Every Sunday I like to talk about 3 random things that are on my mind.
Sometimes these things are about business…
Other times they’re about life…
And once in a while they’re completely random and off-the-wall.
With that said…
Let’s hop into the first thing on my mind this Sunday morning.
1. There’s a reason successful people are leaving high-tax states in droves
In the last few months, I’ve seen at least 4 people I know move to Austin.
Some of them moved here for business opportunities…
Others for lower taxes…
And others simply cause the weather is nice.
On top of that, a few big name people like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk have moved here as well.
This is only going to continue.
The pandemic has given a lot of people the ability to work from anywhere.
And if you can work from anywhere…
Why would you stay in state that’s gonna take an extra 14% of your income?
When I moved from Columbus in 2016, the two places I was looking at were Austin and San Diego.
I liked San Diego a lot.
I loved the laid-back vibe.
The weather couldn’t be beat…
And they have a lot of attractive women…
All things that sounded good to me…
However…
I just couldn’t get over the state taxes in California.
Paying 14% in state taxes on top of the 39% I was already paying was a no-go for me.
It was just too much.
So I chose Austin.
My story isn’t unusual.
You’re seeing it everyday.
And I think it’s only going to increase when it comes to successful people fleeing high-tax states.
2. You don’t want to be rich if it’s going to make you miserable
One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is modeling a successful business without giving any thought to whether or not they’d be happy having that type of business.
Case in point…
After our first Copy Accelerator event in 2019, I remember Ian Stanley mentioning to me that he had an “oh shit” moment watching a bunch of people sign up for our mastermind that he knew were on his email list.
His thinking was “I could have done this same thing, and I missed out on it”.
But he said the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had no interest in running a mastermind like Stefan and I.
Sure our mastermind was successful…
And we were doing well with it…
But Ian had no interest in actually doing everything involved with running a mastermind.
And that’s a big lesson.
Cause a lot of entrepreneurs don’t think like this.
Especially new ones.
They just think about how much money they could possibly make. And how cool that would be.
But when they make that business successful, they’re not happy.
And that’s one of the worst spots you can be in.
Having a successful business that makes you miserable is the ultimate “golden handcuffs”.
Cause it’s hard to quit.
Walking away from all that money is not easy.
Even if you’re miserable.
So unless your goal is to wind up rich AND miserable, then I suggest you think about all this beforehand.
3. Everytime you level-up in life you get used to a “new normal”
There’s a lot of things in my life today that are “normal” for me that I would have thought were insane ten years ago.
For example…
– I have a couple custom-made suits that cost me $3000 each. Back when I was buying $200 suits from Express, I would have said someone who spends 3 grand on a suit is insane. But I like my custom suits. They fit perfectly. And they’re actually comfortable to wear for 2-3 days when Im putting on an event. So this is “normal” for me now.
– At the end of 2018, I bought a Range Rover that was all decked out and cost $103,000. If you would have asked Justin in 2011 who was driving a beat-up 2004 Jeep Cherokee about that, he would have thought you were crazy. But now that I’ve had the Range Rover for a few years, it feels normal to me.
– I have an in-house “helper” that cleans every morning, makes my bed, runs errands for me etc… Her job is simply to make my life easier so I can stay focused on my business. Having grown up in small-town Ohio, I thought stuff like this was a waste of money. But now it’s normal to me.
I could probably list a lot more examples here…
But you get the point.
When you level up, things that used to seem “crazy” or “insane” start to become normal to you.
This is what you want.
This new life might be uncomfortable at first.
And you might feel like an imposter.
But eventually, it becomes normal for you.
And that’s a good feeling.
——
There ya go…
Thats the 3 random things on my mind this Sunday morning.
Hope you enjoyed this…
And you took away a gold nugget or two.
Enjoy your Sunday
– Justin
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