Feeling-consistently-uncomfortable
00:00:00.000 | Hello, everybody.
00:00:01.000 | It's Sam from Financial Samurai.
00:00:03.400 | And today I have a special guest with me, Sydney, my wife, to talk about an interesting
00:00:08.460 | topic I think, and that's the importance of feeling consistently uncomfortable for financial
00:00:15.180 | freedom, personal growth, and personal development.
00:00:18.600 | So say hi.
00:00:19.600 | Hello, guys.
00:00:21.520 | And welcome to this episode of the Financial Samurai podcast where we have not been recording
00:00:28.000 | a lot lately because we've been too busy trying to enjoy life a little bit more.
00:00:32.600 | So I don't know if you guys have noticed or have kept up with the news, but the state
00:00:37.860 | of Virginia is kind of blowing up.
00:00:40.880 | Racism and sexual assault allegations have befallen the governor of Virginia, the attorney
00:00:46.560 | general of Virginia, and the lieutenant governor of Virginia.
00:00:50.720 | And all this stuff just basically reminded me of all the racial and racist altercations
00:00:56.560 | I experienced growing up in Virginia for public high school and public university in the mid
00:01:00.120 | to late '90s.
00:01:01.560 | Given all that's happened in Virginia on the most senior level of government, you know
00:01:05.960 | racism in Virginia wasn't unusual decades ago when I was going to school.
00:01:11.520 | It wasn't a constant ubiquity, but I did experience some type of racist encounter about every
00:01:15.960 | tenth time I went out of the house.
00:01:17.840 | For example, here's a milder example.
00:01:19.880 | I remember I was waiting in line to go to the bathroom at a gas station off I-95 heading
00:01:25.280 | south.
00:01:26.280 | I was about to head down to the College of William & Mary.
00:01:29.160 | And a white guy behind me said, "Hey, don't you understand English?
00:01:32.680 | What are you waiting for?
00:01:33.680 | The bathroom is open."
00:01:34.680 | And I was like, "What?
00:01:36.400 | What the hell?"
00:01:37.400 | So I turned around and I said, "Look, there's actually someone in there.
00:01:40.560 | They just didn't lock the door.
00:01:42.040 | Do you understand the English that's coming out of my mouth?"
00:01:45.440 | And he was taken aback.
00:01:46.440 | He said, "Oh, okay, never mind."
00:01:47.440 | But I was ready to kick his ass and rumble.
00:01:50.020 | So the amazing thing about all these racial experiences is that it's all I ever knew
00:01:54.880 | since coming to America for high school.
00:01:57.480 | Before that I was living in Asia for 13 years in Zambia.
00:02:01.560 | And yeah, there was like racism there and all that.
00:02:04.520 | But what I knew about America is just kind of what I knew.
00:02:07.760 | I came for ninth grade and I just thought it was pretty normal to be on the receiving
00:02:12.560 | end of racial slurs or racial innuendos every so often, right?
00:02:16.960 | So I just endured and fought back as hard as I could each time.
00:02:20.320 | And yes, I got suspended a couple of times for fighting but it was worth it to defend
00:02:24.840 | my honor.
00:02:25.840 | Like all these altercations really I think built my character and my fierceness to what
00:02:34.800 | I am today.
00:02:35.800 | So kids stopped messing around with me once they felt my fist of fury.
00:02:40.320 | And after I got a job in 1999 in New York City and again when I moved to San Francisco
00:02:44.800 | in 2001, I realized that being a minority in America felt so much more comfortable in
00:02:50.520 | a diverse city.
00:02:52.240 | So my racial conflicts dropped from every 10th time I went outside in Manhattan to maybe
00:02:56.800 | every 25th time, right?
00:02:59.200 | And then in San Francisco, we've been here since 2001 and I can't remember my last racial
00:03:04.760 | conflict because we're a minority majority city.
00:03:08.160 | Do you experience any racism in San Francisco?
00:03:11.360 | In San Francisco?
00:03:12.360 | No, I don't remember.
00:03:13.360 | I don't have any situation.
00:03:15.840 | So that's great and it's kind of like, "Oh, OK.
