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Today's conversation is sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor and you want to know about how we're helping other accredited investors keep more of their income, go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long. You're listening to the going long podcast with Billy keels, the number one podcast for long distance real asset investing.

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Welcome to the gold long podcast, we're back once again to continue to help to educate you so you feel much more comfortable as well as confident investing beyond your backyard. And guess who I am. Yeah, I'm Billy keels, I'm your host. And today we've got another amazing, I think it's gonna be amazing solo episode. And so you know, I always like to say thanks to everybody who continues to share that on the podcast, tag us on social media really, really appreciate that. If you want to and haven't had a chance to leave your honest route and review as well as rating, feel free to do that. And then also, too, if you want to catch us or see any of the previous episodes, and there's like over 277 of them at this point, go to first ncp.com Ford slash podcast, you can find that the transcript, you can find the audio version, the video version, all that stuff, just go to first ncp.com Ford slash podcast. But today I want to chat about something that, you know, it's something that's really close to my heart. And I guess at the same time, since where we are now I want to just kind of reiterate like where we are with the podcast, what we want to continue to do to bring value to you, because we're listening to your feedback and the things that you want to hear more of we're doing that and also bringing the value that you're looking for. So you know, and I know a lot of the origins of the podcast really is have started in investing long distance and being living in one continent and investing in another and maybe you're living in one state and investing in another and coming up with new ideas and looking at different asset classes and all that stuff. We're going to continue to look at those areas, because those are important to you. And so we want to continue to do that. Do you also ask like, Billy, what are you thinking about? What are you doing? And so one of the ways that we have continued to adapt the podcast is to make sure that we bring you more of these solo episodes, so I can share you about share things that are on my mind that I believe are going to help you to move to the next level to take the next step, not to overthink things just to go from where you are today to where you want to go tomorrow having a true Northstar. And one of the things that as I've thought about this, I have a buddy of mine, Chad, who's given me a kind of a framework to think about things. And really, it's to look at, even what we're doing here with going along it is about how are we not only making sure that we are moving our life in the right direction, and making the creating the path and the priorities that you want. But also being able to look at things like working in investing, and then ultimately being able to look at your health. And so these are things that are definitely at the top of mind. These are things that you're thinking about the things that I'm thinking about, and the things that I want the two of us to explore together, right bringing on other experts that are going to help us to be able to explore these topics, and ultimately, continue to to help to move us forward. So

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to look for these things as we continue to move forward. But one of the things that I do want to share with you today, and this is based on my experience, 26 years of experience in the corporate world. And it comes from one of the conversations I've had recently on a podcast called uncage yourself with my buddy Matt Doan. And Matt asked me a question during the during the conversation, and it really got me thinking that, you know, I think this is important to share with you. Because I know that the majority of you today are still working in very large multinational companies, you're probably in the middle management or sales executive, something in that area. But you know, I've worked in very, very large organisations, I think the smallest one I've ever worked in head 7000 or 10,007, or 8000 people up to 120,000 people. So I've spent the majority of my corporate career in that 100,000 plus kind of organisation. So I'm really talking to you, because of the experience that I've had in these types of organisations. And there's just concept of having a default path. And it's one of the things that really almost kept me back from living my best life, from being able to go along in my life perspective, was following this default path. And so if you are feel that you are on a default path, like you're just going through the motions in your corporate career in you, your feel like you've got to take the next promotion because that's what everybody tells you to do. I've been there. So I kind of want to talk to you about what are some of the things that I experienced when I fell into the trap of following the default path. The things that were happening to me that now after being out of corporate life for little bit over a year that I'm recognising I'm becoming much clearer on because I want to share that with you. And as most of you know, if you've never been here before this your first time, welcome. But if not, I had a very, very positive corporate career. Like I'm a big fan of having corporate roles, gaining that experience building that network, getting that training, and also being able to see the world like I've had a chance to work and travelled throughout 86 countries, largely in part thanks to big large multinational companies that I was working for.

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At the same time there is a trap. And the trap, it's not your fault to fall into. Because it's done by design, right? So if you find yourself being on this default path in your career, you're moving up, you continue to move up. But you're not necessarily sure why you're following somebody else's goals, not your own life goals. Like I said, it's not your fault. It's by design. Let me tell you, I'll give you an example. Right. So one of the things that I continued to do when I was in my corporate roles is pretty much in this as being an A student, recovering perfectionist, right? When I did the work, I wanted to reward and so I was doing the long hours, I was accomplishing a gold. And so the next step, the next logical step based on the corporation was, you get the promotion. So it was me and other colleagues going for one role, right. So obviously, it sets up kind of this, who's the better individual, I used to think it was, who's the better individual, but the reality is, who's the best for the role at the moment in time with the right alliances, and all this other kind of stuff. So what I found, and what you were probably finding is, the more that you continue to follow that default path, which is the normal promotion path, you are getting the accolades, you're getting the salary promotions, you're getting the bigger teams. And at the same time, you're having less time for the things that you really want to do. Spending that extra time with family taking those extra trips. Because always in the back of your mind, the more responsibility, the bigger the title, the more you should be dedicated to what it is that you're doing in your corporate role. Like I said, it's not your fault. It's done by design, because at the end of the day, very large corporations are like machines, they need individuals to be able to be there to drive the initiatives for the company, the big machine, not your fault. It's by design. At the same time, I found myself at the at the end of many years, kind of exhausted, kind of like, I don't have time for myself, or with the time that I did have for myself, I was at the same time, I was always kind of worried about what I should have been doing for the company. And so I wasn't as present. Like I said, this is a year removed from corporate I wasn't as present as I would have liked to be. Right. So at the same time, I will tell you that there were was a time where I decided, hey, look, I'm not going to follow the default path. And because of that, there's some really awesome things that happened when I allowed myself to not follow the default path. One was

