The Wealthy Worker

Don’t Contact People Just When You Need Them

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:03:25 +0000

The other day a colleague I had worked with emailed me out of the blue. I hadn’t spoken with him since we worked together a few years ago. Turns out he was working out of town and wanted to return to Calgary. He asked me about a specific opportunity that he had heard about. Come to think of it, two different people contacted me around the same time about this opportunity, even though they hadn’t contacted me since we parted ways.

I helped them out as much as I could, but it reminded me that as employees or contractors, we need to keep in touch with our network on a regular basis, not just when we need something. Perhaps forward a bit of interesting news, a relevant opportunity or just say hello. In other words, make it a two-way relationship. Don’t always be taking and asking from others.

So if there’s anyone you haven’t talked to in a while, drop them a line for no real reason at all!

Take Responsibility for Your Problems

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:07:31 +0000

It seems that many people are against the US bailout plan. I agree with them. Why should we help companies that made bad decisions? If you agree with that, you must also agree with ‘Why should we help people who made bad decisions?’. Most people spend more than they earn, relying on credit cards, lines of credit, equity loans and so on. Now that things have slowed down, some of them are screwed. Many people are hoping the government will bail them out, provide jobs, and so on. No one owes you a job so get over it - make your own success happen.

If you’ve learned anything from this blog, it’s that I try to empower the individual. This means saving most of the money you earn, living below your means, and avoid shopping as much as possible. This savings empowers you because you don’t need to have a job, you choose to have a job (or not). Over the past few months I’ve been at home without any income. I haven’t been worried even in the slightest.

Now is not the time to panic and worry. If you haven’t been following my guidelines you may be feeling some pain right now. That’s okay, you’ve hopefully learned your lesson. To prepare for the next downturn (and there will be one) you need to do the following:

make more money (see my previous blog posts and e-book)
save more money
spend less money

It’s really that simple. I got tired of getting an employee’s salary, with all sort of deductions. I could barely save any money. So I found a niche, started contracting and most of the money stays in the corporation. I pay low taxes in my company and personally since I pay myself dividends. I suggest you do the same.

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Face your Fears

admin — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:59:30 +0000

Are you afraid to go from employee to contractor, especially in these ‘uncertain times’? If you’ve been freaking out about the economy you need to realize that there are many people who are stressed out in the least. Take yours truly for example. With money in the bank, I’ve even been ‘between contracts’ and enjoying it tremendously. It’s been hard for me to understand why employees are so resistant to taking the plunge. But lately I’ve been more understanding because I’ve had some fear myself.

I recently started to work on a new business and realized how afraid I was to start it. Fear of failure, not sure what to do next, etc. And recently I was offered an architect role which is a bit higher level than I’m used to. One thing you can do is to keep reminding yourself that everything will work out fine. It’s worked out fine in the past and it will work out fine in the future. You really can’t know exactly what will happen but you need to have faith that it will be okay. Another thing you can do is remind yourself that you will find the help you need to be successful. In other words, don’t think you have to do it alone. Also focus on the possible rewards rather than the possible problems.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing people like you take the plunge and go for it.

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What You Can Learn From the Olympics

admin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:17:46 +0000

Did you watch any of the Olympics this year in Beijing? It was very inspiring and a couple of things struck me after watching it above any beyond the amazing talent of the athletes.

First, many of the Olympians had persevered through adversity whether it be death of a close family member, injuries, or sickness of their coach to name a few. In our careers and businesses we need to break through our challenges and mental barriers to achieve a new level of success.

Second, the Olympians had worked for 4 years (since the last Olympics) to get to the Olympics and win a medal. Some, like Michael Phelps set a goal of winning 8 goal medals. Many doubted it could be done. We need to set short and long term goals and truly believe they can be achieved in order to know where we are headed and to make them a reality.

Are you an Olympian in Your Career?

admin — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:14:31 +0000

With the Olympics on TV, I’ve been blown away by the years of dedication they have put into making it to the Olympics. So I’ve been inspired to take things up a notch in my career.

When I’ve been teaching you about consulting, I’ve tried to explain that it is totally doable if you follow some of my techniques. To me it seems so simple to do. I often see people with no confidence in their ability to pull something like I’ve done off and it’s hard to understand why they give up so easily.

I’ve recently decided to try a start a larger company, one that will most likely require venture capital, other partners, and lots of help with IT (web design, programming, support). This is extremely scary to me and is totally out of my comfort zone. But it’s helped me to put myself back in your shoes, when you’re first conceiving of moving to the next level but haven’t quite made it yet.

The things I can suggest to you and that have helped me recently are:

realize your weaknesses (be honest about them) and find people to help you in those areas
believe in yourself, that you can do anything you put your mind to (getting help to get there)
write your plans and goals down
decide that you will persist to achieve your goals no matter what happens
face your fears and keep persisting
enjoy the experience and celebrate any small wins or realizations

Are You Too Comfortable?

