Welcome to Wise Men Wednesday, your weekly dose of wisdom to thrive at work and at home.
Posts published this week:
After Retiring At Age 29, I Discovered We’re Made To Work
Travel back with me to the summer of 2016, when I became the youngest person in my family to retire.
Only a couple of weeks past my 29th birthday, I walked into my boss’s office and quit my job. I had no plan except that I didn’t want to work in the corporate world anymore. It was too soul-sucking, there wasn’t any freedom, and I didn’t want to grow old having only taken a few weeks of vacation per year.
I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to climb the corporate ladder.
Why should you work for over 40 years with the dream of retiring someday and traveling the world, learning an instrument, climbing a mountain, visiting Antarctica, or whatever other bucket list items you have. Only to finally reach retirement age and be too sick, weak, and tired to cross these dreams off your bucket list?
After quitting my job I packed up my few belongings into the back of my Chevy Cruze and made the 900-mile journey from Michigan to the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
Retirement before age 30? What could go wrong?
Not only did I leave the career I had built over almost two decades I also thought it was smart to start over in a completely new town where I didn’t know a single person.
Before my retirement I hadn’t taken off work more than one week at a time for over 15 years, so I took full advantage of the limitless time now at my disposal. For months I was in complete ecstasy. I slept in, ate lavish meals, took long walks, read books, learned music, and dreamt big.
I met with a successful local business owner to share my master plan, “I just want to be able to work a handful of hours per week, from anywhere in the world, and still be able to support myself.”
He didn’t tell me this, but he must have been thinking I was totally naive. “Good luck kid… That’s everyone’s dream. Welcome to the real world.”
Words of wisdom from The Undefeated Marketing System, by Phillip Stutts:
Your marketing agency should work themselves out of a job.
“The mission of your marketing agency shouldn’t only be to spend your money building a new customer base forever. It should also be to build loyalty. In fact, it should be every marketer’s goal to work themselves out of a job. They should want your company to have such a loyal demand and such crazy, raving fans that you don’t even need your marketing firm anymore.”
Comparatising… AKA, “Going negative.”
“When you’re comparatising, you’re not screaming until you’re blue in the face about how terrible your competitors are. You’re letting your audience come to their own conclusions. That way, they feel more ownership over their choices.”
For example: “Still buying your clothes from a shoe company? Just don’t do it.”
Each company needs a unique marketing strategy, but the steps to build this strategy are the same for all companies.
“Some people respond to social media advertising, while others gravitate toward television ads or even direct mail. Your marketing goal shouldn’t be to use as many tactics as possible to reach as many people as possible. It should be to use the right tactics to read the right people in the way they want to receive them.”
Have a great rest of the week!
James Quandahl