Being broke absolutely sucks.
Living paycheck to paycheck is just as good as being broke, and almost everyone we know is doing it.
My life has seen its ups and downs and you can bet that I have lived paycheck to paycheck and I have also experienced being flat broke at many points in my life.
To most, stress can take over, and getting out of that hole you are in is going to be even more complicated.
For me, things have been quite an adventure, and I have learned a new lesson every single time.
Life will never be that easy, especially if you have been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.
That’s the life I chose and you can bet that my financial situation has been quite the roller coaster ride.
So before I get into the valuable lessons I’ve learned from going broke, let me give you a little insight on how things went for me since I at least started adulting.
My Financial Mishaps in a Nutshell
My young adult life started in the good old United States Army.
That consisted of getting drunk and blowing every penny I had.
I had no kids and I had nothing to worry about.
You can read more about my life here, but for this post, I want to focus on the financial side of things.
So after being a stupid young adult, I finally had my first kid.
That led to me getting out of the military and assuming the role of a father.
I worked for the government and made a little more than minimum wage.
Of course, that was pretty pathetic, so it forced me to look for something better.
I then quit and decided to open up a nice little bar.
Of course drinking and owning a bar was not the best thing and that led me to look for something that could work better for me and my family.
That’s when I turned to the internet and the many scams that took the little I had.
All that happened until I came across a program called the Wealthy Affiliate.
Through the awesome training on affiliate marketing and the help of an awesome community, I could make a full-time income in just a year.
That led to more success that eventually got stomped on by the vulnerability that comes with the internet.
Of course, I got back on my feet, and now I’m able to share the lessons learned from everything I just mentioned above.
Many Lessons Learned
In the decade’s worth of doing business on the internet, I have learned more about money than I ever did the rest of my life.
It was no easy journey, but I am forever grateful for the many lessons I have learned.
Without the failure and disappointment, I don’t think I would be as successful as I am today.
Thinking about the road to get to where I am is very humbling and I wouldn’t have done it without going broke.
So for those of you who are experiencing some hardships or are in need of a push to do something better, I hope these tips can help you do exactly that.
Failure is temporary and is how we all learn.
Once you get past it all, you can look back and see how much you have grown.
For me, these are the 7 life-changing lessons that I have learned from going broke and the ones that have guided me into the path I lead today.
1. Frugality
Many of us want to do this, but is almost impossible.
Why?
Well, thanks to this thing called social media, friends, and this thing called life, we are programmed to be the opposite of frugal.
We buy new clothes to look cool and fit in.
New cars come with the lifestyle as well, even if it doesn’t have to.
That’s just how it is, and it will never change unless you allow it to happen.
Or you can be like me and go broke.
Losing my main source of income was devastating, but it showed me exactly what being frugal means.
No longer was I buying clothes every week or eating out to show everyone else what we were eating.
All that changed to warming up leftovers and spending money where it was NEEDED.
The wants were almost out of the picture and dealing with what we needed was in.
Saving money was now a part of our vocabulary and not because we were saving for college either.
It was simply because we needed to make sure all the bills were paid.
Now that things are at least back to normal, I don’t think I will ever waste another piece of chicken again.
2. Humbleness
I started my life as a humble person, but things changed quickly with the crowd I was around.
I forgot how to not show off, and I almost forgot what it was like to not have everything.
The people I hung out with were the type that grabs the check every time we went out and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu.
That’s how I was up until my income started to dwindle and I couldn’t even afford to leave my house.
I said goodbye to those $100 steaks, and figuring out how to save on gas was now on the menu.
Sure things were rough when I couldn’t afford those fancy things, but again, I am grateful for the lesson it has taught me.
Now just because I can afford those steaks and a whole night of drinking does not mean I need to do it.
I’m perfectly fine buying that case of chicken that can feed my family of 6 for a whole month.
There’s no need to show off to anyone as there is always a better way to spend your money.
You can always start a blog and put a little money into it or do some other form of online business.
3. Never Forget Where You Came From
I grew up in a middle-class family, and we didn’t struggle when it came to money.
However, this lesson doesn’t come from my upbringing financially but from the values, I learned instead.
Helping out the family was a big part of how we did things, and that’s how I was until I thought I was some big shot.
Whenever I needed something, my mom was always there to help.
I did the same until I started to see success.
My mom on the other hand took a different turn, and her financial situation became a problem.
