How to get rich

Last Friday, I walked away from my very cushy high-6, low 7-figure job on Friday.

Everyone asks me, “Why? Where are you going?”

“Chris, I don’t get it, you’re crushing it. You make so much money. You make it look easy.”

I tell them all the same, “It was time. I want to go build something.”

I have nothing lined up per se. No job offer. No elaborate business model.

I just have a set of rules I’ve been adjusting over the years that have resulted in a pretty good life for me and my family.

I’ve never documented it publicly.

Here goes nothing.

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice.

Early on in my career, I recognized that I didn’t want to trade my time for money. There were ways to get leverage in your career and earn while you sleep.

Enter sales. Salary + commission.

Work a deal. Close the deal. No longer spend time on the deal. Keep getting paid.

This was music to my ears.

Rule #1: Get paid before, during, and after the work is done. In different levels of income.

The way I look at it, there are multiple points of leverage which have magnitudes of payoffs.

Salary = trading time for money.

Commission = trading skills for money.

Equity/Ownership = trading assets for money.

For most of you reading this, you are some form of a salesperson.

You get a salary. Live off of this.

You make commission. Invest this.

Let’s go deeper into this part.

Salary = lowest part of leverage. If you are worth a shit in sales, you can live a pretty good life off this. $100-$200k a year (higher for rockstars) before you are even being paid for what you were hired to do. Sell.

“But Chris, that’s a high salary. That doesn’t exist.”

Lies. Since Friday at 3:30, I’ve received 14 job offers. I haven’t put any requests out. No resumes. I am known for high quality work.

A salary is simply an arrangement a company makes to put you on their team.

Ask yourself: Is your salary saving the company money versus having to compete with you? If you aren’t at that point in your career, start working towards that.

Now we move onto commission.

So you’re living off your salary. Life is good. Now you get paid commission. My suggestion is to negotiate getting paid off the deals you close for as long as humanly possible.

Typical SaaS arrangement is 1 year. If you can negotiate longer, that’s a good thing. Do it. In fact, trade salary for it.

Here’s why. Let’s say your average deal cycle is 3 months. 6 months. Doesn’t matter. What would you say the actual customer interaction time is? 10 hours? 20 hours? Pick a number.

Let’s say 20 hours of 1-to-1 selling time with an enterprise customer from prospect to closed deal. And you get paid 1 year on that account.

You just invested 20 hours of salary “trading time for money” hours of work, for 8,760 hours of payoff.

Now that scales. Go close 10 accounts. You “worked” 200 hours in which you already got paid for. And now you are being paid 87,600 hours in commissions.

Let’s double down on that scale now.

Recap. Living off salary.

Making commissions.

“What do I do with the commissions then?”

You invest it.

10+ years I’ve been investing in only two areas.

1. Vanguard Index Funds. Boring Boglehead stuff. VTSAX etc.

2. Crypto (Mostly BTC + ETH and some shit coins here or there)

Think about the sources of leverage you’re getting in your life.

You are getting leverage in trading time for money.

Then getting leverage in scaled commission being paid, when you aren’t directly selling those accounts.

Then taking that money and getting paid some type of percentage without even working.

This will build you generational wealth. This will put you in the top 1%. This will be a legacy you leave for your children’s children.

Just doing that.

Live off salary.

Get paid variable comp.

Invest variable comp into assets.

There is one more thing that makes this game silly. This is where I am at in my journey.

My question always is “how do I get more leverage?”

So what does that look like?

So here’s how it’s looked.

How do I get paid a salary that pays for my cost of living, that gives me variable comp, to invest in assets, that make me money when I sleep?

And here’s what I’m adding.

How do I get paid a salary, with variable comp, with a significant ownership in the company, so that when the company sells I get a lump sum of payment?

This post became a lot about me. My goals. My strategy.

What’s your strategy? Do you have one?

Are you living off solely your salary?

Are you investing your commissions?

Do you have equity? Some form of ownership?

Are you using tools to capitalize on leverage?

Are you getting coaching/mentoring to accelerate your career?

Leverage exists throughout your life.

It’s your job to find those points and accelerate them.

Until next week,

Chris