I was working with my business partner tonight and we were talking about our “regular” jobs. You see, we hate them. Not the work. Nor the people. Mostly, just the way we are/have been managed throughout our careers. I’m a smart cookie, but my job has been fairly dead-end for the past 5 years. I love what I do, and I love the people who I work with. But, let’s face it, if I’m not getting ahead, I am just killing time until I’m dead.
And what the hell fun is that?
I don’t want to drop dead at my desk. I want to work hard, get a lot of satisfaction from that job well done, and I want to go home and have a… you guessed it… LIFE!!! I don’t want to kill myself working for some company who could really give two shits about you. I know from first-hand experience… after a while, they stop calling.
So, I started thinking about this book, which was huge a few years back, Who Moved My Cheese (by whoever wrote it… I am too lazy to look it up. Spencer something-or-other). This book was ALL the rage. I think it is all of about 100 pages long. I used to teach a class around this book. Basically, it is about change management. How do you adapt to change. I started thinking that is makes more sense to me to move my own cheese. Then, I already know where it is and I can go after it faster. If I move my own cheese, I am essentially writing my own future. Where I want to go and how I get there.
I also started thinking, because my brain is weird, about the proverbial carrot on a stick. You know… dangle the carrot before the horse and the horse will move toward said carrot, but never actually gets the carrot. It hit me that my whole job – including performance reviews (or as I like to call it – Who’s the favorite of the week), pay raises, etc – are freaking carrots. The organization has designed this system as a way to get you to work harder, but essentially not get anywhere. “Work hard, and we won’t ever might promote you, one day,” or “Well, even though you did everything we asked you to do, and more, we lied aren’t going to be able to give you more than 1% this year.” Really? Because the cost of living goes up around 3% per year. I am now falling behind.
So, I say to myself… “You know… if you grow your own carrot farm, you don’t need their fucking carrots” (because real me swears like a sailor). So, that is what I am doing. I can’t wait around for carrots to dangle close enough for me to almost get a nibble. I am making freaking carrot cake, carrot juice, and rolling around in carrots, just because I can. Is it hard? Yep. There’s drought, bugs, and all sorts of other obstacles in the farming world. Is it worth it?
Hell. Yes.
Because when the bottom drops out – I can still live on my carrots. I have talent, drive, and a brain. I’m ready to roll. So watch out, world.
And keep your stinking carrots.
