Happy Friday!
Man, what a stressful day 12/24 was. I was playing cards with my family when my phone started blowing up. My newsletter had been hacked! Half of all subscribers were deleted and a handful of folks got a spammy email in German.
After many frantic DMs to the Beehiiv founders and a friend of the founder, within about 90 minutes the hacker was locked out. But I’m still missing hundreds of hard-earned subscribers. The engineers are trying to help restore them but TBD. I’m very pleased with how they handled everything.
No emails were exported and 2FA has been added, so it won’t happen again, but I apologize nonetheless. That was not what I had expected on Christmas eve…
It was a struggle to get out of my grumpy mood in the name of Christmas eve, but I was finally able to. I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve…
I hope everyone liked last week’s email about the random solar eclipse idea. But I forgot to include a poll, so I don’t know! It was a little off the wall. If you don’t mind voting, I’d love to know below
How was the eclipse idea email?
Meh.
Pretty good.
REALLY freaking good.
YOUR BEST EMAIL EVER!
Only about 6 people emailed or DMed me about it, but it took a few days to respond to all of them because of the holiday. When I did respond I asked all of them, “Are you still as excited about this idea as you were when you emailed this to me?”
Only 2/6 responded, and one of those two had already made a full website for it, leveled up the whole idea and said he was even more excited. He happens to be insanely qualified and built a gorgeous site for it. We hopped on a zoom and it looks like this is going to happen! More details TBA…
Okay, let’s get into it today.
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Last night I went to a fancy dinner with my wife’s brokerage team. First of all, the food was incredible. It was an Italian place in Highland Park Village in Dallas called Fachini and we ate family style.
I sat across from a guy named, let’s say, Sam.
Sam was the spouse of a broker and we chatted for two hours. He was a great guy and super bright.
He’s Ivy League educated, then spent 6 years at Bain and then the last few years he’s been working for a major bank we all know.
As an introvert, I prefer to not have the spotlight on me or to do most of the talking, so I try to ask most of the questions. This makes for a good conversationalist anyway, right? I’m happy with the strategy.
One of the first questions I asked Sam is how he liked his job. He hemmed and hawed a bit and said it provided good work-life balance but that it wasn’t challenging him at all.
His previous job at Bain was the opposite. He traveled 4 days per week, every week, and worked 12 hour days. But it was incredibly stimulating and challenging being onsite at major corporations and helping to improve processes, etc, or whatever consultants do. IDK.
Covid is what broke him, because it forced him to work from home on the same grueling schedule. He got to the point where he was afraid to even step away from the computer to check the mail because he might miss something important.
That’s what led him to get the more stable job at a bank.
By the end of the 2 hour conversation, I got more direct in my questioning and he got more candid, thanks to a steady flow of alcohol.
He was unhappy with his job and he felt trapped. Period. He felt like he had to choose between a job that challenged him but never allowed him to see his kids, and a boring job with high bureaucracy and low autonomy.
I asked him what his perfect job looked like and he stated that it’d be a mix of the two above. Something challenging, but with more autonomy and flexibility to see his family more.
He didn’t say it, but to me this sounded like entrepreneurship.
We also spoke at length about his dad. His dad was a serial restauranteur in the midwest suburbs, raising 7 kids alongside a stay at home wife, often working crazy hours. Several of his brothers are now entrepreneurs as well.
On the way home, while pondering this conversation I had the realization that while entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, it’s certainly for more people than most might think.
He and his wife combined make over $1m/year in their 30s, with two small kids. He’s Ivy League educated with a pedigree most would die for. They have great savings and investments. There’s no reason to be unhappy in a job.
They’re an amazing couple and he has so many skills, dreams and aspirations, but statistically speaking, he’ll be in a job he hates until he retires.
Most of us will, and I want to help change that.
In emailing with many of you, I’ve learned that almost everyone who reads this is either a business owner or wants to be one. Which are you? Please vote below with 1 click, and the results will show:
Who are you?
Full time business owner (RE investing included)
Aspiring full time business owner
Part time business owner
Aspiring part time business owner
Other
It brings me literal mental anguish to see smart, kind, capable people in jobs that they hate.
We live in the greatest era of wealth and advancement the world has ever known. Technology makes life easier and more efficient. There’s never been a better time to start a business.
Recession? Awesome. Start a business.
Expansion? Awesome. Start a business.
Rich? Awesome. Start a business.
Poor? Awesome. Start a business.
It applies to everyone.
Don’t want to start a business? Awesome. Don’t start a business.
I think about the below quote often, as it applies to everything:
I guarantee you that staying in a job you hate for years or decades is harder than starting a business.
Almost everyone that books a consulting call with me has a similar story
Aged 30-50
6 figure income
Unhappy and/or unsatisfied
Feels stuck
Just wants X amount of monthly income to be satisfied
Wants to use real estate or entrepreneurship to fix this
I love these calls and I love these people. They’re talking to me because they’re taking action, and this is what I tell them:
Take some action. Take the first step by doing something that affects the outside world. Buy a course, book a lunch, post a tweet or make a call. Talk to a business owner. Spend some money. Don’t just type projections into a spreadsheet, read a newsletter like this or type words into a meaningless business plan. That isn’t action, that’s advanced procrastination.
Do an audit of what you think about when you don’t have to think about anything. I love woodworking. Do you? Buy a lathe and make something to sell.
Use that audit to earn $1 outside of your day job. It’s intoxicating. Addicting. Flip something on Facebook Marketplace. Get a taste of the drug. Maybe you won’t even like it? You need to know.
One of my favorite quotes is from a man named David B. Haight which goes:
That last line gets me every time.
Don’t go to the grave wondering what you might have become. Go to the grave smiling, knowing that you turned over every rock in search of your ceiling.
My businesses and partnerships have brought me to literal tears on many occasions. It’s hard. I’m often depressed and ecstatic on the same day.
But I wake up every day and literally speed to work and then speed back home. I’ll often run to the bathroom at work and run back to the computer because I am so excited about what I do on a daily basis that I don’t want to waste a second. The highs become more high and the lows less low.
As Henry David Thorough said, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
Try it. Suck the marrow out of life. You’ll have regrets no matter which path you choose, but you’d rather have regret of failure than regret of inaction. Choose your hard, choose your regret.
How was today's email? Be honest. Click once & be done.
Meh.
Pretty good.
REALLY freaking good.
YOUR BEST EMAIL EVER!
Conclusion
I hope that wasn’t too poetically waxing, it just felt right today. I have a few ideas for next week’s newsletter but I wanna know what you wanna read about. There’s (yet another) poll below to let me know.
I’m glad the holidays are over. Every year my wife and I talk about how we can manage December differently. We do a lot, and it’s hard knowing which parts of “a lot” the kids will remember and appreciate vs otherwise.
Yesterday was a really good day, for several reasons. I had a great call with the eclipse guy, and then another great call with a guy that I’m working with on a new project.
I’m very excited about what 2024 will bring. I fell well short of my #1 2023 goal, but I’m confident it’ll compound to next year.
We got a couple more signups to the tree biz bootcamp, and I can’t believe it’s only 2 weeks away. I’m excited and know it will go well, but also nervous and apprehensive to be “on” for 2 days straight.
Here’s to the best year of your life. I’m jamming this on repeat this week. A truly criminally underrated song.
Thanks for reading!
Chris Koerner
chrisjkoerner.com