We Have No Other Choice
“Find a job you love and you will never have to work again.”
I remember how comforting this sounded when I was starting my career… As an ambitious and passionate enthusiast digesting everything he found on Computer Science and Software Engineering. Fast forward to today, I have one tip to share:
Do what you love.
… Just kidding.
Don’t learn the hard way… This is the 21st century. If you’re trying to find a job you love, hold your guard up. The reality will hit you where you least expect, it’s just a matter of time.
People confusing “love” with “can tolerate” might disagree.
Supply and Demand
Long story short, you will have to work. And when I say work I mean doing activities that genuinely feel like work, drain your energy, and take up most of your time, leaving you wondering what are you doing with your life. Especially if the thing “you love” is not in demand.
Let’s say you love writing. You can either start writing a next best-seller, or get realistic and get a job as a copywriter. Than realize that the field is not really in demand and would doom you to a lifetime of hustling, non-scalability, and counting pennies. So you get even more realistic and get a job that can satisfy your basic needs.
Of course, I’m not talking about fancy vacations or any form of fulfillment. I’m talking about food and shelter.
That being said, I don’t think that it’s impossible to write a best-seller or make mad money by writing content, but it is less probable than building a scalable career in a field that’s in demand. And luck plays a major factor in both.
What if you find your dream job?
Even if you’re lucky enough to get paid doing something you sincerely enjoy, it’s just a matter of time, usually within a month, until it starts sucking. It’s one thing to play the guitar, and other thing to have the obligation to show up, act in a certain way, shut your mouth, look down, perform, and get the paycheck colored with your blood and tears.
If you need help distinguishing between the work and the job, read this post.
Actually, I was there. Once I started gaining public recognition because of the things I was good at – I hated it.
It became an obligation. Maybe it’s just a strange case of self-sabotage, but it didn’t resonate with me. After a while, I cancelled everything. Did I lose money? No. I picked a different field I wouldn’t enjoy an started my FIRE journey.
But most importantly, I learned who holds the strings. This is a world where the money talks.
To summarize, there is only one way in which you will never have to work a day in your life. And that way is having money.
Counter argument
A common argument is that you indeed should pick something you love because you’ll do it for 8 hours per day for the rest of your life.
No, not really.
Actually, this statement is almost a misleading as the first one. Here’s what you (or just I) should really do.
Pick something tolerable that pays well, leverage the current market condition, COL differences, and good investments in order to stop being a slave as soon as possible.
I’m almost half way there.
And afterwards, I really won’t have to work a day in my life. The difference between this type of not-working and the people-who-enjoy-their-job type of not-working is that I don’t lie to myself.
Who says these things?
But I understand their point of view… Hence I know that this nonsense is promoted by two types of people:
- Previous generations
- Juniors 🙂
Again, I understand their view – in their world, under the current conditions, it may really not feel like work.
But job security is scarce nowadays.
I remember being worried about my job security in NL, imagine how would it be elsewhere (in countries where people are fired on the spot, with no work-life balance, or high unemployment). Good luck landing a stable job… And loving it – in case the options were not filtered enough already.
And the college graduates who “won’t work a day in their life…”, once they are past the hand holding and riding the back of their senior colleagues, they’ll get hit with responsibilities, upon which they’ll be welcomed in the cruel reality of being an employee.
So let’s paraphrase the nonsense “find a job you love and never work again” and make it look real:
Reach your monthly expenses with passive income and you will never have to work again.
Quote me on that.
Important
IF there were a job where I’d only need to show up, have some flexibility, no pressure, vacation time, no risk of getting fired etc. – I’d take it. I’d forget about FIRE and commit to my profession right away. But that’s the thing – these jobs don’t exist.
Leave a comment if you think otherwise, but be specific – I might send my CV. 🙂
But if we’re honest, even under the best of conditions something would still be missing.
And you know this as well. Especially if you’re an adult that is being told when to go to bed and when to wake up… And you’re acting like you’re fine with it.
Why?
Capitalism
It’s tough when you’re poor. That’s why.
It’s tough when you have to sell the scarcest of the resources in order to put food on the table.
And I like it!
