I Made the Most Money Ever This Year Because I Started Doing Things for Fun (And You Can Too)
It was also the year I cared the least, didn't focus on results, forgot about my future, and worked the least number of hours.
You make the most money when you stop giving a f*ck.
That’s what the past 12 months have taught me. Too many people are caught up in status games and throwing their lives away. If you feel bored, stressed, tired, or lost then what you’re about to read might help.
Here’s how I made the most money in 12 months by doing all the supposed “wrong things.”
Do things for fun instead of out of obligation
If you read nothing else then pay attention to this one.
I’m a writer and run a full-time online business. I quit my conventional job 2.5 years ago. The first year and a bit were HELL on earth.
I felt like I traded my comfortable job for a new job with 200,000 bosses (my email subscribers and customers). It made me tired, exhausted, frustrated, and dependent on platforms and strangers.
About a year in, I started becoming obsessed with the topic of freedom. I read work from writers like Dan Koe, Justin Welsh, Zach Pogrob, Naval Ravikant, and Greg Isenberg. They changed my mind.
They said these things:
Fame is a nightmare
Starting a big business isn’t important
True wealth is the freedom to do whatever you want
Managing employees is stressful and not necessary
The more money you make after a certain point the less happier you are
Working a job is level one, online business is level three
Blank calendars are the real flex
On a daily basis they impregnated my mind with even more ideas. Slowly, my idea of success and life changed.
Thanks to their ideas, in the last 12 months, I’ve started having more fun with my work.
Instead of writing a book because I felt obligated to (and had a book deal from a large publisher), I decided not to. Instead of starting a Youtube channel, I said no. Instead of hiring employees, I chose not to. Instead of taking on 6-figure coaching clients, I didn’t. Instead of growing some enormous Tim Ferriss-sized online audience, I didn’t.
My decision-making framework all boiled down to one question:
Is this task/ask fun?
9/10 times it wasn’t. Even more bizarre…I began to associate fun with spending more time writing and hanging out with my daughter. So unless an ‘ask’ or task fulfilled that promise, I said no.
Don’t focus on money
Being driven by money is a horrible way to live your life.
(This is coming from a former moneyaholic and banker.) In the last 12 months I stopped:
Looking at my Stripe account every 5 minutes.
Looking at my crypto apps to see if Bitcoin or Ethereum went up in price.
Obsessing over how many digital product sales I made
This goes against all conventional advice. My accountant tells me to “know my numbers inside out.” And all my 9–5 jobs trained me like a dog to obsess over knowing the numbers in case some GM asked me.
Yet I didn’t.
And I made more money than ever…lol.
Forget about results
In my world you live and die by email subscribers.
A day of 200 unsubscribes feels like a dagger to the heart. If your social media views aren’t going up then you’re becoming irrelevant.
“Tha algorithm is gonna getcha” for not serving it click-worthy content. Over the last 12 months I’ve just forgotten about results. Part of it has been accidental. I had a baby daughter to care for.
She became my #1 priority so I saved time by not looking at results. And this year my vanity metrics are higher than ever!
Looking at results can screw with your mental health.
Work the least number of hours
Before my daughter was born, I worked 6.5 days a week for most weeks.
Hustle hard, bro. Work hard. Succeed or die trying, they say. But I physically couldn’t. My daughter barely sleeps so I only get a few solid hours a night. Try working long hours when you’re sleep-deprived from a baby.
It’s impossible, I tell ya.
So I accepted my fate. I work 9–5 most days (my 9–5 bank job programming still runs deep) and that’s all I can handle.
I’ve had entire weeks off this year with daycare viruses that have slapped me around worse than the 2020 bat virus. Yet I’ve made more money and achieved more in the last 12 months than any other year.
Stop stressing about the precious future
I used to suffer from severe anxiety.
I’d spend a stupid amount of time living in some fantasy future. I’d stress about getting married, having kids, buying a house, and trying to have a high-paying career in banking.
In the last year I’ve forgotten about my career. I’ve lived in the moment. If my online business and writing dies, I’ve accepted it. If I have to go back and beg for another bank job from my old bosses, I will.
I’ve decided to have zero regrets. To live in the moment. To let the future take care of itself.
We spend so much of our lives obsessed with the future that we forget about the here and now. Delayed gratification is the real pandem!c and no one wants to talk about it or admit it.
The future is impossible to control. And there are no time machines. So just live for the moment, because a yellow school bus can run ya over tomorrow and ruin your pretty face. You feel me?
What this all means for you
The last year has been the most fun and it’s counter-intuitively made me the most money.
Money is a paradox. Whatever society tells you about money is often the opposite of what’s true.
So from now on my advice for you is to focus on having fun. To do things out of curiosity instead of obligation. To throw away the KPI mindset and live with whatever time you have.
(Maybe make love and have a baby if you really wanna jazz things up…haha.)
Often, the harder you work the less free time you have. That means creativity goes out the window and there’s no time to think about why you do what you do each day.
Space to think is massively underrated.
We’re taught to go-go-go. What if the answer is to stop-stop-stop? Or to trade status and results for fun-fun-fun? Don’t tell Warren Buffett and the rest of Wall Street that I said this…
Fun = More Money
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Glad you've had fun and made money, Tim. I'm not there yet but I see what you mean. Several years ago, I stopped checking my investment account every day and it felt liberating. Needless to say, it's in the positive territory.
Good morning Tim (9:10AM EST - 12/5/2023). I'm a long-time reader of yours but today I had to offer a few comments:
1. You had a substantial base of subscribers when you shifted your personal focus. You certainly did not take this approach when you only had 1,000 subscribers. Perhaps, the better wisdom is that "enough can in fact be enough."
2. Warren Buffett loves to read financial statements and, when he does, he sees things that are opaque to others. It reminds me of Michael Jordan who, after scoring 60+ points at Madison Square Garden one night, supposedly said "Some nights, the basket just looks really big to me." Buffett worked long and hard for many years before he could spend his time leisurely reading financial statements.
3. Scott Galloway suggests that people should find a way to excel at something that has value to others -- i.e., a service or product for which others are willing to pay. This is exactly what you have done. The fact that you can now do it in less time is a statement of excellence AND reprioritization.
4. Having fun is nice but creating value IN YOURSELF for which others are willing to pay (ideally a lot) may in fact be a better guide to happiness.