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"Difficult" situation? (1 Viewer)

Joe Bryant

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This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Do you agree with the author that his consulting client is in a "difficult" situation?
 
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This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Crap or get off the pot. You can dream big, not for it and complain about it.
 
This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Crap or get off the pot. You can dream big, not for it and complain about it.

My question is more if the guy truly is in a "difficult" situation?
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

Guy says a couple of tweets later in the thread when someone commented about the 2+ million for retirement:

That is not at all significant wealth.I would guess in 25 years retirement isn't an option with $2.4 million in the bank.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.
I am engineer and am purely a W2 worker, so in essentially the same spot. I get to do rocket science, raise my kids, take vacations, and still save for retirement. This ain't a bad outcome.


Guy says a couple of tweets later in the thread when someone commented about the 2+ million for retirement:

That is not at all significant wealth.I would guess in 25 years retirement isn't an option with $2.4 million in the bank.

Eh, that's not inflation adjusted (with inflation it will be more than 2.4M). Fact is 2.4M, inflation adjusted or not, with a pension (social security) will be a fine retirement in 30 years. Saying otherwise is pretty silly, IMO.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.
I am engineer and am purely a W2 worker, so in essentially the same spot. I get to do rocket science, raise my kids, take vacations, and still save for retirement. This ain't a bad outcome.


Guy says a couple of tweets later in the thread when someone commented about the 2+ million for retirement:

That is not at all significant wealth.I would guess in 25 years retirement isn't an option with $2.4 million in the bank.

Eh, that's not inflation adjusted (with inflation it will be more than 2.4M). Fact is 2.4M, inflation adjusted or not, with a pension (social security) will be a fine retirement in 30 years. Saying otherwise is pretty silly, IMO.

Agreed. I think it highlights how far expectations have drifted from what I think is a "difficult" situation.

At best, it's insulting it feels.

But I also know there a huge contingent (especially on twitter) of the wannabe billionaire bro guys all about that hustle life. This guy is in a situation that's better than 98% of all people in the world and the dude is calling that a "difficult" situation. And then mocking anyone who disagree with him as angry broke people. Wild.
 
This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Do you agree with the author that his consulting client is in a "difficult" situation?
Absolutely not, this mentally of more more more is terrible.

"Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation"

I mean, to me, this is a silly couple sentences. "too easy AND profitable" ...."get out of this situation" :lmao:. How many people in the US would want to be in this situation of too easy and profitable?

Get out of a too easy and profitable situation to what? Too much stress and no time to enjoy your money? But just enjoying what you have doesn't get clicks
 
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This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Crap or get off the pot. You can dream big, not for it and complain about it.

My question is more if the guy truly is in a "difficult" situation?

Oh sorry, I don't think so. People vastly overestimate what is a tough spot. Your odds of even being born are 1 in 400 trillion and now he is in roughly in the top 1 percent of all people who ever lived, as far as quality of life. It isn't a difficult situation at all.
 
This is a tweet about motivation. If this guy is on a consulting call with Twitter Finance Guy, he wants to make more money than he currently is.

I think one can take away the point that when people have it decent, it is hard to get motivated to build wealth.

He does have it good, it is easy for him to not do anything else because he's WFH, not even a full 40 hours a week, and can pay his bills. Gets to hang out with his kids. Putter around in his bathrobe. It's better than whatever % of earthlings out there. Agreed, 100%. Which makes it easier to not strive for more.

Maybe that's good enough to never get moving on an idea, or a business, or another, better job. Hunger is a motivation. How much networking does this guy do in a week, with a WFH job? Zero minutes a week? I'm guessing so.

Saying we have it better than everyone else....part of having it better than everyone else in the opportunities to build wealth. It's incredibly easy to hang your shingle out there as a startup, you don't need a lot of money. Just need to hustle.

it's harder to hustle when you are doing OK.
 
This is a tweet about motivation. If this guy is on a consulting call with Twitter Finance Guy, he wants to make more money than he currently is.

I think one can take away the point that when people have it decent, it is hard to get motivated to build wealth.

He does have it good, it is easy for him to not do anything else because he's WFH, not even a full 40 hours a week, and can pay his bills. Gets to hang out with his kids. Putter around in his bathrobe. It's better than whatever % of earthlings out there. Agreed, 100%. Which makes it easier to not strive for more.

Maybe that's good enough to never get moving on an idea, or a business, or another, better job. Hunger is a motivation. How much networking does this guy do in a week, with a WFH job? Zero minutes a week? I'm guessing so.

