Keep The Lights On

And Pay the Bills

It has been four months since I quit my day job. Left my home country and migrated to Bali, only for a short time though. We’re planning to stay here for two more months. Then off to another adventure.

Me and my wife started our own Eat, Pray, Love. We wanted to find ourselves cause we felt so stuck.

And the visit to Ubud got us away from preconceived notions and shackles in our heads. The imaginary constructs that we have turned out to be untrue. Our fears and demons were illusions made entirely by ourselves.

Bali will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Bali is huge on its own. We decided to settle in Ubud. A budding area of Bali is Canggu, home for surfers. While Ubud is the mecca for yoga and spirituality.

I’m a bit allergic to spiritual awakening and healing. No disrespect to those who are into it. We went here cause my wife is into Ashtanga Yoga.

And I found my healing with writing and public speaking. They are skillsets that I sought out to improve. While I’m not making money from them, I see them as essential skills for my future. They are tangible abilities rooted in logic and rationality.

But are you making money from them?

I’ve always hated this question.

Not everything should be about money. If that’s how I’d base all my decisions, then I should’ve been hopping from one corporate job to the other. And life is not all about money.

But there’s a grain of truth to it. In a capitalistic society, our worth is hinged onto our bank accounts. It’s the measuring stick of success. But I don’t ascribe to it.

I’m not allergic to money. I just don’t see it as a starting point in making a decision. Money is a by-product. It’s an indicator if I am truly giving value to someone.

It has now been four months into unemployment, and so far I’m enjoying it. I have been writing and preparing speeches for months. I am tinkering with new ways to use my skillsets and build a product or service.

At the same time, I am also anxious about not having a paycheck every month. Even though me and my wife saved money from our day jobs, that we can live for another year, we still think about getting remote work.

But we have to remind ourselves that the reason we quit is because we don’t want to hinge our time with money. Time is not scalable. A business should be in no direct correlation to the time you put into it. It should be self-sustaining. I learned this from Four Hour Workweek and E-Myth Revisited.

So far, we can still pay our bills. It does help that it’s cheap to live here in Bali.

If you are planning on quitting your job, save money to buy yourself six months to figure it out. It’s not easy. I’ve always thought that I can figure it out in one month. It turns out, it’s not smooth sailing. I’ve been pivoting every month.

As the first quarter of this year is about to end, I need to ask myself:

What went wrong and what went right?

What is my big goal for the next quarter?

How can I provide immense value to those whom I seek to serve?

And how do I keep the lights on?

Ask yourself the same questions, and I hope we both get our answers.

Talk to you soon my friend.

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