For the renegade playboy, life and business are one.
Well, how could it be any other way?
The renegade playboy is nothing if not narcissistic. He is nothing if not obsessed with himself and with his image.
That may sound mercenary, or egotistical. Maybe it is. But it remains, nevertheless, the key reason why he is so attractive to women.
The narcissist. you see, is revered, while his meek and mild brother is ignored, or worse, reviled.
Don’t ask me to explain why this is. Human nature, regrettably, is rarely kind. And if there’s one thing that it will never tolerate, it is weakness of any kind in others.
But self-adulation, self-aggrandisement? These are considered virtues. And the renegade playboy has them in spades.
Which is precisely why he does so well in the arena of seduction.
But there are other implications here. Someone who has such characteristics is, well, let’s just say unlikely to desire—or indeed be able to tolerate—donning the work overalls of another man’s firm.
See a man wearing a uniform given to him by his employer and realise you are looking at a slave.
Even worse, you are looking at a man who has given up all hope.
As such, the renegade playboy has neither the constitution nor the requisite desire to be a worker among workers.
Put simply, something innate in his character means that he has to be self-employed.
Now of course, ‘self-employment’ is an incredibly broad church, taking in everything from running a local corner shop, to being a tech start-up entrepreneur, to selling knitting patterns on the internet.
What the renegade playboy seeks to avoid—acting in line with his nature—is anything that resembles a proper ‘job’. Because it is the strictures of having a ‘job’ that are a big part of what puts him off regular work.
Yes, it’s better to run your own grocery store than it is to work at someone else’s. But only marginally. You see, the problem with that type of business is that you are still trading time for money.
Your Time Is Worth Infinitely More Than Money.
What the renegade playboy has figured out is that his time is worth infinitely more than his money.
Most jobs are—more or less—a simple exchange of time for cash.
‘I will pay you $100,000 a year. But you have to come into work at *this* time and you can’t go home until at least *this* time. And in between you will do anything and everything I ask of you.’
That, in a nutshell, is what you sign up for when you take a regular job.
Well, you might be thinking, $100,000 is nothing to be sneezed at.
But that simply tells me that you undervalue your time.
That you have no confidence in yourself.
And that you need to grow a pair and realise the truly astonishing potential that you have.
(I’m not just saying that to blow smoke up your ass, by the way. I’m saying it because it’s true. We all have the truly astonishing potential to do something great. It’s just many of us are so worn down by conventional expectations that we fail to recognise it. Also, toxic corporate work environments can sap otherwise hugely capable, innovative people of all their confidence and drive.)
The renegade playboy, recognising his worth and his ability to generate cash for himself, strides forward into self-employment.
But what he ensures is that his business is one where he creates assets that continue to make him money even when he’s doing something else.
In other words, he strives to generate passive income, so that his time is no longer inextricably linked to money.
(Of course, no income is entirely passive, and those who claim you can work two hours a month and sit on the beach the rest of the time are either lying, or they’ve scaled hugely and have others looking after the day-to-day for them.)
Nevertheless, the direction of travel for the renegade playboy must be: work for myself, create products and services I can sell that are scalable, and satisfy myself artistically or intellectually.
Certainly, that has been the case as far as my career is concerned. Rewind to a few years ago and I had a problem. I fundamentally didn’t enjoy the way that I was making a living (through my corporate job). It was eating up all of my time, it didn’t allow me the latitude to go on dates in the afternoon, hang out in nightclubs until the early hours of the morning in Soho during the week, and travel whenever I wanted.
Also—perhaps most importantly of all—it didn’t satisfy me artistically or intellectually. It didn’t allow me to express the ideas, thoughts and feelings that I was desperate to share with the world.
I always wanted to be a writer. That is to say, I wanted to be someone who wrote for their occupation—as their main source of income. And through the years I tried to make it so. I flirted with journalism for big name publications. I write novels that were politely rejected by agents and publishers.
After some time, it became clear to me that trying to ‘make it’ as a writer in the mainstream world wasn’t going to work (not least because of the huge pressures the internet had put on trad industries) . . . and even if it did work, and I got a book published (as friends of mine did) it likely wouldn’t change things for me in practical, financial terms. I wouldn’t be able to give up the day job.
