I respect your job, but do you?

Often in my talks, people bring up that I seem to think that their jobs aren’t good enough. I like to clear that up straight away. I do respect you and your job. My talks on Personal Development and High Achievement is normally based on the concept that the majority of people do not like their jobs.

I had my first money making ventures when I was about 10. My first business enterprise is about 13 washing cars. My first “real job” is at the age of 14  and 9 months old which was the minimum legal age to start employment in my state of Australia. I didn’t like the jobs I did after school, however I liked the pay. Now I work very little for money and work for passion.

One thing that gets me down is when I hear my friends saying that they would love to pursue their dreams. They would love to live abroad or work for passion rather than money. They really want to provide their children and family security built around their regular pay packet. They have complete dependence on their employer for their family’s security so they have no choice but to work day in and day out.  At times, they have been rewarded with bonus and promotions. However, in line with every increases in pay, their lifestyle cost has also risen. Some of them live in nice homes, some barely survive, yet only a fraction is doing financially well.

I believe the core failure is the basis of our society and education system. Our society is developed so that we rely on government, Government Systems (primarily Education and Health Care) and corporations to support us. The Education System is one of the biggest problems. 

Our educational system says there is one way of doing things. This system is about reducing thought, reducing questioning, there is one right answer and only one— convergent thinking. Not just convergent thinking, but Industrial Age worker thinking that IS THE RIGHT ANSWER.

Our children are told to go to school and get a good job. Many children don’t know what they really want to do. Perhaps more creativity and focusing on passions would bring about a good answer. Often young adults are told or ‘recommended’ what to study on the basis of further education ensuring they get good jobs. I have met people who’s job  is to go to high schools and sell young adults on college or university places. Universities and industries are fighting and often paying schools for each student they receive from them. Schools are being paid directly or indirectly because of their students going to the university.

Now university is important; however harvesting lost students from high school may not be such a good answer. Sure there are lots of respected doctors, teachers, engineers that may disagree with me; however there are so many drop outs and lost people in this world that you have to question if it is good to encourage young adults to spend years studying if they haven’t firstly discovered what they want to do in life.

Then comes the jobs or careers themselves. This is a bit too deep for some however this is worth sharing. Robert Kiyosaki talks about the Cash Flow Quadrant.

Our education system brings up people to stay in the E or S Quadrant. The E and S Quadrant relies on trading your time for money. The I Quadrant is  really simple and easy. I started doing it when I was 18, studying and working part time. The I Quadrant is simple. We are just not taught how to do it.

Now as our young university graduates grow older, they begin to repay their student loans. In some countries like Australia, these loans are enormous, and in the United States of America, lower educated adults often join the defense force to pay off their debts.

After students loans, or perhaps before there even paid off comes the car loans, credit card / personal loans, next thing you know it’s a house loan. As they work more, they borrow more and more. As you see with the university, the debt cycle may even begin years before they even start working in their career.

What about the passion? What about their dreams? Youth is gone and I haven’t even mention the added pressure of supporting families.

The school system does not help us people discover their true passions and desires. It teaches following and working for the very few that have established the big businesses.

Most of our society is based around this concept of E and S Quadrant (Employed, Self-Employed). Working hard, earning and spending all of it. The Chinese are good savers. They save. This savings though is generally either given to their parents or spent on a house. They still work very hard, all of their life. Society struggles to believe that there are other alternatives, look around, everybody is working hard right? Well I have to say everybody isn’t working hard, and there are alternatives. The B and I Quadrant is within reach even for the under educated.

Since turning I am 28, I have worked a total of around 7 months doing work I chose to do and loved. I spend my time focusing on:

• My Personal Development. I study everyday.
• Becoming or leaning how to coach and positively influence others.
• Daily Meditation, exercise, healthy lifestyle, doing what I enjoy, with whom I enjoy.

“The Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris is a best seller. His work is invaluable and I’ve learned a lot from him. We have a lot in common. Only he is much much more successful in most areas. I’m happy to work far less than him at the time of writing. When he wrote that book, he reports he WORKED 4 hours per week. As I write this I WORK 30 minutes a week thanks to passive income. This 30 minutes, if you are interested involves checking bank balances or occasionally doing a Share or Option Trade on the Australian Share Market (we call it Share Market, North Americans Stock Market). Nothing complicated. Something I learned to do while working in fast food after high school or serving in the Army. I studied Business Management, I just found it easier to have a job and invest like mad. It worked for me from 1999 – 2012.

This morning I did a trade in my bed.

If you love your job, great. That’s great. If you prefer to work 4 hours per week to have more time with your family, I strongly urge you to begin your journey of self development and self fulfillment here. My Blog, talks and material are full of advice centered around Personal Development and getting more out of life. I currently take opening minds to the possibility of much more as a challenge and look forward to being a successful coach down the road.

Please remember, if you love your job that is great. You can use your job to fund your investments I did! But don’t sell your self short. If you don’t love your job or love your life maybe it’s time to take serious action.

Go to the Free Resources page where you can find free resources showing you specifically how to measure you net wealth, cashflow and also, assess your current Wealth Mindest!