He Demolished His House Because...
You need to demolish something before building something
A friend of mine recently bought a plot. The plot had a house, but it was very old. Recently, he demolished the entire house to build his dream house on that plot. When he purchased the plot, the cost was not just for the plot but also for the old house. He paid around 4 crores for the deal out of which 3.5 crores was for the plot and 50 lakhs for the house. This house also fetched some rental income.
When he told me he demolished the house, I thought that 50 lakhs was now down the drain. But later his argument made sense. There were not many options in the locality he wanted to build his dream house. If he hesitated to demolish that house, he would forever keep waiting to build his dream house.
If you want to build something, you need to first destroy something. There are things in your life that you have not eliminated, and because of that, you might never be able to build something new.
For example, I had a toxic marriage and I had to get a divorce at all costs if I had to focus on my career. Just 2 years after my divorce, my business exploded. That might never have happened until I had that space.
If you want to build a great body, first you have to change your eating habits. If you keep eating junk food like pizzas and desserts and try to build your body, it might backfire because exercising will increase your hunger, and instead of eating quality protein, if you eat junk, then you will become obese.
If you want to become a Digital Freelancer or a Digital Mentor, then you need to first quit your job and free up your time. It would be impossible to build anything significant without having 7-8 hours of focus per day. You can only focus like that if you are unemployed. The cost of building a great career is to give up a good career and embrace the risk of failing, at least in the short term.
I advise my students to save up for a year’s worth of personal expenses in simple fixed deposits with liquidations on the 1st of every month that feels like salary. When you have a monthly “income” that you have created for yourself, that takes care of all the monthly bills, you will be able to focus on building something with immense creativity.
Let’s take my wife Sandhya as an example. She dropped out of her CA journey after 8 years. She had 2 exams to clear and she would become a CA. She fell in bad company (started dating me) and I told her to drop her CA dreams. I told her that the system, the government, and the expectations of society are working against us, and there are better careers.
She worked as a fintech content writer, then a crypto content writer in a crypto exchange, tried a few freelance projects, and finally caught on to “Dog Nutrition” as a niche.
Within 30 days, the channel has got 1834 followers organically. This is good validation. People like the content “dog food recipes” and they are responding positively. She feels that finally, she has stumbled upon something that:
She is passionate about
Has developed talent
And there is a market need (a market that can also pay)
Dog owners spend a lot, and there are many single people and couples today whose lives revolve around their dogs (and many times they don’t have kids either).
This wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t quit her job. When she quit her job, she was worried that she was letting go of a good opportunity.
She was afraid. She thought that she would never get such a good-paying job in this market. There was a risk. A risk of not having a career. But as long as you have energy, you will put that energy into something, and that something will give feedback (positive or negative).
I have experienced this in my life several times. Every time I quit a job, I felt that fear. What if I don’t do anything better. But unless I have a blank canvas, how can I paint a picture?
People are so afraid of letting go of what they have and that’s why they don’t get what they want in life. They are afraid. They are clinging to boring jobs, toxic wives (or husbands), and known places (staying in their hometown and not moving out) and stuck in old bad habits.
Who you are is holding you back from who you can become. Let go of who you are, you will become something else. The fear is as good as the fear of death itself. People are just not able to leave their identities.
What do you think? Have you been stuck because of who you are? Are you afraid to get out of your comfort zone? Sometimes, you just need to make a strong decision.