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after my first five years of working in the US, remember my guy from the Midwest of the US, I decided, hey, look, I'm not going to follow. I was working for five years, I didn't want to go take the next step role. So I took a one year sabbatical. That was back in 2001. You know what that change and putting myself first in my life priorities first, has changed the trajectory of my life. Not only was it a one year sabbatical, it's now been 22 years, it's been three different countries. It has been a marriage, having having two children, and also being able to learn new languages. Surely wonderful. Growth experience hasn't always been easy, right. But I didn't follow the default path. And it's changed the whole trajectory of my life. At the same time, when I got to Europe, I also back in the corporation, I started getting into big corporations and big IT companies, enterprise, wide companies, hardware, software, all that kind of stuff. And so once I was in the career, I also found myself in the default path again, right, I got back into it, what do we did as a students. At the same time, once I started moving, I had a personal life event that happened, right, and one of the things miss my son's birthday, third birthday, I've been very open about that very transparent about that hurt me. And so I realised that I couldn't continue to put a company's priorities, I had to also now start to find my own priority. So one of the things that was amazing is if you learn how to put boundaries around what's really important, your time being able to black, that'd be much more proficient, much more efficient, and as well as effective. And as a result of doing that, I became a better employee, I became much more productive as an employee when I set my own boundaries and didn't let people call me all hours of the day, all hours of the night. And things started happening, like Well, being a part of the top talent programme. And being able to go to winner's trips every other couple of years because I was much more focused on the things that I wanted to do in my private life and my personal life, too, by being able to focus on that. I also focused on making sure that I was a productive employee. And as a result, the things that are happening as I mentioned to you before,

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I also had to make some difficult decisions when things didn't align, guess what I didn't, I was no longer part of promotion process. I didn't want to enter into the promotion process because it wasn't aligned with where I wanted to go. I actually wanted to have more time. And you as you start to look at it, what's the most important thing for you? Do you want more of your own time? Are you still in a position in your life where you need to continue to move up you want to gain a bigger network or you

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Wanna have more international experience? Maybe you have to look at that. But you have to figure out what are your priorities, and then make sure that the corporate priorities fill in with that as well. And then probably one of the best things that has happened since then was this, I was able to focus on life priorities. And for about a decade, I spent investing, creating other streams of income. And so what that allowed me to do was when my corporate career ended in my late 40s.

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Well, now I don't look back to go to corporate because I got things from corporate that I really wanted to gain. And that's now helped me as we continue to, in this new phase, serve accredited investors and allow them to now start doing the exact same thing, being able to create new streams of income, be able to keep more of their income, so that they can well create their path of freedom by focusing on their life goals, and not necessarily the company's life goals. So anyway, like I said, going thinking about this whole default path, it's something that you have to be aware of, because it happened creeps up on you, it literally creeps up on you, it's not your fault, like I said, because you get surrounded by the the really high salaries, the nice cars, the benefits, and all these kinds of things. Just remember, when you can focus on breaking that default path, it allows you to really move your own personal life goes forward. And at the same time, you can still be a very productive employee. Like I said, I was a better employee, once I started focusing on all my own stuff, versus on the company's goals first, right, you have to focus on both of them. But the main focus was on what really wanted to be able to do so like I said, I wanted to share this thing, this thought process with you. And also because like I said, we started talking about the default path. And that's something that it's very easy to fall into. And also want to get out here and talk to you about other things, as well as just beyond investing. So we'd love to know what you think, always open to your feedback, things like that. But I just felt like this was something that was really, really important to share with you. So take today's conversation, ask questions, share it with other people. Have you even thought about this whole thing about the default path? Do you feel like you're on it? And is this helpful for you to be able to understand that there are other ways for you to also not just be able to win in your personal life, but also be a much more productive employee get the best of both worlds. So listen, everybody while you're thinking about this, while you're sharing this talking to your friends, I'm going to be preparing another one of these kind of solo episodes. So I want you to go out and make it a great day. And thank you very much.

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Trusted you enjoy today's conversation and once again, today's conversation was sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor want to find out more about how we're helping accredited investors to gain their personal freedom even faster. Go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long.

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