When we get a job, all we have really done is compile the knowledge and skill required to do a task. That is all. We haven't built anything of our own to speak of except to make ourselves more marketable.
I sometimes wonder how much of an individual's successes are the successes of others. We go to work everyday and work for a person or a company or an entity that started or began from nothing.
Promotions and raises are based on longevity in most companies. People are rewarded and promoted for simply showing up for years, not always due to growth or abilities. Corporate America is like that. The Army is like that. It is very difficult to drum someone out of a large conglomo-corporation. It takes research and evidence and months of planning. As a result we have an apathetic cast of millions that provide little for humanity.
Do we, as employees of businesses, corporations, governments, etc., give ourselves too much credit? We call ourselves successful if we manage to show up someplace every day and take home a check. How is that successful? What have we created on our own? We're all just rats in a maze trying to get to a piece of cheese.
The point is that I would like to be successful in creating something of my own. Being a cog in the machine and working my way up the ladder over thirty years sounds like slavery to me. We must get in line. Do what we're told. Attend meetings. Make money for others while we struggle just to keep up. Eke together a miserly savings and hope to retire before we're dead. Sounds horrible.
The problem is that getting out of the "rat-race" is easier said than done. We would all like to be independently wealthy and do whatever we want all the time. The "rat-race" typically either snuffs out creativity or consumes it for it's own purpose which leaves little scraps left for the minions on which it depends to survive.
I'm not saying I despise the "rat-race". It is a stepping stone. It pays the bills. It enables me to increase my savings. It helps me put food on the table and a cozy life for my family. However, I don't want to go to work everyday with fear that something will collapse and I will lose my job. If someone else has a bad day and doesn't sell enough I could lose my job. That sucks.
I want to be successful, but not in a "showing up at the same place doing the same crap everyday" kind of way. I want to create something of my own. I want to be truly free. I want to make it so that if I would ever lose my job I won't care, or I will be capable of simply quitting my job.
So, today I create this post. This is my creative outlet until I make time for more. Not sure how far it will get me, but it's a start in creating something new or trying something new every day (future post).
But alas, while I cook up some scheme that likely won't work (I'm a cynic, after all), I'll keep trying to get to the cheese first.
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