I saw a mechanical engineering ad a few months ago for $100 000.
Keynesianismz!!1
19, gas station attendent. Below the poverty line. Attending school for marketing, hoping to be a project manager and eventually an acolyte of some movement in Congress to restrict Congress’s monetary-restricting powers. Father’s been a machine tech and socialist most of his life. Mom’s a “compassionate” conservative. I’m a “wobbly”, per C. Wright Mills. So “wobbly” Libertarian. Yeah.
Which Regal?
Harbour View Grande in Suffolk, Virginia, theater number 1866 if I’m correct. You? How long did it take you to become GM?
25, full-time student, part-time server. This is is my last semester of college. Major: economics minor : philosophy. I’m going to start applying for jobs soon, hopefully my GPA isn’t too low.
I’m gunna hope you’re the only other entrepreneur so far (besides myself) because the other ones are too busy making money to respond to forum posts.
To all of you working for someone else or chasing documentation that has diminishing value the instant you receive it, please get out into the world and engage the marketplace as directly as you can. Particularly you programmers. You guys will never have significant security or opportunity to be creative until you start to produce software which revolutionizes and for which you are compensated directly for producing.
I’m 35, I work for myself, I do ok and I wish I had quit the rat race much sooner than I did. Going to a 9-5 is a death sentence.
I played a board game called Rat Race a few months ago with a few guys in Toronto, invited by the OLP chairman, who says the same. Everyone begins the game with a random job and expenses and the object is to achieve an income level from non-job sources enough to quit your job. Very fun game.
My own project now is trying to get into professional soccer/football in Europe. If I fail I’m thousands in debt. If I succeed I’m rich or thereabouts- a starting point on the road to freedom.
I did some 6-3. 9-5 has its advantages.
I’m glad to see that hardly anybody here fits the ‘libertarian stereotype.’ Not that I’m really surprised since the stereotype mostly lies on a misunderstanding of what libertarians are all about.
I’m gunna hope you’re the only other entrepreneur so far (besides myself) because the other ones are too busy making money to respond to forum posts.
I suppose it depends on what is ment by ‘entreprenuer.’ I dont really list my work writing/selling comics as a ‘business.’ But I suppose it could be considered as such. Although we have all the actual priting/copying done at Kinko’s(mainly cause its too expensive/time wasting to do it on the printer at our aparments)
Going to a 9-5 is ok if you work your ass off on developing your own opportunities from 7PM to 2AM.
If you earn profits without a regular wage by investing your own capital, then you are an entrepreneur in my book.
You punch in. Then you punch out. Then you are free to be your own man. To do your own side stuff. You speak up for the market. You don’t let it dictate to you 24/7.
I LOVE Gary Veynerchuk. Everybody in here needs to watch This Week in Startups. Here’s the one with Gary Veynerchuk.
One way or another, the market dictates to you. When you’re further along the food chain you are more removed from the position, capital and opportunities to create for yourself in an economic downturn. High time preference wages are poor comfort when there is economic dislocation.
Not to mention that the discount for taking wages now can be significant a significant opportunity cost for the freedom to be your own man on evenings and weekends. I am my own man almost all the time, including when I am working.
Right on Sam!
Everyone is taught in school to be such a narrowminded worker bee and servant to The Man that it takes some counter-conditioning just to get out of the rat race mentality. Strangely, my own refusal since I was a kid was my downfall for many years as I didn’t know how to get out of the trap. The most positive influence in my whole life has been the OLP Chairman. Without him I probably would have folded by now.
To hell with stereotypes and whatever anyone else thinks. I want all of us to be on top.
Which has a simple solution: modifying your expectations. Just by the virtue of working in a developed country I am better off than 95% of people that ever lived. Why do I need to live my life like a yuppie then? So that I may climb to 98%?
If I was about maximising my money and couldn’t take a hit in an economic downturn I’d have to move to Hong Kong since compared to them we are always in a depression. But I don’t since there is more to it than money, and since in the grand scheme of things 100K can not buy you anything that 10K can’t.
It is pressumptious to assume that you are further along the food chain. You don’t know if you have more resources (time included) to invest into your calling than I have to invest into mine. My employer does nothing but serve his customers all day long. I on the other have half of every day of to do stuff that won’t ever get done unless I do it. Which of the two of us is more evolved and/or realised as a person?
Everyone is taught in school to be such a narrowminded worker bee and servant to The Man that it takes some counter-conditioning just to get out of the rat race mentality. Strangely, my own refusal since I was a kid was my downfall for many years as I didn’t know how to get out of the trap.
Funny thing is, I’d never really thought about trying to ‘out of the trap.’ I just LIKE comics, I like writing comics, and I like knowing that other people are enjoying my comics. …
…Well ok I also like getting money for it, but even if I didnt need the money I’d still do this, at least until I run out of ideas(which wont happen anytime soon).
28, teacher - I make $30,000, but that’s not a fair number, since my employer also provides housing, utilities, and meals (if desired - I generally eat at home.)
I hear ya. Here’s my version of getting out of the rat race: I happened into a job I love, serving a sector of the market that is not served by the bureacratic state system. I work with kids who have been kicked out of other schools, often public schools, because they don’t fit into the holes. My bosses are relatively libertarian. I write my own curriculum. I’m not paid much in cash, so my pay is protected from inflation. I work outside the ‘standard’ system, even though I’m not an entrepreneur. I could do worse.
“Going to a 9-5 is a death sentence.”
this is not true for everyone. not everyone can be an entrepreneur. My wife is a 9-5 lifer, loves her job and makes close to 6 figures.. and she has the knowledge that there are kids alive today because of her.
I also am a 9-5 'er because I don’t have the balls to be anything else - but I have had some pretty interesting jobs that helped us save enough $ to be pretty comfortable.
I plan on going back to get that useless piece of paper (BS) for my own personal satisfaction.
One size does not fit all… but someone here gave some great advise - save early, invest wisely, and take care of your body- it is worth it..