I spent some time in the past trying to chase this idea of passive income- that is not needing to work for money. It sounds tempting right? Making money and then just doing what ever you want.
I mean yeah everyone needs a holiday.
But I’m not interested in doing nothing. I want to help. I think we all do. Providing something of value for people who care is one of the meanings of life, I think.
I don’t think we should be chasing some ‘passive’ form of income. I agree that we shouldn’t make bad trades for our time. Selling time for a low dollar amount and doing that over and over again is very limiting (being stuck in this frame probably drives the interest in the opposite, which is doing nothing at all for money).
Instead we should be looking for leverage.
Leverage means the time you put in has a further reach. It has long term value. Over time and across location.
It’s the difference between teaching a lesson to one person live in a coffee shop one morning, and recording yourself delivering the same content and creating lessons notes, a worksheet and flash cards along side it.
The latter can deliver value on your behalf without the time it would take to do it each time.
Makes sense, right?
That’s leverage. So next time you need to teach the person the thing, it’s a two minute email with a link rather than organising the coffee date, revising the content for yourself and delivering the goods- hours of work.
The value is no less (taking out the in-person aspect which I agree has some value), but the time is WAY less. That’s leverage.
Focus on investing your time on high leverage action items.
How can this have a life beyond the time I’m taking now? How can it be this way by design?
How can the work I put into this compound over time?
In what ways will this buy me back time in the future?
Don’t hunt for shortcuts to passive income- be very active in your pursuit of providing massive value for people in a way that is repeatable and with the largest lever possible.
Because when you have a big lever, you can help even more people even faster. And that’s the real goal.
And sure have a holiday now and then. And your leverage will most likely allow you to be paid while you do it.
