Don’t worry – there’s nothing wrong with us or our marriage. But for reasons I won’t get into publicly, let’s just say that the working-world has decided to pose some complicated challenges that would otherwise make it take longer to get there.
Since going down this path of reaching financial freedom, we’ve both been so completely infatuated with the goal of getting there. We’re seduced by the thought of what our lives will be like when we do.
Unfortunately though sometimes even though you think you’ve got all the pieces to your life in place, things beyond your control will try to compromise your progress.
Thankfully we’re strong enough that we won’t let it.
Breaking the Basic Bargain:
When I first started out my career, it was with one ambition only: To take care and provide for my family.
Your compensation is the basic bargain (to borrow from the philosophy of Henry Ford). An employer pays you because they need your services, and you provide to them good services because you want to keep receiving that paycheck.
As we get older, our goals and motivation will change. Sometimes part of the bargain is to seek more power. Sometimes we simply seek more money. Regardless though of what the reasons are, our reasons are still ours and ours to decide for ourselves.
That is … until there is manipulation. None of us lives in a vacuum. We are all influenced by other people and powers. Our work is no different.
Sometimes these other influences will tell you things that aren’t true. And you’ll be too blind to know it. You’ll wear a shroud of ignorance that obscures the goals in life you had previously set. You’ll forget to keep your eye on what the long-term prize really should be.
Be wary for it is an unfortunate circumstance of some people to push others to results if for only their own selfish needs. They don’t care about your outcome. They see you as disposable. They abuse the basic bargain. And it’s even more regrettable that we let them treat us like this in that regard.
You Are in Control of Reaching Your Own Goals in Life:
What happens when your employer violates the basic bargain? What happens when they abuse their position by creating an impasse where your talents and compensation are no longer proportional?
Are you just supposed to sit back and take it?
Fortunately my own personal mantra won’t allow me to be shut down so easily. I value my time and money too much to let it be restricted by the opinion of anyone else.
I reject the arrangement that your paycheck should be your life line. I just can’t accept the notion that my life goals and dignity should rest upon the decisions of others.
Proving to myself that I didn’t have to rely on an employer forever was part of my motivation for starting this blog. I wanted to transcend this hypocrisy. I wanted to rise to something greater. I wanted to be more than just normal or a cog in the system.
This cog has some pretty big plans. My wife and I plan to one day soon have enough income sources that we don’t ever have to work again for money. That way we can spend our time any way we please. With our kids, with our hobbies, with our passions, with each other. I can pursue my life-long passion of helping others with their finances. I can fulfill my dream of going into business for myself.
It’s been said before that if you aren’t making goals and plans for yourself, then someone else will.
One of my favorite things about blogging is that it has taught me that this myth of making money online is really not a myth at all. It’s a reality!
The myth I’m talking about is this ability to make money appear literally out of nowhere. Each and every day I check my affiliate income only to find myself in awe as to how it is that my account is somehow $25 to $50 more than the day before.
What other proof do you need than cash in the bank? That’s real power. When you’re the one pulling the puppet strings and accelerating your way to your goals faster than everyone else around you, then you know you’re doing something right.
That’s the one truth I focus on – Knowing that I won’t ever have to compromise on my goals in life. No one can steal them from me or prevent me from getting there.
When you actually believe in yourself and understand what it is that you’re capable of, that’s all you’ll ever need. No contempt or discern for your talents from others will be enough to limit your potential. Vanished is the fear that employer uses to hold you in place. You are your own conscious. Make your own arrangements. Be capable of much more than you they could ever imagine.
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It’s a sad truth that they treat us nothing but just employees who provide services they need. I am just lucky to have a good environment and been promoted so my family needs are well met. Sure there would be a time in the future that I have to decide and to control my goal for my own good.
That’s good to hear that you are in a good place right now. About a year ago I was as well, but sometimes others cause things to change.
Yes, I agree. Hope that change will turn out good. By the way, my previous job is like how you described it above. The reason I left is the money and support from the company which did not meet my expectations.
I feel that much of the problem here is that mid-level and upper-level management have become totally disconnected from the worker bees. In the short run, every good worker tries to do their assigned task well. But in the long run, we all try to integrate our desires with our organization. We may want to be assigned more of a certain kind of work, or get a chance to work on a certain project, or work less hours, or work with a certain person, or acquire a new skill. However, we are often simply treated like parts in a machine.
Thus, many a VP goes in to work in the morning and has a very creative and fulfilling day – but at the expense of everyone else. “Hey, let’s cancel Project A (that I never liked), start a new business line (that interests me), and move our biggest work center half way across the country (to a location I like).” It’s all very exciting for him! Yet the workers only see big changes that are not aligned with why they joined the company in the first place.