Saying we have it better than everyone else....part of having it better than everyone else in the opportunities to build wealth. It's incredibly easy to hang your shingle out there as a startup, you don't need a lot of money. Just need to hustle.

it's harder to hustle when you are doing OK.

Agreed. I'd have to imagine if he's on a call, the guy is looking to make more.

I think we all can agree that's not an unreasonable thing to want.

My question was calling this guy's situation "a really tough spot to be in." and "difficult stuff".
 
I'd like to know what he means by long term wealth. I think there are people that find it boring to go the route of just maxing out your 401k every year and being able to retire comfortably at 60.
 
The world needs ditch diggers and #### posters (referring to Twitter bro, not OP).

LOL. The interesting thing though is I think the consultant guy is 100% serious. In my experience with him, he's been a useful source of information and it not a click bait guy.
 
I'd like to know what he means by long term wealth. I think there are people that find it boring to go the route of just maxing out your 401k every year and being able to retire comfortably at 60.

Sure. But boring financial success or retiring comfortably at 60 for lots of people can be different than "a really tough spot to be in."
 
Difficult situation in life? No

Difficult situation in becoming independently generational wealthy. Yes

The idea is he's in a difficult situation to become what the guy wants because he'd have to give up that cushy gig to go the the "next level"
.
 
I'd like to know what he means by long term wealth. I think there are people that find it boring to go the route of just maxing out your 401k every year and being able to retire comfortably at 60.

Sure. But boring financial success for lots of people can be different than "a really tough spot to be in."
I don't think he means his life is difficult. I think the difficult spot he's referring to is giving that comfortable life to pursue this other avenue that apparently leads to this long term wealth.
 
Difficult situation in life? No

Difficult situation in becoming independently wealthy. Yes

The idea is he's in a difficult situation to become what the guy wants because he'd have to give up that cushy gig to go the the "next level"
.

Yes. I think that's more what the guy was trying to get at but he communicated poorly.
 
But to his credit, most of his audience is in that same "go big or you're a loser" mindset. So it might not have occurred to him.
 
This is a very popular entrepreneur guy on Twitter. He's not a flake or "Look at my Lambo - buy my course so you can get one too" guy.

He's a well-respected influential entrepreneur with a large following.


I did a consulting call today with a 33 year old guy who makes $150k a year at a fully remote job.30-40 hrs a week. 2 kids + wife.

This is a really tough spot to be in.
Makes $2k a month more than he spends every month.

Zero chance at long term wealth but too easy and profitable to leave.

Golden handcuffs.It takes a serious level of ambition to get out of this situation and go buy or start a company.

It’s hard to get excited about scraping and fixing toilets or power washing sidewalks when you make $75 an hour at your day job.

And it’s impossible to feel comfortable buying a company if you don’t start out lower and work your way up (with that stuff that isn’t exciting when you get a taste of decent money).

Difficult stuff.

Thoughts on this?

Crap or get off the pot. You can dream big, not for it and complain about it.

My question is more if the guy truly is in a "difficult" situation?
Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude lives in a bubble and can't conceive that there would be people who would be content with never owning their own business or becoming ridiculously wealthy. He's using this language because he only interacts with people who think and talk this way and doesn't know how else to express it. But there are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy with the kind of situation that 33-year-old guy is in. And there are a heck of a lot of people who are in a much worse situation and would kill to be where 33-year-old guy is.

Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude comes off as incredibly tone deaf.
 
Everyone was surde quick to pint out this guy was gonna save x amount over the next 30 years.

Dude is in front of a computer (I assume) doing remote work.

How secure can he feel in that job?
 
Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude lives in a bubble and can't conceive that there would be people who would be content with never owning their own business or becoming ridiculously wealthy. He's using this language because he only interacts with people who think and talk this way and doesn't know how else to express it. But there are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy with the kind of situation that 33-year-old guy is in. And there are a heck of a lot of people who are in a much worse situation and would kill to be where 33-year-old guy is.
33-year-old guy isn't one of those people.
 
My question was calling this guy's situation "a really tough spot to be in." and "difficult stuff".
Right.

I answered that in my post. I think it's difficult for a guy doing OK to take a big leap. Too much to lose.

I think that's where we'll disagree. Making the leap might be more challenging when you have to leave the cushy job, but calling it "difficult" or a really tough spot just feels laughable. And maybe I'm letting the people I know who actually are in difficult situations or tough spots color my perception there.
 
Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude lives in a bubble and can't conceive that there would be people who would be content with never owning their own business or becoming ridiculously wealthy. He's using this language because he only interacts with people who think and talk this way and doesn't know how else to express it. But there are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy with the kind of situation that 33-year-old guy is in. And there are a heck of a lot of people who are in a much worse situation and would kill to be where 33-year-old guy is.
33-year-old guy isn't one of those people.
Then the "difficult" situation is of his own making.
 
Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude lives in a bubble and can't conceive that there would be people who would be content with never owning their own business or becoming ridiculously wealthy. He's using this language because he only interacts with people who think and talk this way and doesn't know how else to express it. But there are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy with the kind of situation that 33-year-old guy is in. And there are a heck of a lot of people who are in a much worse situation and would kill to be where 33-year-old guy is.

Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude comes off as incredibly tone deaf.

Agreed. To be fair too, that is his target market. So I see how it could happen.

For me, it was a good reminder to regularly check yourself.
 
But to his credit, most of his audience is in that same "go big or you're a loser" mindset. So it might not have occurred to him.

and you don't this this is a click bait guy? He's pandering to those people, for...clicks.

I don't know him that well. So maybe he is. But in general, I know him to be a pretty good source for information. Which is why I was surprised to see his post like this.

Doubling down on calling people who disagree with him Angry broke people was for sure a weak look though.
 
The guy is 33. Working from home (I assume that is what remote means) 30-40 hours per week. Making 150K per year and earning 2K/month more than he spends.
I'd trade places with him. I bet his stress levels are a lot lower than mine.
He has another 25-35 of his working years to accumulate wealth.
 
I think that's where we'll disagree. Making the leap might be more challenging when you have to leave the cushy job, but calling it "difficult" or a really tough spot just feels laughable. And maybe I'm letting the people I know who actually are in difficult situations or tough spots color my perception there.
The guy said a lot more in this tweet than 'difficult', but I do agree with you. This is not a 'difficult' situation.
 
Mr. Influencer Entrepreneur dude lives in a bubble and can't conceive that there would be people who would be content with never owning their own business or becoming ridiculously wealthy. He's using this language because he only interacts with people who think and talk this way and doesn't know how else to express it. But there are plenty of people who would be perfectly happy with the kind of situation that 33-year-old guy is in. And there are a heck of a lot of people who are in a much worse situation and would kill to be where 33-year-old guy is.
33-year-old guy isn't one of those people.
Then the "difficult" situation is of his own making.

Influencer guy is speaking to someone in his bubble, isn 't he?

Someone is asking him for his help. Paying him, actually. He's not approaching randos making 150 grand and saying they are losers.
 
I take it the 33 year old he was talking to wants to make that entrepreneurial leap but being he's the sole breadwinner is worried about the risk.
 
People are spoiled as heck right now. Maybe a soft landing isn't what we need afterall. Maybe time to give us a big fat recession and remind everyone what difficult times actually are. They sure as heck aren't driving around $80k pickup trucks and going to $2000 Taylor Swift concerts and taking multiple vacations every year.
 
Dude says he spent almost a million dollars last year growing his brand. For what that's worth.


People think my personal brand is just me sending a tweet here and there.

What you don’t see is my heavy investment. I spent $880k last year on my media alone.

People, software, email marketing to grow my newsletter, more marketing etc. 5 full time people.

220k email subscribers.2 podcasts.4 social platforms.20+ webinars.Video, audio, and written.

A lot going on.

Sometimes I look at our email list of almost 700,000 active subscribers and I'm not sure what to make of it.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.
I would presume there is some sort of unhappiness on the part of the subject. Is the subject turning to startup guy because he is miserable in his job/career or is striving for some extreme level of wealth? I have more sympathy for the former than the latter.
 
Difficult situation in life? No

Difficult situation in becoming independently wealthy. Yes

The idea is he's in a difficult situation to become what the guy wants because he'd have to give up that cushy gig to go the the "next level"
.

Yes. I think that's more what the guy was trying to get at but he communicated poorly.

My question was calling this guy's situation "a really tough spot to be in." and "difficult stuff".
Right.

I answered that in my post. I think it's difficult for a guy doing OK to take a big leap. Too much to lose.

I think that's where we'll disagree. Making the leap might be more challenging when you have to leave the cushy job, but calling it "difficult" or a really tough spot just feels laughable. And maybe I'm letting the people I know who actually are in difficult situations or tough spots color my perception there.

It's difficult to leave a great situation for a potential exceptional one. Baseball players used to face this...Junior with a full ride at Duke and get drafted in the 12th round. Do you leave your full ride that guarantees a degree that gets your way ahead in life or do you roll the dice on making it out of the minor league to play MLB.

