My daughter turns 11 today!

Happy birthday, Hailey!

Hailey made me a dad when I was just 23 years old.

At the time, I was making ads for proctor and gamble’s car wash division.

I remember doodling around in photoshop making before / after images of waxed cars thinking I was on top of the world 🤣

SINCE THEN…

I’ve had two more kids (three total).

Launched six companies.

Failed at four of them.

Was the Director of Marketing at one of the biggest churches in America.

Became Vice President of one of the fastest growing marketing agencies in America.

Quit my VP job to write emails in my sweatpants.

Now I work entirely for me.

Which leads to the very timely question I got in my inbox just a few days ago…

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Hey Alin, would you share some insights on how you balance family and business? I’ve got two kids and I want to spend more time with them but every time I’m not working on my business I feel like I should be.

Like there’s this guilty pang dinging off in my head screaming that every second I’m not working on my business is the moment it all crumbles.

How do you balance taking time with your family and still growing your business?

Thanks man.

Also please don’t share my name if you use this as an email. Thanks.

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Here’s a check you could cash…

A mentor of mine (who is the president of Keller Williams Georgia) once taught me:

Life is like juggling balls.

But some balls are rubber and some are glass.

Business is a rubber ball.

Family is glass.

You can juggle rubber balls all day and if you drop one…

… it’s fine.

Pick it back up and start juggling it again.

But if you drop a glass ball…

… you’re in deep 💩.

The thing that makes us drop the glass ball is we try to juggle twenty massive rubber balls.

I.e. we try to fit ten years worth of business growth in one year.

When in reality…

… does your business need to grow that much? That fast?

This was the exact conversation that helped me clinch my decision to quit my VP career and focus on my own one-person email business.

I ACTUALLY MADE MORE MONEY IN MY VP CAREER WHEN I QUIT.

I’ve surpassed it since…

… but I quit knowing that I’d be giving up income.

But I’d also be giving up longer days, useless meetings, dumb commutes, and dealing with idiots.

I had to become okay knowing I wasn’t building a $1M business…

Or gonna become the next Steve Jobs…

I re-aligned my AMBITION to be for LIFE… not just WORK.

Don’t get me wrong…

I love my work!

And I work super hard!

But I’ve prioritized other things in my life so that I am just as ambitious about those things as I am my work.

I’m ambitious about being a great golfer.

I’m ambitious about being in great shape.

I’m ambitious about reading great books to my kids.

Simple and tactical is…

I HAVE GOALS OUTSIDE OF MY WORK!

So when I’m not working…

… my mind shifts over to those goals.

Because they are just as important to me as my work.

If not more.

But the other thing that was really helpful in allowing me to focus on other goals is having an “enough” number.

For example…

Do I make $1M a year?

No.

Could I?

Yes.

WhY dOn’T I ThEn? (Shouts the casual NPC who should promptly unsub from my list)

BECAUSE THE TRADE OFF ISN’T WORTH IT TO ME.

There’s nothing I need with $1M/year that you can’t get with $300K/year.

So the trade off for more money is…

— mental bandwidth

— time with your kids

— your body deteriorates faster

— no other hobbies

— stress and anxiety

— less “fun time” with your spouse

For what?

So you can buy a brand new Tesla every year?

I have a house, paid off cars, nice clothes, personal library, six-pack abs, home cooked meals, relationship with God and a happy family.

But I don’t have a $1M company.

And I’m great with that.

I got the better end of this deal.

And if you want to figure out how I built my more “chill” email-business that hits my “enough” number and still allows me to play golf, eat organic food and play with my kids whenever.

​CLICK THIS TO WATCH A FREE VIDEO TRAINING I RECORDED FOR YOU​

​👆👆👆​

Hope that helps!

Alin “Chill Copywriter” Dragu