What I Want To Be When I Grow Up
Imagine you had the opportunity to start a new career.
Be anything you wanted to be.
Do anything you ever dreamed.
There are only a few rules:
1) You get 20 hours a week to work at it.
2) Within 6 months you have to be earning a partial living, let's use $1,000 a month.
3) You can spend up to $500 starting your new career.
What would you do? Would you create your dream job? Would you work for yourself or someone else? Would you do anything at all or just carry on the status quo?
If I had the same opportunity what would you suggest I do?
Be anything you wanted to be.
Do anything you ever dreamed.
There are only a few rules:
1) You get 20 hours a week to work at it.
2) Within 6 months you have to be earning a partial living, let's use $1,000 a month.
3) You can spend up to $500 starting your new career.
What would you do? Would you create your dream job? Would you work for yourself or someone else? Would you do anything at all or just carry on the status quo?
If I had the same opportunity what would you suggest I do?
posted by Prophet Margin @ 8:28 AM
10 Comments:
At 9:19 AM, June 29, 2007,
John Bowen said…
If it were me, I think I'd want to be a small organic farmer or have a small winery or something. But of course, you couldn't make money at that right away.
For you I could actually see something similar. I think you're good at working with real, actual things in the real, actual world.
At 9:44 AM, June 29, 2007,
Prophet Margin said…
John, I think you'd be great if you were back teaching. But this time at a junior college, some place where the students are older and really wanting to learn. Creative writing, Elizabethan poetry, the Beats...something abstract.
At 9:47 AM, June 29, 2007,
John Bowen said…
Teaching was great on the good days.
About 10 years ago I planned to get my master's degree and teach junior college, but I learned that those jobs are really hard to come by. I also learned that my desire to be an English scholar had faded, to the extent it was ever there at all.
Are you looking to make a change? Does it involve llamas? ;)
At 10:55 AM, June 29, 2007,
Prophet Margin said…
Ahhh... see there might be the rub. I've just always dove in headfirst and then later discovered the job was "really hard to come by" or needed special skills. It's much easier to succeed if you don't know you're suppose to fail.
At 12:44 AM, July 03, 2007,
John Bowen said…
Ignorance is bliss?
Then again, it's hard to buy groceries with bliss.
I mean, unless you have a lot of bliss.
I mean a lot.
At 8:11 AM, July 03, 2007,
Prophet Margin said…
It's not so much that ignorance is bliss. But by comparison, Knowledge is freakin scary.
Same thing with deer. They aren't mesmerized by the headlights, they know exactly what's barreling down on them at 70 mph. They're welded in their tracks at the knowledge that two and a half tons of American chrome are hurling through the night ready to make coyote chow out of them. If they didn't know what it was they might take a leap into the woods screaming "What the heck was that!?"
At 8:16 AM, July 03, 2007,
Prophet Margin said…
The local Starvin Marvin accepts cash, credit and bliss (but no personal checks without prior authorization and three forms of id). My problem is I buy a carton of milk and the Sunday paper and I don't have a clue what to do with the change. Out of three bliss I get back a melancholy and four doldrums. I've started putting them in a big mayonnaise jar on my dresser, saving up for a case of the blahs.
At 9:23 AM, July 06, 2007,
John Bowen said…
Remember that advice we all got when we were 19?
"Follow your bliss"
I wish it were easy.
So, what are you considering? Details?
At 9:46 AM, July 06, 2007,
Prophet Margin said…
My bliss is lousy with directions and doesn't own a map.
Follow my bliss??? The darker it gets the faster we're driving.
Yes, I'm looking at alternative occupations, but not really contemplating much at the moment. I can't seem to find any good prospects. It's got to fit my personality, my health, and earn about a grand a month for less than 20 hours per week.
Our business is still doing well and I've got plenty of work to keep me busy. But we're at a cross roads.
A) If we'd like, we could stop taking on new programming assignments and have a lot of free time on our hands while still making an honest living. But we've grown use to those bonus checks, so I'd need to find something as a supplement.
B) We could keep taking on new programming and stick with business as usual. I think seven years hunched over a keyboard is starting to take it's toll. I'd like to spend part of my day without my butt growing into an office chair. Maybe get outside or into the garage, do something with my hands.
At 1:21 PM, July 06, 2007,
John Bowen said…
You've always tinkered with stuff. I assume you're still tinkering.
Any way to turn that into filthy lucre?
Or - I could see you as a chimneysweep. :)
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