POSITIVE ADDICTION #2: RELENTLESS HOME AND FAMILY
Everyone has a different purpose and passion. To each their own. But if you picked up this book, and have read this far, it’s clear you (like me) are passionate about achieving wealth, financial success, and financial freedom.
I recognized early that my passion was to be financially successful in a broad range of businesses and careers, while staying close to my home and family. That’s why my careers have included being a professional sports handicapper; media personality; author and speaker; TV creator, producer, and host; CEO and entrepreneur; and spokesman/pitchman for companies across the globe.
Each of those careers has allowed me to work from home. Very few hours of my life have been spent in a traditional office. And working at home has given me an extra two to four hours per day in time saved . . . that has allowed me to “expand my day” and therefore pursue multiple careers. Synergy.
While everyone must find their own passion, let me tell you about mine and how that has fueled my success . . . and can fuel yours as well.
I work fourteen to sixteen hours per day, six to seven days per week (even I’m human—I put in only half a day on both Saturday and Sunday). How do I do it? How do I spur creativity? How do I find the extra hours?
Well, it all starts with my addiction to “Home Sweet Home.” I have been able to structure all my businesses so I can work from home. One of the major benefits is that it allows me to stretch my day:
• With a home office I walk twenty feet from my bed to my office. That shaves one to two hours per day off the usual commute of most Americans. I use those extra hours to take a morning walk and then exercise in my home gym for sixty to ninety minutes.
• I also save time all throughout the day by taking a shower . . . then walking twenty feet to my desk . . . eating lunch, then walking twenty feet to my desk . . . working out at my home gym . . . then walking twenty feet to my desk. All day long I’m gaining back time.
• Exercising in my home gym also saves me time. I’m able to work while exercising—I often surf the internet and answer e-mails while on the bike or treadmill. I also answer my phones and texts while working out.
Why not? It’s my gym. My friends call it “The Root Ritz.” It’s bigger than most hotel gyms. There’s no one there to tell me to be quiet. And since I’m in my own home, I can stop working out whenever I want to take a call . . . then get back to the workout. I make all the decisions. Having a gym at home means there are no excuses to ever miss a workout.
Home is my favorite place in world. It is a beautiful place to work and makes me happy. Why would I want to spend my day at an office away from the things and people I love? Home ensures my happiness, reduces stress, and spurs creativity!
The artwork that I love is at home. The furniture I love is at home. The family and dog I love are at home. The food I love is at home. So why would I want to leave my favorite space on earth to go to a drab office every day?
As so many people discover, it is virtually impossible to work fourteen-to-sixteen-hour days away from home and retain a fulfilling relationship with your family. Now, when I say I work sixteen-hour days, that doesn’t mean sixteen hours straight. No one can do that all day, every day, seven days per week.
But I do work long hours. I am never “off.” I work over a sixteen-hour period every day. My typical workday starts at 6:15 a.m. (just minutes after I hop out of bed) and ends at 10 to 11:00 p.m. So my “work footprint” is sixteen hours on a typical day. Yes, I’m always “on call” during that long day—I take calls and e-mails from morning to night. But I do have some fun and take breaks throughout the day. That’s what makes it all doable and pleasurable—I call those breaks my “Positive Distractions.” Those frequent short breaks give me the energy, creativity, and constant motion that I need to be at my best. When I say “motion” that means I move around—a lot! You’ll read more about my “RELENTLESS MOTION” below.
POSITIVE DISTRACTIONS
Without the need to be at an office at any specific time or commute back and forth, I can schedule family time all day long. Family. Kids. Dog. Exercise. Walks. Swimming, Jacuzzi. Meditation. Yoga. Football with my sons. Watch parts of a football game. Eat breakfast and lunch with my family. These are all “Positive Distractions” that create a daily change of pace and nurture a state of mind that makes me even more creative and productive.
I credit my success to all of these positive distractions. I’m ADD (as many successful people are—my mind never stops working). I need a constant change of pace to keep me focused. I can’t do one thing for hours at a time. My body and my mind both need to be in constant motion. My workday is filled with “controlled chaos.” This is what makes my sixteen-hour workdays doable and enjoyable.
On a personal note, and knowing that everyone will not have the option of working from home (unless that is your passion and you pursue a plan to do so), let me leave you with a few highlights that I have been blessed to receive because I worked from home. Hopefully they will encourage those of you so inclined to do the same:
Being at home 24/7, I have not missed many important moments in my children’s lives.
We are able to homeschool our children—giving me a direct influence on what they learn and how they are taught. Because of this my oldest daughter read the Wall Street Journal along with Dr. Seuss . . . and played entrepreneur, as well as dolls. You already know the result: Dakota recently graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Even if you are unable to work at home, I want to strongly advise you to be active and involved in your children’s lives. Research shows the positive benefits are overwhelming:
• A University of Minnesota study showed that parents’ presence at key times, especially dinner, reduced drug use, sex, violence, and emotional distress.1
• A University of North Carolina study of 12,000 teens showed the most significant factor protecting teens from risky behavior was “parental connectedness,” feeling loved and protected.2
• A fifteen-year study at the University of Nebraska looking at Generation Xers showed the best predictor of kids’ wellbeing was the quality of their parents’ marriage. The number two predictor was how often children were showered with affection and how close children felt to their parents.3
• A study by Cornell economists of 27,000 students found that 50 percent of American college students, but only 10 percent of Ivy League students, came from divorced families. The study also showed that divorce and parental bickering resulted in lower grades, lower SAT scores, and a lower attention span.4
(Then there’s one benefit to society too. Because I work at home I rarely use my car. My car is used for only three reasons—to drive to business meetings; to drive to lunch or dinner business meetings; and to drive to the airport for business flights. What that means is I use very little gas or oil . . . I don’t pollute the environment . . . and I don’t put wear and tear on the roads. My choice of the work-at-home lifestyle is good for our planet. Perhaps we could name it the “Green Workstyle”—because it produces a greener planet and produces plenty of green in my pockets too!)
Working from home allows me to bestow all these benefits on my family. It is the secret weapon of my business success. It is the secret to my children’s remarkable academic performance, as well as my personal happiness. This “Positive Addiction” to my home and my family is one of the primary factors contributing to my energy, enthusiasm, and positive mindset. Working from home has allowed me to turn my vocation into a lifelong vacation.