FBC – 398 – How you are losing $1,400 a day without even knowing it

How you are losing $1,400 a day without even knowing it….

This is money that you could have used to enjoy life and have a good time.

Still… You blow them away because of one tiny little mistake.

In this episode, I am going to teach you how to keep those $1,400 in your vault and have a good time instead of blowing them away

make sure to tune in

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Today I wanted to talk to you about emotional mastery. Because this is super, super important. And it's not just in business, it's in everything. Right.

If you don't control your emotions, you can get in a lot of trouble. You may have this friend who's very impulsive and ends up in fights and stuff. And, you know, this person would end up in legal trouble because they just did something bad because of an impulse that they don't take the time to actually think about what's happening and stuff.

So your emotions, they will guide your life and even business wise. Someone who cannot keep their cool and make some rational decisions is going to end up in a place where bad things can happen. You just need to be able to be aware and actually master them.

So let's say, for example, something bad happens to you. And I don't know, like the boyfriend was a jerk. Your business partner stole the money and your wife cheated or something. Something bad happens to you and you start getting fixated on that.

So your emotions start getting too attached to this thing which happened in the past. And yeah. It hurts. Right. So I'm not saying that these things don't hurt and stuff, but you'll see how far these things can go.

These individual events, isolated events that happen, have far longer ramifications than you actually think and they can actually haunt you for the rest of your life. You’ll hear someone saying that person did this twenty years ago and it feels like they just did it today. And although life is being conditioned because of this, you hear about it.

So the thing is that the bad thing happened to you. Right. And it will trigger a negative emotion. OK, and just understand that that it will be the same thing with a positive emotion here. I'm just focusing on the bad ones because these are the ones that impact your life in a negative way.

So something bad happens to you and you keep that emotion. And the emotion lasts for like hours and even days. So someone was rude to you and a few hours later you’re still, like, hung up on it.

So this emotion that you're holding onto, if you're holding on to that emotion for hours or for days, you're in a bad mood. But it's just an emotion that has been with you for a few hours or maybe a day or something because something bad happened to you and now you're in a bad mood.

So if you want to know what the mood is, this is an emotion that you're just processing. That's the definition of mood. So here obviously it could be something good happen to you and then you're in a good mood. So you're carrying that emotion with you for a few days or a few weeks. OK.

How you are losing $1,400 a day without even knowing it

Let's say, for example, I give you a $1440. OK, I give it to you. You know, every day I give you that, I'm like, yeah, here a $1440. And someone comes and actually steals forty dollars out of those, out of that money which is like one thousand four hundred forty.

So what do you do, do you take the remaining fourteen hundred and throw them out the window or what do you do because you're admitting that you're now missing for forty dollars out of that? Any sane person will tell you, keep the money man. I still have fourteen hundred. What the hell am I going to worry about 40 that some bastard took from me?

It kind of sucks, but you know, I still have that right. So what I just did there, that's why I was doing the math. And my math is not the best.

But what I just did there is that its 1440.This is the number of minutes in a day. OK. Let's say someone took, 40 minutes out of that and gave you a hard time, and then this is what people do. You will forget about the rest of the day and you're just going to be fixated on those 40 minutes. OK, so this is how bad we can get fixated and stuff.

So let's say now that if you carry that same emotion for weeks, instead of carrying it for like a few hours and stuff, then it will become a temperament. So this is how that same emotion, if you don't control it, if you don't get rid of it quickly enough, you might not realize it, but it will turn into a temperament or temper.

Well, you understand what I mean right now. Don't do that. What's with this guy who has a temper and stuff? You've seen people who have been cranky for weeks and stuff just because something bad happened.

OK, so then if you carry that for years, you know, instead of weeks, then guess what? It will become a personality trait. OK, so you're you think that your personality traits really like from genetics or something?

And trust me, I am the worst at this. We can be in the same room and I’m mad at you. We can be in the same room for six months. I won't talk to you. It's not a problem. I am the worst at this.

So this exercise is more for me than it is for you guys because I am terrible with this. That's why when I heard this, I was like, oh yeah, this is really interesting. It can help me.

The Money You Never Made Costs More Than The Money You Lost

Most people only count the cash that leaves their wallet. The far bigger leak is the money you never made because you waited. Every day an offer sits unfinished, every week you delay raising your price, every month you keep doing a task a machine could do, you are paying an invisible bill. I ran the numbers on my own stalling once and it stung. The hours I spent on work worth ten dollars an hour were hours I did not spend on work worth a hundred. That gap, day after day, is the real fourteen hundred dollars.

The fix is not to hustle harder, it is to notice the leak and plug it. Track where your hours go for one week, then move the low value work off your plate. I explain how I audit my own time and kill the expensive habits on my Freedom by Choice podcast, and I share the longer breakdown on my Substack. On the true cost of delay and indecision, Harvard Business Review has covered it well, and the productivity research from McKinsey Digital shows how much value hides in the tasks you keep postponing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are you losing money without knowing it?

By letting unmastered emotions drive your decisions. Martin explains that impulsive reactions, in business and in life, lead to costly mistakes you never consciously notice. A single emotionally charged choice can blow away money you could have enjoyed. Emotional mastery is the hidden skill that quietly protects both your finances and your peace.

Why is emotional mastery so important in business?

Because someone who cannot stay calm makes rational decisions nearly impossible. Martin warns that uncontrolled emotions lead people into fights, legal trouble, and bad business calls. When you master your emotions, you respond thoughtfully instead of reacting on impulse, which keeps you out of the expensive situations that damage money and relationships alike.

How do emotions guide your life and decisions?

Your emotions influence almost every choice you make, often without you realising it at all. Martin points out that impulsive people repeatedly land in trouble because they act before thinking. By becoming aware of your emotional state, you gain the ability to pause, assess what is really happening, and decide with a clear head.

How can you start mastering your emotions?

Begin by noticing when a strong feeling rises, then deliberately pause before acting on it. Martin says awareness is the foundation: when something bad happens, take time to think rather than react. That gap between trigger and response is where rational, money saving decisions live, and practising it consistently turns mastery into a habit.

About the Author

Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches , from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms , while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

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