00:03:18.680 | Actually America is not like exactly how I experienced when I was growing up in Northern
00:03:24.760 | Virginia and then in Williamsburg for college."
00:03:28.440 | And so as always, I think it's important to look at the positive side of things.
00:03:33.480 | And the positive side of racism I think is that it gave me extra strength I needed to
00:03:39.920 | endure those long work hours in banking for so many years, right?
00:03:43.600 | You remember when I first started banking in New York City, you were like my alarm clock.
00:03:48.400 | Yeah, you helped me try to wake up by 5 AM because the earliest I ever woke up before
00:03:54.400 | was like 7.30 to go to 8 AM class which I actually dropped.
00:03:59.320 | And I think racism gave me tremendous motivation to prove that I could succeed in America.
00:04:05.320 | And look, it's harder in the workplace when so few management people look like you or
00:04:10.480 | want to mentor you.
00:04:12.040 | But I was always telling myself, "You know what?
00:04:13.640 | Screw that.
00:04:14.640 | I'm going to blaze my own trail.
00:04:15.640 | I'm going to work extra hard.
00:04:16.640 | I'm going to be more energetic and entrepreneurial."
00:04:19.640 | So when I got promoted to VP at 27, it was one of the greatest feelings ever.
00:04:24.000 | It was like, "Ah, finally I got some power because nobody is going to mess with me now
00:04:28.640 | because in order to get promoted, you need to have a consensus driven committee to say,
00:04:34.200 | "Little Johnny or Little Jane or – not little, just like John or Jane.
00:04:39.760 | We give him or her our blessing."
00:04:42.600 | If you don't have a consensus on the committee, you're not getting promoted.
00:04:47.040 | And obviously, everyone wants to get promoted because it looks good and you get paid more,
00:04:50.840 | right?
00:04:51.840 | So all my contemporary colleagues were still associates, one level down and would stay
00:04:55.320 | associates usually until the age of 30 to 32.
00:04:59.460 | So despite being gone from the workforce since 2012, I still have the energy and motivation
00:05:05.340 | as I did when I was a teenager.
00:05:08.020 | I think you recognize that, right?
00:05:09.580 | For sure.
00:05:10.580 | For sure.
00:05:11.580 | OK.
00:05:12.580 | And I think it's like Iron Man's arc reactor if you ever watch Marvel comics and movies.
00:05:17.100 | It's like pulsating in my chest.
00:05:18.940 | It's driving me to keep going no matter what thanks to all the hate I experienced
00:05:23.380 | growing up.
00:05:24.740 | And to be honest, it feels amazing to have all this energy.
00:05:28.620 | You know, like I don't know.
00:05:29.740 | You see the bad guy, he put his hand in the energy something, something and he's like,
00:05:34.660 | "Oh, I feel so much more powerful now."
00:05:36.980 | I don't know.
00:05:37.980 | I just feel – I feel so blessed to have this energy and this has enabled both my wife
00:05:44.340 | and me to leave work behind at age 34.
00:05:48.580 | And it is this confidence that has fortified me to take bigger risks in my career, in my
00:05:53.400 | investments and in our online business.
00:05:56.700 | And I think without this energy, I definitely wouldn't be able to regularly wake up by
00:06:00.780 | 5 AM, sometimes 4 AM for the past two years since the birth of our son to work on Financial
00:06:07.460 | Samurai, grow the traffic, grow the business and then basically try to be as good a father
00:06:16.460 | as possible for the rest of the day.
00:06:19.900 | Now obviously, my wife has been critical and is the main caretaker for our son.
00:06:28.900 | But I don't think with all these things that happened to me when I was growing up,
00:06:33.780 | I would have been able to do this.
00:06:36.060 | I mean after you become financially independent and you leave work, what's the point of
00:06:41.060 | grinding so hard and so much?
00:06:43.780 | I think you are motivated by things that you love and I know that writing is something
00:06:50.220 | that you truly love having seen you do it for so long and every time you finish writing
00:06:56.300 | a post or a newsletter, you're so excited and it's so fun to witness that and to see
00:07:01.780 | how great writing is as an outlet for you.
