YinvsYang

After struggling for the last few months, and surviving by the skin of our teeth, my company Reimagine’s hard work has finally paid off.  We calculated our balance sheet for the next few months, and finally, some money is starting to trickle in.  It has been a long journey, but I finally feel we are breaking into a new plateau.  We have reached the next level.

I am not trying to brag here (not yet at least).  It is simply the way we got to the next level that I found interesting enough to write about.  Back when I started this blog, I did it to show how taking steps in the direction of your personal dreams will ultimately lead to success.  You always hear successful people tell of their tales, but I wanted to prove a regular person who puts his mind to something can achieve success.  I would do this by blogging about my brand new company’s positive and negative experiences, and the effect on my life.  If I was successful, my proof that anything is possible if you commit to it would be right smack dab in the blog.

Basically, the outcome would tell the story.

The goal was to structure our company to fit around our lives.  If I am going to live a life, I want it to be as enjoyable as possible.  This is why we included in our plan free time to do personal projects.  It gives everyone a chance to get out their creative urges, which helps the everyday work remain consistent.  In short, we basically structured a perfect company for who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do, without using money as the driving force.  Instead, we would use our own desires.  The idea was that as our work got better, so would our pay.

Just recently, we went even further.  We decided to only focus on the niche markets we enjoyed working in instead of trying to please everyone.  You see, we do websites and digital media such as TV commercials.  However, in this market, sometimes you take projects for the money, and not for the love.  Due to recent past experiences, we decided we would not fall into this trap.  It just always winds up being a worse situation when you don’t want to give your all to something.

Now, let me tell you.  It sounds admirable that we decided to only take the projects we love.  However, it is not easy, especially when you are first starting out.  When bills are due, and you have the opportunity to make some money, by all means, do what you have to.  Just understand, it is a short term answer.  The only way to make real money is to excel in what you do.  And the best way to excel at something is to love to do it.

The idea here is we finally listened to the most important person on earth: ourselves.

We decided to cut out any and everything in our business that we did not want to do, but thought we should for the money.  Instead, we just outsource it now.  This has truly opened up a two way path.  We may make less money off each project we don’t want to do, but at the same time, we do not have to deal with it. Therefore, we are still making money while creating more time to do the projects we like.  Plus, the kicker is that the projects we love to do we usually excel at.  This helps us gain more lucrative work in the long term, which always is a bigger benefit than any of the short term money could have ever been.

Paying bills and keeping up with expenses is a tough job.  We all have to make sacrifices here and there.  Just remember though, if paying your monthly expenses is all you are planning for, then you will probably not last too long before you run into economic problems.  All you need is one bad month to set you back for what will feel like an eternity.  And everyone has a bad month now and again.  It’s just human nature.

Be honest with yourself about your life.   Understand that the happier you are, the more productive you can be.  That is a very important aspect many people overlook while facing the economic struggles in early life.  They simply want to pay the bills, and they spend the majority of their life doing just that.   Don’t get caught in the same trap.

Love what you do, and do what you love.  The road may start out rough, but the destination is always worth the initial struggle.