Going to work

Do you believe that some of us just weren't born to go to work, and work for someone else?

Ever since leaving school 6 years ago i have hated all thought of going to work.
I've had many jobs but never really enjoyed any of them, and hence my longest stay at a job has been 1.5 years.
I've studied quite a bit, not because i want to use it to get a better job, but just to take a break from working full time. Luckily i've always had decent paying job so could fund the study periods.

Its not that i dont like working, i just dont like GOING to work and doing mundane tasks for someone else.
I can sit at home for 10 hours and work on my websites without a problem, so I do have work ethic.

Is it just me, am I just lazy?
I see people at work who dare i say it, seem to be happy to be there and doing their robotic, brainless tasks.
Is that how we are supposed to be? Bow down to the almighty dollar and not take chances in life?

At the moment thats what Im doing, and im not at all happy.
My time at work is often used thinking of my next website idea, or something like that.

Anyone else feel like this?

 

It's not just you. I think most people feel that way.

 

It's true longroad. Many feel as you do. But as your name says - doing it your own way really is the hard way.. at least to start with. In the end tho it'll come down to this:

You get to a point where you not only hate the idea of working for someone else, but it actually makes you ill to think about it. Not the job itself, but how much of your *waking life* is spent lining other peoples pockets - empowering them to move closer to your own dreams than you yourself can through it.

It depends on the person you are. In the end, whether you're doing the job for you, or for someone else, you're doing the job. The best way to deal with it is to find a job that you enjoy, that's rewarding. Like working for yourself, it won't be handed to you on a silver platter - you'll have to earn it.

And that, in itself, is one of life's biggest challenges. You deserve to set your own goals and achieve them - give yourself that much.

I don't know if it helps, but here's something I always keep in mind - it keeps me out of mischief, and reminds me that everything is relative.. whenever i think I could earn more money, I remember that my pocket change could save lives. Whenever I get cocky, I remember those same lives could out-think me in seconds, and learn, absorb, and achieve as I do with far less guidance than I require.. All they need is opportunity. No mater how big or small, there's always something and someone bigger or smaller.

Find a way to count your blessings, no matter how irrellevant they may seem to you right now. I've done some pretty amazing things in my life, yet these thoughts always kept me grounded.

Everythings relative - it's all up to you.

Cheers,

JL

 

I know how you feellongroad. I hated working for other people, the culture of organised work and the time-wasting travel involved in getting to a workplace.

So, I decided 35 years ago to work for myself. Fortunately, I've made a freelance job from my skills as a book publisher, writer, editor, web publisher, in fact whatever seems like it was fun and earned a dollar.Am I rich? No. But I've managed pretty well, reared two happy kids, own several properties and have a terrific lifestyle.

I recommend you look at ways of earning a living by not going off to work each day. This is now a lot easier than when I started, let me tell you. This forum is stacked with people that are basically earning a dollar as publishers of web content. Adsense has given an income to many, and others are selling web related services. Look carefully through all the threads and you'll find some pretty canny people with lots of advice to offer.

Good luck with changing your life and finding lasting happiness. You don't lack goals, just the ideas for achieving your goals.

 

Thanks for the replies people

Rod - nice story. I DO have my own business going already, just obviously lack time to get too far with it at the moment.

sarahk - I do have goals.. alot of goals. Thats the ONLY reason I'm sticking to my job.
I cant quit because it affects too many people if i do, and also affects myself.
I guess my post was more aimed at the work for someone else/work for yourself debate.
I KNOW how to work for myself, but taking that plunge is a huge risk.
You're completely right about getting that pay cheque every week - it makes you feel good.

And no, I havent been backpacking and dont intend to
But I am going to NZ next year

 

Here's my story longroad - see what you feel:

After being self employed for the past 3 years and with cash-flow tight, I took on a part-time job recently thinking I could stick it just long enough to see me through my 'troubled' finances. The job was relatively easy, but I just couldn't. I couldn't, I can't work for anyone else. I quit within the month. I was playing pool with a friend and I just said I aren't going in anymore, just like that. It's not for me.

