For a number of years now, I’ve been saying that I’d “kind of like” to be able to do my home business full-time (as in it provides a significant portion of our income) after I retire from the military. But if you asked me to name a specific reason, the best I could usually come up with is that I’d like to avoid the stress of looking for another job.
Woops … I’ve had a negative “why”.
As you can probably guess, although having a continuously profitable home business for over 10 years now could certainly be considered successful in relative terms; if I had to retire from the Air Force tomorrow, I wouldn’t yet have enough of a regular income to avoid a job search.
Clearly I need a stronger motivation to build my home business income. I retire from the military at the end of 2013, so I’ve only got two years to figure this out.
Last Friday, the girl’s school had a military dad’s lunch, in honor of Veteran’s day. I got to go eat lunch with both Jasmine and Jaiden … which was a lot of fun. We laughed, and smiled, and just generally had a pretty happy lunch hour. As I was walking home, and reflecting on what a good time I’d had, something hit me …
When I retire from the military, Jaiden will only be in Kindergarten, and Joey will just be starting pre-school. They’re going to have a lot of years of school ahead of them … which will mean a lot of lunches, and field trips.
I think I just found my WHY.
Starting in January of 2014, I WILL be at EVERY one of these parents lunches. And I WILL volunteer to accompany my girls on EVERY field trip. And I will be there for EVERY soccer game, or gymnastics meet, or just to play in the yard. In short, my goal is to be a Stay at Home Dad … with an income that allows me to enjoy it!
This is a much more clear cut goal … I can close my eyes, and easily picture it.
But …
Just so I don’t fall into the trap of trying to justify the minimum amount I can do to somehow just “get by” while still nominally achieving this goal, I want to add in something with a financial cost.
Turns out this is relatively easy to come up with too. You see, we just bought a new house, and it turns out that the back yard is pretty big. Big enough, in fact, that there’s more than enough room for a pool.
So, the second part of my goal is …
By the summer of 2014, we will have an in-ground pool in our back yard. Due to the hard ground here in central Texas, I’ve been told that this could easily represent a $40-$50K investment. No matter, I can see myself floating in that pool, not caring in the least that it’s 105 degrees. 
Ok, that all sounds well and good. But what am I going to do to make these goals come to fruition?
I could smile and think positive thoughts.
Actually, I intend to do a whole lot of that.
But, I also need some sort of measurable action, that I can track over time.
So here’s what I’m going to do …
Between now and December of 2013, I will get 1000 No’s
Huh? What the heck does 1000 No’s mean?
Simple. I will invite people to look at my home business plan. I’ll ask them to partner with me. And I will do this enough times that at least 1000 people tell me “No, thank you”
Here’s the cool part though …
Along the way to getting those 1000 no’s, a certain percentage of people are going to say Yes!
And the even cooler part, I have no excuse to be scared of inviting people to look, and asking them to partner with me … since my purpose is simply to get an answer … doesn’t even matter what they say.
If it’s a Yes, I have a new partner.
And if it’s a No, I can count it towards my 1000.
It’s pure win/win.
.. and it’s a bright, shining path towards my getting to enjoy a whole lot of lunches with my girls. 
Keep havin FuN!
