Leveraging Time for Success

In a world where time is our most valuable commodity, finding ways to leverage it effectively can be a game-changer in both our personal and professional lives. Join me on a reflective journey inspired by a powerful discourse on gaining control over one's time.

Struggle as a Path to Progress

The first lesson shared is that struggle is an integral part of life. Just like the journey from Canada to Florida was full of challenges, every struggle presents an opportunity for growth and learning. Embracing the struggles we face can lead to profound insights and personal development.

The Importance of Long-Term Perspective

When it comes to leveraging time, many focus on short-term gains. However, the narrative emphasizes the significance of balancing short-term actions with long-term vision. Understanding the impact of our decisions on future outcomes is crucial for sustainable growth and success.

Quality of Life and Growth

Quality of life and growth are highlighted as key criteria for evaluating our choices. Investing in experiences that enhance our well-being and foster personal and professional development is emphasized as a path to long-term fulfillment. Making decisions that align with our values and goals can lead to a meaningful and impactful life journey.

Building Sustainable Systems

Creating systems that allow for efficiency and effectiveness in how we allocate our time is essential. By delegating tasks, building partnerships, and focusing on activities that yield long-term benefits, we can optimize our time management and maximize our impact.

aking Strategic Decisions

Every decision we make, whether in business or personal relationships, shapes our future trajectory. Taking the time to evaluate where we invest our time and energy, and ensuring alignment with our long-term goals, is paramount. Strategic thinking and intentional action can lead to exponential growth and success.

Conclusion: Empowering Yourself Through Time Management

As we navigate the complexities of life, it is crucial to empower ourselves through strategic time management. By embracing the struggle, maintaining a long-term perspective, prioritizing quality of life and growth, and making informed decisions, we can find leverage over our time and create a fulfilling and purposeful existence.

In conclusion, the journey to finding leverage over your time is a transformative process that requires introspection, resilience, and strategic planning. By implementing the principles shared in this insightful narrative, you can embark on a path toward holistic growth, success, and fulfillment.

o let's jump in. I'll just go into this for a few minutes and I think it'll help us think through this.

[00:00:09] So just a couple of frames. So one, and I've learned this from some really cool people. One frame that's always helped me is that struggle is a part of life. In fact, there are two themes. I know Bashar talks about this a lot. There's struggle and there's progress. You cannot have progress without the struggle.

[00:00:27] That is just part of it. So my trip down from Canada to Florida. It was full of struggles. It was, it was, parts of it were not fun at all. It was like trying to figure out kids, and motorhome, and trying to find my way, and sleep. And so many things were not going according to what you would call not struggling.

[00:00:47] Within the process, we learned a lot. We grew a lot. Actually, one of the things we were hoping was that this trip actually helps us expand our perception a little bit and it helps us connect. It already happened even on the way. We didn't even get here and a bunch of stuff happened that helped us look at things very, very differently and that it came from struggle and I want to connect that to time.

[00:01:09] So the topic for today is leverage over your time. And that's the most important thing. And this connects to struggle. This connects to hard times as well. But how can you gain leverage over your time? Now the simple things we already know. Like don't be distracted. Don't do things that don't matter to you.

[00:01:29] Or at least have a plan to get out of things that don't matter to you. But I want to talk about a couple of frames around this. And I want to start with long term versus short term when it comes to time. Usually most people think of leverage on their time in terms of short term. So what does that mean?

[00:01:49] And, and entrepreneurs have a tendency with this and business owners or investors, they have this tendency, but they spend, they'll spend a bunch of their time trying [00:02:00] to do these businesses or these income streams, whether they're passive or a side gig or something, but they don't. They don't look at the long term effect of it, whether they get into short term rental or they do some Amazon thing or some other short term business.

[00:02:14] They, they, they look at it as, Oh, this is going to help me generate some revenue so I can invest the money somewhere. But there's a problem. I see a problem in that thinking and I've seen it so many times that it just, it's very unmistakable. They don't see it in the moment what it is, but here's what happens.

[00:02:32] They put a lot of effort into understanding a new model, yet their thinking is short term. So what happens is they will do that for a little bit. They won't gain much out of it. They will gain a little bit out of it because they learn. Then they will move on to the next one. Then they will move on to the next one.

[00:02:47] Then they will move on to the next one, which generates a lot of stress and struggles and all that stuff they are learning. There's nothing wrong with that, but it slows down the the time that it takes for them to grow. And this is the other frame. Whenever I look for opportunity in my personal life and professional life, I'm looking for two things, quality of life and growth.

[00:03:06] Uh, or quality of business and growth of business, however you want to look at it, both, it can apply to both, but quality of life means so one of the reasons why I spent a bunch of money and came all the way here and want to be, it's quality of life. I wasn't getting that and our kids were inside and I hated it.

