Here’s what I wish someone had told me when I had those soul sucking corporate jobs.

One hour drive to work. Get to work. Boss can’t assign priorities. Hope his wife wasn’t mean to him before he got to the office. Yes sir, ok sir, right away sir. One hour drive home. 11 hours all in. 40K a year. That’s the reality of entry level white collar work, I’ve lived it, it sucks, but do not despair.

There’s an Internet trend where slaves who fled the plantation laugh at other slaves for being sad. This is especially the case when the slave is a pretty girl. Men who didn’t do well with women call them “princess” due to being in a low sex marriage or they are incels at heart.

I had a rough childhood and even so, corporate jobs were awful. They are not the worst thing that can happen, to be sure, and someone always has it worse. That doesn’t matter. You are you and your life is what you compare reality to.

Overhead lights disrupt your mitochondria. You’re bombarded with passive aggressive job assignments. “It’d be nice if you could finish this soon.” What does that even mean? When do you want it? No one will say. That would mean people would be accountable for their words. Can’t have that.

Here’s what I wish someone had told me when I had those soul sucking corporate jobs.

Dear Jack or Jane:

Congratulations. You’re entering the workforce. For the next forty years, the majority of waking hours will not belong to you. But there are are better and worse ways to handle this.

We have to work or our souls are corrupted. If you won the lottery, you’d be stuck with yourself. You’d travel and eat out a lot. You’d be bored. Time would pass you by. You’d live a vapid existence with a lowlife spouse. You’d go broke and have nothing or no one to catch you.

There’s some inner peace you can find via acceptance. You have to work, there is no other way, so find the best way.

Hard work is hard, what is the payout? Waking up and going to some cube farm is going to take all of the energy from you. Learning how to cold call is going to take all of the energy from you. Knocking on doors to sell solar is going to have you second guess the point of life. Which pays more?

That’s what you have to accept, there’s no free ride. Assume the load of being an adult. You’ll get used to it.

The difference between your thing and their thing.

Imagine you’re the owner of a successful business. You’re happy now, right?

Then you wake up. Payroll was missed. Your line of credit was removed. Your CFO stole money. The train carrying your inventory got broken into. You have to take out a line of credit on the house that cost too much and you shouldn’t have bought. One false move and you’re bankrupt.

How do you feel? THIS SUCKS, THIS IS AWESOME.

It really is. Running your own ship will give you lows you’ve never imaged. It also amps you up. You feel like what you do matters.

Compare that to seeing the news headlines or office gossip about your company’s plan do to a reorganization. Will you be fired? Is it time to brush up your resume? Your manager tells you your job is safe but they always say that. You feel disempowered.

It’s all about Power and Meaning.

Not power over others. That’s some psycho stuff.

When you have a wagie job, your choices don’t take you from A to B. When you run a business, absent bad luck (which will hit you), you feel like what you’re doing matters.

Even a job that isn’t curing cancer is inspiring when you’re driving. I’d rather run a company selling nails than be some lacky at a think tank doing “high minded” thinking stuff.

It’s going to be hard, so get paid the most.

I should have put this first. Maybe I’ll edit it up the list, or maybe not. I really really really wish some old man had told me this:

“Son, work sucks, no way around it. Once you accept this inevitably, you learn to find out how to make the most money, you’re a mercenary.”

We are told this is greedy or disloyal to think this way. Read Nietzsche. Slave morality.

Now someone is going to say, HOW DO I MAKE THAT MONEY!

That’s a lazy question, and I have no desire to answer it. There are so many ways to figure this out yourself. If you’re not resourceful enough to begin the hunt, you’re not going to make it.

If I were a young man, I would have done the door-to-door solar sales while it was hot. Picked up transferable skills, which you can take to any other job.

Mostly I would read a lot of books, go to the gym, hike, and THINK.

You are like a prisoner in an open-air labor camp. It’s nicer than a gulag, but you still want out.

How do you break free?

Skills pay the bills.

The problem with most office jobs is that you are assigned to do tasks. You aren’t mentored or taught capital-s Skills. And why would you be coached? They want to grind you out until they can hire someone cheaper.

Let’s take the girl from that video. She has a commute. I had one, too.

I took a college major’s worth of classes via The Teaching Company (Great Courses). Two hours of lecture a day adds up. Some of these classes were fun and some were practical.

During this commutes, you should be listening to business podcasts and MBA classes and reading biz books. Even though most of the stuff you’ll hear is nonsense, and in the case of podcasts, downright unhelpful, you’ll begin curating an understanding of the business world.

I’ve recommended The Hard Things About Hard Things many times as it gives you a realistic understanding of what owning a business is like. It helps you feel less isolated.

We all have the same problems, the only difference is scale.

I’ve had to talk the power man out of disconnecting the electricity. As an adult. Also had some nice days hit. You’re always going to have problems.

If you have no money, the worry is money. How do you pay your bills? How you you get by. This is harder than the below scenario, so I’m not in any way dismissing those real concerns. I’ve had them many times in my life!

If you have medium or large money, the worry is money. How do you save on taxes? Are you being ripped off by your finance people? Should you lever up to really make that Big Money? Should you continue ignoring your family to chase the dragon of more money more money? Are you raising kids who are brats because they have too much, unlike you? Does growing up poor build character?

Wherever you go, there you are.

I read this great post on X the other day from one of the few people I read to learn from. (Those podcasts on real estate are almost always outright lies.

Growing up poor, I thought the goal was to “get rich”. I assumed it brought security, happiness, self esteem. But the old adage “Wherever you go, there you are” always holds true. Here are five things I’ve learned about wealth accumulation over the years: 1) “Things” only make you temporarily happy. Then you think bigger and better things will do the trick, and you’re let down again.

2) The goal posts seem to always move. I set a goal to get to X net worth because I knew I’d be content there. As soon as I hit it, I “needed” more and I knew when I hit the new X, I’d feel secure financially. I hit the new X, goal posts moved again.

3) You carry your childhood in your psyche until the day you die. How you grew up, how you were treated, how rich or poor you were, what you saw, what you saw your parents do. It all forms the grid of your psyche that many decisions filter through (both financial and relational)

4) It takes A LOT of effort to manage a lot of money or assets. People think they’ll kick back and do nothing if they get rich. Wrong. Not only managing the growth and preservation of your capital, but having to repel people who constantly want to sell you something, partner with you, do a deal with you becomes a full time job.

5) The freedom from obligation gained with money gives a much better internal feeling than the “things” acquired or the actual money itself. In the end, for me, I’ve discovered it’s truly about the freedom.

Bow Tied Broke has some of the best thinking on money, anywhere.

Follow him here.

Now get back to work. :)