I refuse to believe that we're all happy to drive shareholder value and return profits to corporations in exchange for a paycheck every two weeks. In fact, the older I get, the more I believe it to be the biggest misalignment I could ever imagine. I understand that this is the game we play, but at times, I struggle to understand why we all go along with it like lemmings.
You're telling me that working as a Senior Business Analyst, an Operations Associate, or a GTM Strategist is the path to happiness as we slave away for forty-plus years before retiring. Oh, and that GTM stands for "Go To Market," which is a fancy buzzword to say you are responsible for revenue in an organization. Someone got paid to create those three letters.
And don't focus only on those titles; everyone is involved here, no matter your job title, and the point isn't the job title, it's the meaningless work in exchange for the 2.5% annual pay rise.
When you were running around as kids, we weren't dreaming about sitting in meetings all day just so some dipshit named Chad could tell us we're not working hard enough and that his boss wants to see more output.
Let me be clear: I understand that we do this work each and every day for an organization because we get paid, and we get benefits. Outside of that, if we all had the chance to fuck all tomorrow and fly to Ibiza, we would.
So my question more or less becomes, why do people not call a timeout and step back from putting in all this stress and effort for someone else, and put the effort into doing it themselves?
I saw a great quote last week from Gary Vee: "People would rather spend forty years working for someone else than take three years to put in the effort to build something for themselves."
It's true.
You have the tools, you have the talents, you have the abilities to do something meaningful that you would love to do, yet you allow fear to hold you back. You second-guess yourself and what is possible, and you over-analyze everything, leaving you frozen.
I know that starting a business isn't for everyone, and that's fine. But somewhere in this storyline is also a whole group of people who are also working with that made-up title, for an organization that doesn't give a shit about them, feeling miserable every day. And they don't do anything either. They continue the cycle with no change.
Look, like is short. It's fucking shorter than you even know, and it should not be spent unhappily, and if you have goals and talents and a dream to achieve, it should be spent focusing that energy on achieving that goal.
If you are going to continue to go the route of driving shareholder earnings for your organization, then great. Just know what you're doing, and what you're giving up in return.
Whether you realize it or not, you're making a trade.
Every early morning, every late night, every meeting that drains you a little more than it should, you're choosing that exchange. There’s nothing wrong with it, but at least be honest about the cost. Comfort has a price. Stability has a price. And sometimes that price is the version of yourself you keep putting off for “someday.”
And someday has a funny way of never showing up.
It hides behind promotions, bonuses, new titles, and just enough progress to keep you in the game. You tell yourself you’ll make the move when things calm down, when you’ve saved a little more, when the timing is right. Meanwhile, the years stack up, and the idea you once had starts to feel less like a plan and more like something you used to talk about.
So if this hits even a little bit, don’t overhaul your life tomorrow. Just stop pretending you don’t have a choice.
Call your own timeout. Take one step that actually belongs to you. Because the people who eventually build something for themselves aren’t smarter or more talented, they just got tired of waiting and decided to bet on their own lives for once.
If you've made it this far, check out The Career Clock to see where you are in your career and to benchmark yourself against your peers. Maybe now is the time to make that big leap.