At school I was told the only way to get a job was to work hard and get the right qualifications. Well that’s the general rule of thumb anyways; coming out with a philosophy degree will only aid your deep thoughts during your unemployment, whilst a music degree will have you busking outside Oxford Circus station. Ed Sheeran settings. Lemme not get ahead of myself though, before the job you’ll have to master the interview… or interviews in my case. I wanted my job so badly that I had pre-prepped answers for nearly every other question the interviewer could’ve thrown at me. Even had a cue when I needed to *laugh* or *tell a lame joke* just to add some personality into my speech. Changing up my accent because South London doesn’t get you into Canary Wharf. All that effort to impress someone who goes back to their desk, slaving over a piece of work; doing that to try impress someone-else… the wonderful life of a 9-to-5 aye.
Every man and their dog will tell you about the luxuries of working for yourself. If this blogging thing pops off, I’ll be the first one googling ‘how to write the perfect resignation letter’, but it’s naive to think that’s where the hard work ends. I keep hearing ‘9-to-5 is uninspiring, ‘9-to-5 is demoralising’ etc, but working for yourself is a 24/7 job and let’s not forget that. You can’t even become complacent because if you’re not keeping up with things, you’re gonna get left behind. 60% of new businesses in the U.K. fail within the first 3 years; there’s a million and nine people out there trying to make their dream work, it’s a competitive market out there! And not to be overly critical but a lot of the entrepreneurial ideas I hear about these days have no foundation whatsoever, but I guess telling your mate that their dream idea is a myth isn’t a conversation I’d like to be having.
And these Mark Zuckerberg or Richard Branson comparisons make me laugh too. If that’s your benchmark for success, then I hope you’re quite content with failure. I’ve seen people go from Steve Jobs to no jobs real quick because of unrealistic ambitions. Guys will buy a turtleneck and swear they’re an entrepreneur. That’s not to say that you won’t gain that sort of success but retweeting ‘inspirational’ memes and liking ‘daily motivation’ pictures won’t help the cause. We’ve become a generation of talkers who’ll rather tell you about a dream than make it happen. I’m not exempt neither, I told myself I’ll make an app by the end of last year but when I got a couple quotes from a developer, I decided working in banking wasn’t as bad as people made it sound. It’s got its perks you know.
I’ve seen people go from Steve Jobs to no jobs real quick because of unrealistic ambitions.
Of course in five or ten years time I wanna be in the position where I don’t have to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. But until then, its loads of hard work and alarms in five minute intervals until I get my ass out of bed. Growing up in an ethnic household and saying you wanna follow a path which doesn’t guarantee a consistent income will be the quickest way to get the locks on your front door changed. I know one guy who told his mum he wanted to pursue a career in music and she summoned the strength of the Earth to falcon spirit bomb slap his face. Next time he’ll think twice before having ambitions. On a serious note though, don’t ever feel that you’ve settled just because you’re in a 9-to-5 role. The grass always looks greener on the other side but some of these guys don’t even have soil, only see long grass in Pokémon. As long as you enjoy what you’re doing, the value of it will never decrease based on someone else’s inability to see its worth.
Joe
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