When it comes to building wealth with a business I am of the thought process to build a business that can increase in valuation on a yearly basis because it has real cash flow and to manage it for profitability. What you get when you do that is a business that increases in value over time and you get to make a real living off the free cash flow while having a good time doing it. This wealth does not happen over the model of build something over 24 months, raise a bunch of capital and get your FU money, what it gets you is a really great lifestyle, with a great yearly income, that when the time is right you can sell for a lot of money (i.e. your FU money). Then you can use that FU money to start another company you build the same way. Basically a profitable, cash flow positive business becomes an annuity for you with a potential pay off at the end.

I am putting my money where my mouth is and building a company for the long term concentrating on profitability and cash flow. It has not happened overnight, but I am beginning to see the fruits of a lot of patience and work. Hopefully it all works out, given the times we live in and long road to recovery I think we are headed for, I believe it's the best bet to make.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Although there are still several other solutions, as Jason and other commenters point out below, I think your central point of “it's harder” or at least “you need to really think it through now” is very valid.

Personally I agree with your “F-you influence and credibility” idea. It's something I've been thinking about as to why I gravitate or not toward certain companies. In my case, I started Going with two co-founders and a few rounds of VC, but I bet on the learnings, networking and influence opportunities and those are certainly still paying dividends. I'm definitely in the camp that enjoys public speaking, consulting, writing so that's a good goal you outline.

but i think that people need to rethink long term investing and how it relates to generating a yearly income and being able to live off that.

too long have we had easy 10%+ off stocks and the like. after this last crash (and the crash of 2000), we watched our stocks drop by more than 50%, and in many cases more than that. so many people should have been much more conservative and weren't; they got caught up on riding the returns and then upping their lifestyle to match and then having to backpedal painfully when the markets dropped, with no certain time when they would return. or they played too much with their principal and now their principal was much lower with little chance of recovery.

it's pretty tough to make 10%/year. i think it's more realistic to budget for 4-6% off a bond portfolio, and then have another pot of money to bet on riskier things. in good times, you shave off returns from the risky portfolio and throw them to your bond portfolio. in good times, your bonds can get you even more than 6%. but when times turn south, your risky portfolio drops in value, but doesn't risk your lifestyle because that is determined by your bond portfolio.

thus planning should look at 4-6% as a % of your net wealth versus your example person's 6-10%. once the markets cratered, he was in big trouble.

so if you have $10MM in a bond portfolio, you're netting 5% or $500k/year. at $5MM, that's $250K/year. at $2.5MM that's $125K/year. not bad for $2.5MM in the bank. but as your principal lowers, your ability to create a risky portfolio dwindles and you may not be able to increase principal with a risky portfolio to shave returns off of.

I think its human nature (thinking / greed) to want immediate gain. Whether it's immediate success, wealth or a large bunch of money in the one hit. How sustainable long term that is is debatable. I believe we should be focusing on building our self as a brand – building value in our self. This takes time but has long term rewards so you can retire from employment (not life) with a passive income.

When we have built value, what we say and do magnetizes. For example, becoming an expert in an area where we have passion for can turn into a seminar, a book, advice / consultation, a movie etc… most of these have an ongoing financial rewards paying ongoing commission / right of use etc…

So thinking today about how I can be better & bring long term value is more rewarding then thinking about how I can make a quick $5m bucks and satisfy my immediate greed for money that may not last a long term in today / tomorrow’s economy.

However there are of course still amounts of money where the equation works even with 5% inflation and 0% investment growth and 0% social security. In fact, it's not that much more than $2m. Maybe $5m or $6m depending on your lifestyle and TTL.

So really it's just that an amount which seemed OK ten years ago is not enough, and the “FU” number is just bigger than we'd thought.