Category: Income and Career

Do you spend time daydreaming about getting a really great new job? You know, one that will give you all the opportunities to grow and shine and fulfill all of your potential. Of course, it will also pay you way more than the job you currently have and that means success and security for you and your family. That’s one good reason that you get up every morning and go to work in the first place. Financial security and job fulfillment all rolled up into one big ball sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?

That’s what I always thought and let me tell you this, it doesn’t always quite work out that way. Sure, earning a bundle and getting a title, a company car, perks and prestige sounds like a dream to you, but keep in mind a big key word here: work! They don’t call it “vacation” for a good reason, so while you may dream about some pie-in-the-sky opportunity, it might lead to you getting the “best job ever” and you might wind up hating it!

I don’t think I have ever shared this with you about myself, but here goes, for better or worse. When I was a student in college, one of my dual minors was Philosophy. I remember taking one course on Aesthetics. But truthfully, I didn’t really appreciate it. 😉 So, yes, I actually took Philosophy and looking back on it, I have to ask myself one simple question:

Did I think I wanted to be a philosopher?

I am guessing now the answer was “no”. Most of the great ones are all dead and while they were alive, no one seemed to appreciate them very much. It somehow seems that dying and being appreciated as a great philosopher are linked and that really doesn’t seem very rewarding in just about every way, does it? Well, I guess being remembered and read and talked about after you’re gone does have value. Not much on the money side for you there, but still…

Before you say goodbye forever to your 9 to 5 daily grind and the commuter train ride that you have been “enjoying” every day for the past umpteen years, you more than likely have to be somewhat successful at a “job” to get to your true dream. You know the one you’ve had since you first started out working: financial independence!

Look around though and you will probably see many “long-timer” faces that are plugging away at what they do, even if they dream about FI and yet still haven’t moved off square one in their pursuit of that dream. Others, scores of them, come and go from your work arena and almost all of them leave not for FI. They leave in many cases like the Christians left the arena back in ancient Rome did, or they migrate to some other dead end job that leaves them grinding and commuting forever. That’s not what you want, is it? But before FIRE (financial independence, retire early), it’s all about the job! Job success has to come first.

There is an old adage that “you need to spend money to make money”. The idea itself is certainly legitimate in many circumstances, as most business approaches require some capital investment to get rolling, whether it be buying product, creating a contract, hiring employees, or renting a space.

However, having to spend money to start a business is risky! In fact, if you aren’t risking anything at all, you’re likely getting involved in a scam. I can attest to that because I was the victim of a big one of those back when I was in my late 20’s. Even though it was that long ago, I still remember every detail! Doing anything related to business is either going to risk time or money, no matter what.

Reality check, please. In case you didn’t already know it, whatever job you currently hold right now is very likely going to be one of many you will work at in your career. It’s just a fact these days that you are not going to be anything like your dad or grandfather might have been and work for the same company for 40 years, eventually retiring with a gold watch and a pension. It “ain’t gonna happen” and that’s why résumés for older workers are so very important.

Because today we live in a much more uncertain world, one where the job market changes—sometimes overnight—job security is a thing of the past. And that often doesn’t matter even if you are really good at what you do!

Not so newsworthy, in case you failed to notice, is that it’s winter out there. I can tell because I find myself watching TV each night wrapped in a blanket and drinking hot tea while the wind blows incessantly outside and my car sits snow covered in the parking lot of my condo complex. Nothing gets by me.

So it’s winter and it will stay that way for a good while whether I like it or not, despite the fact that South Florida calls my name almost every day and says, “Garrrry, oh Garrrry, its 83 degrees today.”

I’m not heading to Florida, but instead I am using my time to do what you may think is “the impossible”! I’m figuring out new ways that I can earn some extra money so that maybe, just maybe, next winter I can actually go to Florida and sit in the sunshine (or is that “Sing in the Sunshine”…I tend to get that confused).

Having done just about everything one can do in the business world myself, from working as a trainee to managing a huge chain of retail stores and ultimately running my own business, I think I can, with some expertise, tell you that there are ways to do it successfully and there are ways not to be successful. A word of really good advice on how to run your business: do the former and avoid the latter!

Why do I mention it today? Well, for quite some time now, I have been observing the demise of some of the greatest American business institutions and thinking to myself “why did that happen?” Every time it does, from Blockbuster Video to Radio Shack and from Lehman Brothers to the now-on-life-support Sears and Kmart stores, I think about what might have been done differently to help avoid that disaster.