[00:03:23] I didn't, we didn't want him to be on, on iPads and phones and TV screens. And you kind of run out of things to do when you're in the cold region. Yes, you can do skiing and all that stuff, but if that's not your hobby and you don't like that, then you're kind of stuck with going outside for a walk and just coming in or doing some other stuff here and there.

[00:03:42] Even with that, you will probably be outside for a couple hours and that's it. So just today, we've been pretty much outside more all day than we would be in a week in Canada at this time of the year. Or in a couple of days, if not a week. So just, just that changes the quality of our life. It changes the way [00:04:00] you express yourself.

[00:04:01] And it's like, for some reason I slept a lot less, but I feel much better because I woke up in the morning, I went to the, to the, to the gym and then I walked around and I got some sun and I've been sitting outside and working. So that that to me is incredibly valuable and it has long term effects. So quality of life long term effects Plus i'm also looking for the opportunity for growth for my wife and I to connect for our kids to see Different experiences makes a big difference Even though it's a couple of months of complete discomfort to try to figure out how to do my work internet and all that stuff Um, but it's worth it for me, it doesn't even matter how much resources I put in it because the effects of it are going to be long term personally and business wise.

[00:04:49] So coming back to the business, I don't jump into any partnership or business. If I don't see that I could work with this person at least for 10 years, at least for 10 years, that's, that's my frame because every relationship, every business, every model takes time to build. It takes energy to build and we're taught to kind of look for shortcuts and shortcuts are there but we're looking for ways to avoid the real work and the real work is actually long term.

[00:05:17] Where's your time going into so after you've gotten rid of all the distractions or as much as you can, then the decisions are very important. How are you leveraging your time and I'll give a couple examples. So, for example, multifamily investors will keep their job for a long time until they get the investment path going.

[00:05:37] Now, assuming that this job is something that they hate, they, uh, they're miserable there. They spend a good 8 to 10 hours in that job. They feel drained by it. And then they get out and they do about one or two hours of work around multifamily or some other business that they're doing, which is fine if they need to survive by that.

[00:05:57] But here's what they won't do. They won't even set [00:06:00] a deadline to get out of it, not because they can't get out of it or they can't find another job that gives them more leverage over their time or something else to do, because it's just an emotional block. They're afraid if they let it go, they will lose their security.

[00:06:14] But here's what they're losing out on. What they're losing out on is all the opportunities that they're missing out on when they're sitting at that job. All the energy that they're getting that is being drained out of them that they could use with their family, all the energy that they need, that they are using up, that they could use to build their business forward.

[00:06:33] Now, so as an example, this is how I dealt with it. And this looked ridiculous to other people at the time, but it worked just fine for me. I, I studied for an engineering for five, six years. Jumped into the job for one or two years. So to other people on the outside, it looks like I spent about seven years, six, seven years in that career path.

[00:06:54] And all of a sudden I realized I'm like, okay, I see the potential to this path. But if I stick to this and I go to a job for 10 hours a day, even though it will be very successful, it's going to drain the hell out of me. I won't have any energy for my business. I won't have energy for my, uh, my family, none of it.

[00:07:11] On the opposite side, if I do something else that takes up less time and it gives me mental bandwidth, what, and, but if it, even if it pays less, what could I do with that freedom flexibility? I could do a lot. I can learn a lot faster. I can manage my time better. So here's what I did. It looked crazy to people.

[00:07:28] I just started driving Uber. They're like, how did you just, you spent six years studying for this thing? And you jumped off and started driving Uber. I look like a crazy person. I'm like, you don't see something. It's in the beginning. I tried to justify it, but it didn't make sense that I'm like, forget it.

[00:07:42] I'll just do my own thing. I started doing that for a while. The first couple of years, incredibly difficult because we had to drop the quality of our life. We, we, we were struggling, both my wife and I created a lot of chance, but as soon as we figured out the potential and where it was going, things changed.

[00:07:59] [00:08:00] But even in those struggle times, it gave me the space to leverage my time better. I focused on business development. I focused on my family. I focused on learning a lot more. Because I didn't have to do anything other than drive people around. I actually built a lot of connections because of that too. So that looked like a bad decision to people at the front, but that was one of the most powerful decisions I've made.

[00:08:21] In fact, I stayed over if it wasn't for that decision, I wouldn't have a business or it would have taken a lot longer and I would have probably given up. And I wouldn't have, definitely wouldn't have two businesses. So , where is your time going to that will give you a high output long term?

[00:08:39] And there's a system built into it. And I knew that if I jumped, got into business, I could build other systems and move forward. Um, so right now I'm in a place where one of the reasons why I can travel more is because I've hired a bunch of people to do the same work that I do. Uh, so half the time I don't need to do anything there are half the time I do need to work, but that's one I enjoy the works.