00:07:04.540 | So I think that in itself does give you a lot of energy.
00:07:07.780 | Yeah, I mean I guess it's cool to come up with an idea, to write it out, edit it and
00:07:14.300 | press publish.
00:07:15.300 | It feels like a great sense of accomplishment.
00:07:18.660 | So I think bottom line is hardship makes us better appreciate the good times, right?
00:07:25.420 | So I think instead of moving to Honolulu, Hawaii, you know it sounds great and all that.
00:07:30.820 | Why don't we just move to Virginia instead?
00:07:33.420 | I mean think about it, given how much racism and bullying has given me, I mean it's been
00:07:38.020 | so special.
00:07:39.740 | I think it's best for us to move back to Virginia and rejoin a 5.5% minority.
00:07:45.580 | You know to survive in a less comfortable situation forces us to adapt.
00:07:50.860 | Learning things like self-defense, conflict resolution, self-deprecation and humor are
00:07:58.500 | all useful skills to learn and have in our adult lives.
00:08:04.060 | What wonderful skills to teach our son.
00:08:06.980 | Hawaii is obviously a wonderful, wonderful place but I think there's a chance it might
00:08:11.820 | be too comfortable there.
00:08:14.260 | I think if you can survive in Hawaii, you can survive anywhere.
00:08:18.220 | And why do I say that?
00:08:19.220 | It's because if it's sunshine, 78 degrees, sunny, are you going to stay inside and study
00:08:27.220 | for three hours and work on your self-defense skills and communication skills and your math
00:08:34.180 | and all that stuff?
00:08:35.580 | Or are you going to have the temptation to just get out of the house and play?
00:08:39.140 | I would think most people would just kick back, right?
00:08:44.500 | I think that's possible.
00:08:46.460 | The other way to look at it though is if you grow up in Hawaii, it's your home.
00:08:50.860 | It's what you're used to.
00:08:52.620 | So it's not maybe the urge to go outside every single day isn't necessarily as high because
00:09:00.140 | that's what you're accustomed to.
00:09:01.940 | And we have relatives, younger relatives who have grown up in Hawaii and they've done very
00:09:07.940 | well in school.
00:09:08.940 | They've gotten straight A's and are doing well in their collegiate life.
00:09:15.720 | So I think it's totally possible to grow up in an environment like Hawaii and still do
00:09:21.380 | very well.
00:09:22.380 | OK.
00:09:23.380 | I mean fair enough.
00:09:24.380 | But I think Virginia, what an amazing state.
00:09:26.820 | Strong economy, good people, southern charm and comfort.
00:09:31.540 | I think people are products of their time and I don't blame a minority of Virginians
00:09:37.900 | for thinking the racist things that they do about minorities.
00:09:42.940 | It's just the way – if your dad and mom were kind of racist, you kind of like learn
00:09:48.900 | from them.
00:09:49.900 | And the history of Virginia, the Confederate capital, Jamestown and all that, is part of
00:09:55.260 | the culture and I think as times change, people will change.
00:09:59.740 | So I think in general I look back upon my eight years there with fondness.
00:10:03.260 | The good definitely outweighed the bad and Virginia was my rite of passage into adulthood.
00:10:08.560 | It's just these recent racial incidents that involved a political lead that have really
00:10:13.780 | triggered a lot of forgotten memories.
00:10:16.740 | And there are a lot of benefits of Virginia, right?
00:10:18.260 | So one, even if we go to northern Virginia, which is the most expensive part of Virginia,
00:10:22.140 | it's still 50 percent cheaper in terms of housing than San Francisco.
00:10:25.660 | Meanwhile, there's plenty of solid public schools, right?
00:10:28.940 | There's a lot of wealth around the D.C. area.
00:10:33.460 | Also parents, your mom is in Virginia.
00:10:38.060 | Your sister is in North Carolina.
00:10:39.620 | My sister is in New York.
00:10:41.500 | So we're much closer to family and that's a great thing.
00:10:46.340 | Further, by shunning a diverse environment like San Francisco or Honolulu for a more
00:10:52.180 | homogenous environment, our son will have a chance to experience more racial discrimination
00:10:58.340 | than if he were, you know, here, right?
