How a “Normal Person” to Escape the “Rat Race”?
Normal people live comfortable, normal lives. They like it that way. There’s nothing wrong with normal.
Except when it pertains to the “rat race”.
What is Rat race?
The term usually has a negative connotation. A rat race is analogous to rats in a maze that compete against one another to be the first to get the cheese. ... When one refers to the rat race, one envisions harried, unhappy people working long hours for little pay and little recognition.
If you’re a normal person who’s tired of getting one raise a year (if that), tired of sitting under-utilized at your cubicle, tired of sitting over-utilized at your cubicle, tired of being tired, normal isn’t going to save you.
You only have three options at this point:
1. Marry someone rich.
2. Inherit a bunch of money.
3. Sell your organs.
If you want build your own career away from the rat race, free from the cubicle-prison, without the office drab, you need to be an outlier. You even need to be a tad weird to pull it off.
So no, normal people don’t escape the rat race. Only the outliers do.
Now, you don’t need to be Gary Vaynerchuk,
Basil Joseph or Sunayana Chatrapathy, to hustle your way out of a steady job and build your own career. These are is an extreme outlier. Here are five ways to be slightly weirder than a normal person to help you escape the rat race.
1. Live like you don’t know when (and where) your next pay check will come from
When you don’t have the luxury of steady cash flow, paying bills and feeding yourself becomes a little bit harder.
Before escaping the rat race, you’ll want to audit all your spending habits to see where you can cut back. And I mean really cut back. If you have a partner/spouse, make sure they are on board because this will affect them too.
When I used to tell normal people I don’t have a television, I’m out casted as the weird one (I’m sometimes even labeled ‘Millennial’).
Weird people make sacrifices willingly. Here are some areas you can consider cutting back:
· Insurance — shop around for better offers
· Bank loans —look to refinance if it’s in your best interest .
· Cable/Internet — cut the cable, keep the internet (you’re going to need it)
· Subscriptions — cut them all (worst case scenario split a Netflix account with a friend or two)
· Food — eating out costs more than cooking for yourself (and no, you don’t need Blue Apron, look up cooking instructions on YouTube!)
· Rent — no shame in moving back with mom and dad
On top of cutting the luxuries from your life, you need to save up some cash in case hard times hit. Minimum 3 months saved. Put it into an account and don’t touch it!
2. Believe you can actually make money on your own without having to show up and sit in a cubicle for 40 hours a week
This is difficult for normal people to grasp. It’s something I didn’t believe until I got my first payment from the business that I started with just AED 200 in my bank account. I didn’t invest but I started my journey as if I have invested and started selling. With just my concept I sold and got paid to setup my business.
Not bad. That was the first (and last) time I thought I would make it or break it.
It’s not easy, but it’s possible to make money on your own. For most of us rat racers, trading 40 hours a week of our time for a paycheck is the only way we’ve been told to make a living.
We’ve been told a lie.
However, most of us stick to the rat race not because it’s the only way we know, but because we think the alternative just isn’t feasible.
The average household brings anything between USD 15,000 to 30,000 per year depending on where you are based.
That’s $1,250 a month or $42 a day.
Have you ever tried making $42 in one day outside the rat race? This weekend try to make $100 on your own. Hundred bucks is not enough to survive off of, but the purpose here is to prove a point:
When you break it down, making a living isn’t as grand and majestic as you think.
It takes hard work and relentlessness. Again, only weird people understand.
