Hello, I'm Mervi!
An artist, nerd and business sorcerer, dedicated to make world more beautiful and strange with art, illustrations and logos + to help you figure your sustainable business out.
Lately I've started to feel a bit overwhelmed every time I stumble upon a blog post boasting about how this blogger built a six figures blog or that virtual assistant makes five figures a month. As if those figures really meant anything.
Don't get me wrong. Six figures is nice. Seven figures even nicer. You have to pay your rent or mortgage, buy food and clothes, keep the electricity on and so forth. In the capitalistic world, you have to make some money to survive. What bothers me, is how many people define success by money and things.
You don't stop to ask if the "successful" person is okay. You don't stop to ask if they are crumbling under all the pressure. You don't stop to question what they have to do, and how they have to stretch themselves to make those six figures. You just see the six figures, and that's that.
There's more in life than six figures.
Of course, there are stories like this where people have understood work isn't everything. People who make six figures, but also have a life. Although, those stories are rarely concentrating on the figures.
As often as reading those six figures stories, I read other ones about people who burned out in the hustle. Successful people, who found out that their kind of success wasn't enough or was too much. Successful people who didn't get the sleep they needed, because they had to wake up at 5 am. Successful people, who didn't have time for doing fun stuff, like watching Netflix or reading non-business-related books. Successful people, who felt what they did was totally meaningless.
Six figures is a bad goal. It's really not a goal at all. The goal is what you get with the six figures. Or five. Or four.
The goal is something beyond that. Making a living, so that you can do great things. So that you can help others, make a difference, to live a full life and not wait for the retirement, feel like your life has a meaning and purpose.