The F*ck You Life

Jimmy Carr on what we really want [Link] Start at 1:55 for this point
That's where this came from.

Everybody talks about F*ck You Money. The number that's finally big enough to let you say no to somebody. The nightmare client, the program that's bleeding you, the 2 am calls. Hit the magic number, and you're out.

I know restoration owners sitting on that number. With seven figures in liquid assets, the building paid off. And their week looks a lot like it did before they got there. Same truck. Same phone going off at dinner. Same Sunday night.

Very recently, I was talking with one of these, and he mentioned, almost in passing, that he hadn't taken a full week off in 3 years.

THREE.

On paper, he'd already won. While he was telling me this, his phone went off three times. Maybe four. Twice, it was a PM asking something that the PM already knew the answer to.

That's the part that stuck with me. Not the money. The phone.

He didn't really have a true business. He had a company and team that he asked or allowed to rely mostly on him.

So I've stopped believing the number is the thing. It's a scoreboard. It tells you how you're doing. It doesn't tell you anything about what next week looks like, and next week is where you actually live.

What I'd rather have is a F*ck You Life. That's when the calendar can say it, not just the bank account. You can take off both Tuesday AND Wednesday. You can be gone two entire weeks, and the jobs still get scoped and sold, the trucks still roll, the invoices still go out. You can turn down work that's costing you money, not because you have enough in reserve to eat the hit, but because your business doesn't need that job to eat and have heartburn.

That isn't a number. It's a structure. Systems, people you trust, and you out of fulfillment.

If you want to know where you stand, here's a test that takes about five minutes. Open next week on your calendar and count the blocks that only exist because things break without you. Not the work you want to be doing. The work you're stuck with.

That number tells you more than revenue does. I've seen $10M owners come out worse on it than $2M owners.
I have a system that helps each client learn to start taking control of their time in a cool way, almost immediately. I'll show you if you like.

The owner I mentioned is going to Italy and Spain in November. I am actually envious. He's planning eleven days. I suggested seventeen. What will get him there isn't a bigger number; it's writing down the stuff only he knows, handing it to people, and then letting them get it wrong a couple of times without stepping back in. If he starts now, it's unlikely anything burns down while he's gone.

The money was never what was standing between him and his life. It was the realization of what his life really meant to him.

So what does your calendar say?

-KB

If you are sitting and dreaming of more FU time and a life that surpasses dollars, that's exactly how our business mentoring and coaching is oriented. It's the mission, and we have really gotten good at it. 

Want to explore? Reach out at www.restorationadvisers.com.