Spencer Combs Article Bank

  The world is a machine. A vast, efficient, relentless machine focused on two things: speed and automation. If your job, your skill, or your output can be described by a predictable set of instructions, the machine will eventually learn to do it faster, cheaper, and without complaint. This is not a threat. It is a reality. It is the new baseline. So, where do you stand? Are you building your house on sand, relying on tasks that are easily copied? Or are you building a firewall? The firewall is the part of you the machine cannot touch. It's the unique combination of judgment, empathy, creativity, and the courage to make a non-obvious choice. This week is a choice. You can perform the necessary, replaceable tasks. Or you can invest in your firewall. The question isn’t about job security. It’s about value creation. What is the one thing you can learn, practice, or build this week that will make you so valuable, no one else can do your job five years from now? It's the dif...

The clock runs. The hour passes. The time is spent. Most of the world gets paid for the passing of that time. It's a comfortable contract. An agreement of safety. Trade one hour of life for an agreed-upon unit of currency. The problem with this contract is that it caps your potential. It rewards presence, not performance. It celebrates effort, not outcome. But the economy of impact is different. No one pays the painter for the hours she spent cleaning the brushes. They pay her for the masterpiece. No one pays the entrepreneur for the hours he spent staring at the ceiling. They pay him for the breakthrough idea. They pay for the result . The moment you accept this truth, your relationship with the clock fundamentally changes. You stop asking, "How long will this take?" You start asking the only question that matters: What can I do with this time that will yield the single greatest result this week? This is the question of leverage. It's the search for the acti...

We talk about freedom. We talk about choice. We talk about work-life balance , the hustle , and the grind . But sometimes, all that chatter is just noise, distracting us from the actual lever of autonomy . The lever is a number. It’s not your net worth. It’s not your annual salary. It's not your bank account balance right now. It’s your FUN (F* U Number) . It’s the amount of capital, invested strategically, that would spin off enough residual income —passively—to cover your chosen lifestyle expenses forever. It’s the size of the asset that makes the job optional. The deadline negotiable. The compromise avoidable. It’s the number that means you get to say 'no' to the client who drains you, 'yes' to the project that inspires you, and 'stop' to the routine that suffocates you. It's the ultimate measure of your self-reliance . If you don't know your FUN, you don't know the distance to your freedom. You're just wandering. You're working withou...

We are storytellers. Every single one of us. We wake up, and the narrative begins. About the day, about the work, about our capabilities. But often, the most persistent story, the one whispered most loudly, is the disempowering one. "I don't have enough time." "It's too hard." "I'm not good enough." "They won't listen." This isn't just internal monologue; it's the operating system for your actions. It dictates what you attempt, what you avoid, and what you achieve. The insidious thing about these stories? They feel true. Because we've repeated them so many times, they've become part of our perceived reality. But here's the secret: you're the author. That disempowering narrative? It's a draft. A first pass. A working title you've been stuck with. And just like any author, you have the power to edit. To delete. To rewrite. What is the truth? Not the convenient excuse, not the protective shield, but th...

The calendar flips. The page turns. Another year ends, and a new one begins. Most people treat this transition like a hard reset. A magical switch. As if a new number on the date automatically wipes the slate clean and hands them a fresh start. It doesn't. Next year isn't magically better. It's built. It's constructed, brick by brick, by the choices you make now . Especially now. In this final quarter. The bridge from this year's potential to next year's guaranteed success isn't paved with resolutions made on January 1st. It's built with specific, non-negotiable actions taken in the eleventh hour. For me, that bridge is clear: onboarding 60 agents into the Productivity Coaching Program at Keller Williams Jacksonville and First Coast. It’s not just a number; it’s 60 new engines ready to fire, 60 seeds planted for exponential growth. It’s the foundational momentum that makes everything else possible. What is your bridge? What is the one, undeniable, criti...