This is why doing something on the internet is so empowering, even if you never make any money at it. At least you can be in control of something. If you want to create something, you don’t need permission from the boss, and the VP can’t nix it three months down the road. Of course, you could always do that in your personal life with your leisure activities and so forth. But online, you can now always do “work” type of activities – learning new skills, interacting with other experts, building something, etc – without having to get your company on board with it. That we even have these possibilities makes it an amazing age in which to live.
Well said! The self-appointed will make the trees bend in the direction that best suites them. And then what is left for those of us who helped plant them?
I totally agree that this whole experience of building and creating something out of nothing using the Internet has been a truly remarkable experience. In fact it is has given me a lot of hope and courage to one day make it the only “working” income I pursue.
You are basically describing how Greg and I felt at our old jobs- especially Greg. He was on salary which meant that they thought they owned his life. It got really old fast.
Exactly. We sign up for a job, not a way of life.
Spot on post MMD, when you trade time for money, its a lose lose situation. When you get money aka passive income and have more free time, compared to 160 hours a month for all workers, its the best sceanrio. I have goals in life, and it is on me to achieve them.
All that the time for money trade does is make me want to work harder to become my own individual and depend upon no one else except the customer.
Interesting post and one that I’m sure so many can relate to. I worked in Corporate America for many years and most of the time I felt valued, well-paid, interested in my work and overall enjoyed the experience. There were times, however, that I felt overworked and stressed out. But secretly, I always wanted to be my own boss.
Not everyone has a desire to generate income independently. It was for those people I wrote a post titled .
Cheers,
Ree
Thanks Ree, and welcome to the site. Dealing with artificial barriers is my biggest frustration right now. It’s hard for me to stay stuck on a leash for too long before I just want to bust free.
I’ll have to check out that post.
When all else fails, you sometimes have to change companies to remove the barriers. Sometimes the up an leave on their own…it’s nice when that happens.
As for that post I mentioned in my comment, for some reason it didn’t show up. But if you’re interested you can search for this title: A Surefire Method for Getting a Letter of Recommendation. It may not be exactly relevant for your situation, but for readers who intent to continue “working for the man” it might be a helpful way to look at your job/performance from the day you start working.
Cheers,
Ree
It’s funny because I was just thinking today about how I could probably never work a salary based job. All the hours that could be consumed and only making one lump sum. Ah!
I don’t stick around when an employer thinks he gets some special privileges when it comes to human interaction just because I’m working for them 🙂 I have enough passive income to just give them the finger and go hehe
You are in charge of your career and your life..
If the company isn’t treating your right.. You have to be prepared to leave and find something else.
They wouldn’t shed a tear if they decided to cut jobs and eliminate yours, so you shouldn’t feel bad if you decide to go that route.
It’s a nice feeling when you know you can choose your own destiny. Keep the faith, before you know it, you will be there!
I’m sorry that you’ve encountered this challenge. I think I can relate. Hopefully things will improve or you will find a way to fix it. Thanks for commenting on my post at More Than Just Money on Mentors I Admired. Your comment was spot on about truly great mentors. I bet you’re thinking you need one right about now too.
I guess I am pretty lucky that I have been my own boss for most of my career. I work for others now, but it’s in a contract type position, so I don’t really have to put up with many of those rat race issues. However, I still trade my time for money, and hopefully in a few years, that won’t be necessary. I will be able to work when and if I choose. I believe that will make all the difference in the world.
When you have focus and commitment, nothing can get in your way. Even a hurdler hits the hurdles during a race sometimes. They still finish the race! 🙂 good luck with your goals.
This is such a head on and passionate post! I like to say that no one cares if I do or don’t do, so the doing it is solely up to me. The last job that I held was working for Apple at an Apple Store, and it was a great experience, but It was retail (albeit “special retail”). I’d been consistently building up my internet ventures years prior to working there, and then about a year into my employment I experienced an incredible day online, so I thought that I’d be foolish to keep building on someone else’s dream instead of my own coupled with my personal declaration that I would scale and keep scaling if “it ever happened”.
I remember the pain of working in corporate america realizing that I didn’t belong as I knew I could become successful using my talents and knowledge. Just know that there’s room for your ideas in the world/internet, and take comfort in knowing that not everyone will take this risk, so keep believing in your dreams at an almost manic level, don’t try to connivence anyone about what you’re doing, and understand that there’s a hefty time sacrifice price tag attached to something that holds so much power to make you ultimately happy in this life.
I like how you put it that “I am responsible for reaching my own goals”. I couldn’t agree more. Most times we want to just resign ourselves to fate and anything else we can use as an excuse, at the end of the day though, its upon upon us to make something of our lives despite the odds.
I’ve learned this since working for myself this past year. The freedom and flexibility I have by working for myself is priceless. I can’t imagine going back to work for someone else who has control over my day.
Hearing the way you describe self-employment, it makes me wonder why I allow myself to be employed and put myself into that position.