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:34:32 +0000

When I get calls nowadays requesting help with an integration project, it’s pretty much business as usual. I know what rate I want, how much it will cost for travel, whether I’m qualified to do the project and so on. There’s no fear or insecurity.

During my downtime, I recently started work on a new business idea. To tell you the truth it is really scary for me to think about going from an independent consultant to running a full-fledged business. Some of you who haven’t incorporated or gone on your own probably have similar fears. Can I leave my current job and start consulting? “Do I have enough experience, what if I can’t do the project, or what if the project fails?”, are some questions you may ask.

During this phase of ‘contemplating change’, you need to remind yourself of times when you were afraid of change, but you came out successful. Or maybe it didn’t work out okay, but you learned a lot and were better for it. I have also been telling myself that if I don’t know something or don’t have experience in a certain area I will get help. I will form a great team of people who can support me. At one point, I considered paying another consultant to help me with a certain challenge during a project. While that may seem strange, spending a bit of your money to ensure success is worth it and something you may not have considered doing.

It’s best to ask empowering questions such as ‘How can I be successful with this change?’, or ‘Who can I get to help me be successful?’ instead of ‘What if I fail?’

Are you Living your Childhood Dreams?

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:58:39 +0000

I watched this show about Randy Pausch on Primetime last night. Unfortunately he died of pancreatic cancer on July 25. You can check out his lecture on YouTube.

Every once in a while stories like these can make you take stock of your life and whether you are following your passions.

Take Advantage of Your Knowledge and Skills by Teaching Online

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:46:11 +0000

In this blog, I’ve been trying to show you how you can gain freedom. Freedom to choose your own path, to work when and where you want and so on. I can’t think of anything more satisfying than to be able to work at home, in any city, with global clients. This removes many of the usual worries (no jobs in my city, recession in my country) by providing diversification (as you would do with your investments). As I mentioned I’ve been working remotely for many months, but I’ve recently come across some exciting news for those of you that have some sort of expertise to share with the world (and almost everyone does).

At Teaching Sells (of which I’m a member), they show you how to teach online and get paid for it. From figuring out your content and how to structure it, to marketing and building the site. The idea is to set up a paid monthly subscription site, but instead of a regular website you create an ‘Interactive Learning Environment’ using all sorts of multimedia. This creates a community of learners around your topic and provides a constant revenue stream for you.

I’m setting one of these sites up for another of my passions, teaching guitar. What can you teach to others while gaining the freedom you want?

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Living the Dream

admin — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:44:51 +0000

Well, my first month of being on-call is over and it went very well. As I mentioned previously, I had a minimum 20 hour per month clause in the contract and the rate was about 50% higher than normal due to being on-call. They didn’t call me that much and so it was a good idea to have the 20 hours in there! Things were pretty stable after I left and any major development is on hold so there wasn’t that much happening. I was on vacation for 2 weeks so it was nice not to have to answer too many calls. But I was prepared to do what I had to - once or twice I was swimming or lying in the sun when they called, but answering questions on the phone isn’t that taxing!

I’ve decided to only work remotely and there’s a possibility I can get some remote work in a couple months or so when the same client will start ramping up. So for the next couple months I am going to work on another business idea I recently started (online interactive guitar lessons). Not only that but I’m planning to move to the east coast where I have another house which we recenlty bought. I plan to get it set up with furniture and services and do my work from there.

The key point for you to take out of this is to know what you want and figure out a way to get there. It takes some thought to gain clarity on what it is you really want. Do you really want a large business with lots of employees and travelling around the country, or would you like to work from your country home or a tropical resort on a one-man internet business? Would you like to work with one client for months or would you like to have multiple clients for short-term jobs? Do you want/need to work full-time or would you prefer to work part-time on multiple interests? I realized that there are certain things I don’t like about the IT work, but I kept doing the same things expecting a different result (the definition of insanity). So I’m committed to living the dream. I hope you are too.

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It’s Not All About the Money

admin — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:17:14 +0000

My wife forwarded me an email from the wildlife rehabilitation society (where she volunteers), telling me someone had a found a baby robin outside their home. There was a hole in the nest and it had fallen out. 2 other babies had died. So since I was working from home, I offered to pick up the robin and take it to the rehab society. They get lots of calls during this spring season since there are lots of babies being born!

When I arrived at the woman’s home, she let me in to see the robin she had found. It was really small and in a box. She had been feeding it baby food and it seemed okay. She was sad to see it go, but I took it to the rehab society where it could get proper care. As soon as I peeked my head into the box, it stuck its neck out and mouth open wanting food. It gave me a glimpse of how stressful a mother robin’s job is!

I just checked up on the robin and it’s doing well! Another benefit of working from home, and doing something really meaningful to me.