[#026] My First Billion: Curaçao

I'm recording this talk to text from a lounge chair by the pool.

Vanessa is next to me and the water is the kind of blue you think only exists in screensavers.

We've been here since Monday and don't go back until Saturday.

I want to be honest about something because this newsletter is about documenting the real journey and not just the highlight reel.

A few years ago a week like this would have felt irresponsible.

I would have had a few meetings, shot content and been checking daily revenue.

I would have told myself I was resting while mentally running through everything that needed my attention back home.

I would have been in Curaçao but not really in Curaçao.

This week I've been fully here.

Just us.

No calendar to stick to (except for the one excursion we went on and dinner reservations).

No meetings (except waking up in the morning to call the boys before they head to school).

No tracking my calories. Before I left, my health coach asked me this to consider my plan while in Curaçao:

1) Are you focused on your goals while
on vacay or not?

Because you do most of your life very structured, you get to splurge on special occasions.

Needless to say, I splurged and the food here is incredible.

Really the only “work,” I’ve done this week is this newsletter because I made the commitment to get it to you weekly…

And the business is still running. The team is still doing what the team does.

Nothing is on fire and nobody is waiting on me to make a decision before they can move.

That's not luck, we call it freedom by design and that's the point of everything we've been building.

I talk a lot in this newsletter about systems, leaner teams and simpler operations.

Not because those things are interesting to talk about but because they're what make a week like this possible.

We don’t build companies to work, we build companies to create freedom.

Making X amount of revenue by X date isn’t the goal. That’s just an arbitrary number by an even more arbitrary deadline.

The goal is to build a machine that generates wealth forever.

The machine is what allows you to live free and make your dreams a reality.

It’s what allows you to take care of your people and make your dent in the universe (as Steve Jobs put it).

Twenty five issues in and I'm sitting next to a pool in Curaçao with my wife, brother and sister while the business runs without me.

That's the snowball snowballing.

I'll be back next week with a full download. For now I'm going back to doing absolutely nothing and I'm not apologizing for it.

Oh, and Vanessa just walked in with fresh butter pecan ice cream and oreo cheesecake.

OMG!

More next week.

Tell those you love that you love them.

Marquel