00:11:01.300 | So with each difficult encounter, his mother and I will mentor him by teaching him about
00:11:05.900 | hate and ignorance and perhaps with each encounter, our boy will develop also a chip on his shoulder
00:11:12.380 | to motivate himself to get ahead and prove his haters wrong.
00:11:16.620 | I think that's a really wonderful, wonderful attribute to have.
00:11:20.180 | And I fear that if we shelter our son and our children too much, they'll grow up to
00:11:24.180 | be ignorant, unmotivated individuals who will whine at the slightest of inconveniences.
00:11:31.180 | So I think I've made my case for going to Virginia.
00:11:36.940 | And you know what?
00:11:38.580 | Uncomfortable situations.
00:11:40.740 | Uncomfortable situations make us grow up, right?
00:11:44.020 | You know, I've got many examples.
00:11:45.220 | I'll just give a couple, right?
00:11:46.820 | Having to get in the office at 5.30 a.m., you know, that was brutal.
00:11:49.860 | But you know what?
00:11:50.860 | After 10 years, I no longer have an alarm clock because I naturally get up by 5 a.m.
00:11:55.140 | and I just get to work.
00:11:56.220 | I just grind it out and therefore we have a pretty decent lifestyle.
00:12:02.020 | Being the new kid in school every two to four years, that was hard.
00:12:05.140 | But it forces me to be, you know, to introduce myself to new people, to get to know people,
00:12:09.900 | you know, just get out of my shell and get out of my comfort zone.
00:12:13.740 | So I think, you know, at the end of the day, going to Virginia is a pretty obvious move.
00:12:19.620 | But you know, important geo-arbitrage moves need a consensus, right?
00:12:25.260 | Unless, you know, we want a divorce.
00:12:27.060 | So let's see what my wife has to say.
00:12:29.220 | She spent 20 years growing up in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Williamsburg, Virginia.
00:12:34.740 | So she's even more of an expert on Virginia than me.
00:12:39.320 | We agree on a lot of things.
00:12:41.820 | This is not one of them.
00:12:44.460 | I have a very different view on going to Virginia and I've actually been quite stressed out
00:12:50.820 | since Sam came up with this, let's call it an idea.
00:12:56.700 | Because I enjoyed my time in Virginia to, you know, to some extent, but I knew I wanted
00:13:02.720 | to get out of there as soon as I graduated.
00:13:05.260 | And that's what I did.
00:13:06.260 | I booked a one-way ticket to California and never looked back.
00:13:08.780 | I've been there, I've done that.
00:13:10.540 | I just, I don't miss the lifestyle there at all.
00:13:14.980 | And I, you know, firmly agree with you that racism is terrible and that it does exist
00:13:22.220 | more in less diverse places.
00:13:24.660 | But you know what?
00:13:25.660 | It's everywhere.
00:13:27.340 | Even if we stay in San Francisco, move to Hawaii, there could be issues of racism that
00:13:34.300 | pop up.
00:13:35.980 | And I think intentionally exposing our son to unnecessary negativity and hatred just
00:13:43.180 | doesn't feel right to me.
00:13:44.540 | I don't think that's good for him.
00:13:48.040 | And I think there's ways to teach him how to respect people of all sorts through other
00:13:53.980 | means, whether it's travel, which we want to do as he gets older, reading, volunteering,
00:13:59.380 | and having all kinds of open discussions wherever we live.
00:14:03.340 | And also, I don't think he needs to experience hardships like that on a regular basis in
00:14:10.500 | order to be a driven, hardworking individual.
00:14:14.700 | I experienced racism growing up in Virginia, but that wasn't a motivator for me.
00:14:20.640 | If anything, it made me want to get away.
00:14:24.780 | I hear you.
00:14:25.780 | It's tough.
00:14:26.780 | You know, it's kind of fight or flight.
00:14:29.020 | And I've always had the let's fight mentality because, hey, if you beat me up, at least
00:14:35.020 | I'm going to get one good blow, and that's going to feel very, very satisfying.
