In 2017 I walked away from a profit sharing role at a company that would soon cross the 8-figure mark…
And it was the best decision of my life.
You see, prior to 2017 I was in charge of all the digital marketing at a fast growth company (funnels, ads, emails, content, you name it…)
Following a market pivot in 2015 we hit 7 figures in about 13 months of launching.
It was clear we were on a rocket ship to the moon.
And in January 2017 I hit the eject button.
Why do something so reckless?
Simple.
I realized I was optimizing my life for the wrong thing: money.
The job was fine. The tasks were fine. The team was lean and productive and we were making a difference.
But at my core, I was really unhappy.
Every decision I made in my life was optimized around making more money; keeping more profit would affect my year end bonus.
Sure, I had to psyche myself up just to walk in the door each day.
Sure, I’d have tense conversations with my wife over dinner every night about something that annoyed me at the office that day.
Sure, I wore noise-canceling headphones at the office to avoid conversations.
Optimizing my life for money was getting me nowhere fast.
Since then, I’ve learned a critical lesson:
At every turn, every decision, every fork in the road, I now pick the one that will bring me more joy.
Yes, I could build 1 more funnel by hunkering down in my basement; but today let’s go have lunch with my 3rd grader.
I am well aware I could make more money as a road warrior speaking on other people’s stages, but I’d much rather stay home with my family and serve my online communities.
I could grow a huge agency and make a bunch of money – but that road is accompanied by loads of client care and support, team growth and management, and office expenses.
I could run a phone sales funnel and be glued to my phone 24/7.
To be clear, I’m not saying you should optimize your life like mine…
But I am encouraging you to look at the inputs in your life and analyze if they bring you joy or bring you stress and concern?
So…
You could optimize your life for a 6-pack (tried that; not worth it)
You could optimize for a Tesla (my 3 sons wish I were doing this)
You could optimize your life around many things.
But try this out for the next 2 weeks: when you come to a fork in the road with a business decision…
Optimize for the one that brings you more joy.
~ Cody
