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He talked total rubbish and somehow got away with it via his natural charm. Actually he was a good grunge bassist and went out to LA quite a lot. Off on a tour, he gave me his washing up job in a Caribbean restaurant in Brixton on the understanding that I could be ‘anyone I wanted to be’. 11pm to 1am for £10 and a free meal. The staff were all sassy local girls and I was supposed to be an up and coming rock star. Ha - I never stood a chance !
But I did learn from my pal that you should do more and think less. Prophetically and sadly he collapsed on stage and died not long after (it was as if he ‘knew’).
I should say that while all this was going on my wife was doing her thing too - I wasn't relying on a spouses steady income to pay the bills.
I've done a few other things, anything really to keep the lights on. I was also in a covers band which brought in a bit of cash.
Latest venture was running a bunkhouse/hostel for mountain enthusiasts up in the Cairngorms. We're pretty much retired now.
The way I look at it is, if you are white, middle class, and reasonably intelligent, all the cards are stacked in your favour, there are so many ways of making a living, and you might find something you really enjoy. My happiest times were travelling around the countryside in my white van, I loved being a sole trader, it's not for everyone as the buck stops with you but I hated working for people I didn't respect which is the lot of many wage slaves.
Unfortunately, the market crashed so his business failed. Instead of going back to what he had been doing, he went to uni and did an physics and engineering degree at 40. From what my wife has said, there were some sticky times financially, but they came through it.
He then spent the next 25 years as an engineer working on water flow systems, earning more for a job he found intelectually stimulating (and less physically taxing).
Have to say though coming back from a London corp gig on a Thursday at 3:30am knowing you can just stay in bed till noon is amazing, coming back at that time knowing you have to be at a normal job by 8:30 is a bit of a bitch .... most of the work is Frid and Sat though so it's not too bad
But also these days it is a relatively easy thing to get into, most companies will put you through the course provided you work for them if/when you pass the test. It's the same with HGV's, there is a nationwide shortage of drivers and it will probably get worse with Brexit.
It's a fact of the modern world, gone are the days when you might expect to stay in the same line of work for 40 plus years, and future generations are probably going to work for longer than that. Today's world of work is just so stressful. I have two good friends who were GP's and they reckon that the working life of a doctor in the NHS today is about 25 years.
I have a young friend, about 25, and he's worked this out. He's got a great job working for a consultancy firm but he's saving like mad and planning ahead for a complete change of direction when he's about 50. I do feel for folk who have just been overtaken by events and are to some extent trapped, but then again I had to make some drastic lifestyle changes when I left my original career. Like downsizing the house, going back to one car, giving up holidays etc but often these things are just compensations for a stressful work life.
Then work out how much you need to earn and where you want to be to achieve this. I love where I live and sometimes have no idea how I’m going to pay the rates and mortgage let alone pay for a pension, but then I don’t have to answer to a boss and I’m happy.
Over a bunch of years doing consulting and coaching with "successful" people it almost always comes back to this - and unused the quotes because people's concept of successful changes significantly as a result of it. Not always in a hackneyed "money bad" way at all - but it's the specifics that help.
What do I want to do - Vs - Who do I want to be
and many variations thereon.
When the aims are around figuring this stuff out I circle around 3 overlapping ares of Values, Identity & Purpose. The start point is often to ask what do you want and what ARE you and what ARE YOU NOT willing to sacrifice to get it?
Digging around in the specifics of that and challenging the inevitable contradictions (either of language or principle) that come up helps. As does getting comfortable being uncomfortable when doing it.
It takes work to have a sudden insight
7 Habits is a good book for this kind of thing.
I like Buddhism but have a conflict with lack of a creator , I kinda believe that we are all the creator and are part of everything which kinda fits with their view in a way so I’m kinda stuck half and half but nowhere in between . A just Sleaze rock bum but I find great peace in it
But yes it's a really good book - overlooked these days but is more useful than most of these books
At 21 I got a job working in IT, had zero experience (didn't even own a PC) but full training given. I then spent over a decade working various IT jobs and became the manager of a team in a multi national company.
Which at 33 I was bored of, so the natural progression of course was to train as a body piercer and open a tattoo shop.
Been at that for 10 years now, but since my father passing away in January I now spend more time being a farmer which I'm really enjoying, again no previous experience of it, steep learning curve, but rewarding.