5. No Freedom
Human beings are simply animals with animal desires and instincts. That statement doesn’t imply you should start acting like an uncivilized ape, but it does mean that you should seriously consider what having a job is going to do to your animal instincts and feelings. Say goodbye to the dreams of freedom from the system, say goodbye to the plethora of endless vacations on the road, and say goodbye to giving your life individualistic meaning outside of your current vocation. You are simply the vessel that helps a company make more money. And does that money trickle down to you? Unless you are a partner or shareholder at your company, the answer is likely no.
4. Your Resume May Look Good, But Your “Real” Resume Is Still Awful
Photo by CharlotWest 
Don’t buy into the widespread hype that getting a job will give you “excellent real world skills” and “fantastic job experience.” In actuality, the job you get from day one will only give you the skills necessary to perform that exact same job for the rest of your life! Sure, employed career changes do happen, but the reality is that unless you are able to imbue your personal life with a diverse amount of “real” experiences, experiences that require individuality, risk, and probably some personal capital to fund, you will never actually be emotionally capable of making money at a high level. Why? Because success and, yes, even failure, from a wide range of experiences gives you the highest chances of encompassing as many perspectives as possible. And when you understand many perspectives, you become a great leader, a leader who can not only employ the expertise of others to a high degree, but also be a leader who can make money outside of a 9-5 job post.
3. You Will Never Recover the Time You Spent Generously Donating to Your Master
How long do you think we really have on this planet? I understand this is a question you have thought about often, a question you have conditioned yourself to brush off in favor of more “productive” questions, like how to beef up your resume’ to get an awesome employment stint. But seriously, how much longer do you think you have? If you are like the majority of my readers, you have probably already lived ⅓ to ½ of your entire life – in another thirty to forty years, you will probably be old, retired, and not able to move and flow as freely as you did when you were young. So how many more years of young, productive, fresh, and healthy life do you actually believe you have left in you?
By working forty hours a week for someone else, I have the sorriest of sorry news to break to you: you will never recover that time again in your life. True, you can take active steps to being a healthier person, which can elongate your life and improve your mental clarity as well as your physical energy. Still…do you really think you can actually get back all that time you spent in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, even your 50s working for someone else? Don’t fool yourself.
2. You Stop Believing In Yourself
Passion, energy, inspiration – those words may sound cheesy to non-believers, but you better believe those words are the lifeblood of human consciousness. The reason we even decide to take jobs in the first place is so we can sustain ourselves with income to live and feel these emotions. Unfortunately, when you have to be on someone else’s clock 40 hours a week, inspiration, passion, and energy for your own life dwindles as you work to accomplish someone else’s goal. Don’t you remember once not only dreaming, but actually working very hard towards a goal of yours. Too bad you don’t have that time anymore.
1. There Are Much, Much Better Ways to Make Money
You have an unprecedented opportunity to be a powerful, amazing, and independent human being. You have the ability to create art, entertain others, start your own business, inspire emotion, and make money on your own terms. Hundreds of thousands of people do it, and I have news for you: you likely have specialized knowledge that someone would pay excellent money to hear. The world is, believe it or not, abundant with opportunities for you to make an income doing things that you love.
Sometimes, a man or woman has to work a regular job in order to start funding his or her business. If you are in this crowd, then this article and the following suggestions are most certainly for you.
If you really want to start getting some good knowledge on how to make income without getting a 9-5 office job, try the following resources that are easily available on Amazon.
- The 4-Hour Workweek
, the most widely reviewed book on Amazon (and probably the most popular text in the entire world) about how to make money online.
Timothy Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek, Via Amazon.com
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, a really good resource if you have ever any kind of entrepreneurial ideas.
New York Times Bestseller The Lean Startup, Via Amazon.com
- The Consulting Bible
, an excellent resource for those looking to create a legitimate income by having people consult with you about your very own specialized knowledge.
Alan Weiss’ The Consulting Bible, Via Amazon.com
If you need more ideas or resources, feel free to shoot me an email.
Those are 10 compelling reasons you should never get a job that I understand well. It’s great to read an article that is completely sympathetic to my needs. I’ve always thought that the best way I can fulfill my life is to be all that I am. To be all that I am is certainly not through a 9 to 5 job (however interesting) answering the call of a superior somehow. I quit that rat race in 2007. It’s been a pretty eclectic journey to find my way…
However difficult the road is, I have a passion that’s keeping me on drive mode and I am getting just where I want to, slowly but surely. I find that The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss is a great tool to help me get that right tip of the hat in mindset and thrive on that untraveled road yet of mine.
All these things are going to 100% true. Source: 15 years in mainstream workforce suffering all this BS first hand. 6 years as profitable small business owner. I would NEVER work for someone else again…. for every last reason cited by the author. Great work on this article. Keep preaching the anti-corporate revolution.
I can especially relate to #10 on the list. Managing my time right is very hard, and I’m very bad. Surprisingly, though, I’ve never struggled to make on time to past jobs I’ve had. But with school, social activities, church, and medical appointments, it’s chronic. I’ve been bad at getting places on time all my life.
However, I find this to be very poor advice. Work is far from desirable, but we have to face the reality that in this world, we need to work in order to receive a good income and to truly be financially independent. It puts food on the table. It’s another avenue for social interaction. It can build character. It is an act of selflessness.
What may help with your concerns for working may be having the right kind of mindset. Instead of just thinking about the grievances work can have, consider what you can do to positively contribute to those at your job. Instead of only thinking of personal gain from the job, also consider the other person. Rather than a conflict theory approach where you view jobs as a battle between employees and employers or each other, it may be healthier to take a more functionalist approach, where you view all the members of the company as a team working together to get the job done for the good of everyone at the company (including yourself) and for the common good.
This goes for anybody discouraged about working. I’d recommend you pass it on.