Reverse Engineering or Working Backwards?

Get this sucker in gear.

I’ve got a lot on my mind right now—and can’t seem to get this sucker in gear. In any case, I keep coming back to reverse engineering and how it’s a crazy powerful tool. I mean, it’s kinda how most of us learned to work on cars—by taking them apart and figuring out how they work.

Let’s say you’re a freelance writer looking to build a $12k book of new business this year. That easily breaks down into $1,000 per month, or $250 per week. Assuming the average blog post pays $80-$100, you know you need to be landing 3-4 jobs per week to make that nut.

Or maybe you’d like to get that project car back on the road by the end of summer, but you’re not sure if it’s even possible. Suppose you’ve got 16 weeks to get it done. Can you commit to four hours a week? Four hours a week times 16 weeks equals 64 hours total. Could you get it done in eight 8-hour days?

What if you’ve saved up $50k, have a crazy awesome business idea you can’t get out of your head, and think it might be time to quit your day job. You pare down your expenses and only need $3k per month to pay the bills. How long will your savings last? Is that enough time?

If you’re pretty sure it’s going to take 10,000 hours to turn your novel side hustle into a full-time gig that turns your life into the crazy dream you’ve imagined—how many hours are you willing to put in a week to get there? 10? 20? That’s 19 years versus nine.

The better you can define what you want your life to look like, the easier it can be to reverse engineer it and work backwards to where you are today.

Are you on track?