Trump's Maralago Estate in Miami
• Achieving the visions specific to the businesses I got into

I realized that I would not achieve these goals if I was not financially free. And only by having my own (successful) businesses and investments will I be financially free. The only reason why businesses and investments are the way to financial freedom is LEVERAGE. I will not go as far as to explain what leverage is since it is not what this blog is all about. Anyways, upon having that realization, I started attending seminars, read more books, invested in the stock market, started businesses, etc. Until one day I told myself that I should do business full time. I could not exist as both an employee striving for promotion and as an entrepreneur on the way to business success. I had to let go of either one, and that one was my job. So I wrote and submitted my resignation letter (my own DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE) and went my way to my journey towards financial freedom.

I am still at the early stages of my journey but let me say that I have already learned so much. It's a different world. In this world I don't talk about pay raises, office politics, HR policies, etc. In this world I get to wake up whenever I want to and go to a coffee shop and say that I am doing some business (when sometimes I just get together with friends I met from business networking sites).

Please bear in mind, however, that a lot of the things I am applying in business I learned from my stint as an employee. So don't ever think I regret having worked for someone else. In fact, I recommend employment as one of the best ways to learn before you jump into setting up your own business.

In this blog I will share my thoughts on doing business and linking it with my own experience. In my next post I will present an outline of the things I wish to discuss.