Ten-Ten-Ten: Part 3 of 3

Part 1 (What is The Matrix?): https://tinyurl.com/3kjx7b3u

Part 2 (How Does This Get Me Out Of The Matrix?): https://tinyurl.com/2zd6hkz2

Part 3: What, exactly, are the Three Tens?

As I said previously, this isn't about the money.

Of course, we all need money. And, having not been born with it, my only option is to earn it.

So, in that sense, it is about the money.

But it's not about the money, per se.

It's not about becoming a millionaire, living in a mansion, or having a 12-car garage packed with exotic cars.

Although those things might be fun and could become side benefits of my actions, Ten-Ten-Ten is about one thing.

TIME.

According to various estimates based on my age, education, income, fitness, and other markers, I will live into my 90s.

I'm 47 now.

I've spent many of those years doing shit I didn't want to do and never want to do again.

If the estimates are correct, I've got another 47 years left.

That's a long time.

And I want to spend it doing only things that I enjoy.

Ten-Ten-Ten is about designing my life so that I can do those things while earning enough money to spend my time wherever and however I please.

It is the framework to integrate "work-life" with "not work-life" in a way that allows me to live the rest of my actual life extraordinarily.

Each of the Tens supports that framework.

THE FIRST TEN is traveling ten days per month. That's 120 days per year, roughly one-third of each trip around the sun. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting closer. And, despite my closest friends nicknaming me "Vacay," I'm not talking about 120 years per day of vacation. I'm talking about leveraging technology and partners in a way that allows me to keep business moving forward, whether I'm at my office in Monroe or an Airbnb in Australia.

So far this year, I've spent 14 days between Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.

I was in Florida for six days a few weeks ago.

And as you know, Julia and I are leaving in late June for a road trip across the country.

By the end of July, I will have slept somewhere other than my home for 39 nights. That's 6.5 days per month on average, nearly double what I could do five years ago.

THE SECOND TEN is for money.

Specifically, $10,000 per week.

Money is a funny thing.

Some see $10,000 per week as an absurd amount impossible to earn, while others see it as easily achievable.

Some see it as more money than they would ever want, while others can't imagine how people make it on such a trivial amount.

I see it as a tool, no different from my laptop and cellphone, that allows me to spend my time where I want to rather than shackled to my office.

Is $10k per week more money than I need?

Absolutely.

But having extra money - especially a lot of extra money - opens doors you could otherwise never open. When you have more of it than you need, you can do pretty cool stuff, like give more of it away.

THE THIRD TEN is retiring in ten years.

When I've mentioned this, people invariably say, "What do you mean retire? Isn't your ten-day vacation every month pretty much retirement?"

Inside the Matrix, maybe.

But outside the Matrix, it's not what I envision for retirement.

For me, retirement means one thing: reaching the point at which I no longer HAVE to exchange ANY of my time for the money I need to do what I want.

I plan to have a lot of fun over the next decade. And while I plan to increase the leverage of my working hours continually, I'll still be putting in the hours.

Not because I WANT to but because I HAVE to.

I can't imagine retiring in the sense of not working at all. I have a list of businesses I'm interested in starting that's a mile long and charity work that's even longer.

But by 57, I will be at a point where working to earn money is no longer necessary.

So, that's it.

Ten-Ten-Ten.

That's the plan.

That's what I'm doing for the next decade, and, as I said in Part 1, I'm either going to achieve it or die trying.