I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve got a great life, family, business, and I’m pretty happy. But we did some things backwards.
My wife Angie and I have been self-employed “entrepreneurs” for almost 25 years. Neither one of us has had a job since I sold my boat repair business in 1998!
We killed our 9 to 5 (before it was a cool thing)… and people thought we were crazy. Or, most just thought we were unemployed… (before that was cool too).
Laptop lifestyle, digital nomads, location independent. We could take a vacation whenever we wanted.
Rrriiiigggghhhht…
We could have… but we didn’t very often. We chose to stay home and raise our kids and we wouldn’t trade that for the world!
But I would tweak a few things.
I don’t think our kids realized how different we were. We saw them get on the school bus, and then we were there when the got home. I coached thousands of practices and games and put in hours and hours helping them get whatever they wanted. And wouldn’t change it for the world!
We would be there for the kids, but even when we’d tell them how lucky they were, because most parents go to work and don’t see the kids as much as we did, they still didn’t understand it. We’d say that, while we stared at a computer and worked “at home”, but I probably wasn’t really “at home” or present as much as I could have been.
We were comfortable and made decent money. Not internet millions but decent. Sure, we could have but that would have meant more travel and more work. We chose what we chose.
Never a day went by that we didn’t talk about business. At breakfast, lunch, dinner… wherever and whenever we had a chance we were talking business.
Sure it rubbed off on the kids a little but when everyone always told us “it must be nice” not having to go to work… sometimes it sucked knowing that we never clocked out and always were connected in some way. Even on vacations.
Vacations. Ahhh vacations. This might even be the reason you are here… We could go just about wherever, whenever… but we didn’t. We did a little but most of our time was watching kids sports, coaching, and working “IN” the business.
Looking back now, we built ourselves a JOB.
Ever heard that quote? “Entrepreneurs will work 80 hours a week for themselves just so they don’t have to work 40 hours a week for someone else”. TRUTH!
So this is what we ended up doing. It’s what most people call “being busy”.
- We spent most of our time working for a Profit.
- A ton of time learning new things and trying to learn from people making an Impact on the world.
- A little less time living Life.
- And worked on our health and Fitness sometimes. Angie a lot more than me.
Profit. Impact. Life. Fitness.
P.I.L.F.
See it? That’s backwards.
We did it backwards. Everyone does it backwards. Profit first is a sure fire way to burnout and miss out on a lot of life! It was for us at least.
Back when I was a boat mechanic, I remember a salty old timer, can’t even remember his name, that would bring his boat to us every fall. Most people were getting their boats winterized, but not him. He was headed to Texas for the winter! He was probably 70ish at the time. Had a small fishing boat and a small RV that he used to tow his boat down south for the winter. Neither were very nice, but he loved them and they took him to the places he loved.
He said he went to Texas because Florida was too expensive! lol
He also said his wife wouldn’t go with him because she didn’t want to leave her bridge club.
But he went anyway. Every winter. He told me how he’d just find somewhere with good fishing and then find a campground to stay at until he decided to move on the the next one. Freedom.
He told me something like this… we all do it wrong. We work our whole life in order to retire and be able to do whatever we want, but by that time we’re too damn old to do it!
He said we should travel until we are retirement age THEN go to work until we die. 🙂
He truly lived the Flip Flop Life!
It’s time to FLIP it! Flip flop your life!!!
Fitness first, then live your life, learn from impactful people so you can make an impact, and work/run your business to get enough profit to keep doing what you love.
Fitness. Life. Impact. Profit.
F.L.I.P.
Flip or flop. Choose to work on all 4 areas of your life and watch your life get better.
Here is what I mean when I say to live a Flipped lifestyle or Flip Flop Your Life.
F stands for fitness. This means health and wellness for your body and mind. If you have your health you have time to get everything else you want. Working out. Exercise. Nutrition. Plus working on your mindset, meditating, reading, learning. It’s all FITNESS and it should come first!
L stands for life. Life or your lifestyle is the fun stuff. The spouse, the kids, the family, the friends, the hobbies, the parties, the travel, the vacations… The things everyone wishes they did more of but they put it off until “someday”. Well, someday starts today!
I stands for impact. Impact started out as influence but I don’t think people truly understand the power of your circle has on one’s life. Everyone has friends and even family that are a bad influence on them. Not always making them do bad things but just the negativity that surrounds a lot of people. That negativity flows into their circle and truly has way more than just influence… it has an IMPACT on you! You must choose who you let impact you. If someone in your family has a negative impact you need to either help them become positive or remove them from your circle. You can still be friends and love them, even family, but that doesn’t mean you have to be around them allowing them to impact you! Impact goes both ways. Find leaders, mentors and people further along than you to learn from and help you improve. At the same time you should be making an impact on the world with your leadership and mentorship to those behind and around you too! It’s not about being above or below someone, its just being further along or behind. Reach up for help for yourself while reaching back to help others up.
P is for profit. As an entrepreneurial type you’re probably like me and think about business and money a LOT! It’s ok. I truly believe there are givers and takers as well as producers and consumers in the world and we need both but we are producers. We give to the world. We build. Learn new skills. Try new things. Work. Start businesses. Grow. Fail. Try again. All for PROFIT! It’s all good. Just put your work down lower on your list so you don’t miss out on the rest of the things that make life great. As the saying goes, “no one lays on their deathbed wishing they had worked more”. Not one person, ever!
The goal is to die with memories not just things.
While you’re building a career or a business, don’t forget to build a life.
It just so happens that we love to be in places that people wear flip flops as the norm so “Flip Flop Your Life” fits and has a more than one meanings to us. We also love the mountains, lakes, and everything in between.
We are all dreamers. The world needs dreamers. The world also needs doers. But what the world needs most is dreamers that do!
Don’t wait until “someday”. You don’t have to start big but you have to start now!
Make those changes so you don’t flop. Flip it around and start living now.
We help families build a life they don’t need a vacation from by teaching them to help local business get more customers. We can help you.
Join our free FB group called Flip Flop Your Life [The Tribe].
Be sure to follow us and ask us questions on how we’ve flip flopped our life. We love teaching others to do the same. Can’t wait to help you too.
Join The Conversation
Comments