Rich, most every entrepreneur I've ever met, with the exception of those that had family money to bounce back on, have gone through times like that. You're not the only one.
What is sad to watch especially on GFY since so many guys are still in their 20's is how many of them think now that they're into 6, 7 and 8 figures a year its always going to be that great and just keep going up forever.
Trust me folks, the game doesn't work that way. Its like a casino. You'll have many winning streaks, some go on for years and decades, but there will come a time when what you've got working so well now, will start to putter out on you. It might not even be your fault. Things change. Markets change. Competition gets insane. Laws impact your businesses. Disasters happen. It could be anything.
But the only thing I've found in my years of business that's guaranteed is change. And your best bet is to be ready for it. Because if it hits when you're all cocky and haven't saved for the rainy days you will get knocked right smack on your ass and back into the struggle of scrambling for every dollar just to keep you and your business afloat.
I've gone through a couple really fucked up down cycles myself. I had tremendous success at a very young age and I got cocky as hell thinking ok now I'm going to invest in all sorts of deals and be a mogul and trust others to help me run all my deals and kick back and enjoy semi-retirement. Wow did I get a surprise. The minute I started working less after making a lot of money when I was in my 20's and 30's everything started going sideways. I worked my ass off to bounce back and did it. But it was damn scary cause I was dealing in millions and all of a sudden you're into lots of deals and realize holy shit this one isn't doing what it was projected to. That one my partner ripped me off and fucked up the company. This one the industry just went to hell because of new regulations. It could be anything that fucks your money flow up. But it will happen and sometimes without any warning. You should prepare yourself now for the art of mastering recovering a business as well as building a business.
One mentor I had gave me some of the best words of advice of my life when I was younger and I still use these to keep focused always and work hard always without ever slacking off. He said to me, "You've made a lot of money at a young age, more than most people make their whole life working, but never forget if you want to keep this kind of money you must not stop working the math of it." I didn't get the meaning of what he meant by that and was puzzled and said "the math of it, in what way?" He said, "This money you're making isn't always going to come in like the gusher it is now, trust me, something will happen one day and the river will become a stream and you will have to gather your wits and go out exploring for another river." He continued by saying, "Take a pad of paper and write down how much money you made this year from your business. Now multiply that by 40 years and look at the size of that number. Its quite daunting isn't it?" "I saw his point instantly looking at it from that perspective." He said, "See if you become a superstar player at a young age, you've got to look at it like in sports, think how many home runs you're going to need now to stay a superstar player, keeping in mind every year new young guys will be in the game going for top spots too."
The lesson being if you made lets say a couple million this year, you've got $80 Million more to make to keep that level of success going. $80 Million? That's a big fucking load of joins isn't it?
Congrats on your success Rich. Now work twice as hard and keep it in first gear. You've got age on your side. That is a tremendous advantage. But you have to make millions more now over the next decades and never forget that objective.