When I was 25 years old, I was earning six figures, living in a dope apartment by the beach in LA, driving a custom Lexus, and yet… I was miserable with a capital “M”.
Let me back up and reintroduce myself. I’m Nicole Purvy, real estate investor, entrepreneur, author, and owner of Better Than Success.
How I Got Out of The 9 to 5 Rat Race
Now back to my story about how I got out of the 9 to 5 rat race. When I was about 25, I seemed to have backed myself into a corner and I got myself knee deep in a career path that I hated. I hated that someone had control over my day-to-day decisions. I hated that my earnings were capped by someone else’s arbitrary measuring stick. And most important, I hated that I wasn’t doing what I was put here to do. At that time, I had no idea exactly what that was but it I knew that my purpose wasn’t to be a high paid “bean counter” on someone’s trading desk.
Did I mention that my job was an Institutional Bond Trader? I traded bonds for large companies and this was the holy grail of finance jobs for any seasoned industry vet, let alone a young chiclet fresh on Wall street. But again, I was a sad mess.
I Couldn’t Shake This Feeling That I Wasn’t Where I Belonged
Admittedly, its very rewarding that now that we are 8 years into the future, I have learned that I was actually right. I’ve found success as a real estate investor and entrepreneur in a niche that I created for myself that couldn’t be further from trading bonds. And it feels good that my instincts were right. But more on that later, so back to how I escaped the 9 to 5 rat race and became an entrepreneur, real estate investor, author, and speaker.
After sometime I found myself scratching my creative and public speaking itch with a webseries
hosted by myself called “The Bond Gurl”. The Bond Gurl was a weekly show where I educated viewers about the financial markets. This was in 2008 way before everybody had web series and podcasts. Although the show completely sucked because I was so terrible (don’t try and find the show I deleted every trace of the show from the internet some years ago), it kind of solved my problem of my suppressed creative side for a while.
My Job Owned Every Ounce of My Identity and Creativity
I tried to keep the show secret from my employer but I subconsciously wanted them to find it. I dont know what I originally wanted to accomplish by being so sloppy with hiding the show. But I will tell you what my carelessness what I did actually accomplish…I was fired! I was fired not because I wasn’t good at my job (I was a beast, by the way…a young phenom), but I was fired because most financial professionals aren’t allowed to promote themselves as brands. They can rarely do anything outside of the company they work for. And this was exactly the problem…the job owned every ounce of my identity and creativity. And as you get to know me and my company Better Than Success you will learn that I am extremely creative and free thinking…just like you.
Over the next few years I used this experience of getting fired from my job to fuel myself to get creative about how to solve not only my problems, but my close friends’ problems as well. And what problems were those? I’m glad you asked…
I’ve built a well known business and brand, Better Than Success, by creatively and effectively solving these following problems:
- How can I build real wealth to leave a legacy for myself and my family.
- How can I have freedom of time to do the things that I know will impact the world (my purpose) without stressing about how I’m going to pay my light bill.
- How can I help as many people as possible to the same things…More importantly, how can I help as many people get to live in their purpose as freely as possible.
You want to know what I have found in my journey?
I discovered that one of the best ways to build wealth that will give you freedom of time is through acquiring real estate (you probably already knew that though).
Be sure to read my next post because in it I’m going to tell you my big ah-ha moment when I figured out how to help ALL my friends and family start to invest in real estate while simultaneously helping them to live in their purpose. When I say “ALL my friends” I mean ALL of them.
I take my purpose very seriously (did I mention that my purpose is to help people get to theirs?) Actually some of my friends ended up doing their first real estate deals before I even did mine. Lol…how funny is that.
In the meantime, check out our podcast at betterthansuccess.com/itunes or betterthansuccess.com/google if you need something to listen to while you’re in the car (over 90 episodes so far)
Happy Entrepreneuring,
Nicole Purvy
