I'm about to tell you what nobody will when you are new to the employment system

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself, whatever has to be done, it's always your choice."

Wayne Dyer

Be happy, you are at your new job, the first one in your entire life, you are fresh out of college. Be happy for yourself because right now you are a successful person. You are a lucky one, you studied a career that has a lot of demand. Companies fight each other in order to hire people very talented like you. You are a product of what society wants you to be.

So there you are, working hard 9 to 5 in order to get your salary. You already understood the system, there are "performance evaluations" that will determine if you get a raise or not. Your performance is not measured by your work, is measured comparatively by the works of others against yours. So you are not accountable for your results, the results of "others " determine if your work is valuable or not.

You see that everybody is normal, happy, have families, and spent their valuable and limited time on earth making money for other people. You see that, and think yourself: "It's weird, how they can be happy making money for other people, I understand, they need the salary, and they obtain the salary by giving away their precious lifetime, but that shouldn't make you happy, even less proud of how you obtain it ."

So now is the time when you start to feel a little bit miserable... It does not make sense that you spend your limited and precious time on earth working to make millions of dollars to other people...
Another rule comes into play at your job. Now it's expected that you will work "overtime" in order to accomplish that "important deadline" and that is REALLY IMPORTANT because your boss has just said it so... So you think: "important???, there are people dying of starvation, moms with cancer, children fighting at wars... And my boss says that this deadline to make millions for people that don't even know me it's important???? " This is the breaking point, you know that you have just been tricked to fall in the rat race.

Right now you don't feel ok, in the mornings, you don't want to go to work. This gets worse, some days you will be working and suddenly your tears will come out, you are not feeling well but you don't know why. You are spending your time on earth doing something unfulfilling. You don't like your reality and you realize that you have just spent a lot of years in becoming something you don't want to be.

You spend a lot of time studying a career that you thought was a good option, and it was. You were able to find a job with ease, and with a decent salary, but you are not happy. You don't even understand how your coworkers are happy. The worst is... You feel trapped, you have debts, you need your salary to pay the monthly quote of your brand new car. You don't have options, your job has become your life.

If you feel identified with this situation I completely understand you, but I'm sorry to tell you that the most probable thing is that you are depressed. What you have read was basically my story when I was a recent graduate. This article cannot go any longer, what I can tell you is that it is time to make a change. This society puts material possessions above happiness. Studies show that is far better for a person to invest in experiences, that it is in material things, so don't hold into that brand new car to liberate yourself.

Finally, If you see depression as a bad thing, change your mindset and see it as an incredible motivator for change. In my case, depression is the way of my body to tell me that I should change something.

Hope that this little article provided something to your life.

Regards.

Preparing for the worst case scenario makes you drop the best case scenario oportunities

“Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.” 

Timothy Ferriss, The 4 Hour Workweek

People are obsessed with buying a house, it seems to be the main goal of their lives, being able to own a house, it doesn't matter that they will pay it for 40 years, they want to own a house.

Here comes my question: why?, when I ask this to several people I almost always get the same answer: in case that I lose my job, nobody will be able to take this away from me (the house), so I never will be left on the street. They are preparing themselves for the worst-case scenario, not having a job, not being able to pay the bills, being left on the street, but they will own their house.

Studies have been made, we spend 90% of our lives worrying for things that WILL NEVER HAPPEN, and this worst-case scenario is one of those things. If you think about it, people that are obsessed with acquiring a house are putting themselves in a bad position by acquiring debt for the following 30 - 40 years, during this period of time if the worst-case scenario happens, for sure the bank will take away the most fulfilling goal of their lives... owning a house.

Let's think about preparing for the worst-case scenario a little deeper and you will come to the realization that it is ridiculous to think this way. Ok, here comes the example, let's prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Situation: currently you are looking to change job, and the hiring manager contacts you in order to schedule an interview. Your mindset is to prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario and these are your thoughts: "Maybe I will go to the interview, and I will not give the best impression for any reason, so I will not get the job, also the interviewer will remember me and he will tell bad things about me, or maybe, he will know my next interviewer in the next company that I will apply and he will tell bad things, so I will never get the job. The best option here is not going to the interview".

