Escape The Rat Race: How to Find a Life of Meaning & Purpose?
Do you love your current job? No, wrong question. Let me rephrase that to make it easier for you. When you wake up on a Monday morning, do you feel excited to go to work? Would you still keep your current job if money were not a concern? In 2022, around 50 million people answered "No" to these and quit their 9-5 jobs. We are going through a period called the Great Resignation, where people are leaving their jobs hoping to find something better. However, most of those who quit ended up in a similar job where they felt as miserable as before.
But then there is hope; there is an alternative. I first read about this from the book The Four-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
I have been working a 9-5 job as an engineer for the past few years. I am not unhappy as such with my job, but let's just say that, I hate certain things about it. I hate having to turn up for work at a certain time every day, no matter what. I hate that there is a limit on how much I can earn, and I hate that I don't have enough freedom to make decisions. And this is where the alternative path can make a difference. All it takes is some planning and a bit of courage. If you give this process a sincere shot for the next five years, the odds of success are nearly one hundred percent.
Preparation Phase
The entire strategy consists of two stages: the preparation phase and the execution phase. But before I go into detail about each, we have to understand a very important thing. A 9-5 job may be tiring and monotonous, but it is a necessary evil for most of us. It pays our bills, puts food on the table, and, most importantly, gives us an identity. So the purpose of this video is not to blindly suggest that you quit your job. No, not at all. Just because you have a 9-5 job doesn't mean you should do something different.
Normal people live normal, comfortable lives. And there is nothing wrong with that. But if you're tired of getting one raise a year, tired of spending most of your time in a cubicle, tired of not being credited for the work you do, being normal won't save you. It all starts with recognizing that there is a problem and deciding to do something about it.
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
So, consider this only as a trigger for you to reflect on your life. Start with the basic questions: Are you happy at where you are with your life and career? Do you want to change something about how you work and the way you live?
For me, I want more freedom and control in my day. I want to skip doing things that don't excite me. I want to spend more time with friends and family, read more books, travel worldwide, and help others lead a better, happier life. The goals may be different for you, but whatever they are, get clear - very clear - on your idea for your dream life.
Take a pen and notepad and write this down in detail. What would you be doing? Who would you be spending time with? How would you make money? What would you do for fun?
This may seem silly, but it's important that you do this before you do anything else. Clearly defining such a vision for your dream life is the first step , but then there is one thing that can equally pull us back.
I was born in India, and if you're from one of the Southeast Asian countries, you know the struggle. We always live drowned in a sea of expectations. When it comes to studies, careers, or relationships, we're expected to do things in a particular way. And there's a constant fear that if we can't fulfill those expectations, we'll let everyone around us down. This fear ties us down. So what do we do? We compromise. We choose engineering over literature and we choose to settle instead of exploring.
The same society has conditioned us to believe that working 9-5, 5 days a week, and trading our time for a fixed salary is the "right" and the only option. That the alternative just isn't feasible. But people like Tim Ferris and Gary Vaynerchuk have proved that it's possible to make money on your own without having to show up and sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week.
We've been taught only one way to make money, doesn't mean it's the only one out there. But then it takes a lot of courage to break these stigmas and go on our own path. And that brings us to the execution phase.
Execution Phase
This phase is all about one thing. The one important thing that decides whether you will be successful or not. Money. How much you need, how much you can make, and how much you can save.
So first step first. Take a notebook and pen and start writing down your expenses. We need to know precisely what our month-to-month expenses are and how much money we will need to leave the rat race.
I do this daily using a template I designed in the note-taking tool Notion.
When we don't have the luxury of a steady income, paying bills and feeding ourselves becomes harder. So once we have an idea about our expenses, we need to go through all our spending habits to see where we can cut back. Here, focus on areas that could make a real difference, such as negotiating a lower interest rate for your house loan.
And most importantly, get a hold of your shopping habits. It's no secret that our society places an increasingly heavy focus on material possessions and this has become so ingrained in our culture. Always keep in mind that with new purchases, the excitement starts to fade the moment we open the box. So instead, invest your money in experiences like travelling. They can give you a lifetime of memories.
Now, with the money you save, create an emergency fund. This is non-negotiable. And the money you put in this fund should be good enough to cover at least 6 months of expenses. Life without a 9-5 job would be unpredictable, and you must be prepared for the unexpected.
