Should You Choose The Safe Career, Or Follow Your Dreams?

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business and a life that you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday, that means Qs and As. And today’s Q comes from Miss Christina and she writes:

“Hi Marie, I love your show. You’re my hero. My husband and I are newlyweds in our early 30s working to pay off student loans, save for a house, and we want to have kids. I’ve been out of work for a year due to health problems, so money is getting tight. I have the option of starting a traditional tried and true business, my own law firm, or my dream business involving my passion for the wedding industry. I think the law firm would make money more quickly while my dream business involves more startup costs and time. How do you balance the need for money to pay for a house, loans, kids, etcetera with the desire to pursue a risky dream? How do you know when it’s the right time to step off the safe path without jeopardizing your finances or unfairly burdening your spouse? Thanks so much, Marie. Love, Christina.”

Christina, this is a big question and it’s a really tricky thing to tackle. And I would never suggest that you get yourself into further financial hot water or risk not having kids. So while I can’t tell you exactly what to do, I can tell you this.

Choosing a path because you think it’s safe and it’ll make you money will eventually be deadly for your soul.

You know, when I started my business I was enormously in debt and I had to take on all kinds of side jobs and I lived on the cheap in order to get on stable financial ground. You know what? That actually took me 7 whole years. I made a lot of tough choices during that time, I ate a ton of mac and cheese, and I deferred big things like buying a house. And I’m so glad that I did that because here’s what I’ve learned about business in 3 simple truths.

Truth number one, never start a business just to make money. Starting any business means a ton of hard work, which I know that you know that fact. And if you’re not 10 thousand percent committed to it and have some degree of love towards it, it’s never gonna survive. Now, yes, I know that there are people out there who start businesses just to make money and some of them do succeed, but from what I’ve seen, they’re the rare exception. Most people who start a business just to make money either fail or at some point end up hating it and quitting. And if the business does make the kind of money that they hoped for, they wind up feeling trapped and totally miserable, which does not sound like anything that you want.

Truth number two, if you want guarantees in business you don’t want a business. So starting any venture does not guarantee that you’re gonna be profitable. There is no such thing really as a safe business, even if it’s in a traditional industry that tends to make money like law. That’s why it is so important to choose one that you’re going to want to stick with over the long haul.

Truth number three, a business you don’t love is bad for your health.

Now, obviously we’re just joking, but this is really serious. We’ve all heard stories about people that are so stressed out and they are working themselves to death. Their adrenals get shot and they wind up with depression and sometimes even with heart disease and worse. Now, you’ve mentioned that you’ve had health issues in the past. When it comes to your wellbeing, starting a business that doesn’t light you up, the one that you consider the safe path, might actually be the most dangerous thing you could do.

So here is the bottom line, Christina. There is no such thing as a safe path. If you’re gonna build a business, please build a business you love. I know you want to be responsible here, and yes, it is your responsibility to take care of yourself financially. And, yes, you are an adult and you need to make adult choices. But it’s also your responsibility to do what you were put on this earth to do. It is your responsibility to find a way to express what only you came here to express. It won’t be simple, it’s not going to be easy, but one thing you can bet on by taking the inspiring path is that you will never, ever live a day in your life saying, “what if?” And that is the safest bet that you can make.

That was my A to your Q, Christina, I really hope it helps. And if you want my help to create a business that you truly love, get yourself in B-School. It’s a world-class education. We have the most extraordinary community and we have thousands of parents and aspiring parents and even single parents in there. You will learn everything that you need to know to get your dream business up and running the right way.

Now I would love to hear from you. Have you ever had to choose between the “safe” and “inspiring” path? How did you think through that decision, and what steps did you take to make it work? Now, as always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at MarieForleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now. Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our wonderful channel and I would be so grateful if you shared this with your friends. And if you want even more great resources to create a business and a life that you love, plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, come on over to MarieForleo.com and make sure you sign up for email updates.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV.

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