"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." That's a quote by Thomas Edison. All of the successful people I have ever known, got that way by stepping away from what was comfortable for them.
I would say about 20% of my friends have stepped out and started their own businesses. Does this make them happier? It is hard to say. Some businesses have really taken off, while others have failed. A few have languished somewhere in the middle. Sometimes the difference is in how well thought out the business was in the first place. Other times, it really depended on how much work the person who started it was willing to put into it. Sometimes, neither of those things mattered. After saying all of that, I can tell you that opportunities (at least for starting businesses) rarely just fall into your lap. There is either hard work to do or a lot of networking involved to be in the right position at the right time. Sometimes, very specific knowledge is needed. One thing that is always needed, I find, is a general unhappiness with the status quo. In general, it is when you are unhappy with something in your life that you will find the extra oomf necessary to take the initial step out of your comfort zone. I know that is the way it was for me. Not only with starting my own business, but with losing weight, getting in shape...nearly everything. No matter what you want to do in life, there is work involved. Nothing comes free. There is going to be some cost. For instance, whether an opportunity works out or not, there is always going to be the time you used to take the opportunity. That will always be a sunk cost. Think of it like: "If I do this, then I can't do that." Simple. There could also be a monetary cost. Again, this could also come back to time. If I spend my time working on "A", then I can't make money doing "B". In the end, many people are just too lazy to take the first step. Others, look to skip steps to get to where they want to be sooner. I find that this doesn't work either. Make a plan on how to logically get to where you want to go, and then follow the plan through. If at some point, you see a way to improve the plan, then by all means, do so. Just don't start without a plan and then decide to wing it as you go along. From my experience, this just doesn't work out too well. There are just too many ways for things to go wrong then. When you make a plan, you have at least thought it out to that point. In all aspects of your life, smart working will get you where you want to go. While there will be some hard work involved. I always found that most of that came in the planning stages. Doing the actual work is oftentimes enjoyable. After all, whatever it is you are pursuing... whether it is a new business, an new love interest, or a new personal goal, you chose it didn't you? That means that you likely must enjoy something about it, otherwise, you would have chosen something else.
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"Beware the barrenness of a busy life!" That's a quote by Socrates. And it makes a lot of sense. Do we work to live? Or do we live to work? I would think that for most of us, we work to live. A problem arises when we live to work.
If you are so busy working that you don't have time to spend with your friends and family, then you need to change what you do. Not necessarily change jobs... just change how you do it. There are many ways to do things. If you find that the way you are doing things is taking up too much of your time, then you need to change the way you do it so that your time becomes your own again. If you are being paid for a forty hour week, then give forty hours and no more, If you are being paid for fifty hours than give fifty. The problem is, when you are on a salary, you are being paid to get a job done... no matter how long it takes you. In that case, you have to decide if the pay is worth the effort. If the answer is no, then you have decisions to make. Do you get the job done, but cut back on the quality of the work you give to make the pay fit the work? Or do you look for different work? I do not like to cut back on quality. However, sometimes that is what is required to be done. Sometimes, other forms of income may become necessary. If you find yourself becoming too busy, you will know it because you will find that other parts of your life will seem to become barren. Life is to live. Work is a part of it... just make sure that it doesn't become ALL of it. "Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving." That's a quote by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett was an English author of fantasy novels. He died in March, 2015. I never read any of his novels, so I am not sure what context was behind this quote. For me, it still holds meaning though.
