Self-made millionaire: Millennials, don't travel—yet
There are many benefits of traveling: getting recharged, inspired, bonding and connecting with others, and having a new respect for life back at home.
I want my daughters to experience new places and new people. Traveling is an education that can't be bought at home.
When it comes to millennials and travel, however, I have a few words of caution.
When I was younger, I was not clear on why or what I was learning while I was at college, so I left my university with a piece of paper, debt, no clue about my future and very few skills. Many millennials today find themselves in a similar position. That is why so many young people are wandering without direction.
When you don't know what you should be doing, it's easy to put life on hold and backpack abroad staying in hostels and eating ramen.
What I want to do is inspire millennials to work hard now so they can travel the world in style later.
If you're going to waste time at a job you hate trading hours for dollars, not trying to learn and grow, then you might as well go and waste a few months traveling around southeast Asia. Either way, you're not building your future.
The reason many millennials want to travel is because they have no purpose at home. They believe time off is going to allow themselves to somehow "find" that thing they know is missing in their life. But travel, while there are some benefits to it, does not guarantee you will find your purpose.
I took too much time off early in my entrepreneurial career and it almost derailed me.
I had traded in the obsession I thought I was chasing for hanging out with my friends, going to the movies, playing softball and weekend barbecues. But how much introspection does one really need before it's time to get to work ?
It's not all about the hustle. You must have skills. When you educate for skills it will result in money, and you can use skills every day to bring more value to the marketplace.
If you are a millennial and need to take time off, then take enough time off to fulfill your desire for time off. Just realize, your life will probably be no better at the end of it, and your financial situation will probably be even worse off than it already is.
If you focus on finding your purpose, if you end up getting fulfilled by what you do, you may find your desire for time off goes away.
We live in a society where it seems people have an entitled form of laziness to assume that we work five days and take the weekend off . Why is that? Forget about travel: Should a millennial who is working 40 hours a week making $32,000 a year even be sitting around all weekend taking it easy?
The acceptance of the idea that eight hours invested in your job is enough regardless of your financial position is a misunderstanding of epic proportions.
I suggest that millennials pay the price today so they can pay any price tomorrow .
I can travel the world in my own plane today because I put in the hard work and became serious about my career when I was 25. Get obsessed with your purpose, and you'll find that your travel plans can wait.
Comfort is the enemy of abundance . Don't let travel get in the way of your freedom.
Grant Cardone is an entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and sales training expert.
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