“Jobs and Bosses are Evil”

Before I was even out of college, I developed a deep-seated passion for getting rid of my J.O.B. I salivated, I imagined, I fantasized about getting rid of my job and being FREE.

Today I’m a free man. I’m not “retired” (which is not really my definition of freedom anyway) but I am the captain of my own ship.

If someone says, “Jobs and bosses are evil” I agree, but I disagree.

I disagree, but I agree.

Because there’s a hidden advantage to having a job – especially if it’s the right kind of job:

What could be better than learning on somebody else’s dime?

Let me tell you about my last Dilbert Cube job.

I was sales & marketing manager at an industrial company. They didn’t have a lot of cash to throw around and they didn’t give me a whole lot of rope.

But I did have to make sales.

I had to convince my bosses at what I wanted to do was going to work, then I had to do it, then I had to work. I got a TON of experience I could have gotten nowhere else and almost every single “phone consulting” day that I have with various members, there’s a conversation that somehow draws from that experience. Whether it’s from being a rep or a sales manager or even engineer.

My bosses taught me a great deal about many things. (Even things like what kind of boss I never ever ever want to have again.) Found out what Toxic People walk like, talk like, look like and smell like before, during and after you discover they’re Toxic.

But even the most Toxic boss I ever had was still a blessing. You know why? I loved that job until Mr. Toxic started tightening the screws on me. And man did he ever tighten them. The last year of working for Mr. Toxic was sheer misery. His M.O. was to slice my fingers off one joint at a time.

Prior to my boss going bad (he did actually “go bad” and I can tell you the day it happened, but I’ll save that story for another day) I loved that job. It was scary and challenging but in another way it was comfortable and friendly.

My boss going bad strengthened my resolve to get free and go do my own thing. Had I not been working for him, I might still be working for somebody else right now. In a Dilbert Cube. Under buzzing fluorescent lights.

Instead of sitting here in my library with music playing, writing a newsletter for my Renaissance Club members, looking out the window at the autumn leaves.

It honestly takes crushing pressure to get most of us human beings to change. We all seek comfort zones and we stay in them unless and until something becomes so uncomfortable that the comfort zone isn’t really comfortable at all.

Then we decide to seek wisdom and make changes and re-invent ourselves.

In Part 2 I’ll tell you about the marketing education I got at my J.O.B.

Perry Marshall