Motivated w/ the desire to find lifestyle relief I considered all my options.
I needed to double my income.
In the nine to five realm, that meant I had to go back to school.
For me, physician assistant school.
PA school costs about $100,000 dollars and about 2 years of your life to complete.
After the two years, I’d be looking at about $120,000ish a year plus a 30 to 40-hour work weeks.
The math NEVER added up. There are only 24 hours in a day! My income would be capped!
To make things worse, it’s likely I’d only be allowed two weeks of vacation per year.
The math didn’t add up. 2 weeks a year is not enough!
The idea of trading one nine to five job for another did not align with the drive, passion and big vision I had for my wife and for our future family.
(Besides I bounced around enough jobs already to know – it’s just more of the same misery in the long run.)
So, it was clear.
I needed to move out from the traditional nine to five realms.
I dug back back into the four-hour workweek.
After re-visiting chapter 9, “Finding the Muse”, I realized the need for leverage via becoming my own boss.
AKA – take control of my life, it was time to get to work.
What could the 4-hour week teach me about busting out?
Tim talks about finding your MUSE.
Basically, ideas on what business you could start and automate using the internet…
I was hesitant on moving to online business operations so instead I looked at traditional businesses I could buy into and automate with employees.
I had my degree in exercise science and being a passionate health and wellness individual, I considered opening my own gym franchise.
Here’s the cost for doing that.
The franchise: $25,000 – $38,000
Exercise equipment to fill the gym: $80,000.
Leasing the building: $2,000 per month.
I’d have to have anywhere between two and five employees, let’s just say with an average salary of $30,000 a year per person.
So, I’m looking at an up-front cost of about $100,000 and a yearly minimum overhead of a $120,000.
To break even, I’d have to make my first $225,000 to crawl out of the hole of debt that it would cost to set that up, which equates to about 400 memberships at $40 a piece.
400 x 40 = $16,000/month x12 = $192,000/year
And then, if I wanted to hit the income goal I calculated would fund my “worry free” adventure living, ($15,000 a month, basically low 6 figures year after taxes) …
I’d have to sign up another 375 monthly subscriptions, add in a lump sum more to hire someone to run the whole fitness empire for me…
[Probably giving them an equity stake, as insurance, so they were less likely to crash my business while I am repelling down waterfalls in Hawaii.]
Let’s review = $225k to get started and 775 subscriptions to maintain lifestyle bliss + entrust business operations to someone else.
If you’re like me, that is a big hole to dig and a lot of work to do.
The MATH didn’t add up for me.
Too much risk for a maybe. (If you watched Shark Tank, Billion Dollar Buyer, The Profit etc – one little “oopsy” surprise can crash everything!)
This is when I started to realize I needed to have a WHOLE new game plan.
I went back to Tim one last time… and then it CLICKED for me after taking a deeper look at chapter 15…