Yes, I used to be on the receiving side of the world’s cruelty, but I played a game with clearly defined rules that we can exploit. Basically, the only metric that determines our experience in life is Money. My job related obligations, deadlines, and conflicts had a way stronger influence on my well-being when my net-worth had four digits. Especially while being a couple of months from a contract renewal and a potential promotion.
Man, I hated the lack of control I had… And I completely attribute it to not having enough money.
As my savings approached a six digit number, my then manager tried to justify giving me a smaller raise by asking the rhetorical question if I think I could have done better. Didn’t even bother arguing. I helped the company cut costs.
Real raises are not received by performance, but by changing the company. Significant raises are not received by loyalty, but by betrayal!
After receiving a 5% raise (which many people consider a lot here…), I quit for another company and they were swift on their feet to match the offer. Read more on the importance of negotiating a higher salary here.
Once again – I’m not upset by any of this. These are just the rules we all obey and must accept.
And once my assets are able to cover my expenses, we can conclude that Player 1 has won the game.
Summary
FIRE may not be the only path to living a fulfilling life, but being a loyal slave for sure isn’t. If you have an urge to defend your position, I’d kindly ask you to read your contract.
And it’s not about FIRE – FIRE is just a mean to an end.
The real reason is: having time and energy for yourself and the things you like…
The real reason is freedom!
So if you ask me why FIRE, there is your answer: we have no other choice.
Comments: 4
OK, I’ll take the other side just for the fun of it. Work is a game. Those who don’t play it very well end up frustrated and generally complain a lot about how bad it is. Those that play it with virtuosity end up fulfilled and enjoy great financial rewards as well as a lot of affirmation and self esteem. Like any statistical sampling or any gaming community there are a few really awful performers, a few truly exceptional ones and a large wad of people in the middle who are kind of average. Of those three groups the awful and the average do have issues with enjoying their jobs but the highest achievers rarely do in my experience. For them work is a fun hobby that provides a sense of community, lots of free stuff like travel and fine dining and access to power that benefits not only themselves but their family and friends as well. Those people are rarely in a hurry to retire because the perks of being at the end of the bell curve are impressive. How many professional athletes do you see wanting to retire early? Even with tens of millions they hang on as long as they can because they are living the dream. Top corporate warriors are no different.
Thanks for the comment, Steve! It’s certainly an interesting point.
Let me start by saying that I agree with the general idea of it. Being in the upper quantiles indeed has perks and provides people (and their families) with benefits that don’t exist elsewhere.
However, it’s only true at that particular level of abstraction – looking from the inside.
Once we zoom out and consider that one’s life will generally last longer than one’s career, it gives us a different perspective. Namely, what will happen after the career eventually ends?
Hopefully the pro athlete adopted at least some aspects of the FIRE mindset (such as long-term planning) and is able to sustain years of being “underpaid”, otherwise it can be a case of Mike Tyson – I’m sure he enjoyed the benefits and rewards (material and emotional) of his career in his prime, but not sure if he’s as happy with milking what’s left of it for entertainment purposes nowadays.
In other words, after one’s career, regardless of how successful it was, a person may be shocked to learn that he was just a depreciating asset and is left alone at residual value, while the machine comfortably continues to operate without him but not vice-versa.
Since we’re talking statistics, an argument can be made that it’s a cherry-picked example. Even if we generalize though, I see no downside of adopting a FIRE mentality – delaying gratification, not overindulging, planning for the future, etc. Then, on the other side of the spectrum, we can have examples like Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard and creator of the first index fund, who practiced his craft until his death last year.
Again, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Not trying to counter a valid point, just broadening the perspective by acknowledging the fact that life >= career.
This is really interesting. I’ve been busting my butt in a job in finance for 13 years now, trying to lead a music career on the side.
It never worked. I get home tired every evening. Call me a whiner, but I need 100% dedication to make my music project work.
The silver lining is that years of daily grind have allowed to amass a certain sum of money (not FIRE yet) that could cover my expenses if I break away from office world and dive completely in pursuing my dream as an artist.
That time is approaching. It is financially scary. But it is exciting just as much.
That may be the only way.
Wishing you lots of success going forward!