Here’s some advice from a newspaper article on how to make the best of a bad job:
For example, if you work as an administrative assistant but have dreams of working in public relations, you might consider reaching out to someone in that department at your company…
All I can say is, if that’s your dream, you’re dreaming way too small…
Whenever I read mainstream articles on employment advice, it always seems like it comes from another reality. Are there actually people who are so conditioned by the system that they think sitting in front of a computer screen all day with a different bureaucratic job title attached to it is a move up?
When you were a kid, did you say, “Mommy, I want to be an actuary when I grow up,” or “Daddy, I want to work in an HR department because I love complying with rules and filling out paperwork.” Of course not. When you were a kid, your dream jobs were probably more like astronaut, firefighter, pilot, ballerina, comic book artist. All good choices. You may have lacked knowledge and experience back then, but at least your eyes could see clearly.
If your goal is to be a cog in a machine — even a better paid cog in a machine — then you’re a schmuck. That might hurt some feelings, I realize, but that is totally necessary. If you don’t feel bad about your crappy life you’ll never change it.
I hold up myself as an example. I’ve been following real dreams and fulfilling my real desires all these years. I’ve become a pilot, a scuba diver, and a hockey player. And as far as work goes? I learned to program and wrote a few popular iPad apps that bring me passive income every day. I also wrote a hell of a novel that people actually enjoy reading. When you think of how many novels go unwritten, and how many of them aren’t very good anyway, this impresses me. And I know a lot of talented programers, far more experienced than me, who are lucky if they can pay their cable bill with their app sales.
And I’m just getting started.
All I did was be stupid enough to believe that I could actually get what I want in life. And I was really clear about what I want, too. To do great things, not be some drone under the fluorescent lights of Dilbertland.
You might say that you’re just doing the smart thing. Your personal desires and goals may be worthwhile, but you’re statistically unlikely to achieve them. And that would be correct.
The problem is you’re thinking too much. You need to be a little stupider.
Stupid in the sense of these teenagers I heard about who started a backyard kind of business, the kind of thing that doesn’t pay well in a field littered with competitors. It might have been landscaping or digging swimming pools or something local like that. I’d have to ask the guy who told me. Anyhow, everybody said they had no chance against the established firms in that field and might as well give up. It would be stupid to waste time doing what was obviously impossible. I’m sure they were counseled to just go to college and fall in line with the rest of the world.
You know that didn’t happen, or I wouldn’t be writing about it. No, those kids ignored all that “smart” advice and kept doing what they liked to do. Within a few years, they were number one in their area and making a very nice living. It pays to be stupid.
Won’t you permit yourself, just once, to believe that all of your “stupid” desires are possible? Maybe you’re afraid that if you get a taste of what it’s like, you’ll have to leave your comfortable safety net behind and plunge into the unknown. And you might fail.
So? Is there a rule that says one chance is all you get? I don’t remember reading that in the instruction manual I got when I was born. Heck, you can even file for bankruptcy multiple times. Some of the wealthiest people today had multiple bankruptcies (and there are probably a few more coming).
You like your little cage, er, I mean office environment, because when youu play by the rules and remain ensconced within it, you don’t have to face the prospect of failure. Here’s some news. Some day, your body will fail. Most likely your heart will finally give up or rogue cells in your body will actually consume you from the inside out. Diabetes is another popular choice these days, with all the carbo-crap people stuff in their faces because they work too much to prepare good, wholesome, simple food.
With the ultimate failure looming ahead for all of us, going broke trying to get what you want doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
Let me tell you another true story of improbable success. You’ve heard of Ayn Rand, the novelist, right? Whether you agree or disagree with Rand, or like her style or not, the fact is you have to be a genius to do what she did. It’s hard enough to write a book decent enough to get published, but she escaped from Russia, learned a new language, and intentionally wrote a couple of bestsellers that affect people deeply, still sell decades later, and promote individualistic ideas that were frowned upon even back in her day. Imagine that an unknown, penniless immigrant in Hollywood told you — insisted — that she would do all of that with her life and more. How stupid can you be, right?
If it’s smart to stay where you are, smart not to entertain any dreams bigger than your backyard, smart to walk that line that was laid out for you so nicely by your masters, than my advice to you is… get stupid.
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