Well, that wasn’t good enough. I wanted to give up the day job and write. I also wanted to book trips to Moscow at short notice, date disastrous girls whose schedules—like their lives—were all over the place, and generally live the somewhat bohemian life of the artist that I had always dreamed of.
To my mind, it seemed clear that the renegade playboy was a subversive figure. And the strictures of ‘normal’ society, such as marriage and corporate employment, simply wouldn’t suit him in the longer term.
It was around the time that these things were becoming apparent to me (back in about 2014 or so) that I also discovered the idea of creating a ‘personal brand’ online. And by the way, ‘personal brand’ is a somewhat stuffy term, so let’s simplify it by saying ‘I do what the hell I want with my life, publish content about it and get paid.’
Over time, it became obvious that what had previously seemed like a dream was becoming increasingly possible. That the artistic, indeed poetic, existence that I desired could be mine.
All I had to do was set about building an audience on social media—an audience of people who enjoyed my work and who would support me commercially when I released books and other products.
In return, I would deliver to them a ton of free content—a daily blog post, a subscriber email, Tweets, Instagram posts and so on. This content would be either informative, entertaining, or (preferably) both.
And it would be win-win. Because I would get to write about things that interested me, and put it out into the world to help my audience.
Then, because they enjoyed my worldview, or found value in my advice, or simply wanted to support me, they would buy a book or a digital product from me.
Finally, the path I had searched for in vain all of my life opened up before me. For now, there was a way for me to make money simply by being myself.
My life and business were one.
If you want to learn how I went from wage slave at a 9-5 to earning more money with my personal brand freedom business in less than a year, then my new course may be for you. Secure your place on Personal Brand Mastery now, before the price goes up.
Hi
Your course looks interesting but to be completely honest I have some reservations.
This industry is smokes and mirrors so sometimes what a guy says and what is actual reality are two different things.
I’ve read quite a few of your articles previously and enjoyed them but you state quite regularly that you used to make six figures in your ‘corporate job’ and have now surpassed that from your personal brand business. I dont see that being very likely if I’m being upfront. Saying something like that sounds great and has impact but is it really true ?
Hi, thanks for the comment – and I totally get where you’re coming from. I’m also very sceptical when I read these sorts of things online.
Yes, it’s absolutely true that I have now surpassed my take-home pay in my six-figure corporate job. However, there are a few components to that.
For a start, I had a head-start, as even though I went ‘pro’ with this less than a year ago, I had been creating content and building my brand for some time before that.
Also, I have various different revenue streams in place. For example, I now have 10 books out there, which sell well. I also have this course, plus another, smaller course on Skillshare. I also do affiliate sales for other product providers, which has been very lucrative. Plus I do private coaching / training sessions.
So all of those income streams added together nets me more cash than I was taking home from my corporate gig.
The other important thing to bear in mind is tax. Whereas with a job you pay a set amount upfront, when you are a corporation (as I am) not only is the tax rate lower, but also you can offset expenses against it.
Personally I don’t spend a great deal on entertainments etc, and so most of the money I make goes back into the business in one form or another. Which means it can be offset for tax purposes. For example, if I buy a course or go to a seminar then that counts as a business expense since I am furthering my expertise for the company. Which means less taxable income for that month.
Tax, while a relatively dry subject, is another good reason why self-employment can make for superior earning power over corporate work. But, I should stress I’m not an expert – I work with an accountant and I’d encourage others to do the same.
I would also say that one thing I’m not doing (and will never do) is saying ‘become a millionaire’ or ‘earn 5/6 figures a month’ or whatever. Firstly because I’m not, and so it would be dishonest to do so. But even more importantly, because building a personal brand business is in no way a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Quite the opposite. It’s actually a lot of hard work (fantastic, enjoyable work, but still) and the level of success anyone achieves will depend on a number of factors, not least the quality and consistency of your content.
What the course offers is a roadmap of the path that I took to get there – because it’s challenging enough making content and marketing your brand without having to work out every little step of the journey.
Is Personal Brand Mastery a guaranteed ‘get rich’ programme? No, absolutely not. But, if implemented, it will help you to shave a lot of time off the process and get on the right road a lot more quickly than I did.
Of course, it’s not for everyone, but then nothing ever is. I hope that answers your question, but let me know if there’s anything else!
Also, thanks again – you’ve inspired me to write some more about this, as the points you raise definitely should be addressed!
Cheers,
Troy