When my mom would ask for money, the idiot came out, and I asked her where her money was going.
Did she ever ask me what I needed money for when I asked?
Heck no!
The lifestyle I lived set me up for more failure, but it’s that failure that got me back to remembering how I was raised.
Nowadays, I don’t question what my mom needs, and you can thank it all to me becoming broke.
4. Don’t Take Anything For Granted
I thought that joining the military and deploying overseas taught me how to appreciate all the little things, but boy, can going broke do it as well.
When you get comfortable with life, you tend to forget about how you used to struggle with just trying to get a pack of diapers.
Sometimes you won’t remember those times unless you go broke like I did.
Just because you can do some things that others can’t do does not mean that things will always be that way.
Being successful with affiliate marketing was a dream come true, but that made me forget everything I just mentioned above.
We started to become wasteful, and everything started to take a downward trend.
No longer was I focused on teaching my kids valuable lessons, and no longer was I focused on helping people.
Believe it or not, I helped more people when I was broke than I did when I was making a life-changing income.
Things quickly changed when I lost my business almost overnight, and it was just another wake-up call for me.
This also helped with my business, where the other lessons came into play.
5. Don’t Get Complacent
As a business owner, you strive to get to the top.
Long hours and lack of sleep become a part of your life, and you don’t let anything get in the way.
You work harder than you’ve ever had in your life, and you don’t stop until you’re content.
Which should never be.
I did get comfortable, and I lost that drive and passion that got me to the top in the first place.
That comfort brought less work and more sleep.
Even at that, the money was still rolling in, no matter what.
I was the perfect example of how a true passive income was made.
But I was also an example of how complacency kills.
You would think that a former Army scout would know better, but the type of complacency that comes with a business is a little bit different.
You don’t see it coming, and you will not do anything until you get smacked in the face.
For me, I got hacked and lost everything I’d worked for.
You can blame it on the idiot that ruined my business, but I take full responsibility for what happened.
If I was on top of things like I should’ve been, there is no way that something so horrible would’ve happened.
What seems like a big-time failure is a blessing in disguise.
I can sit here and let that misstep control me, or I can grab life by the horns and win it back.
Of course, I took the latter, and I won at this thing called life.
6. Always Help Others
In the world of business, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.
That’s how it is in almost every part of life.
Not for me, though.
Just like I mentioned earlier, I was raised to help my family.
With those values, I learned to help others, even in business.
Being on my high horse, though, was a big no-no, and it changed how I “helped” people.
Rather than showing them how to do something, the kind of help I provided was showing them how much more I knew than they did.
Thinking about that makes me shake my head, and it took going broke to remind me of what actual help consisted of.
Just because you run a business does not mean you need to treat everything like a competition.
At least when it comes to the affiliate marketing business model.
There is no other way to make money than by providing others with the information they want.
Don’t provide that help, and you won’t make any money either.
That’s just how it is, and it will not work any other way if you decide to take on something like affiliate marketing.
7. Never Stop Learning
I remember the first time I said, “boy do I love learning.”
This did not happen in my younger years, and it didn’t even happen when I started working.
That mentality started when I figured out how to make sense of all this make money online crap.
From there, I was eager and anxious to learn anything and everything that was put in front of me.
That’s how I found success online, but of course, all that stopped when I started to get comfortable.
Once again, I broke and was forced to return to learning.
This time I returned even harder, and I took learning to another level.
I learn at least one new thing daily, and my business is growing at a new level.
The passion is back, and I am back too, and you can thank it all to me losing sight of how I ran my life.
Conclusion – Don’t Go Broke
Please do not go broke if you think that is the only way to learn what I did.
Use this post as a lesson on what can happen if you decide to get cocky as I did.
Stay humble, learn something about being frugal, and never stop learning.
Life is a never-ending course, and there is no way that you will ever learn everything.
Take the time to smell the roses and try not to stress the little things.
Especially if you know you can’t control it.
I do hope that these little lessons can help you become better at this thing called life, as I know how challenging things can be.
And if you are thinking about starting your own online business, feel free to shoot me a message, and I will gladly give you a hand.
Or you can always signup for my favorite online community, and I can give you a hand there.
Life is too short to work on making other people rich, so make today the day you make something happen.
Besides that, remember where you came from, as you never know where life will take you tomorrow.
Peace!