You see, I, in a sense, have come back full circle to where I have started. In 1991, I started as a research assistant at the Value Line Investment Survey. It was my first job on Wall Street, and I was proud to work there. I moved up through the ranks quickly and left five years later as an editor and the editor in charge of the Supplementary Reports portion of the survey. I left to go to Merrill Lynch in 1996. In September 2014, I rejoined Value Line, and in a sense it felt like a homecoming. I still knew many of the older analysts there and many of the younger analysts were very welcoming. After my wife died, it was very hard to keep my hedge fund consulting business viable, since I was also raising two young girls on my own. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and the business suffered even further, while I supervised visits for the girls with their Mom, or had to drive Sharon to doctors visits as the courts had decreed. In 2014, I still had clients, but I was writing a lot of proprietary reports that I could not send out to other prospective clients, thus the business was stagnating. In July, a number of old friends came up for a fishing trip, and I was talking shop with one of the analysts that still worked at Value Line. He told me that Value Line was looking for analysts to work from home, and I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Two weeks later, I was hired! I must say that coming back to where I started is not like never leaving. I picked up the Value Line system again very easily, and I am thoroughly enjoying working for Value Line again. I, of course, work from New Hampshire. My New York extension rings in my home office. Some of my old friends ask me if it bothers me going back to where I started. And I must say that it doesn't bother me at all. Sure I miss working with the hedge funds and trying to out think the Street. But the reality of it is that that wasn't what I was doing anymore at my own company. I didn't have the time to do the research AND the marketing AND the client talks that are necessary to keep that type of business going. I had more than enough work to keep me going, but I was just making the bills. And the work was no longer run and gun trading and shorts, but more management critiques and operational synopsis'. I enjoyed doing them, and was happy for the work, but it was just not going to allow me to comfortably increase the rest of my business and home school my daughters. At this point, I am covering about 50 stocks for Value Line. Although the press schedule can be tight, particularly during earnings season, I still have time to teach my daughters, train in the martial arts and do other things that need to be done around the house. Although I miss the camaraderie of being in an office setting, I am older now, and it just wouldn't be what it used to be anyway. In the end, I feel like I have to some extent come home... even though I never really leave my home to work anyway. At least not since 2003. It's funny how life changes, yet still manages to stay the same in so many ways. One final thought: If I never left Value Line, I never would have met my wife, and I never would have then had my daughters that I have now. I also never would have moved to New Hampshire, where I am extremely happy. Thus, although I have come back to where I started, I am also happy that I am never really leaving my happy place in New Hampshire! "Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet." That's a quote from Pierre Trudeau. He was a long-time Prime Minister of Canada. If you don't know him, his personal motto was "Reason before passion". It is the rare individual who will admit that reason and logic should rule the roost.
Getting back to his quote, I think he is right for the most part. Sure, you will have the odd time when someone will win a lottery or a raffle that will make them a millionaire. And given the odds of winning those things, you would think that luck is something else entirely. But for the most part, the luckiest people you know are those who are in some way prepared to take advantage of opportunities that they are actively looking for. Here's a good example, In 2014, I was in a tough situation. My business was stalled and I was beginning to look for a job, or a new line of business. The problem was that I needed to work from home since my wife had died a year earlier and I had two young girls that I was raising on my own. I was also home schooling my daughters. With that in mind, I had a group of my closest friends come over to the house to go fishing. Although we are all busy and have families, we try to get together every once in a while to fish. Although I invited all of them over to fish, we had a lot of time to talk as well. While talking, I found out that a company I used to work for was looking for analysts to work from home. I immediately told my friend I would send him a resume to put in for me. To make a long story short, I was back working at my old firm within two weeks, from home in New Hampshire. Was it luck? Yes, to some extent it was. I was prepared to find a new job and I recognized the opportunity that was presented to me. I acted immediately once I heard about the opportunity. I still knew about twenty people at my old firm and they all vouched for my work ethic. In this instance, my "luck" was the point where preparation and opportunity met. I have another friend now who is looking for a similar opportunity. I spoke with him just before Christmas. I told him about where I was working and what I was doing and he seemed interested. An analyst had just been fired at my firm and there was an opening. Instead of putting in a resume right away to see if he could get the position, he decided to wait. He wanted to see if he could lose some weight first. "Maybe in the spring" he said. I have no doubt that if my friend puts in a resume, he will have a good chance of getting a position.. if a spot is available. That is the risk. When I told him about it, there was a spot available. When he is ready to put a resume in, there may not be. In other words, my friend saw an opportunity, but was not prepared to act on it. Very few people knew that we had lost an analyst that week. Because he used to work at the company, and still knew people there, he likely would have been a shoe in for a position. If he does put in a resume in the future, he will still have those connections, but what he might not have is an open position to fill. Preparation and opportunity. They are crucial for creating your own luck. Ever been around a person who is dissatisfied. They can usually tell you exactly what they want, and yet they never seem to take a step towards getting what they want. I know people like this. They say they hate their job, but they don't look for another. Instead, they say, I have been doing this for a long time and I won't find a job with similar benefits.
