14 - Mike Wickware

Mike Wickware started out having no idea what he wanted to do with his life and now he is Chief Marketing Officer of a company called Planswell. Along the way, Mike had to make hard decisions about what was right for him and really think about what he wanted to do with his life. There will always be people that tell you that you have to stay on a certain path because of safety and security or the fact that you spent money on a degree and you shouldn’t waste it. Most of the time these people are well intentioned and they are just looking out for you. They don’t want you to get into trouble. But the key thing to remember is that these people aren’t the ones living your life. You have to do what’s right for you. Even if people don’t understand. Even if you end up somewhere you could have never predicted. Are you one of the lucky ones who has always had a clear picture of what you wanted to do with your life? There are many different names for this part of our life: job, career, work, what we do for a living. Whatever you call it, it’s the thing - or things - that we do to make money. The ideal situation is that the thing we do every day to make money is also something we enjoy, and that aligns with our core values. A core value is something that is important to you. For example, one of my top 10 core values is helping others, so if I’m doing work and the end result of that work doesn’t help others in some way, I won’t be happy doing that work. You might have heard someone say: what would you do with your life if money wasn’t important? When you’re starting out in the working world, you don’t generally have that luxury, so you might take the job that pays you well enough for the skills you have at that moment in time. But most of the time, you don’t stay in that job for the rest of your life. Not anymore anyhow. You might move up in a company, learn more about what you are good at, and eventually you might find out that you want to do something completely different. Some people think that when we change jobs, or follow our passions, we’re being selfish. But to quote Esther Perel: It’s not vanity, it’s sheer survival of the soul. If you are doing something everyday and that something doesn’t feel quite right, it is very important to listen to that feeling. It doesn’t mean that you’ve been doing the wrong thing for the past 10 years, it just means that over that time you’ve learned more about yourself and what it is you truly want. I believe that this is something that can only come from experience. Mike invited me to the Planswell head office where he told his personal finance story. NEXT EPISODE 15 - Randy Cass Click here to book a FREE 15-minute personal finance consultation with Beau Humphreys, Personal Finance Coach Click here to become a patron of The Personal Finance Show via Patreon To register for my next available personal finance webinar click here.