20years, financially independ - what shall I do with my life? Go Business or Social?

[daedalon]

Hi folks,

I'll try to make this post as short and easy-to-read as possible.
Text Extract: I don't know what to do with the years 20-25 of my life.

--

I turned 20 some weeks ago and by that time I reached one of my early life-goals, named financial independence.

There is nothing spectacular about it, I'm working on "internet-business-stuff" since I'm 16 (3 years besides school, 1 year exclusive) and building mostly passive income by:

• Webhosting (I run a small host with ~1k customers)
• Selling Text Links & affiliate/adsense
• Domainsnapping
• SEO for customers

Alltogether I make ca. 8k€ passive and ~2k€ active / month (after paying business bills, before taxes).
While I'm by no means wealthy, it's fine for living, especially as I don't have standards here - I share my flat with others & don't even have a car...

I worked really hard in the past and never asked myself why. The question I ask today, is what do I do with my free time? I see myself at a crossroad:

• I could reduce work to a minimum and go travelling, chilling & partying arround the world. I'd really like to enjoy my youth (or what's left) - I spent far too much time sitting in front of my computer without any significant social contact.
  The best memories I have today is chilling with friends at the sea at sunset, crazy water fights, getting drunk while watching fireflies, festivals, riding a fast boat, student partys ... I want more of these, I want to do things I'll remember (especially those best done at a young age).

• build my business up and make a "real" company out of it, with office and employees to reach out for higher goals than just earning money(allthough that would be a task also). A life-project of mine is to combine the three elements Search, Networking and Hosting in a single website and make a NPO out of it.
  I believe that the ability to search existing information, interact with other humans and publishing your thoghts are the three basic fundamentals the web is build on and which shouldn't be governed by cooperations like Google, Facebook or Hostgator, but by an independent nonprofit organization. For making this reality, I need coworkers and more of my own time.

I can hardly decide for one way - when I go for the "fun" I'll think about business all day and the ideas I don't pursue. When I go for "projects", I'll think about the fun all day and the stuff I'm missing out why selling my youth to the computer.

I really like my work (maybe not 100%, but 90+) and would love to put my time in it, especially when the project is at least a bit "meaningful" (and if only for me). But I also don't want to spend my life in front of the computer, especially not the time when I'm still young.

What do you think?

Some problems I expect:

• my current income is really low for a business that has to pay rent & at least some student-workers
• the passive income won't last a lifetime. Very likely it will be fine for the next years, but I doubt it will be forever.
• my life-project might take 5-10 years, so better start soon

I really don't want to screw this up. I just can't think of a way to combine those two.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated! Let me know your thoughts!

Regards from munch,
Steve

[SireneB]

What about pursuing the business but taking vacations as you go along?

[FeelGoodNow]

Your solution is to set an intention that you will pursue your business, while enjoying your life. Right now, this doesn't seem possible to you, but that does not mean it's not.

If you just see no way to do that, consider reading some books that will open your mind to it. Where there is a will, there is a way. It doesn't have to be either fun, or business. It truly can be both at the same time - you just have to open yourself to it.

[SatvikBeri]

Try one week on and one week off-socialize as much as you want until you want to work on your business again, and then work on your business until you want to do something else again.

You're not a constant-it's ridiculous to try to commit to "just socializing" or "just business" for any large amount of time.

It may be a challenge to set up your business in a way that you can go from working on your business intensely to working on your social life intensely week-to-week, but you can do it.

[MichaelAnthonyVet]

Maybe check out Tim Ferris's book "The Four Hour Work Week," it's all about a guy who achieved financial independence and then only works four hours a week.

[VinceG]

Honestly, the amount of money you're making, you might as well be minting it. That much passive income, is incredible. With just a tiny fraction of that, you can do anything you want.

If you really had a choice between those two alternatives, the way to go is easy. Travel and party. I'm saying this not because I don't believe in the value of work, but because I believe in the value of idleness. Idleness is like sandpaper to the BS that gets sold to us as young people. When I feel forced between two bad choices, I usually do nothing, and enough time doing nothing lets you dream up the third choice that's much much better.

But you don't have to choose between those two. You can do both. I took a trip to Cartagena recently, and I did a lot of work while I was there. Work during the daytime and party at night. Share your dreams with the people you're partying and let them be like, "Oh I know so-and-so who does something like that, you should meet him!" I think you'll learn that life really can be so much more amazing than we ever thought it would. You just gotta let the inspiration come, and put yourself in states of mind where it can come.

But if you just party, then you're going to miss out on clues the universe is trying to give you about your path. Same thing if you just try to build your business. A one track mind can only go one place.