I believe that financial anxiety is a common phenomenon. Now I would like to share with you the views of several Amazon employees on financial freedom. I hope it will be helpful to you.
(one)
First of all, you have to define financial freedom. People from different starting points and different families have completely different feelings about financial freedom.
I am from a small city in the 18th tier. My family has been poor since I was a child, and I had to use a loan for poor students to pay for my college tuition.
I have been working at Amazon for five years now. I bought a house in Changsha that is just in need (7,000 yuan/square meter, 90 square meters) and a car. I feel that my life is pretty comfortable (but in reality, if you convert it to society, it is nothing more than the level of a normal person, right?)
I often express my small happiness in the seller communication group, but I am often criticized by ambitious big sellers QAQ
Big sellers think that if they don’t make 1 billion yuan a year and have less than 100 employees, what’s the point of running an e-commerce company? You see, the definition and expectation of financial freedom are completely different.
The most important thing is to find your own inner belonging .
(two)
I also desire financial freedom, and the financial freedom I desire is relatively low. People's desires are different in size. I thought carefully about what my desires are. This is how I see myself regarding financial freedom.
1. The first step to financial freedom is to never have to rent a house again! (This is the motivation for me to stick to my goal of running Amazon. I hate renting a house and moving!)
As for the house, I dare not think about buying a house in Shenzhen for now. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I just want to own a fully paid house near Guangzhou and Foshan, and then I don’t have to rent a house, have my own job, and don’t have to punch in and out. Then I will feel very happy. (When I can’t bear it now, I just think more about my life after success and I will be happy!)
2. I am a filial person. I want to achieve financial freedom not just for myself, because I feel that people need love to live. No matter how big the house is or how good the car is, it is actually quite boring without someone to share it with. I have seen the boss who drives a Maserati and lives in a villa. He is so lonely inside that he cries only at a certain moment (I don’t know where the charm comes from that makes him confide in me…). But what is my feeling? I feel that even if I have money, I may not be happy, because people need love. This is the most primitive need.
3. Financial freedom, how much money is needed to be considered financial freedom? Sometimes I think that if I achieve all the success I desire now, it would actually be meaningless, because the second half of my life is so long, and it would be boring to finish things so quickly.
4. I talked to my dad about “Why is it that our family is getting richer and richer, but everyone seems to be less happy than before?” My dad said it’s because of anxiety and age. Parents’ anxiety comes from their age, and their children don’t get married. They are afraid that they will suddenly be gone one day and won’t be able to see the moment when their children get married. That’s why parents urge their children to get married, and they also want to be grandparents like other people of the same age and enjoy the happiness between grandparents and grandchildren. I am anxious because people of the same age have bought houses in Shenzhen, don’t have to punch in and out at get off work, and can travel around the world, but I still have to market myself online to find a partner, and even have to walk home on the bus on rainy days to save a few dollars. I also have to take a hard seat train home because I can’t bear to buy a hard sleeper. Anxiety is an inevitable byproduct of this information age. If you want to live happily in the age of information flow, you must be open-minded, have a good attitude, constantly switch your identity and role, and constantly "change your face"
5. Accept the reality that you are an ordinary person as soon as possible, but don't give up. I dare say that many people are not convinced in their hearts. Although they laugh at themselves as ordinary workers, they still have a fire in their hearts. If they are not ambitious, they basically won't visit this forum. Because of the sense of crisis and the desire to learn, they come to the forum to visit. Otherwise, watching Douyin and short videos is really more interesting than reading a lot of text, isn't it?
6. There are indeed many people who have achieved financial freedom by working for Amazon. But we should not envy and worship others too much and forget our original intention. (Secretly, I came to Shenzhen to find a partner and get rid of the shadow of a broken heart. I didn’t expect that I would be chased by rent every day in Shenzhen. I had no intention of falling in love at all, and I met a lot of scumbags and scammers.)
7. No matter what the past few years have been like, or what the epidemic has been like, as an ordinary person struggling to survive, you still need to have passion in your heart, and then continue to surpass yourself in previous years. For example, 2019 and 2020 were the two years in which I failed the most, and were also the most willful. In 2019, I tried a lot of useless things, and a lot of my own daydreams, such as learning to host, being a wedding host, and being a sales host. Because at that time, I really didn't want to work for Amazon. In 2020, I tried to be a manager, a high-level manager. Knowing that I might be eliminated, I still told myself to get the opportunity first and then get in. Then I also made a lot of efforts to become beautiful, such as double eyelid surgery, and understanding the medical beauty industry. In short, I didn't make any money. But overall, I have more life experience than many people. . In 2020, I met a blind date and it was also a very hard year. Although there was no result by the end of the year, I think every time I bravely walked out of the house, I was really cute and cool.
8. I am sometimes quite depressed. This is what a normal person does. Because I am an ordinary normal person, I will cry and feel anxious for what I have lost, but generally speaking, I can still be a ray of light. Wealth can be divided into tangible and intangible. In terms of tangible real estate, I don’t have any, but I have built a house for my family through my own efforts. But the most I have gained in the past five years of work should be intangible wealth, a lot of life experience, which is really rich. So I have a lot of social experience. I haven’t had many relationships, but I have met many people. I have heard many stories. And I can make people across the screen pay for me and cheer for me (this is also my wealth, not everyone has such charm!)
9. I hope that this society will always be peaceful, and that people will not forget their original intentions and the happiest happiness once they have money.
10. I wish that we Amazon sellers and cross-border e-commerce sellers will always work hard, stay healthy, and achieve the financial freedom that everyone thinks of. In short, I plan to continue to engage in cross-border e-commerce in the future. Haha, many things will not be learned in vain. I hope everyone can achieve financial freedom. Come on, hehe.
(three)
The term financial freedom is really killing people
The body is not yet ready to enter this state, but the spirit has already stepped in. This is what is called the incompatibility between spirit and flesh.
Living in this state is just too tiring!
A friend of mine has been a manager at Amazon for three years. His account now has $300,000 per month, or more than $5 million a year, but his monthly income including bonuses is only $20K-30K.
We often advise him to strike out on his own or change companies to become a director, where he can earn more money than he does now.
He refused to do it. He felt that this state was pretty good. After going through all the pitfalls before, now was the time to reap the rewards. Although the reward was little, he felt at peace.
I look at the data at work, assign tasks to my subordinates, and have tea with my boss at the end of the month to talk about performance. It's very refreshing.
Last year I bought a car worth 250,000 yuan in full. I now have a wife and children. Next year I plan to look for a small apartment in Shenzhen.
Another friend started working at Amazon in 2017. He was a team leader at first. Later, an investor pulled him in to start a company and he became a director.
This project lasted for more than 2 years and failed, but I saved more than 200,000 yuan as a director. I drank twice in these 2 years, and each time I felt that he had aged a lot. This friend was born in 1995, but he looks almost 35 years old.
At that time, the topic that investors talked about most with him was financial freedom.
In 2019, I applied for a job at a company and continued to work as the head of Amazon. I also opened a small private shop to sell seasonal products and manage the company.
The current situation is also much more relaxed.
This is not to say that working people have a comfortable life; they still face pressure from all sides.
It's that your desires and risks match .
Face yourself and decide whether you can bear the consequences of failure. After all, Amazon needs accumulation, not overnight.
Finally, I have to thank my brother-in-law for creating an era and giving us the opportunity to achieve financial freedom.