[00:09:00] I don't look at look at it like work to, uh, I enjoyed being here and doing the work and three. I have enough time with my family. In fact, if I'm with them a little bit more, they'll probably get tired of me, uh, get annoyed as I'm half the time with them. I'm in my own world. Which is good for me and for my own space and it's good for the kids and family too.

[00:09:21] At least that's what I'm thinking. But making that kind of decision to hire people, build systems, even though I'm actually in the process of losing money. If I did the work myself, I would gain more resources, but I would lose time and quality of life. So my decision is always, how can I do that? Same thing with partnerships.

[00:09:42] And like I said, when I'm looking into partnerships, I'm looking into where is my time going because I'm going to spend a bunch of time consistently with this person. Who is this person or who are these people? Are they actually looking at this long term or short term? Are they going to be with me through the thick [00:10:00] and thin or not?

[00:10:00] I look at it a lot like a marriage. Uh, are they going to struggle through this? Are they just going to look for a quick output? And we like, I've shared this before. We started with six partners. We ended up with three partners for those reasons because a lot of them were not willing to stick to it for a while.

[00:10:17] The ones who are there, they are looking at a long term now. It's worth it for me to go there. And I'll share this one last thing that Robert Kiyosaki shared this with. within his book is that people who understand entrepreneurship, they don't work for money. It sounds very odd. They look, they work to solve problems.

[00:10:37] They work to understand how things work. And I'll connect it to what Nassim Taliban said is that there are two major addictions or two great addictions. One is heroin. The other one is a monthly salary. It's like the monthly salary piece is the thing that people are stuck to because it has predictability, but business doesn't work like that.

[00:10:59] It might have some predictability, but a lot of output for businesses and longterm, it's not short term. I spent half of my time in my second business. I don't take anything out of it because I know the output is going to be in about six to eight months, but the other half time I, I focus on activities that drive a lot of cashflow right now.

[00:11:16] So it's sustained me. I keep away from anything that doesn't allow my schedule to be flexible because that I lose opportunity for my family, friends, for my job, for my business opportunities for a lot of it. So I want to summarize this and I hope it came across well, is that Any path you pick, whether it's a personal path, being in a relationship with your kids, with your family, wife, whatever, husband, or business path, there's going to be struggle in it.

[00:11:47] How you choose to spend that time and what are, and most specifically, what do you pick to do is probably one of the most important things to do. Whether it's the life partner that you pick, there's a quote that Alex Ramosi says, is [00:12:00] like, people spend more time picking a car than a life partner. And that's true.

[00:12:05] Like we think very little about that, but that's your life partner because we're not taught to look for it. We know a lot more about cars than we do about how to pick life partners. So how you make those decisions to dedicate your time for the next few years matters, whether that's for business opportunities, work opportunities, relationship, and these seem to be these.

[00:12:26] Core areas and also your personal well being and stuff. Where is that going? Are you making decisions for the quality and growth of your life? That's what will help you leverage your time because over time you will see consistently, if you do something consistently, you pick the right thing, compound effect takes over, and all of a sudden you don't have to do a lot because the results will be in that.

[00:12:49] Now, I want you to ask yourself this question. How am I thinking about my, where my time is going in my relationships? Who is it going to? Is that worth it to me? Because you are the only one who can make a decision. The activities that I have in business, am I doing those for long term gains? Or is that just there because I'm trying different things?

[00:13:09] Nothing wrong with trying different things, but do I know the purpose behind it or am I just randomly jumping from one thing to the next and hoping that one of them will take off? That's not a strategy. That's just doing something randomly. And look at your wellbeing, the quality of your life. What are the decisions you're making that affect the quality of your life, whether you're in a marriage or with your kids or with other relationships?

[00:13:35] Well, how have you structured your life that affects your sanity, your well being and all that stuff? Because if you can't maintain your health, mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, everything else will crash anyway, so it doesn't matter. And these are the things that we don't think about when it comes to leveraging our time because your time comes from your decisions.

[00:13:54] And some of the best people in the world, let's say in business, Warren Buffett, [00:14:00] he gets paid because of his judgment and decision making ability to invest other people's money. And he's shown great track record. The people around you will be with you because you make, you create better judgment, whether those are business partners.

[00:14:17] Whether those are life partners or kids or whoever. And you need to find people who want to grow towards making better judgments to leverage their time better. If you're not, then there are hard, very difficult decisions to be made. Either you're limiting your time or stopping your time with these people or giving it a short period of time where you're trying your best, you're doing everything you can.

[00:14:38] If that doesn't work out, then you're out. Otherwise, you're going to have to live with this for the rest of your life and that's your life. You get to decide that.