My Life’s Work?
After doing the triathlon event last weekend, I realized that it wasn’t the most fun I’d ever had. I thought that I really wanted to go into race management, and after the race, I didn’t feel so sure any more. I think one thing that I’ve decided for sure is that I really don’t care what I do. I’ve been thinking that I want to be an entrepreneur, because it could afford me so many things that I want. I’m not even sure that’s what I want anymore. I just want to do things that I really enjoy. I could see myself being happy as an employee, but I can also see myself being happy as an entrepreneur. I think entrepreneurship has always interested me because it just seems like I would go crazy as an employee. I thought the way for me to be happiest was to always be able to progress and not to have the limitations that are placed upon oneself as an employee. Now, I think that in any job or occupation you have, you can continue to progress. Maybe not in the way of progressing to make more money, but one can always get better and more efficient at what one does. I think I can continue to learn and grow no matter what job I decide to do.
So, with that being said, I decided this weekend that I’m not giving my career interests a good enough chance before dropping them. I think I need to get a job that I can enjoy and make enough money so that I don’t have to worry about money. Then, I can pursue other interests and occupations in my spare time. That will really help me to see what I’m interested in, because necessity won’t dictate where my time is spent. Whatever job I have right now is not indicative of what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life, so I don’t need to feel like I’m settling or getting stuck in a job I don’t like. However, I DO think I should stick things out a little longer before deciding I’m not interested. For example, real estate investing. I really wanted to do that, and all of a sudden I’m no longer interested? What’s that crap? I have never even done any investments, so how can I all of a sudden not be interested? B2B sales. Did I ever make any successful sales before quitting my jobs? No, I decided I didn’t have the patience to wait that long. Well, I think that anything I try, I need to do it long enough so that I have success in that career. If I’m quitting jobs before having success, of course I’m not going to enjoy them.
So, this is my plan as of now. I need to get another job to make some money. I think I’m going to get a part-time job in sales somewhere. I still feel like sales is something I would enjoy, I just need to find the right sales jobs. There are so many different sales jobs, and I need to find ones that allow me to interact more with people in person. I would love going to trade shows, sporting events, or even just meeting with potential clients. So, it’s not the fact that sales isn’t a good fit for me, I just think that maybe talking on the phone all day type of sales isn’t good for me. And, who knows, I might even be able to enjoy that once I stick it out long enough to be successful at it. Did I love door to door? No, but I was successful, and so there were certain things about that I learned to really like.
Ok, so after I get that other job, then I can pursue all of the other interests and projects I have going on. I can work on RateMySummerSalesJob.com, real estate investments, getting sponsorships for Bike2Bike.org, and get my real estate license. Another example I just thought of is my experience with RateMySummerSalesJob.com. I never made money with that site, so is the fact of the matter that I don’t enjoy working with online websites? Or, is it just the fact that I got frustrated at the site maintenance, and so I dropped the site? It’s the latter. I need to stick with things until I have some moderate success, and then I’ll be able to know whether I like it or not. I’ve been tasting the bitter of all these different jobs and been quitting before tasting the sweet. It’s not a matter of settling Aaron, it’s a matter of doing your best first, before quitting.
Wow, typing this out has really helped me to see how silly I’ve been. I’m still a little confused about what job I’m going to get. But, one thing is for sure, I’m not going to quit until I’m successful at it. Then, once I rock at what I do, I can give it the boot. Think of how my life would be different if after the first day of knocking doors to sell pest control, when I got rejected and hated my life, I quit. I wouldn’t have learned anything. On the contrary, I think of how much I learned and grew from my experiences with door to door sales. I’m not allowing myself to learn from my personal experiences, because I’m not pushing through that moment of struggle that sucks before I start to have success.
The last example I can think of was my bike selling business. I got old bikes, fixed them up, and I sold them. I remember the first bike I sold was so fun to me. Just the fun of making money all on my own was very rewarding. Then, after I fixed up a few bikes, I realized that I didn’t really enjoy the bike-fixing-part. I enjoyed making money in a venture of my own, but I didn’t enjoy the surrounding events that helped me to make the money. I had success with the business, and I probably made around $500-$1000, but my interest fizzled out. Now, I have no more interest in a used bicycle business. I did before, but now I’m tried it, had some relative success, and I’ve been there done that. That’s the difference between what I should do and what I’ve done. I have no regrets or thoughts of what could be with used bicycles because I did it long enough to have success. Then, you can actually make a decision about whether or not it’s a good fit.
Tags: entrepreneurship, job search, sales
Thoughts on Life | Aaron Anderson | 
October 13, 2009 3:47 am
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