Want to Retire or Make a Ton of Money? Focus on Effort, not Outcomes

The most important move I made in my journey to retirement was to focus on effort, not outcomes. 

Effort is controllable. Outcomes?  Not so much.

Six years ago, when I really got serious about wanting to retire – moving it from a pipe dream to practical action – I stopped planning the details of how I would get there.  Prior to that, I would produce spreadsheet after spreadsheet, ad nauseum – with income projections, expense projections, yada yada yada.  To some extent, these things were helpful, but it seemed I could never achieve the savings level that I thought I would have to maintain in order to retire early. 

Sure, I produced spreadsheets – but I didn’t freaking DO anything differently on a daily basis other than cut my spending down a bit. 

I started to think instead about what I could do to be the best damn employee my (revolving) managers had ever had.  And I became that person.  I decided that I was okay with making them look good because it helped me and brought me closer to my goal.  I put my ego aside for once (and I have a pretty big ego!) and decided to serve.  Who got the credit didn’t matter because I had faith that it would pay off for me one way or another.  Whether it was what I learned and how marketable I was or through my compensation, I would be rewarded.  It turns out all of those things paid off.  And quite quickly after that, I became the best damn manager my employees had ever had by putting my ego aside again and serving them. 

I still knew that I wanted to retire young and I knew that I would do it, but I was no longer attached to some notion like “before 2010” or “before I’m 45”.  I knew that I would do it. No matter how long it took.  Month after month, I focused on the job and off of “what’s in it for me?”   The first year I started doing this, I received three “above and beyond” bonuses.  The second year, I became the manager of the department.

Little did I know that by focusing on my efforts and keeping my eye off the goal, that I would achieve retirement faster than me and all my spreadsheets thought was possible. 

The bottom line is that it is only our level of effort that is always controllable.  The stock market is not controllable.  Your boss may not be controllable.  The amount and frequency of your raises may not be controllable (although I would beg to differ.)  But how much of yourself you put into the fight is always, always within your control.

When the company that I worked for went into creditor protection a couple of years ago, that was completely out of my control.  What I could control though was doing a good job at the company while I was still there, and not to be a whining bitch about the circumstances like everyone else around me.  Everybody else wondered about their pension, if they could spend all of their health savings account up or whether they would get a settlement or severance.  I worried about whether I could do a good job in leaving the financials in as good a shape as possible for whoever had to come in and clean up.o

I was let go from that company without severance on August 31, 2008 along with several hundred other employees. Because I’d built up quite a lot of savings, I was the only person that wasn’t angry at being laid off – although I was a little miffed that it didn’t happen earlier in the summer so I could go on vacation.   On September 23, 2008, I was the only person hired back as a contractor at double my employee pay.  It turns out I was the one who directly benefited from doing a good job in my last few weeks as an employee with that company. 

If you are focused on your effort, you will not be so quick to abandon your integrity.  If you’re focused on the outcome of “get as much as possible out of this company”, your integrity is gone already.  Above all, that’s what having the money to pick and choose gives you.  You can make life choices based on your values. 

And isn’t that one of the things you want to retire to be able to do now?  To be able to live based on your own values?  So what’s stopping you from doing that right now? 

If one of your values is doing not just a good job, but a great job – better than anyone else before you – why aren’t you doing it right where you are? 

If one of your values is to be passionate about your work, why can’t you do that right where you are – right now? 

Things like passion and commitment don’t come from circumstances and appropriate alignment of the planets – they’re a result of who you are – the type of person you want to be.

Focus on your character – which will lead to your effort – and the results will be yours.  And you can take that to the bank.