If you need a little #MondayMotivation, read this little story:

How nearly dying in high school changed how I think about money — a thread.

Like lots of dudes, I mowed lawns in high school.

I lived in Georgia, near an affluent neighborhood.

Come summer, it wasn't hard to convince the older, overweight dudes to give me $50 to mow their lawn while they drank Bud Light and watched golf inside.

My dad let me use his lawnmower.

My dad bought me gas the first week.

My dad drove me to some customer's houses.

My dad said he did all this because he wanted me to learn the value of hard work.

I did, but not in the way he thought I would (more in a minute).

$25-50/hr ain't bad when you're a high school kid.

One week, I cleared $1,000, working part time.

I thought I was hot shit.

But summers are hot in Georgia.

Around August, I stopped thinking I was hot shit.

I was just fucking hot.

Hot and tired.

But if I wanted to keep making money, I had to keep going out in the heat.

If you want to get paid to mow lawns, you have to mow the fucking lawns.

I had to keep trading my time in the heat for money.

I learned something that my dad never realized.

Something that many people never realize.

If your income is built on showing up to work, you can't win.

Period.

"Wait, Bryant, aren't you the guy who says passive income is a myth?"

Yes, I am.

And it is. https://twitter.com/iwillgetyoupaid/status/1358770554455658499

But I'm not talking about "passive income."

I'm talking about scale and automation.

If your income depends on you showing up to work, you can't win.

But you can lose.

You can lose a lot.

A few weeks after I hit my first $1,000 week mowing lawns, I got sick.

Really sick.

It started as a cold and turned into a devastating lung infection.

The hospital saved me, obviously.

But for two weeks, I couldn't even get out of bed.

For months, I was too weak to mow.

Now, I'm not saying I would have made $1,000 every week.

But I never had the chance to find out.

Because my income depended on me showing up for work.

Fortunately, I was young.

That sickness didn't ruin me.

But it could have.

That scared me.

I never wanted to be in a position where I could miss rent because I got sick.

I never wanted to be in a position where I couldn't take the time off to get better because that would mean going broke.

I didn't want a cold to ruin my future.

Now, I was a young idiot at the time, and my solution showed that.

I thought the problem was just with physical labor, so I started teaching myself how to code.

I thought, at least I'll still be able to work in my bed when I'm sick.

It wasn't until much later (a story for another time) that I realized my solution didn't work.

But learning to code introduced me to the concept of scalability, to information, and to the internet.

It's the best mistake I've made yet.

Eventually, I realized that coding was just a different kind of mowing.

You still had to show up and trade your time.

It was better (A/C is nice), but it gave me little security.

I realized I needed a better model.

So, I went to the internet and found the side hustle community.

They made some suggestions.

"Freelance."

Same model as a 9–5, but with less security.

"Flipping"

Same model as a 9–5, but with less security.

"Uber."

These work as side hustles.

Not good business models.

Some people got mad after reading that.

Don't be like those people.

I'm not shitting on side-hustles.

I've side-hustled to pay bills and crush debt.

I've freelanced, flipped, and driven for Uber.

These are good side-hustles.

But they're not good, long-term business models.

One day, I saw a picture of Rome, Italy.

And everything just clicked.

I realized what made a good business model.

Aqueducts.

Before aqueducts, there were wells.

There were buckets and rivers.

There were individual people carrying water.

People were trading time for water.

That might work for a family.

It's not sustainable for an empire.

So the Romans built aqueducts to carry the water.

Building an aqueduct is more work than carrying water.

At least, it is at first.

But the aqueduct is always carrying water.

Let's say 100 guys build it.

After a while, it carries more water than those 100 guys could carry in their whole life.

And then it keeps going.

Sure, there are some maintenance costs.

You never totally stop trading time for water.

But you trade a lot less time.

If you're sick, the water still comes in.

If you take a vacation, the water still comes in.

Because you built an aqueduct, instead of carrying water.

I'm not selling a dream, here.

This is a mindset shift.

It's an important one.

Choose to build an asset — to build an aqueduct.

Protect yourself from the insecurity of the future.

Build something to outlast you.

Build something that doesn't need you.

You've heard the saying:

"Societies grow great when old men plant a tree knowing they will never sit in its shade."

You add security to society when you are yourself secure.

You give your family security.

You give your family a future.

I nearly died in high school, and changed how I thought about money forever.

You cannot rely on your job.

You must invest in an asset.

So I did.

I have built several digital assets that make money for me.

Sure, I spend time maintaining those assets, but not much.

When I get sick, I go sleep it off.

I could take a month away from work and be okay.

Because almost dying taught me to build.

Please learn from my experience.

Learn how to build.

I'm actually writing an e-book on one kind of digital asset I've built.

I'm going to give it away, *free*, to anyone who joins my mailing list before I finish.

I'm not going to give it away for free ever again.

This is huge value.

Check it out here: https://www.gumroad.com/iwillgetyoupaid/follow

Please like and RT the first tweet.

Use your timeline to share value with others.

(That's one of the easiest ways to build your Twitter account, which can be a very valuable asset.)

https://twitter.com/iwillgetyoupaid/status/1358847140332789764