I never say anything to them, but I think "of course you won't find anything better if you won't actually look!" I work in finance. People change jobs in this field all of the time. Sometimes it is because they leave for a better opportunity of their own choosing. A lot of times, it's because they get let go in a restructuring and have to find something new. No matter what they end up making monetarily, 99% of the time I find that they like their new positions better than what they were doing previously. So why not look for that new position if you are so unhappy? Money and benefits aren't everything. Quality of life is much more important to me. What good is making a lot of money if you are perpetually going to be unhappy? Jobs are just one example by the way. By not actively pursuing what you want, you are not going to get it no matter what you are trying to do. My training at the dojo shows me this in real time. I have noticed two things while at the dojo. First, I noticed that the things I practice more often are the things that I improve at the most. With that in mind, I try to work a difficult move into my training repertoire so that I improve at it more quickly than I otherwise would. For the past three months or so, I have been practicing spinning hook kicks to the head. I think they look cool and have a tendency to take people by surprise. At first, I only practiced the kick with my left foot, but I noticed it is hard to land because I usually fight with my left foot forward. Thus I have been practicing the kick with my right foot as well, I can now get a hook kick to head level with either foot. I have now started to use different feints with the kicks so that I can thow them from many different setups. Bruce Lee once said that he doesn't fear the man who knows 10,000 kicks, but the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. I am nowhere near 10,000 kicks yet, but I am not done practicing this kick yet either! The second thing I have noticed is that I can tell who practices and who doesn't just by watching them. Now, there is no one way to learn karate. Everyone learns in their own way and at their own pace. I think all that come to the classes and continue should be commended. Karate is a hard discipline and the workouts can be strenuous. With that said, I think some people come to the dojo and take classes, and then never practice what they have learned at home. Others go home and practice forms, exercise, or hit a bag. You can literally tell the difference between those that do and those that don't! Sometimes, time is all it takes. Some who started slowly, got motivated once they moved up a couple of belts and then began to practice at home. I think the key is that all at the dojo took that first step to actually sign up and take a class. That first step is so crucial! They have taken that first step to go after what they want! I will ALWAYS be willing to work with someone who has willingly taken that first step. So what do you want? Figure it out and take that first step...Because if you don't go after what you want, then you likely ain't gonna get it! Although many people dream of working from home full time, I can tell you from experience that there are some downsides to it. The biggest negative is that you never know when people are not in. Working from home you end up having to rely on people to get your reports to the editor...or if there is a problem with your page you need the production guys around to fix up your page. If any one cog in the machine is missing, you end up with headaches.
Today, there was a key person missing in production and two of my stocks are still waiting to be galleyed. This wouldn't be too bad if I wasn't waiting since Friday on one of the two! I work on the weekends and I was trying to get the one stock prepped to work on. Now, I have had the writing edited, I have all of my numbers done, but I have a page showing the format for last year! Oy! You would think that they would have more than one person who can handle production problems! Nope, out of the three people in the department, only one can fix problems Another thing that is tough is that you never get to develop camaraderie with the people you work with. I still have friends that I originally met at Value Line from when I worked there in the early 1990's. This time through, while I can recognize some of the names, I think I would have a tough time picking most of them out in a crowd. The old timers, yes I recognize them. But anyone who started in the past ten years is hit or miss. Overall, I have to admit that I like working from home.I get to really know my daughters in a way that just wasn't available to my Dad when me and my sister were growing up. In fact, I suspect many parents nowadays just don't get to experience true parenting. When I reflect on what I am doing...I have to say I am happy. Are things perfect? No, I could be making more money. I can stand to lose a few pounds...but overall, I am doing what I was put on this earth to do. Raise my children to the best of my abilities. |
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