It's not the money, it's what it does to the soul. It's crushing to me, personally. I felt this /soul crushing/ ever since I first started secondary school, nevermind work. Secondary education was just the same, and then came college (which I also quit after the first year for the same reasons) and then the 9-5 work. Exactly the same feeling all the way through even though I was doing what I supposedly enjoyed, until I noticed a friend making a tidy sum of money by himself selling a product over the Internet. Ooh the excitement.. the way 'out'. He's still working his 9-5, and he has long since give up his small operation. It made him a bit of extra money for the family, and he stopped. Me? Well..

That was the spark, I applied for a loan and left my job within a few months of setting up my similar operation on the side. As soon as it was up and ready to launch I was off.. WHAT A FEELING driving home in to the new free, self-employed lifestyle.

I can't do 'education', I can't do 'work' and I believe I'm in a minority with one of my friends and probably yourself. I can't even imagine working a normal job anymore, it's alien to me. I aren't wired up that way. Fortunately we've found a way out. Many don't and I TRULY believe their mental health and hapiness is at stake.

It's strange indeed: Offer anyone a free'er lifestyle with equal, or even A LOT more money, and they simply won't take it. I don't think they're wired up to feel 'right' in doing that. They're 9-5'ers for life and they aren't interested in anything else. It goes against their nature.

I don't know.. I've long given up trying to convince people of the possibilities and oppertunity of self-employment. It doesn't interest them, but those it does will bite your hand off in excitement like I did when I first stumbled upon the best thing that ever happened to my life - who'd of thought that would of just been a friend re-selling goods on eBay that he purchased from wholesalers?

You are not alone!

Pete

 

Wow, lots of good advice here.

I know what you all mean - I left my last job 10 years ago and have worked for myself and at home for most of that time. A boss is unimaginable but I DO have a lot of goals, a retirement plan (and fund) and an incredible work ethic. I guess I channel my desire to never have an employer into the energy to work 12 hours a day.

Many of my old co-workers from state government are planning to retire at midlife and collect a pension. There are moments I envy them - but then I take a long walk through the complex I fled in '95 and I see robotic, sad, lifeless eyes and despondent movement... and I skip back home to find my own way.

Some fridays, when my friends are coming home with paychecks, I wish I was them. Then other days, when I am dropping a $5k check in my account, they envy me.

I never, ever lose site of fact that, for all the hard work *I* put in, I'm still fortunate to have a skillset and bit of brain matter that allows this to happen. And I never, ever forget to thank the employed... at Walmart, at the DMV, at the supermarket, policing the street on bike, answering my calls to the bank... for without them there wouldn't be a world to emerge to when I DO come out of my home office cave

 

Well, I never thought I'd agree with Pete, but on the point above I do. Schools teach you to work hard, find a good job, and pay 1/2 your money to support politicians and lazy couch potatoes.

What they should be teaching you is how to work smart and have your money work for you. Everyone should own a business just for the tax benefits, but how many do? Too few. They just work hard, complain, and continue to throw their money away.

The one thing I really like about this forum is associating with people that have succeeded on their own in life, and the privilage off learning from them.

 

I suspect most people find it easier to go with what's 'normal'. I've always been a little detatched and more loose in the mind. Society, experience of life and school may of taught me and my peers societies norms, the difference is I never accepted them as they didn't suit me or the way my mind works, not in a work or an educational/college/university sense.

I was a little drunk the other night having a joke with a friendly bar maid - she seemed quite happy in her job and seemed to of accepted it was the only way to earn money. I kept repeating (in a light hearted slurred manner of course) 'Ah you don't have to work.. if you really don't like or love your job, you don't have to work. Not if you don't want to, there's always a way. Always a way' to which she could only reply 'I can't sell my body!' - I wonder, if she was shown a way, that it was possible, even to earn a small fortune with less work - would she start losing interest in work and start feeling that soul-crushing feeling? LOL!