00:14:39.580 | I guess you've never had that kind of let's fight attitude.
00:14:42.300 | Right.
00:14:43.300 | I'm the exact opposite.
00:14:44.940 | I want to get away.
00:14:46.860 | You don't want to waste your time, you know, like spending energy on these losers, right?
00:14:51.020 | Yeah.
00:14:52.020 | And that's fair.
00:14:53.020 | But it's not like we're going to go to Virginia and go to the racist den.
00:14:56.500 | You know, Virginia is a great state, like I said.
00:14:59.180 | It's just, you know, the experience of racism will happen more often than in Honolulu or
00:15:05.480 | in San Francisco because we'd be a 5.5 percent minority.
00:15:08.740 | It's not like every day he walks out, you know, someone's going to be racist to him.
00:15:11.580 | It's just, you know, once every while, maybe every 10 percent or 5 percent of the time.
00:15:16.180 | So just that we have more teachable moments and more exposure to the real world.
00:15:22.180 | Perhaps.
00:15:23.260 | I think there's other things that we need to bring up, though, in terms of choosing
00:15:27.820 | to live in Virginia.
00:15:30.020 | Having been there, I do not miss the weather.
00:15:33.660 | I know there are people who love the four seasons and love that, but it's not something
00:15:39.460 | I like.
00:15:40.460 | I don't like humid summers and freezing winters.
00:15:43.900 | I don't miss that.
00:15:45.340 | I like the weather in San Francisco and Hawaii so much more.
00:15:49.700 | I think us as a family, we will be so much happier here in San Francisco and Hawaii.
00:15:56.260 | Sam, you love to be outdoors.
00:15:58.620 | Our son loves to be outdoors and go on walks.
00:16:01.380 | And I think, sure, you can do plenty of that in Virginia, but there's the whole winter
00:16:07.940 | and I just think we'll be happier as a family in Hawaii.
00:16:12.980 | Don't you think you'd appreciate the six months that, you know, Virginia has great weather
00:16:17.820 | when you go through horrible, horrible weather?
00:16:21.180 | Yeah, but I've already experienced horrible weather for 20-some years.
00:16:27.380 | I don't need to do it again.
00:16:29.260 | I mean, I wrote a post about the West Coast and East Coast comparing and I was attacked
00:16:35.380 | for saying, you know, the weather is not as good on the East Coast.
00:16:40.780 | So clearly with millions and tens of millions of people living on the East Coast, it must
00:16:45.420 | be decent weather because everybody's rational.
00:16:47.620 | Why would they suffer through terrible weather?
00:16:49.980 | There are people who love the East Coast and that's wonderful.
00:16:53.820 | That's where they want to live and that's good for them.
00:16:57.620 | For us, we've always kind of been away from family and if we go to Hawaii, we're with
00:17:02.900 | your family.
00:17:03.900 | Yeah, but I don't want to be selfish and just be next to my family.
00:17:07.220 | Then we'll be so far away from your family on the East Coast.
00:17:10.420 | It's not something you should feel selfish about because it's a decision we're making
00:17:14.460 | as a family and I know that we would be much happier in Hawaii and I just can't move back
00:17:23.740 | to Virginia.
00:17:24.740 | I can't do it.
00:17:25.740 | I can't do it, Sam.
00:17:26.740 | I can't do it.
00:17:27.740 | Oh, okay.
00:17:28.740 | Well, we want to hear from you guys because we really do have a big decision to make.
00:17:34.100 | You know, would you move to warm and sunny Honolulu where life is even more comfortable
00:17:38.660 | than it is in San Francisco?
00:17:41.060 | You know, the majority of the Honolulu population will look like our boy, either Asian or multiracial
00:17:47.220 | and the Aloha spirit is amazing in Hawaii.
00:17:50.900 | He'll grow up in an environment that is much more chill because most people in Hawaii are
00:17:55.180 | working to live, not living to work.
00:17:58.820 | Or would you move to somewhere in Virginia where, you know, the weather is not great
00:18:02.540 | for six months of the year but it'll make you appreciate the other half of the year
00:18:06.700 | more.
