Do you wish to retire early?
You can. Everyone can.
The concept of freedom is never truly realized until one settles into the idea of a fulfilled retirement.
Byron Pulsifer
I retired at 39 but realized I had the definition of retirement wrong.
Life is full of activity and work, but life also dictates that we need to relax, rest, and enjoy the dreams planted deep in our hearts. In the ten stages of life on this earth, each blink, each beat of our heart, the sunset, and the seasons remind us that life is a cycle and that we must rest in our set stillness.
We all dream of retiring to paradise and living happily ever after. Thus, we toil, we sweat, we labour so that we may one day enjoy the fruits of our labour of love. We call this retirement—finally being able to do that which we always wanted to do in life.
But what does it really mean to retire?
When Should You Retire?
Retirement is a blank sheet of paper. It is a chance to redesign your life into something new and different.
Patrick Foley
I lay in the dark, eyes closed, praying, asking God for wisdom. I had never taken a business course or a computer class, yet I wanted to start an Internet business. In University, I had forsaken the liberal arts, music, literature, and philosophy to ensure I got high marks in the sciences, math, and all the pre-medicine courses in University. The arts were too subjective, while the sciences were exact.
"God, give me the wisdom to do business, to connect with those needed, for I do not know anything about business. Then, any success can only be attributed to the gifts, connections and wisdom you have given me. Raise me for I am nothing."
With this prayer, I started a side business during my last year of medical residency in 1999. By the end of my residency, I made more in one month ($80k) than I had made all year as a resident ($50k). This was built during the evenings, the days I wasn't on call every third day and on the weekends. It took a toll on my wife (thank you honey).
By 2008, I had made hundreds of millions of dollars.
When people asked me, "What was the secret to your success?" I forgot how God had blessed me incredibly and replied, "The wisdom in books and my team." I started to believe it was me, my knowledge, my ability. I had seen the steps and vision so clearly. But then suddenly, this vision blurred, foggy, and quickly darkened. I could no longer see the path. I felt blind. I thought of Samson, whose power was lost when his hair was cut. I no longer had the power of vision and prophecy in business.
In 2009, I decided it was perhaps time to retire and pursue my dreams. My first definition of retirement was the freedom to do anything one wants without financial restrictions.
At first it was great. I didn't need to wake up to go to the office, or have any meetings. I felt free. As the months passed, I played the piano, I went to the Christian bookstore, I watched movies. Then I started to get bored. I was only 39, with my fifth child, a newborn, Gabriel. His middle name was Wire because I one day dreamed of creating a social commerce business on wire.com.
I had officially 'retired' but I felt a lack of purpose, drive and joy. I loved creating businesses and tweaking and making them work. I was like a tinkerer and inventor who was no longer tinkering and inventing.
Is this how I was going to spend the rest of my life?
The challenge of retirement is how to spend time without spending money.
My New Definition of Retirement
Retirement is when time no longer equals money. Time becomes much more valuable than money.
I was wondering what was going on in the world of business. I saw Groupon, a business that aggregated great deals online based on volume discounts for restaurants and other lifestyle activities if enough people purchased them. This is social commerce. I believed this would be an integral part of society.
I wanted to experiment and build a social commerce business like Groupon but with a charitable component, giving 10% of the proceeds to a local charity. Thus, Goodnews.com was born. After a couple of years, we built a team of developers, sales, and customer service to 60 people and expanded across Canada. But each new city had to be grown from 0. It didn't scale well and was heavy in sales and marketing, requiring lots of cash. I was used to technology businesses and soon realized I did not enjoy heavy sales organizations. I decided to exit this and start a different business.
Over the years, I have tinkered with and created many businesses. Many did not do well, but some did extremely well. Once they did well, I would divest and move on to the next one. People wondered why I still worked when I had so much wealth.
I pondered this question. For how long would I do business and create businesses? Should I invest like Warren Buffet instead? I spent a year waking up at 6:30 am PST to learn how stocks worked and see if I enjoyed it. I traded leveraged commodities like oil, natural gas and gold. I learned a lot as I studied and applied what I learned. After a year, I knew I did not like day trading stocks. It was stressful and had very high and low emotional volatility. But I learned a lot.
I am wealthy enough that I don't have to work day in and day out. I can continue to invest and make strategic long-term bets. But is this what gives me purpose, mastery, and joy?
Now, when people ask me when I will retire, I say I already have. My kids ask me this a lot. But Dad, you are still working just as hard as ever! No, I am retired. It's just that my definition of retirement is different from yours.
What is your definition of retirement?
I define retirement as doing what you love to do when you want to, not out of duty or obligation, but from your heart. When time becomes much more valuable than money and you use your time to do that which you love.
