It’s been a long time since I’ve held a J-O-B.
If you looked at my resume, you’d see less than a handful of them.
But one of those jobs was at Disneyland.
I spent seven years at Carnation Café on Main Street. Started as a busboy clearing tables, washing dishes, mopping floors, and deep-cleaning the kitchen at two in the morning.
My biggest accomplishment early on?
Throwing a tub of dirty dishes into the Jungle Cruise.
They shut the whole ride down for the day while divers fished plates out of the water.
But somehow I worked my way up. Fry cook. Then dinner cook. Then after five years I got trained as a chef – got to wear the chef whites and the fancy hat.
Each time I moved up, I got a little raise and a little dopamine spike which kept me in the rat race.
I share this with you because that’s the same trap most people are in right now.
Getting small raises year after year, thinking they’re moving forward…
…when the cost of everything around them is moving way faster.
I did the research.
One generational span (25 years) from 2001 to 2026.
Here’s what happened:
New homes: up 145%.
New cars: up 136%.
Rent: up 300%.
Healthcare: up 250%.
Gas and groceries: up 230%.
And the average pay for someone with a bachelor’s degree?
Up 74%.
So your raises, your promotions, and your ‘moving up the ladder’…all of it combined still can’t keep up with the cost of living.
The gap between what you earn and what you need is getting wider every single year.
And no amount of annual cost-of-living adjustments is going to close it.
The middle class is gone fellas.
There’s a massive gap opening up between the rich and the poor, and most people only source of income is a paycheck from someone else…
…meaning they’re on the wrong side of that gap.
Look, I eventually left Disneyland and knew I was never meant to be an employee. I wasn’t made to take orders from leaders I didn’t respect and wait for someone to decide what I was worth.
The answer for me was entrepreneurship.
And I believe it’s the answer for a lot of you reading this too.
Because when you own a business, you control your income, you control your pricing, and you don’t have to pray for a 3% raise while groceries go up 230%.
Do the math on that one brother.
Talk soon,
Bedros Keuilian
P.S. If you’ve been thinking about making the jump into entrepreneurship but don’t know where to start, I want to invite you to our Fit Body Boot Camp Virtual Discovery Day.
You’ll see exactly how our franchise owners are building businesses with multiple income streams, recurring revenue, and a brand that people love.
It’s free and one’s coming up real soon.