00:18:07.900 | Our boy will feel, you know, the discomfort of being a minority and as a result, he'll
00:18:13.380 | better learn how to deal with difficult situations like racism and bullying.
00:18:18.740 | And you know what?
00:18:19.740 | Racism again and bullying will occur everywhere in the country.
00:18:23.540 | I just think it might occur a little bit more in Virginia which could really build some
00:18:27.900 | of his confidence and character and give him a quicker taste of how cruel the world is,
00:18:35.260 | right?
00:18:36.260 | You know, everything is so sheltered in middle school, high school, college.
00:18:40.140 | It's like such a joke how sheltered life is.
00:18:43.020 | You know, our neighbors, we have three immediate neighbors.
00:18:46.780 | Their house are nice and they all have adult sons, 27 to 30, maybe one or two years old,
00:18:55.340 | still living at home with their parents.
00:18:58.180 | Like to me, that is like a travesty.
00:19:00.660 | It's a travesty that these parents have provided such an easy and good life for their kids
00:19:07.940 | that their sons are not motivated to become independent men and establish a family, a
00:19:16.380 | home, buy their own cars and feel the amazing glory of being independent launched individuals.
00:19:27.700 | I agree with that in terms of it's sad that they haven't launched.
00:19:36.340 | However, we don't know what they were like as parents.
00:19:39.900 | We don't know what their upbringing was like.
00:19:42.260 | I do because I talked to them.
00:19:44.220 | I talked to the parents.
00:19:46.180 | Our immediate neighbor, you know, they have a $2.5 million house, his parents.
00:19:51.660 | So like they bought a 13-unit building and he sold it recently for like, I don't know,
00:19:58.140 | 13-unit building.
00:19:59.140 | Let's say it's $500,000 per unit, which is really cheap.
00:20:01.020 | That's like $6.5 million.
00:20:02.820 | So you're the grandson.
00:20:04.380 | Hey, I got a $2.5 million house.
00:20:07.420 | My grandparents are $6.5 million.
00:20:09.220 | Why bother doing anything?
00:20:11.100 | And you know, like, I don't know.
00:20:13.100 | It just seems so sad.
00:20:15.100 | It is sad.
00:20:18.380 | I don't know what to say.
00:20:21.820 | I think you and I as parents are going to be totally different from these people.
00:20:27.300 | We don't -- I don't know.
00:20:29.180 | I don't know.
00:20:30.180 | I think we are going to be those parents who want to give our son everything and we're
00:20:34.700 | going to shelter him and we're going to protect him.
00:20:37.660 | And I feel like we're going to go overboard and then he's going to be like, "Well, mommy,
00:20:42.380 | daddy, the world is not like how I grew up and can you help me and can I live in one
00:20:48.220 | of your houses?"
00:20:49.220 | And I'm like, "No, son.
00:20:51.500 | Be a man.
00:20:52.500 | Do the right thing."
00:20:56.500 | I think we should give our son more credit.
00:20:58.340 | Even though he's still very young, he definitely shows signs that he is a very determined boy.
00:21:05.260 | He is going to be focused like you.
00:21:07.220 | I can see that clear as day.
00:21:08.700 | He has that side of your personality.
00:21:11.500 | And he's going to have struggles no matter where we live and what we give to him.
00:21:16.780 | He's going to experience struggles and we're going to help him get through that and we're
00:21:20.260 | going to do things like travel to show him other ways.
00:21:23.740 | All right.
00:21:24.820 | So I think in conclusion, I want to end this podcast by saying what a blessing it is to
00:21:30.380 | grow up as a minority in America.
00:21:34.900 | We have different challenges.
00:21:36.940 | But man, we are given this opportunity and this fire to do something great.
00:21:45.140 | If all I experienced was love and acceptance, I'd probably still be working at my soul-sucking
00:21:50.660 | job wondering what else is there to do.
00:21:54.340 | What else is there in life?
00:21:56.380 | There would definitely be no financial samurai.
00:21:58.780 | There would definitely be no early retirement.
00:22:02.180 | There would definitely be no opportunity for both of us to be stay-at-home parents.