If you analyze that mindset is ridiculous to be thinking and preparing yourself for the worst-case scenario because the odds are that it will never happen. You could die tonight while sleeping, you will never know, so the best thing you can do is aim for the best-case scenario. So let's aim for this.

The best-case scenario is the one that makes free to travel, to take risks, to spend time with the people that you love, to learn the skills that you like. I know, I make it sound easy and you know it isn't. I advise you to take baby steps, the first one is: get rid of your debt and avoid it at all costs. I know you have heard that debt is the only way of "owning", but do you really call paying something for 30-40 years "owning"??? I see this mindset every day with my colleagues, they are brainwashed into what society expects from us. Don't fall in that game, nobody really cares what is happening with your life. Instead of getting debt, focus on how you can get the things you want without needing a loan. Debt is one of the main causes of suicide, so I'm not talking bullshit here, a very bad financial desition could easily destroy your life.

Sorry,  I got distracted. Aim for achievable and trackable goals, focus on the good things that will happen 90% of the time and you will get better results to live the life you want. Aim for that new job position in another country that you like, start that side business that you have been putting off. You are the one that has the control to have a fulfilling life, don't waste it.

That's it for today.

Regards.

Who gets the dividends of your work?

"Win small, win early, and always learn."

One of my ex-managers at #ntel Corporation

Don't get confused, I'm not using the above quote as an inspirational one, for me, it is a generic, senseless phrase that can be used for any kind of task, especially those soul-crushing tasks that you are asked to do in your everyday job.

Check this example of how this "inspirational phrase" is used to motivate helpless workers, but it has a complete empty meaning

• I'm winning small, I'm winning early, I'm always learning. I work as an executor in a concentration camp.
• I'm winning small, I'm winning early, I'm always learning. I work as a process engineer in a weapons factory, whose weapons are used to kill people.
• I'm winning small, I'm winning early, I'm always learning. I work as an astronaut.

You get the point, that phrase can be used for anything. Here comes my second point: if you describe your work by the tasks you perform, instead of explaining who gets the dividends of your work, you are making the same mistake, because you are giving an empty, generic and senseless description of your activity.

Here comes another example: the typical average guy talks about the tasks he does at work without putting the care of who gets the dividends of his work. Let's say that he is a financial manager and he is responsible for the financial health of the company by controlling the money balances of all operations:

• I'm a financial manager, I'm responsible for the financial health of the company by controlling the money balances of all operations. The company is Al Qaeda.
• I'm a financial manager, I'm responsible for the financial health of the company by controlling the money balances of all operations. The company is a Human Traffic organization.
• I'm a financial manager, I'm responsible for the financial health of the company by controlling the money balances of all operations. The company is NASA.

As you see, describing the task you perform at work is a generic way of you feeling important, but trust me, you are not, the same task can be applied for a terrorist organization or the NASA. Both organizations are very different and the ones that get the dividends of your work are also very different, it seems that is important to identify who do you work for.

So a very different way to describe your work is by telling who is getting the dividends of your hard work and sweat (by dividends I mean benefit or money). So basically your work can be divided into the following categories.

• You are an entrepreneur: by every single minute that you work, the person that is going to obtain the dividends of your work is you, so you are working for yourself and for your direct benefit.
• You are a teacher or work in a non-profit organization: every single minute that you work, you are giving and helping some else's life. 
• You work in a private company (especially transnational): every minute, every single unpaid extra hour, every unpaid weekend that you worked to deliver that project on time, the ones that are getting the dividends of your work are stockholders that you don't even know, and you are making them millionaires. They don't know you or care about you, and they will not know if you get fired. Whoa, you must feel amazing.

So, the next time that you are about to describe your work, don't tell the tasks you do, tell who gets the benefit. Instead of telling I'm a financial manager, I'm responsible for the financial health of the company by controlling the money balances of all operations, tell: Hi, I'm Jon Doe and I work in order to make incredibly rich people that don't even know me.  They won't notice if I got fired nor they care. I'm very fulfilled by dedicating my life to make these persons rich.

Ok, you don't like that description about your work, you feel that is pathetic and makes feel unworthy. Well, you cannot always like the truth, but you can change it by moving your career to a fulfilling activity or start your own business. In my personal case, I got tired of making stockholders rich by giving my life to a corporation.

I hope that you got the point of this whole reading.

Bye.