Another Installment on Jobs and Why You Don’t Need One

Posted by RP

January 11, 2008

Someone should really start a blog that laid things out the way I think they ought to be laid out … regarding how you should go about getting out from under the yoke of regular, mind-numbing nine-to-five work, how you can find yourself through your own contributions in life … work is love made visible … and, in general cutting through the crapopla and getting right to the heart of the matter.

Oh, someone did.

You don’t get many direct blog "boosts" here, frankly because although I read a lot of blogs I am not in the business of promoting them.

You will, though, often see me point to Darren Rowses’ Problogger.net, mainly because I’ve know Darren via blogging for more than 3 years now and because his blog is one of the seminal sources of advice anywhere online.

Not long ago Darren took on a regular staff writer, Skellie and I have been really impressed by her work … now Skellie has launched a new blog centered around working online. Her tag line is one I would have used myself had I thought of it first, Work online, work anywhere, live free.

Yes, both Skellie and I are about Making Money Online … I mean good Lord, so are thousands of other people, but for me, there’s ,ore to it than that. Many of my readers may be in the same boat as I am … I have an income for life, I can live well and still have to worry about my waistline even if I shut down my online ventures tomorrow … but if I sit in a chair and do nothing, or while away the time playing online games (oops, you can make money at that too), I won;t feel active and empowered.

More than anything I want my online friends to feel they are doing things because they have a choice, making money because they are having fun at it, and most of all going into retirement with head held high instead of slinking along hoping the government doesn’t cut something else. Read Skellie, I think you’ll like her work.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Blogs, Income

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.

Comments

While I really enjoy being retired, there were some aspects of my job that I really enjoyed.

Well, there is a distinct possibility that very soon, I may be able to go back to doing those very things — as a contractor making significantly better money for a 6 month gig.

If I could have limited what I had to do to just those things, I probably wouldn’t be retired.

Comment by Mike Goad on January 11, 2008 @ 2:25 pm

I can understand that, for sure Mike. There were some aspects of my last job I particularly enjoyed, and if I were back in those areas, and only in those areas, I would certainly still be working.

You know, it’s well proven that money is one of the least iportant motivators. Everybody thinks that a little ore would fix things, but in the end it’s the satisfaction you get from doing what you feel good at that matters most.

Either way, life is good.

Comment by RP on January 11, 2008 @ 9:53 pm

I stopped out to the plant today to see what the status is and it seems that the only holdup is coming up with the money to pay me. I saw a lot of my old coworkers, and they were all pleased to see me, especially to hear that I might be coming back for a while. With attrition due to retirement (including mine) and transfers, the staffing of the group I worked in is too low to meet commitments (and many of these commitments are regulatory in nature). With a couple of the things that are coming up soon, I’m actually the only one who has done them, though I’m certainly not the only one who could. I’m actually on the schedule in 10 days for one of them.

Comment by Mike Goad on January 11, 2008 @ 10:53 pm

That’s another non-regular job employment idea that can work really well. i should researc/write about it more.

A freind of mine here in manila was a long-time operations officer in a banl in England. They gave him early retirement in a redundancy scheme and he jumped at the chance to retire and leave the country.

As you might have guesses his former employer found out they needed him more than they thought, so he has travelled and done a bunch of consulting for them … but he also consults for other banks as well … busy, but happy, becuase he takes the assignments he does well at and doesn’t have to deal with the office politics sourts of issues.

I know of many defense contractor companies in the US who have begged key employees to take positions like this … the company gets the ‘numbers’ down for the bean counters and the employees keep working at something more rewarding.

Comment by RP on January 13, 2008 @ 9:50 am

Hi!

What’s up?!? Retired pay’s looking good. Glad you’ve been ranked too. I’ll scoot over to Skellie’s and take a look.

I do need a job though. I mean, even if I win a million bucks tomorrow (which probably won’t happen since I don’t buy no tickets), I will still be doing something. I can’t live doing nothing.

Fortunately, I love my job so it’s no job at all (we are doing something about the environment and communities) and I won’t be leaving it even if our make-money-online endeavors do take-off.

Thanks, nice going.

Comment by Bong (JB) on January 19, 2008 @ 6:23 am

Hi Bong, thanks for dropping by and for your comment.

I think part of the pretty common topic regarding jobs and lack of same is how we use words.

The human animal does not need a ‘job’ but they do need meaningful work would be one way to put it, perhaps.

Like you, I need to be doig something. I have been much busier since I formally retired in May, 2003, than in nay of the 38 years before that which I devoted, all to often to bosses who didn’t want to rock the boat, didn’t want to take a chance, etc.

being busy and working at something you like … formal job or entrepreneurship is an important part of mental and physical well being. Reporting in during a snow stoerm to later be sent to slip and slide home because ‘rules are rules’ is _not_ a positive part of life … or so this busy retiee opines.

Comment by RP on January 20, 2008 @ 12:08 am