Sometimes I feel like I want to fucking save people from works wrath, but I know most are quite happy doing that and don't feel that same 'wrath' as I did.

I'd love some opinions and views from more people it's an interesting topic this. Close to my heart so to speak. It's real exciting the idea of working for yourself I think. I fucking love it.

Sorry for all the me-me-me shit but it's relative and I'm keen to know if anyone feels the same.

Pete

 

Goodness, Pete, trying to get the poor bar maid to sell her body, eh? LOL

I know what you mean though - and I've had to learn to contain myself sometimes in my enthusiasm for self employment. Face it, it is NOT for the faint hearted and a great many people are NOT cut out for it. I know a lot of people in my life who would simply fall apart without the structure of a job and a paycheck. I often think it is much like organized religion (can you guess what I am based on that statement? haha!).

Seriously - I've tried to 'steer' people in the past, thinking "certainly they want all this joy for themselves, too" (it is particularly easy, with a drink in me, to forget about chasing down clients for money or scope creep or atrophying in my computer chair for 15 hours). The thing is, you might convince them - and it would be a dismal failure for them. Or you might open their eyes just enough that they feel a sense of soul yearning and disatisfaction in their lives forever more, and never do anything about it.

Ignorance is bliss, and I suppose I think that it really is not my place to open eyes. But that doesn't stop me from making things like this or this

Bed is calling...

 

Classic!

Pete

 

we're the same gadood.. but you're worse than me as far as sticking with jobs

And its so true that it IS like religion the way people go to work... they get brainwashed from the start and it sticks with them.
Most people dont look outside the circle.

After all this though, Im still scared to throw it all in and go it alone (yet).
I just dont have the income from my own businesses to live off (and no time to build the business while Im working, so its a viscious cycle)

 

Accountants tell me most off-line businesses don't turn a profit in their first year.

If you're serious and know what you're doing in the line of online business you've chose, and I know it's incredibly risky in this business, but you could take out a loan to cover your living costs with money to invest in your business too.

It's a big risk but that's what I felt I needed to do to crack on with my 'dream'. It was all or nothing, really.

2 years on I'm still in debt to that loan, but I'm now on the way to some extremely good money from perserverance and being free for the past 2 years to explore, test and learn this online business jazz.

I can't imagine how hard it would be still being in a job and trying to set something up. I tried for a few months but I just became compelled to leave so I could really get serious and on with it.

It's certainly a huge risk but whatever works for you. It's far safer to try to keep at a job and work on our business as a side-line.. but that's a hell of a demand.

Good luck!

Pete

 

Hello

Well i'm not an authority on the subject.I think

Do whatever works for you as long as its safe and legitimate.

Thanks

 

I wouldnt take that risk.
Then again, people take out car loans with the knowledge you'll definitely never get the money back.
But still, i wouldn't do it

Anyway, Im not sure how you got a loan without a job... where i live, the banks aren't that generous

 

I, alike many here, hold down a full time job. It's very good paying, but at the same time, it doesn't bring in the excite that my web biz's bring to me. As for turning a profit, I agree, it's very hard to do so in the first year after all the time, effort, advertising that you put into it.
I've recently started a business online where I need to maintain "3rd party independant contractor costs" as well as maintain profit margins against my overhead. My online business is in every sense just like an offline business. If there were more hours in the day, I'd probably put the same amount of hours into it as my offline job (to the chagrin of my girlfriend).
But the excitement of getting that next sale in the inbox is awesome! I know there are a bunch here that agree with me
And yes, I've already turned profit in my newest business. You just need to find a niche that needs to be filled and provide EXCEPTIONAL service.

 

Thats true sarah, you were lucky there.

I'm still very much considering everyday handing in my resignation too and taking the chance... boy its tempting.
I may just do it soon too