OG listeners of the podcast will recognize the name David Lahav — he and I used to cohost the pod way back when it was called The Remote Local Podcast.
David’s story is actually perfect for what I talk about on the podcast now that it’s all about time, location, and financial freedom. He used to have a locksmith company that was doing $4 million in revenue. He is the owner of MaidThis Denver, one of the first franchises of my cleaning business. He’s rolled up 16 companies in total…and sold pretty much everything to become a meditation teacher.
He found his own version of purpose and freedom that’s so different from the hustle-and-grind entrepreneur type of content that we’re all constantly fed. I had to bring David back on to talk about his mindset — and how he got there.
“I Don’t Want a Job”
David says that he has always been curious about entrepreneurship, and laughs thinking back to when he used to sell candy to his classmates when he was a kid. He grew up in Israel and eventually moved to the US to go to school, and says that he was already playing around with started businesses in the digital marketing space. He knew from the beginning he didn’t want a normal 9-5 job.
He tried a bunch of different business ideas and says that the first 10 failed. Then, he decided to go all in on a local service: locksmiths. He put up a website and Google listing and almost immediately started to get calls. It picked up, grew, and continued to grow the more work David put into it. He says that his ultimate goal was always financial and lifestyle freedom, noting that although it was a local locksmith business the idea was to become location-independent. How can I do this in Latin America, Europe, or Bali? he wondered.
As he’s gone through his entrepreneurial journey, David adds that overall, he simply wanted to have an amazing life and “live the dream,” but he also adds the dream changes over time. In the beginning, it was all about finding a way to make money without being stuck in a job he hated. Then, the goal shifted to finding more meaning in his life — which would eventually lead him to meditation.
As David began hitting his goals — starting a successful business and making millions of dollars — he also started to recognize that he would likely never feel fulfilled because his goalposts kept moving. He realized that he could stay on this track for many more years, or he could start looking for things that made him feel happy. He needed to bring more meaning to his life.
So many entrepreneurs and business owners find themselves at this crossroads. How to make the shift from being a worn-out hamster on a wheel to actually feeling accomplished?
Exporter of Happiness
David says he believes the key is to become an exporter of happiness instead of an importer of happiness. Society teaches us to import happiness and fulfillment through material goods, relationships, statuses, and experiences. “If I reach X amount of money, I’ll be happy” is a very common mindset. But, David argues we’ll never find true, lasting happiness there.
We must become an exporter of happiness. In David’s case, it was through meditation and a greater appreciation for the world inside his mind, and sharing that with others. When things didn’t necessarily go right for him in the outside world, he could still come back to happiness fairly quickly because he was so fulfilled on the inside.
Many people believe that if they’re happy they’ll lose all of their drive. To that, David says: it doesn’t work that way — it’s not mutually exclusive. You can be happy and driven simultaneously, and feeling happy and fulfilled will help you move a lot faster. He adds that if he had the knowledge he learned through meditation at age 22, he probably would have found success a lot more easily…and quickly.
I loved getting David’s perspective on this because I think a lot of folks may think, “When I reach this milestone I can finally quit and relax. Now that I’ve made it, I can focus on meditation.” David reminds us that we can do more than one thing at once.
Doing meditation 20 minutes a day, twice a day was the number one thing that helped David reach his growth goals with less stress, more money, more energy, more creativity, and an ability to take bigger risks and make better decisions. Today, he is focused on building a meditation business so he can share all of these learnings with the world and is well on his way to becoming an exporter of both happiness and fulfillment.
Photo by Silviu Zidaru on Unsplash
This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rat race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.
