I Used to Be Impressed by People Who Had a Lot of Money — But Now I’m Impressed by People Who Have a Lot of Free Time
A Porsche used to scream “be friends with me!”
A Porsche used to scream “be friends with me!”
In my 20s, luxury and entrepreneur bullsh*t defined me. I chased success like a dog follows a shank bone. In my 30s, money became kind of ridiculous. A dramatic shift has occurred. The title of this story, which comes from a quote by entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano, helps to explain it.
Let’s dissect the real meaning of money, so you don’t fall in love with it, and accidentally discover a world of broken dreams.
The idea of true wealth is broken
True wealth isn’t luxury, millions of followers, or a fake ass Dan Blazerian life holding guns like Rambo and collecting exotic animals that are pleading to be released to their natural homes and take a break from phone cameras.
This is what true wealth looks like:
A book a week
Books connect you to humanity.
They take you out of your head and place you in the author’s head. Most of us get zero time to read. Books are long. Time outside of work is short. Impressive people have bought their time back so they can read a book a week if they choose.
A good night’s sleep
Ever met angry people at work?
It’s either a lack of sleep or poor diet that throws their energy down the drain. Buying your freedom back gives you the opportunity to sleep more.
Eight hours is recommended.
Nine hours on some days is a real luxury.
Add in afternoon naps and you start to feel like a different person. Energy is a better form of wealth than money.
No work on weekends
Your mind needs decompression time.
Time to join the dots between all of the inputs for the week so you can grow as a person. When you’re a slave to money, work tends to creep into the weekend. Your mind can’t fully disconnect, so proximity to your goals starts to fade.
Weekends are for play.
A clear conscience
I don’t know how certain people make it through the day.
I’ve worked with some businesses that simply do evil so they can make a buck. They know what they’re doing is wrong.
They know they’re wrecking society for future generations. But they simply flick a switch. Prioritizing time over money has helped me gain a clear conscience. It makes day-to-day life less stressful. Less stress equals wealth.
A walk with no destination
Walking is better than a rushed workout at a packed gym next to your workplace, where the loud techno drowns out the potential for peace and quiet. Since I got a hearing condition called tinnitus, I’ve begun walking more.
Placing one step in front of the other acts like meditation.
It’s why many entrepreneurs love walking meetings. You can walk along tracks that people from 100s years ago set foot on. You can ponder what life was like for them.
Walking is true wealth.
A family who knows you
Those busy startup worshippers and those high-flying executives that all chase money hide the truth: their families barely know them.
They’re never there. A birthday party for their kid is an option, not a priority. They spend more time with “the business” than their family. So their business booms but their family drifts further apart. Often it ends in divorce or raising out-of-control kids.
Time with family is wealth.
“I’m not money obsessed. I’m freedom obsessed.”
— Josh George, entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs or leaders who sit in back-to-back meetings all day just aren’t cool anymore. That’s so early 2000s. The new status symbol isn’t a Lambo or a Gucci handbag.
Nope.
The new status is freedom. Freedom equals free time.A few years ago, I cut the chains of my cubicle job. No more drama. No more politics. No more wondering who the next moron would be to throw some poor sucker under the bus and get a promotion.
It’s scary at first.
A day full of zero commitments. A daily routine where you actually have time to goof off and do whatever you want. Now that I’ve had a taste of a calendar with zero meetings, I’m addicted.
I don’t ever want this to stop. That’s why I use whatever entrepreneurial skills I have to ensure my tiny online business stays alive. If my business dies it’s not a 9–5 job with a bad boss that scares me. No.
I’m scared I’ll have to hand over the keys to my calendar again and let corporate bros in pinstripe suits waste my day because they refuse to accept what the internet has done to business — and what blockchain & AI are about to do to traditional businesses with their heads in the clouds.
Forget luxury status, “founder” and “C-level” titles, and throwing cash into the air on an Instagram Reel.
Become obsessed with freedom.
It will change how you work forever. You’ll stop chasing money. Anthony Pompliano is right. Time is the ultimate measure of wealth.
All that impresses me now is freedom. The rest is bullsh*t.
Let me know in the Substack comments section if you agree with me and why.
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Thanks for being real, Tim.
We decided that one of us needed to spend more time with our soon-to-be teenage daughter.
It's definitely a mind-fuck at the start when you're looking at an empty calendar.
I've been away from full-time work now for 2 years and I have no plans on changing this.
I think so many people in the 60s and 70s got this. Jimi Hendrix sang his heart out over it. Freedom!
Then we had deregulation & leverage, Maggie Thatcher (if you're in the UK) Donald Reagan (if you in the US).
We had 'greed is good', and, in spite of a more chilled 90s, the madness of more leverage never went away - in fact it became more virulent.
Today, as we stand on the brink of global recession, a potential reset on fiat currencies, some of us are saying enough is enough.
Money can soon start to resemble coke. Builds confidence. Builds paranoia. Keep chasing it, feeling on top of the world, then realising how lonely you are. Obsessed with your image, or, as we call it these days, your personal branding.
Yes, time with good friends, family, your own self ... a good book - these are the source of real wealth.