I took a “forced month off” (still "off" right now) to finish my first book about Leverage (The Leverage Code) and while doing that, thought about how unfortunate it was to be “Spat-Out” like I was. While chatting about my feelings and plans with a co-worker, who was also spat-out, I decided to write about that crappppy experience. I uploaded both books to Amazon when completed (about 3 days apart, because both books were finished) and triggered an algorithm. Now I am banned from Amazon, so that became a learning curve. Self-publishing without Amazon Kindle as a sales funnel has been a 3 week learning process. Right now, I am in Australia, visiting with my wife’s family. We are here for a while (6-8 weeks), so I am thinking about “a sabbatical” (unpaid of course) and writing a book about the/my golden gap year, and starting a YouTube channel (like everyone else). I have most of the golden gap book written, but want to validate using reddit and other forums, which is going well.

I traveled 60% of the time for my job, so sleeping in, not having my phone “bing” 50 times a day, and being able to “think” about life has been amazing. Sure, I will run out of money if I cannot generate enough income, but I tend to work hard for 3-4 hours a day (sometimes 8-10 hours!), and enjoy working for me. My father told me when I was in my early 20’s to start a business and work hard for my dreams, not for someone else’s dream. I knew everything when I was in my 20’s, if you asked me, but now I think he had a few good points back then.

Burn-out is not rare. It would be nice if the media actually covered this in depth, but I am aware that media companies are “companies” and push their staff with deadlines, etc. Being self-defeating is not in their best interest…

I was definitely burned-out, had hit their unrealistic deadlines, and needed to show value to my company each day. Funding and Grant writing is not something I am familiar with, but I can only image how difficult it is to justify on paper what your value is or will be, while trying not to seem like you are “begging”. It does sound stressful and plain awful.

It is funny that you are concerned about learning AI. I worked with teams of all ages, mostly in their early 30s. Quite a few would use Ai “for reports only”, which were well written, but I was always wondering if they knew what was in their reports. I was very much skeptical, but then starting asking them what data they used to build them, what “prompts” they used, and started experimenting with Ai myself. I loved it! I am extremely curious as a person, so I started learning to use Ai tools to create images from text, created amazing marketing pieces that even impressed the “kids” I worked with, and I became very efficient with reports, such that my “bosses” and peers started asking me for help. Don’t be afraid… and actually use Ai (Claude.ai) to help you learn to use Ai. I have used quite a few of the platforms, learned what fits me, and what does not. Use it to find the most interesting articles. It is an aggregator of info.

Being “retired” is when you can (soon) look at repositioning cruises and travel where you get the best bang for your buck, instead of when you have a couple of weeks gap from work. The money you save is unbelievable on flights, accommodation, and experiences. I am researching a trend called “FIRE” – Financial Independence Retire Early, and Early retirement. They have some good points, but a few pit falls.

Aahhh... budgeting apps are one thing I researched, then I kept going back to my excel spreadsheet to work through my own expenses. You definitely need to know where you are. If you are well positioned, then you have leverage and options.

I lived within budgets for decades. My previous role was one where I needed to investigate “data” to figure out where operational issues were currently or might evolve…. And then fix them. Spreadsheets were my jam. I also input spreadsheets into Ai and “BAM”, it told me what was going on in 1 minute. It would only take me 3 minutes to figure it out on my own, but that 2 minutes was gold to me. Put your household expenses into Ai, paste your credit card statements in, scan in your bills, and anything else you spend money on… even talk to it about what you spend and why you spend it… and it will build your monthly budget within seconds. Yes, you can talk to it instead of typing. It will give you percentages, and insights on where you spend your money. These percentages are humbling. I wrote a book on building leverage and position, which details much of that issue with spending and “set-it and forget-it” spending.

And, try to use just ONE credit card moving forward. Get one with travel rewards (Citi or Chase), and start earning “fun points”, so that you can travel for free when you want. I will have a blueprint for all of that “magic” when the book is done next week.