00:22:06.920 | And I just want to highlight and just reiterate the importance of being consistently uncomfortable.
00:22:14.860 | If you think about our country, we have a health epidemic.
00:22:20.300 | Something like 60 plus percent of Americans are overweight and our health care costs are
00:22:25.660 | out of control.
00:22:26.740 | We're subsidizing broken systems and people who are unhealthy, for example.
00:22:32.180 | And why is it?
00:22:33.620 | Why is it that we have such a health problem in the United States?
00:22:38.300 | And I think the reason is because life is too easy.
00:22:42.640 | Life is too abundant and comfortable in America.
00:22:46.660 | If you go to Asia or like a third world country, you don't have this epidemic health crisis.
00:22:53.140 | Diet has a lot to do with it, too, but we won't get into all that.
00:22:56.100 | No, I'm just using this as an example.
00:22:59.300 | OK, why did I start Financial Samurai?
00:23:01.780 | I started Financial Samurai because the world was ending in 2009 and I was scared.
00:23:07.500 | And I had been thinking about starting Financial Samurai since 2006, but it was too easy.
00:23:11.980 | 2006, good bonus, good stock market.
00:23:14.540 | 2007, record bonus, record stock market.
00:23:17.340 | 2008, uh-oh, uh-oh.
00:23:19.660 | And then in 2009, oh my gosh, I just lost 35 to 40 percent of my net worth in like six
00:23:24.940 | to 10 months.
00:23:25.940 | That took 10 years building.
00:23:27.460 | I need to do something.
00:23:28.460 | I am so uncomfortable.
00:23:30.380 | I need to get off my ass and start something so we have a contingency plan so I can do
00:23:37.140 | something new.
00:23:38.740 | And for you, I think something uncomfortable was you didn't get promoted that one year
00:23:43.940 | at work.
00:23:45.140 | And you finally said, you know what?
00:23:47.460 | Screw this.
00:23:48.460 | I'm going to get promoted and I'm going to leave with a severance, right?
00:23:53.620 | Yeah, that's true.
00:23:55.140 | You were motivated.
00:23:56.140 | If it happened to me repeatedly, I probably would have maybe lost all my confidence.
00:24:02.180 | No, you would have quit and found another job.
00:24:03.700 | I said, screw you.
00:24:04.700 | Yeah, yeah.
00:24:05.700 | I mean, I think we're very lucky how everything has worked out.
00:24:10.420 | Yeah, we're lucky.
00:24:11.740 | We're super lucky.
00:24:12.900 | And I think a lot of stuff is due to luck and that's why we should never take our luck
00:24:16.280 | for granted.
00:24:17.280 | And that's why we should continue to grind because one day our luck will run out.
00:24:21.540 | I always think to myself like, how did we get this lucky?
00:24:24.980 | Yeah, I also think work while we are still healthy because, man, when we've been hit
00:24:31.780 | with the flu or whatever or I had surgery a couple of years ago, it's like when you
00:24:36.380 | go through some health difficulty, man, it just puts everything into perspective.
00:24:40.940 | Right.
00:24:41.940 | I mean, I was sick for three to four weeks at the beginning of this year and February
00:24:46.460 | comes, I'm finally okay.
00:24:48.140 | And I'm like, you know what?
00:24:49.380 | Let's get it on.
00:24:50.380 | I'm going to publish three times a week.
00:24:51.380 | I'm going to publish a newsletter every single week.
00:24:53.980 | I'm going to produce while I'm still healthy because who knows how long that health will
00:24:58.020 | last.
00:24:59.020 | So I think in conclusion, we're going to go to Virginia.
00:25:01.420 | Virginia, Virginia, Virginia.
00:25:02.420 | Clearly, there's a great opportunity for us.
00:25:08.020 | Save on housing, experience the real world.
00:25:10.780 | And thank you, everybody.
00:25:11.900 | Please pitch in and vote.
00:25:14.180 | Click on the post and vote Virginia or Hawaii.
00:25:16.980 | Hawaii, here we come.
00:25:17.980 | All right.
00:25:18.980 | Thanks, folks.
00:25:18.980 | Thanks, folks.