The fact that my friend is quitting this week brought some painful truths to light. I hate it here.
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s great that I have this nice paying job at Fortune 500 company and all but it is absolutely one of the most boring, unfulfilling jobs I’ve ever had. To make matters worse I moved to within 5 minutes my work place at the edge of suburbia with a view of the freeway just to avoid traffic and get to work on time.
As the days sludge on I’m counting the days until I can escape this prison I’ve created for myself.
I decided that:
- I’ll give the job a year to inspire me, otherwise I’m leaving
- good thing that year is almost up. - A year is a nice roundabout figure to have on my resume at this boring but otherwise prestigious workplace
- in case I don’t get my business running up in time and need to get another job. - If I stay for a couple months longer I could get wait it out and get my bonus but…
- If I get a job that pays me 10-15k more than I’m making now I’d leave yesterday
- it wouldn’t make sense to wait for a 2-3K bonus.
I purposefully got a short-term apartment lease in anticipation of the year coming up which is only a month and half away now.
In the meantime I’m still working on getting the pieces of my business in place. If all goes well I won’t need a job by March!
I still have the marvelous task of deciding where I want to live for $200k. Anyone have any suggestions?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I say, “More Power 2 U!” More of us should be brave enough to realize that we have enslaved ourselves, and need to be freed! When it come to your personal finance, choose freedom over income.
I think you’re on the right track, though I may not have lasted the year. Business will be a challenge, but allow it to make you wiser and more focused.
Barbados may be a good choice for 200k!
October 10th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Hey 1WB! Thanks for the support!! I think if people realized that being married to a paycheck is a bad idea then they’d have more initiative to take matters into their own hands… Not everyone was made for cutting it out on their own — I just know I could never be happy working for someone else.
Barbados eh? That brings a whole lot of issues to mind, namely taxes, and opportunity. I need a home base to operate out of. I’m so sick of renting.
October 10th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Hey while I have nothing against Barbados you need to move slightly to the west and settle in St. Lucia.
Barbados is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too flat and you would get bored. St. Lucia has flat lands as well as hills and mountains so you get all that variety.
Don’t worry about the taxes and such. In fact you know what you can do dude? Go there and contact my mom…..let her have your house up here and you can have hers. I can promise you it WILL NOT cost you US $200k!
October 11th, 2007 at 9:30 am
RoFL you people trying to get me to move back to the Caribe I see! Well if I’m gonna do that I might as well just move to Puerto Rico! lol.
I need some urban sprawl to be happy. So San Juan or bust! lol
October 11th, 2007 at 10:05 am
I see LuLu is plugging her hometown!
I only know one person that makes $200K, He is a VP of a fortune 500 co. He also option trade on the side, which brings him to that nice salary.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:47 am
With the idea of pushing the dollar’s purchasing power further (even though it’s shrinking) I’d say take a trip South of the border. Acapulco is nice.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:39 am
Juan! LOL I enjoyed the cheery coded message! And if you must know, I got scrambled toward the end, but I got it! So nice to hear from you.
As for this occupational prison you’re serving time in, it’s a hazard of building a resume. We all find ourselves in one at some time or another. The trick, my friend, is in realizing that it is necessary to eventually stage a breakout and WHEN. lol If you never have a job that you despise, then you can’t fully appreciate the wonderful freedom when you’ve made the right decisions and struck out on your own. In short, it’s a necessary part of reaching professional maturity, so don’t count it as a loss. Look at anyone who’s a success, and he’s most probably had “that job.” You can look back one day when you’re professionally fulfilled and say, “I remember when I used to hate going to work,” and bask in the afterglow of self-starting. But the reward of making these measured entrepreneurial strides will manifest itself because you’re responsibly balancing everything with the mundane, everyday job. At least you’ve got the right attitude, which is, “Hey, this is just temporary.” Some of us keep our heads down for years and years without ever realizing even that much. (Remember “Joe versus The Volcano?” Worst movie ever made, but it got across that blah, under-the-fluorescent lights feeling of a bad job.) Plus, it CAN be an eye opener to learn that just because you’ve got that coveted job in a Fortune 500 company, it’s not automatically all that you dream it is; that maybe it’s just as important to feel yourself integral and a part of everything going into that company (as opposed to compartmentalized into predictable tasks, in a specialized position) as it is to see the company you’re working for listed on the Dow. That’s why you’ll appreciate the proverbial sun on your face, hands-on involvement in all aspects of your own business. You’ll learn you never want to be sequestered to some small area of a business again and will know the difference and quality of what you’ve got when you attain it. Know what I mean?
Hope that lifted you! Was that exhaustively inspirational enough? (Looks more like a bad creative writing assignment than an exortation, huh.)
Take care, future millionaire!
Melanie
October 12th, 2007 at 9:30 am
@MoneyMonk - lol@Lulu. No I don’t make 200k a year, I wish! That’s about as much house as I can afford right now. Got any ideas wheres a good place to live for that price?
@Marshall - ah yes, I could finally start speaking Spanish again. I miss it really. But I’m not ready to de-partiate myself lol. Security is horrible in some parts south of the border — and while I don’t look like a typical American and I speak Spanish the minute they see me flash that blue passport around my ass is grass! lol
@Melanie - wow you put that ever so eloquently… that made me smile real big! I’m at an utter loss for words. Thank you !!!!!!!!!!
October 13th, 2007 at 3:01 am
1mil- it’s good that you realize this now and not 40 years later when you’re an old man! Congrats on the short timers’!
October 13th, 2007 at 6:19 am
Barbados was more for the exchange rate and scenery… lol.
I agree with the renting thing. Maybe if you strangly considered my post you read about Real Estate. Anyway just a thought.
Also, would you mind taking a look at the free e-book I offer on my site and giving your honest opinion about it? I curious to see how close our thoughts are on some of the issues I adress there.
Much Love….
October 13th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Hi there again, Juan! Got your comment, and thank you! You know, about the only thing I could add (if you think that it would even apply, but it seems right up the alley for this subject in my experience) is this post I put up a while back —
Finding Perspective: “More” by Mark Osborne
That little film is so thought-provoking, but it’s more of a “what is success to you, really” kind of message. I hope it’s what you could consider an expansion on that thought. LOL Feel free to use the post or even just the film link, friend!
Have a fantastic weekend!
Melanie
October 19th, 2007 at 10:25 am
[…] In my continued quest to escape the ghetto, free myself of those Middlester chains, and become a Millionster I’ve been able to identify some of these issues in myself and address them accordingly — others I’m still working on. […]
November 24th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
You should totally just leave. I know it took me awhile to decide to leave, but boy am I phreaking happy. I went through the decision of having to leave my bonus. I knew I was going to leave after a year, and I did. If you’re not happy, don’t push it. But before you push off, make sure you find a job you REALLY like first. I went through several discussions with several prospective employers, and it took me 3 months to actually find a job I’d actually want to interview at. Chances are, with your skills, you can pick whatever job you want (although asking for a high price might constrain that a bit), so just find one you will really like.
If you’re going to leave prison, make sure not to go to another jail.