Three life lessons got me out of the hole that I wish someone had shared with me earlier.
A few years ago, I lost all I cared about.
My Startup, girlfriend, friends, and all my savings.
All the same month.
When I realized I was living in a two-square-meter room in a shared flat, which was once used as a storage room.
After that, I started to climb the ladder of life again, one step at a time.
That was my BIG wake-up call.
And here are the top three life lessons that got me out of the hole and that I wish someone had shared with me earlier.
1. Time is more important than the environment.
The first thing I learned when I was broke is that the deeper the hole, the higher you can build a skyscraper.
And I was in such a deep hole; I didn’t even have the support of my family. So I was a few months away from becoming Homeless.
That gave me perspective.
I realized I had two options: A) I spent the day lamenting about living in a rathole and only eating rice and pasta. And curse fate and all the people who led me to live in that situation, or B) calculate how long I had to run out of the unemployment benefit I had just applied for and make the most of every second of every day.
Fortunately, I chose B.
I started sending out CVs as if it were a 9 to 5 job.
I researched company websites and sent emails to human resources departments.
After I finished sending out CVs, I exercised every day so that the dopamine, serotonin, and endorphin generated by running 20 km a day would compensate for the horse depression I had.
Long story short: I found a job in a multinational insurance company where they didn’t pay you your monthly salary and commissions if you didn’t reach your objectives.
I didn’t complain, and for a year, I became one of the best salesmen in the company, specializing in accident insurance for the self-employed and entrepreneurs.
Then, I worked in a multinational law firm, thanks to my experience as an insurance salesman, and thanks to that last job, I saved enough for two years to try to become a full-time writer.
Lesson: opportunities may be unsexy, but they are no less powerful. When you’re determined to get ahead and get out of ruin, whether living in a junk room or a palace, what matters is figuring out how much time you have before you go broke and taking advantage of it. That takes victimhood out of your head because you understand that victimization is a luxury you can’t afford.
2. Failure is a superpower.
When I started selling insurance to entrepreneurs, I was embarrassed by the rejection. So I had to go door to door, offering the company’s insurance without even having made appointments with the companies.
Therefore, rejection was constant: I was rejected by secretaries, company owners, and even security agents who kindly took me out of the buildings.
But in the end, I realized that the more you are rejected, the more money you earn.
In other words, if you sell one insurance policy every ten clients visited, all you have to do to sell 100 policies is to see 1,000 potential clients per month, 900 of whom will say no. But each of those NO gets you closer to the 100 YES you will receive and can make you a nice sum.
I applied the same thing when I stopped selling insurance and got my cubicle in one of the biggest law firms in my country: I worked in volume. In that firm, I sold over the phone, and I applied the same system: I didn’t let myself be overwhelmed by people who told me to go fuck myself or hung up on me.
I knew that every failure, every rejection, every no, brought me a little closer to selling, and every sale or achieving my ultimate goal, which was to be a writer.
Lesson: People who have everything don’t want to lose it. And their fear of losing it is your advantage in the insurance world. If you make them understand that it’s better to pay a little to keep what they have if they have an accident or illness tomorrow, you’re sure to make a career in the industry. But the important thing is to believe in what you do and trust the process. Love rejection because people hate it, and that is your advantage; if you risk being rejected much more than others, you will get much further than most, I guarantee it.
3. Don’t get complacent, or you will relapse
When you hit rock bottom and start to rise again, you may confess and want to return to the way you were. And that’s a mistake.
I wish someone had told me when I was recovering that relapses are worse than hitting rock bottom. Because it’s one thing to hit rock bottom and another to be half recovered and fall into the hole again. You get tired of going through the same hell over and over again. I speak from knowledge.
In the insurance company and law firm, I liked to spend my free time hanging out with colleagues and flirting around, and obviously, I kept getting into trouble and losing the money I earned.
My worst sin in this recovery process was my arrogance: believing that lousy luck got me to rock bottom rather than my mindset.
After relapsing many times, I started to get serious about my rehabilitation in life: I stopped smoking, stopped drinking, stopped hanging out with bad company, did spiritual exercises, reconciled with my family, and completely reworked my belief system.
And that’s what changed everything.
Lesson: when you hit rock bottom, the vital thing to understand is that you can’t stay the same person: you have to change, or you’ll end up relapsing; that’s why they call it RISING from the ashes. You have to become a different person, a better person.
But if you are in this situation and reading this article, it is because you will make it; good luck.
A virtual hug
AG
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