Recently I had a talk with my two daughters, Jill 26 and Lisa 19. My son Joe, 28 was not around at the time, but I’ve learned over the years that if I don’t seize the moment to say things that I deem important, they sometimes never get said. For 26 years I worked for a printing company in Baltimore for a corporation that was sold multiple times during my tenure. In late 2003 the company decided to close the plant and redirect the work to a few of their other printing plants.
Before working in the corporate world I played drums (and sang) for a living in a Top 40/disco band. We’re talking the 1970’s folks. I’ve always loved music and to this day singing karaoke is one of my favorite things to do. I gave up my music career when I decided that I wanted to settle down and share my life with my loving wife of over 31 years now. My love for her created a desire to find a 9 to 5, so that we could spend our evenings and weekends together and raise a family.
I’ve never regretted this decision but I will admit when I hear a really good band, I often wonder what could have been?
I believe that my experience in the corporate world was much the same as everyone else’s. I suppose that is why I felt compelled to initiate this conversation with my daughters. Now that they are out in the corporate world, coming home with stories of mistreatment and office politics, I decided it was time to let them know unequivocally how I feel about it.
Working for someone else sucks (excuse my french). Although I’m sure there are exceptions to this, more often than not, this is the truth. I understand how it works and why it works, but I encouraged them to search their hearts because there are better ways to live our lives. Each of us are unique individuals, never to be repeated again and we all have desires in our hearts. The problem is… we get distracted (for lack of a better term).
Everyday our minds are bombarded with things to do, advertisements, responsibilities, people, pets, news, bills and on and on and on. How can we see the forest through the trees? If we don’t know where we’re going, someone else will tell us where to go and we’ll end up making someone else’s desires come true.
Who owns the company YOU work for? Do you know why he or she started the company? Because he or she had a desire in their heart… that’s why! Who is this person to you? Would you rather help that person accomplish their desires… or would you rather wake up each day and work toward accomplishing your’s?
I understand that working for someone else has its place and everyone should experience it, but come on! What happens is when the paychecks start coming in we begin to buy more things… and eventually we begin to buy things that we are required to pay back over time… making payments, month after month after month. And when this happens we become more and more locked into working for Mr. Corporate. And pretty soon we NEED our J-O-B.
This post is getting rather long. I may need to continue this on future posts, but for now I want you to pay close attention to this video. Here is a man who will prove that you don’t need a college education in order to be successful. Here is a man who recognized the value in following HIS heart. Here is a man who knows that you MUST Love What You Do.
Enjoy!