Most of my friends HATE their jobs. They work 25 – 30 hours per week (not counting the time they spend sleeping on the toilet between meetings). They don’t like their boss, and their co-workers don’t respect them. The pay is decent. Vacations are better. Images of the movie “Office Space” come to mind as they tell me stories of their company. In a day of 10% unemployment (17% for black people – CNN), they are working because they don’t think they can find or do anything else. And retirement comes in 15 years.
I have another “friend” who LOVES the company he works for. He’s supposed to work 40 hours a week – he does 60. If he could, he would be there 80 hours a week. Pay sucks. Vacations are short. He goes to bed thinking about his company. His customers respect him. His peers respect him. His boss like AND respects him. He wakes up thinking about it. Did I mention that he LOVES his company.
Which person do you want to be?
By my calculations: 8 hours / day x 5 days / week x 50 weeks / year x 45 years (working)
= 37% of our lives working (not counting the commute time)
We need to do what we love. People worry that they will not be able to make money doing what they love. Ridiculous! Does it make sense to think that you can only make money doing what you loathe? Of course not! In his book The 4 Hour Work Week (fourhourworkweek), Tim Ferris talks about figuring out how much money you need to make to maintain your lifestyle. Then calculate what you need to do to get there. Nothing arbitrary. Actually figure it out. $5000 / month. $4000? It’s probably less than you think.
Before starting my own company, I listed all of the things that I enjoy doing: talking to people, public speaking, writing, reading, technology, making money (that had to be there), being there for my family, etc. I then matched that with what I was good at: public speaking, business development, networking, sales, marketing. Engineering was nowhere on the list. I was OK at it, but even when I told people that I was going into sales, it didn’t surprise anyone.
So I launched my companies (Scientifically Speaking and Business 317) and I have never looked back. The money sucked in the beginning, but the money sucks in the beginning for all entrepreneurs. As you work more and more and more (the days will be longer), you will love what you do more and more and more. The payoff will be that the 37% of your day that you spend working, will be a much more enjoyable time for you and those around you.
Don’t Let Your Job Suck!
