#012 - The Wealthy Solopreneur
What is Wealth? A CFO-turned-Solo Entrepreneur's Perspective.
Don’t want to read? No problem! You can listen to me reading the article to you by clicking the play button above.
Welcome to the 12th edition of The Wealth Letters, a crowdsourced Anthology on how to find enough in a noisy world.
If you haven’t done so, please read or listen to the manifesto before diving in to the collection, as it will give a clear vision of the project; the Who, What, and Why.
Photo credit: The Solopreneur Spotlight issue #010
The following is an open letter Matt wrote to his readers and clients in his Solopreneur CFO Newsletter. His letter outlines his personal perspective on what wealth is as a solo entrepreneur (i.e. solopreneur).
More about Matt’s background:
I challenge you to listen to this insight as if it is being spoken to you personally.
Be willing to be vulnerable and open your mind to ideas and suggestions that have proven worthwhile in another’s journey. Do not blindly accept any and all advice given, but rather take in the information and distill it down to if & how it can be applied to YOU and your unique self.
Michael Jordan said that he imitated Dr. J.
Kobe Bryant said he studied and imitated Jordan.
But, they mixed in their own uniqueness.
While not everything will relate directly to one’s current situation at the exact moment, there may be some gems that will be worthwhile in time.
Matt’s Letter: What is Wealth?
After my parents’ divorce when I was 12, a scarcity mindset haunted me for years.
It specifically manifested in my mindset around money and wealth; for the longest time, I inextricably tied the two concepts together.
Money = Wealth
And because of a scarcity mindset, I rarely took chances.
I followed my parents’ footsteps down the traditional accounting path.
Degree
CPA license
Job in public accounting
Corporate controller, then CFO
On the surface, it was a successful career, but I wasn’t fulfilled.
During a 2-hour commute to a corporate controller position I no longer wanted, I can remember listening to Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Work Week” and feeling inspired to escape the 9-5 and start my own business.
But doubts about my ability to succeed on my own led me to accept a CFO role for a financial advisory business instead.
For 6 years, I thought about starting a business but didn’t.
During that time, my wife and I started to grow our family.
Right around this time, I started to dive deeper into the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early), where the aim is to achieve financial independence by retiring early.
On the surface, it felt like the answer to my problem: accumulate enough wealth to opt out of the game entirely.
The only problem?
We were years away from retirement.
But that didn’t stop me from pressing to make early retirement a reality.
I became the “no” guy in our household and put the kibosh on most of my wife’s ideas, like
taking vacations,
furnishing our house, or
purchasing our dream home.
Every decision was viewed through the lens of money and whether a purchase would set us back from reaching financial independence.
At the time, I didn’t realize an overemphasis on money can cause you to miss out on opportunities.
Instead of playing a long game, I was playing a short game, and that short game involved getting to the finish line as quickly as possible.
I now realize that is not real wealth.
Instead, real wealth is about optimizing your life for the present.
Real wealth is about saying no to things you don’t want and yes to things you do.
Real wealth is finding time to:
Prioritize your health
Experience new adventures, and
Create memories with your family
And spend time before you retire on finding a path to fulfillment.
Financial independence is not some magic bullet, especially if it comes at the cost of time.
At the end of the day, time is the most precious resource…and unfortunately, it’s non-renewable.
You don’t get back your youth.
You don’t get back time to fulfill your purpose.
And you don’t get back time with your kids when they’re young.
Jess, at the Fioneers, helped open my mind to a new view:
Make the journey as remarkable as the destination.
- The FioneersThis quote helped me shift my orientation toward the present. I started to realize that I’d much rather create more freedom now while my kids are young than wait. I became more comfortable playing a long-term game.
I started to unwind my scarcity mindset (along with a bit of help from therapy).
After shifting my mindset and overcoming these mental roadblocks, I finally put in my notice and launched my career as a solopreneur.
I now have the freedom to design my ideal life.
A few notable achievements since unwinding my scarcity mindset around money:
I started my career as a solopreneur,
I take a half day on Friday with the kids,
We moved to our dream house and location,
My wife and I do date nights every other Thursday,
And we’re still 20 years away from retirement (our early 50s).
There is now far more space in my life to build real wealth, which to me, Morgan Housel sums up best:
The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want to, pays the highest dividend that exists.
—Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money
My definition is by no means ‘right.’ It’s up to you to determine what it means to live a truly rich life.
Cheers,
Matt
My Takeaways from Matt:
For most of his life, it was a “fact” that money = wealth. Easy. Done deal. Because of this, he had a scarcity mindset and was hesitant to take chances.
Matt followed the “pre-determined” path to becoming a successful accountant. He did everything right: got his degree and a good-paying job. But, he found he wasn’t fulfilled, even though from the outside looking in, he had it figured out.
He became focused on wanting to retire early to escape the 9-5 (a worthy goal indeed), but at the cost of depriving himself and family of doing things now (i.e. vacations, home renovations/buying a new home, etc). Every decision made was tied to if that decision would set them back in the goal of early retirement.
Matt realized that this was not optimal…this was not how he wanted to live life. He found that real wealth is optimizing for the present and future…a balance of living in the present vs. planning for what’s ahead. His definition of wealth in one sentence:
The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want to, pays the highest dividend that exists.
- Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money
Connect with Matt
Thank You for Your Support
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I look forward to hearing from you!
Jordan
Thanks for sharing your story with us Matt!