Now another important part of saving money is trying to multiply it. There is a hidden monster out there that can eat away the value of your money over time. Inflation, which is simply the rise of prices of goods and services. And the best way to counter inflation is to invest your money. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, there are plenty of options to build wealth. If you invest your money the right way, you can live off the dividends for the rest of your life.
This is the 4% rule, a frequently used rule of thumb for retirement spending. For example, let's say your portfolio at retirement totals $1 million. You could withdraw $40,000 in your first year of retirement. If the cost of living rises 2% that year, you could accommodate for this and withdraw $40,800, and so on, and you can do that for the next 30 years without running out of money.
So a major part of my plan for financial independece was investing my money and building a portfolio that can secure me enough dividend income. But then soon I understood that this is not easy with only the income from a 9-5 job. That's why I moved to the next step in the execution phase.
Build passive income
Two or three years ago, I would just come home from work, cook dinner, watch Netflix for 3-4 hours, and go to bed, then do it all again the next day. But at one point, I realized that if I just kept doing this, this would be my life for the next 30-40 years. If I want to build something out of my 9-5 and make money out of my 9-5, I need to work outside my 9-5. That means less binge-watching Netflix and aimlessly scrolling social media and giving more time for side hustles. That means setting up my priorities right.
But then I couldn't figure out what side hustle to start? So I went to the drawing board. I wanted to find something that I am good at and passionate about. So I drew a chart with Passion or Interest on one axis and skill on another. Quadrant 1 is zero passion and zero skill. We don't have to dig more here. The opposite is high skill and passion, which is kind of the ideal case. This could be something we are already good at and also love doing.
For example, if you have a degree in finance and are interested in starting an investment agency, that belongs here. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that goes here. So we move to the third quadrant, with no passion and high skill. Trust me, I tried this. I have been working as a cybersecurity engineer for the past few years. So I believe I have enough skills to start something on my own. So I created a website to educate people on cybersecurity and share the latest news and trends happening in this field. But after a few months, I realized it was not for me. It just felt like an extension of my 9-5. So I left it.
That brings us to the last quadrant. High in passion, low in skillset. If you can't find anything in the ideal case, I highly suggest staying in this region.
For example, I knew nothing when I started my YouTube channel. I had a passion for creating and editing videos during college, and I was captivated by the FIRE movement. So, I read books on the topic, watched countless hours of YouTube videos, and attended multiple courses. Now, I can write stories, edit videos, design websites, write copy, do marketing, and have a good understanding of personal finance. Even if I lost my regular job now, I have skills I can use to live a decent life. Keep this in mind: skills can always be built over time.
The internet is your teacher, but it could be a bad teacher or a good one, depending on whether you use it for aimless scrolling or learning. Once you develop those skills, use them to create value, Conduct a coaching session Create a mobile app. And then this is important. Just give it away for free. Yeah, for free. Keep doing this until it becomes irresistible for people to pay you when you ask for it. That's how you build trust. Thats how you make money.
But it’s not enough to make some money. We have to make enough to escape the rat race. And for that we must master another important concept, The concept of scale. So instead of just making money in direct proportion to your effort, as we do with a 9-5 job, we must find a way for our efforts to compound. I will explain.
For example, if we write a book, there is only a one-time effort involved. But then we can sell it over and over again. The book will make money even when we sleep.
Technology has dropped startup costs, opened new markets, and created new distribution channels. It's easier and cheaper than ever to make something and tell people about it. Remember that there is no need to to quit our job and start something from scratch—that's foolish and the hard way. Instead, leverage your job and start building your business on the side. Once you become good at it and it starts making some money, then you can reduce your working hours to focus more on the side hustle. But blindly changing your job in search of work-life balance is not a solution. I talked about this in one of my previous blogs. Work-life balance is a myth. If you haven't read it, do check it out.
I can guarantee you that the beginning will be tough. There will be a mountain of things we won't know, and thousands of days of work are ahead of us. We just don't see how we can pull it off without quitting and we may feel like giving up. But then we persist by focussing on the present moment as much as possible. By doing one task at a time, taking one step at a time. I can only show you the way. You are the one who has to take that first step. Whether you will, is a question only you can answer.
Video:
