This is a Category 4 Rant Alert!  

I’ve spent years listening to others berate me for “working too hard.”  And along the way, downgrading my professional education and experience.  About 6 weeks ago I had an epiphany.  Actually it was related to the book we’re doing in our TaxLoopholes Learning Circle “Think and Grow Rich.”  I had last read my copy of it about 15 years ago.  

Tucked in the old copy was a treasure from the past.  I read the book 15 years ago with Richard, the man I later married.  This was back when we were still dating and we read the book together.  I’d used a business card of his as a bookmark.  It was a special bookmark, though.  At the time, Richard as a microelectronics scientist.  He had one of the very first patents for a “mini chip”.  Of course, he worked for a company who got all the proceeds.  He got a check for something like $10,000 and they made millions.  But they also made him some very cool business cards.  They laminated the card with a little pocket next to them (so they were longer then normal) and put one of the chips in the laminated pocket.  

If you’ve read posts here, you’ve probably got a sense that 2007/2008 was a time of transition for me.  It was definitely that!  And in the middle of that I was drawn into the Rich Dad lawsuit between former partners.  I was subpoenaed and testified about the early years.  I think there is something to that, because I remember that’s when I first got this feeling that having an education was a bad thing.  That was then exacerbated by a really bad partnership with someone who loved to point out the failings of my degree and education.

So, feeling a bit like an abused former partner, I came across Richard’s card with the chip, all laminated together.  And I thought, this is what these other men would negate!  They would say Richard was a loser for pursuing a professional career.  And the world may or may not have gotten this chip.  Certainly they wouldn’t have gotten it when they did.  (And Barbie cell phones the world around would not have worked!) We owe our lifestyle to people who pursue dreams and truly believe that their mission is more important than the money.  

And then I got to thinking about my life.  I’m not zooming off around the country every few months to do long seminars that take months to prepare.  I have a few websites that are set up exactly how I want them to be.  I’m keeping the company small and flexible.  Monthly bill paying is no longer stressful because the overhead is so much lower.  And, to be honest, I’m making more money because I’m highly paid as a PROFESSIONAL for the education I have.

So, is it bad to be active in a profession that invigorates you and helps people in a unique way?  At least for me it’s not.  And I know there are some who will look down their nose at me because I don’t have a “level 3″ business, whatever that means anyway (I think it means you don’t work in the business, instead you spend hundred hour weeks PROMOTING the business) and that I actually am using my education and experience, instead of trying to become something I’m not.

At the end of the day, I’m satisfied now and I wasn’t before.  My clients like working with me and when there’s an issue we talk it through to a place where everybody is happy, without sneaky contracts and manipulative communication.

This isn’t work for me.  It’s a life’s passion.  It took me almost a year to get to the place where I realize that.  And along the way, the mission of Business to Investment has changed too.  It’s still a journey to a million dollars, but it’s not in creating something new with a hundred other paths unrelated to what I know and do.  It’ll be cohesive now, and, I suspect, something that becomes much bigger than it would have been.