Freedom

What it is

This is what it’s all about to me. It is all about freedom. There are four phases of freedom and they end with legacy.

Phase one is being on your own. Basically being a small business owner, breaking free from being a sheep, working for somebody else. I remember when I first went out on my own, I was thinking, I don’t even care if I have to clean up toilets every day as long as I’m doing it for my own. As long as the money I make goes straight into my pocket. I used to manage corporate gyms and I would get the P&L every month and just look at how much money I was making for them every month. Killed me inside. I just wanted to figure out how to do that on my own.

Phase two is financial freedom — actually getting out of the rat race. Even when you go be a small business owner, you are still kind of part of that rat race. You’ll soon realize that even though you are maybe cleaning toilets for yourself, you still have to wake up every day and have a different boss. You know, like Bob Dylan said, everybody’s got to serve somebody.

Phase three is what I call balance. After you’ve gotten yourself to a position where the money coming in is fairly passive, you basically get to decide what you do, when you do it, who you do it with, for how long you do it. You really stop thinking about money at that point. You go to sleep and you’re not worried about your bills. This is defeating the hustle culture. 10x is the enemy. You’re balancing your health, your family, your mindset. Money, family, health. Most people pick two. I call BS. You can have all three.

Phase four is legacy — but not like most people think about it. Most people think about legacy in an egotistical way, like I need to leave my mark on the world so people can remember me. Dude, nobody’s going to remember you. Generations from now, nobody’s going to remember you. What legacy really means to me is I have one job in this world. One job, and that is to raise good kids. That is biologically why I’m on earth. And I take that job seriously. When I talk about freedom, what I’m really thinking is that I need to show my kids what it looks like to actually live in a free way.

Why it matters

People chase money like it is the point. Money is the fuel, not the point. Real estate is the vehicle because it throws off cash (flips), builds wealth (rentals), compounds quietly (appreciation and loan paydown), and doesn’t require you to punch a clock or manage 40 employees.

Freedom is also why the methodology is what it is. bandwidth is the central currency. Every system I build, every tactic I teach, exists to give you back your time. gorilla flipping over home runs because a base-hit flip preserves your nervous system. The lazy pm approach because the whole point is not to become a full-time project manager.

How it shows up

On a practical level, my test for any new move is whether it adds or subtracts freedom. Hire a W2 crew and suddenly payroll runs my Monday mornings. Take on a partner and half my decisions need a phone call. Chase a commercial deal that needs 18 months of zoning fights and I lose dinners for a year. The offer might look good on paper and still fail the freedom test.

The solo house flipper model — no payroll, no boss, no hammer — is designed from the ground up around this. Twenty-two active projects right now and I manage them with no employees.

Related

wealth engines, bandwidth, gorilla flipping, base hits, diversulation, lazy pm