Okay, I get it. There’s no shortage of “life advice,” is there?
Everybody’s got their own little nuggets of wisdom. And naturally, everyone thinks their advice is the best advice.
And now here I am doing the same damn thing.
But let me toot my own horn for a minute. My wife and I achieved millionaire status in our 30s. We quit our jobs, traveled the country for three years, now live off-grid, and enjoy every second of our lives.
…and our net worth has increased 30% since quitting those lucrative full-time jobs. So, I think we have a solid foundation for advice.
Today, let’s talk about the top 3.
If I had to distill every little morsel of advice into three major bullet points, these would be it. They cover everything: money, lifestyle choices, and everything in between.
Okay, enough chit-chat. Let’s get into it.
The three best pieces of life advice I can give
1. Haters are less successful than you; ignore them.
You always get hate from below, not from above. Why? Because successful people don’t have time to hate on you. They are too busy succeeding and have no interest in belittling you.
Hate comes from people who have too much time on their hands. And they have this extra time because…well, they aren’t successful.
You’d cringe at some of the hate I’ve gotten.
Ready for some of my favorites (yes, I save them):
- “Steve, please stop existing.”
- “I bet this dude still gets his mother to do his laundry.”
- “Holy $hit man you look like you’re 70.”
- “No one loves you.”
- “Not even his reflection likes him.”
- “Don’t take advice from Steve unless you want to end up as miserable as him.”
I gotta admit, “Not even his reflection likes him” made me laugh.
Here’s the truth: You know you’re doing something right when you get hate. Because haters don’t like it when other people are successful. What they truly hate are their decisions, but they don’t have the guts to admit it to themselves, which is sad and very common.
So, getting hate is okay. In fact, I feed on it. It keeps me going. In a weird way, it reinforces how much work I still have to do.
Sometimes, it’s not easy to ignore the haters, but you gotta do it, or they will absolutely tear you down, little by little.
2. Follow a high-paying strength, not your low-paying passion.
Our strengths tend to be analytical. Our passions tend to be more creative. Businesses pay you to solve (or avoid) problems. They pay for your analytical skills. Your ability to add numbers. To manufacture a piece of software or hardware. To fix a car. To fly a plane.
These are all hard skills. Hard skills = money.
Your passions are best left for nights and weekends. Enjoy your passions without having to earn a living from them. Otherwise, they may no longer be your passion (this happens constantly).
3. Choose your friends wisely; cut out the losers.
The people around you will make or break your life, and I’m serious about that. If you hang around drinkers, you’ll likely become a drinker. The same goes for smokers, gamblers, or anything else.
Upgrade the people you hang around, and you’ll upgrade your life.
Now, does that mean you can’t have drinking buddies? Of course not.
But, it does mean you need a group of friends who are motivated personally and professionally as well. These people will help you start that business or work through a problem.
If you don’t like how your life is going, look at your friends and decide if they are helping or hurting.
Hint: You may not like the answer you get.
