Dare to dream big!

“The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."

~Michelangelo

My goal was to spend more time with my family. My dream was to achieve financial independence, to become my own boss and grow to reach my fullest potential. Once I started and stabilized my business to go towards the path of achieving this dream, I found myself falling into the abyss known as "hustling". Hustling is often the way of life for entrepreneurs - it is the driving force behind a lot of decisions made on the go and it requires constant hard work. Hustling is captivating, motivating and an adrenaline rush, and most importantly, it helps an entrepreneur get their business up and running. However, it is very important to come out of the hustle mindset, because in the long run, it can be disruptive, derailing and can eventually burn one out.

This blog is a case against hustling! The biggest reason why I am making this case is because I believe that hustling to grab every low hanging fruit, stops us from dreaming big. To dream big, one needs to get away from the mental clutter that comes with taking on every money-making opportunity, without an eye on long term growth. As women, we are especially conditioned to take on all of the tasks and not outsource - multi-tasking is supposedly our strong suit. Social media bombards us with messages that tell us that we have to be successful in every single aspect of our lives, keep all the balls in the air and do a somersault at the same time. I'm here to tell you - let some of those balls drop. As Miles Davis famously points out "It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play." De-clutter that to-do list, clear your mind, focus on the big picture.

The big questions I now ask myself before taking on new projects:

1. Joy

Why do we do what we do: For me, the basics are family, empowerment and independence from the rat race. It is also loving my work, being challenged by it and learning and growing every day. If it doesn't bring us joy, if it pushes us towards a burnout, was it worth the time spent on it?

2. Time vs. Money

When I say I'm anti-hustle, I don't mean I don't work hard. What I mean is I work intentionally. Looking at it from a pure financial perspective, I do a time vs. money analysis for any new business venture and leverage time by outsourcing the processes that I can automate.

3. Scalability

The anti-hustle mentality isn't just about emotional well-being and short term financial decision making. The anti-hustle mentality is also about long term profitable growth. Anything new we take on, has a learning curve and detours associated with it. Is it worth pursuing that one project that took up everything I had in me to get up to speed? Yes, if I can scale it in future and grow it into something by creating processes around what I discovered.

How do I get out of the "hustle" mentality?

Two words: DREAM BIG! Here is how I approach dreaming big:

Step # 1

Put together a quantitative measurable five year plan. For me, this is the number of passive rentals I'd like to own.

Step # 2

Multiply this goal by 10. I know, it's scary! But there have been multiple books written on the 10X rule and I highly recommend reading one or more of them - it could change your life.

This is what changed my thinking. By 10X'ing the goal, we couldn't use any of the processes that existed within our business. What we realized was that our current business model wouldn't sustain this growth. For us, we were lacking in processes, outsourcing and capital. Every decision we took from that point on was to combat these and move in the right direction.

Would it be OK if we don't achieve that 10X goal? Yes, but it changed the way we approached our business!