I removed the financial condition from my definition. Just as we are active and then rest, why do we always have this notion of "all or none"? It can be done in fractals of time. It fulfills your "To Be" and "To Dream" lists. Feel joy, purpose, and mastery; fill your days and nights full with the dreams of your heart and the people you love, and give this overflowing joy, purpose, and mastery to others as best as you can, not only for your immediate loved ones but also for those who may not even yet be born.
And if you are paid for what you love to do, that's a super bonus, as it creates more optionality for you to thrive and be more generous.
Are you doing what you love to do, when you want to, filling your heart with joy, purpose and mastery? Why not start now? Retire now… Live your dreams in your heart and find a way to make the economics work.
Ikigai - Your Reason for Being
We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Ikigai, the intersection of
What you love to do
What you are good at
What gives value to others
What others are willing to pay your for
The first two are inputs, and the last two are outputs. Focus on the first two, and practice and integrate your love and talents to give the outputs over time.
I love the Bible, health, entrepreneurs, and biking. These are my loves.
My talents are associated with these, including tech, distilling and applying the principles of life and I dream of building a wellness retreat, make a Broadway musical, writing books on wealth and health and self growth, and making some movies.
I've ridden 40% of the Tour de France course and have a community of biking friends, including pro riders and Tour de France champions. I do my zen 100 km ride up hills and mountains once a week. I collect old Bibles (1611 King James Version), dream of opening healthy restaurants to disrupt the fast foods of burgers, donuts, and pizza, and write books and poetry. I want to build an AI business.
This is my retirement. I also want to live in Hawaii during the rainy, cold months of November to February in a few years and go on a sabbatical where I spend a year just doing what is at the top of my heart. I have earmarked 2026 and 2031 for these sabbaticals. I am fully blessed and grateful for each day of my life, and I ask my teams to express gratitude before every meeting. I wonder why I haven't instituted this daily in my family gatherings.
May you retire today.
Youth is wasted on the young.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
My Life Questions:
In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
1. When will you retire?
Start living the rest of your life with joy, purpose and mastery.
If you have retired, I would love to know your life philosophy. I enjoy it when you send me your thoughts. I read each one, and they are my fruits for these newsletters. I welcome you to send me a thought or two as I send you my heart each week.
My Life Lessons Then (from my younger self):
The only journey is the one within.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
1. I thought retirement was the last stage of life.
Retirement is not at the end but in the pauses of your life since the day you are born. It is the rest after the activity.
One day, when our bodies return to the ground and our souls go before God, we will fully rest in God's heart eternally.
2. I thought retirement was unlocked with financial freedom.
We spend most of our life hoping to attain financial freedom.
One of my businesses is losing a lot of money each month. We must reconstruct the business model as the industry has too much capacity. It's hard to make ends meet, as well as cash flows, debts, and unexpected expenses. We wonder when we will ever retire. And if you are healthy and live a long life, how will you survive 20 or 30 years after retirement? Retirement savings. Yes, we must plan for finances until the end of our life, but while we are living.
Since I was young, my philosophy has been to make one more zero than I spend and not limit my spending. So, my mind has always been on offense and how to create a sustainable financial source and multiple just in case. God has blessed me with this wisdom. I strike out a lot, but I hit more home runs and base hits than I strike out.
3. I thought life was just for me.
Once I developed my self to be reliable, consistent, discipined and confident, know who I am and who I wish to be, I started to think of others and future generations, as my legacy. It is in this stage I am in. Some people call it philanthropy. I call it ethos, my being. Human being.
Life Advice Now (from my present 53 year old self):
Gratitude turns what we have into enough.
Aesop (620-564 BC)
1. Live with great dreams.
Writing these life lessons is so powerful as it reminds me of the heart I had when I was younger, those lost and buried dreams. They are resurrecting and coming out of the coffin to rejuvenate my heart. Thank you, everyone, for this blessed opportunity.
2. Live each day with gratefulness.
Gratitude is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself and others.
Say your gratitude each morning and evening. If you peer deep into your heart and mine your gratitude, I guarantee you will be a changed person by the end of the year.
3. I support those who dare to dream. I cannot convice you to dream. But if you dream, I support and can help nurture that dream in the incubator of your heart.
Dream always. Never forget to dream.
4. Create your Top 5: “To Be” list and “To Dream” List.
Make it a checklist.
Prioritize it.
Schedule 10 minutes in your calendar each day, either planning or doing it.
Next week:
7 Principles of Life
Do you live or die daily?
Live each day as if your life had just begun.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
See you next Thursday!
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