Roger Goodell invites you to join him in his suite for opening night or you win a free entry to the MegaRoller High Stakes FF draft worth $25k scheduled for the same night. Difficult decision.

Personally when I've been working 9am to midnight every day this week until today when I slacked off at stopped at 8:00pm because I have to get up at 5am for a Saturday charity event I'm sponsoring, it gives me pause. My WFH kids in a situation like the one described above call me during the day to ask what's up and I'll take 5 to tell them about living the dream. When every day is about doing everything possible to garner that next contract, "punching the clock" looks attractive at times.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.

I've been spending some time in some internet places with a much broader spectrum of ages.

When I think of what a "difficult" situation is that doesn't even come close. Difficult is what younger folks are going through. With rapidly escalating housing and rent prices unrealistic compared to salaries. Difficult is hearing about people having to live at home with their parents into their twenties or thirties because they can't afford anything else. Or having to cram more roommates into a space than most of us here ever had to consider at their age.

Difficult is hearing how they struggle to keep up with student loan debt. Hearing from people who have become as good as friends as I've made on FBGs, having to pass on getting medical care because their rent is too high, and food costs went up blamed on supply chains and fuel prices and never went back down whenever those situations alleviated.

The folks I've listened to the last few years describe difficult situations would probably want to put their fist through the screen to read those kind of comments. And I really feel for them. I feel like the younger generations have been utterly screwed over by what's been allowed to go on for the last few decades.

Sorry, probably more of an answer than you wanted. Just coming off watching a couple that I'm friends with finally having enough financial security for basic things like medical care for things that no one should have had to put off. And the only way they could achieve that was for the husband to have a father die and leave them some money.

:kicksrock:
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.
I saw this tweet at the time it came out also. For this guy to achieve that kind of wealth, maybe he has to move to a major city, or travel quite a bit. Sometimes it’s just not worth it.
 
I'm not tracking. Guy surely has a comfortable middle class life and can pack away 24k a year. At 7% return until 65 that's 2.6M at retirement + SS. Dude is golden.

That was me. Guy makes 150k, can save 2k a month and has a low stress life and time with his kids.

The fact this guy calls that situation "difficult" because he won't be able to be truly "wealthy" was eye opening for me.

I've been spending some time in some internet places with a much broader spectrum of ages.

When I think of what a "difficult" situation is that doesn't even come close. Difficult is what younger folks are going through. With rapidly escalating housing and rent prices unrealistic compared to salaries. Difficult is hearing about people having to live at home with their parents into their twenties or thirties because they can't afford anything else. Or having to cram more roommates into a space than most of us here ever had to consider at their age.

Difficult is hearing how they struggle to keep up with student loan debt. Hearing from people who have become as good as friends as I've made on FBGs, having to pass on getting medical care because their rent is too high, and food costs went up blamed on supply chains and fuel prices and never went back down whenever those situations alleviated.

The folks I've listened to the last few years describe difficult situations would probably want to put their fist through the screen to read those kind of comments. And I really feel for them. I feel like the younger generations have been utterly screwed over by what's been allowed to go on for the last few decades.

Sorry, probably more of an answer than you wanted. Just coming off watching a couple that I'm friends with finally having enough financial security for basic things like medical care for things that no one should have had to put off. And the only way they could achieve that was for the husband to have a father die and leave them some money.

:kicksrock:
@GregR I'm sure what you say is true for many. However on the flip side we weren't drinking $7-$10 craft beers and didn't turn our nose up at housing because it didn't have granite counters and peleton bike in the non-existent fitness room. The market is providing what the consumer wants and the consumer doesn't want cheap.
 
Are we talking if the guys is in a financially difficult situation—or are we asking if he’s just in a difficult situation in regards to life in general? If we are talking about the latter—it all depends of it the dude is happy. I have clients that make tons of money that are constantly stressed out, hate their jobs (whether it is because the job is too demanding, or isn’t challenging or demanding enough, or they are just not passionate about what they are doing) , and I have friends and clients that are struggling financially, but that are eternally happy and grateful for the life they have. I guess I feel like some more information or context is needed. I was at my last job for 28 years. The last 5 years of my time there I made the most money and I was the most miserable. I’m now at a new job where I would only agree to work part time (the owner keeps begging me to work full time, but I keep politely turning her down), I make a fraction of what I was at my last job—-and I’m sooooooooo much happier. My work/life balance is soo much better. My level of happiness is soo much better. I’m more available as a family member, more available as a friend, more available to invest in myself. I’m sure the status and money obsessed advice givers on Twitter would all look at my situation and say it’s difficult. I’d tell them that they are wrong.
 

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