Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond

Part 7: Stop Being a Wage Slave - Part 1

One aspect of this site is to share my work as a writer through the years. I’m sharing the audiobook version of Notes from Nowhere (2020) in weekly installments for paid subscribers.

This series of posts are from the first book I wrote, Rough Living: Tips and Tales of a Vagabond (2003 & 2012 revised) Here is the first in this series - the Introduction. In a sense, the success of this book set me on the path I’m on, or the failure of this book - depending on how you look at it.

In the paid subscriber section - I offer expanded content- as well as links to where you can get the full PDF versions of the book for free. I’ll offer commentary on the parts of the text we cover. In addition, paid subscribers get valuable updates on new ways to do things more than two decades after first publication because keep in mind, I wrote this in 2002 so much of it has been absorbed by the world and some of it simply doesn’t work any longer. The world has changed dramatically since that time. We may not see it clearly, like a person who looks in the mirror every day and doesn’t see themselves aging - but the change is profound. This is one more reason to become a paid subscriber - you will get the value of modern perspectives and tools. Your subscription will pay for itself.

This week in the paid section - making ballsy moves and why it can pay off in a big way.

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STOP BEING A WAGE SLAVE

What Do You Love To Do?

I’ve watched the world for too long without speaking up. Someone has to let you know that you are living your lives like insane people. What exactly is it that you are all working so hard for? Do you even know?

Many people think they are looking for freedom, but the biggest joke is that they have it if only they choose to take it. Really. Even you. Even if you are reading this from a prison cell. It really is that easy.

The people of the world have allowed themselves to be told that life is about being the slave of societies, corporations, and other people. They’ve been told that their dreams are for too much, too quickly. They’ve been told that if they shut up and work hard they can then travel, change the world, and help others. I’m here to tell you that we’ve been lied to.

The proof is in the suicide rates, mental illness, and sense of disillusionment that most of us feel or experience.

People of the world! It’s time to stop working for the masters and start living free. No matter what your beliefs, I can tell you that the only life you have right now is the one you hold. Sure, faith can help you to carry on in the darkest nights of this life, but this life has been given to you for a reason and it isn’t so you can earn profits for someone else or spend your life as a wage slave. If you can be certain of anything, you can be certain of that.

It might make you feel comfortable to know you aren’t the only one who has been living this way. The world is filled with people who don’t like their jobs. When you look at the number of people who aren’t satisfied with their work who are fifty years old or less, what you find is that more than half wish they did something else. And yet, they don’t. Why is that?

When you stop for a moment to think about why the world is like it is, it is puzzling. How can it be that so many of us hate our jobs or at the very least do them without a bit of passion. Why is it that we spend so little time doing what we really love to do?

Are you one of those sad people that slaves away more than forty hours each week only to spend a few hours on the weekend doing what it is that you really love? Why is that? Why do you think you continue to do it? Why do you sit around on Sunday so completely bummed that you have to work the next day?

It’s not time to stop working. It’s time to start working on those things that bring you joy, happiness, and satisfaction. Don’t stop working, start living!

The Typical Wage-Slave Mentality

If you were to chart the mental maps of most people you would find they are filled with desire but constrained by hard-core industrial brain-washing. It doesn’t look so good.

Our mentalities are reflective of the societies we live in. Things have become totally awful and one of the reasons is because people have allowed themselves to become completely dependent on the wage they take home each week.

There is good news though. The dawn of the internet has made it possible for people to break the chains that bind them to the work they hate and to begin to become less dependent on bosses, wages, and jobs they loathe. People are discovering they can survive just as well or better by doing what they love. I’m one of them, you can be too. You can start to find what I call your ‘Passion Income’. Your passion income is what comes from doing what you love. All there is to it, is to do it.

This book is important is because it will give you the chance to become one of the pioneers of this revolution. By no means is this book intended as a comprehensive index of those who have changed their mentality and found their passion income. Every day more and more people are becoming independent of their employers, their geography, and their countries. In this chapter, I will introduce some of the better known people who have done this, and hopefully inspire you to become one of them.

Like you, most of them were once miserable too. They were chained to desks and filing TPX reports in triplicate or dealing with unhappy customers with a fake smile. Each of them decided they’d had enough. Just like I did. Just like I hope you will do too.

Passion Incomers are doing what they love and letting the money follow. It’s not just a feel good phrase. It’s true, the key is to be steady. You have to keep going. You can’t just give up at the first or the second or the third obstacles.

You can do it. I’m going to show you the ways that others have done it. You won’t be able to do it exactly the same way since you are not exactly the same person, but it is my true hope and desire that you can discover the path to your own freedom and happiness.

Don’t stop working, start living. Find your passion income. Start living the dream.

The Hardest Thing

Are you excited to start? Good! Now comes the really hard part.

How are you going to quit that job you hate so much? I can hear you saying “I can’t” “I need it” “I’ll keep it until I figure this out” but the truth is, you may have to quit. It’s sucking the life from you. It’s stealing your soul. You hate it and as long as you are focused on that hate, you can’t really do what you love.

I know. It’s crazy to even think about. What is the hardest part about it? Why are you saying it’s impossible?
Is it that you have financial responsibilities?
Is it that you are ‘loyal to the brand’? Why? Is it loyal to you?
Is it that your job makes you happy and energized? I doubt it or you wouldn’t have read this far or even picked up this book.
Is it that you want the income and status? Even though it makes you miserable?
Is it that you want people to respect and admire you? But can you really respect and admire yourself if you don’t quit?

It isn’t any of that. You want to quit so you can work on your own life. You want your life to be your greatest achievement.

I’m certain of that just by the fact you are reading my words, then you need to stop what you are doing and focus on something that will fulfill your soul.

Your work should be fun, creative, valuable, fulfilling, and contributing something but it’s not. Is it?

And the real problem is that you don’t really believe that all you have to do to change things is quit. It can’t possibly be that easy. All the things you’ve learned about jobs can’t be totally and completely wrong. Can they? Isn’t your job the key to your success?
I used to think so and guess what? I was wrong and so are you.

You are going to be miserable and unhappy until you realize the truth of this. Once you start to be honest about what a bunch of balderdash the whole job myth is, you won’t be able to find real joy in this life. Paradise is here, but only if you choose to accept it.

All the things you want are waiting for you but you won’t find them until you figure this out. Let yourself. Just for a second give yourself permission to think that this is the truth. Only a second and see how it feels. Does it feel like you are lying? Now go back to thinking it’s a lie. Can you?

Everyone around you probably wants you to keep working in your job. Your kids, your wife, your parents, your friends, your boss (especially him or her) and you know why? Because they aren’t you. They don’t know what makes you happy. They don’t know what brings you fulfillment. They don’t know that what led you to this point is making some bad decisions based on bad information.

It’s a rough spot to be in. I was there once.

You have to accept it. You have to deal with it. You have to admit your mistake and move forward. Lying to yourself will get you to exactly where you are right now.
And guess what? Once you accept it, you will find that the one thing you want to do more than any other is to quit that job. Let yourself. Damn the consequences. Never mind the bullocks. Just do it. Let yourself do what you want and see how it makes you feel. It’s your one and only life on this planet. Do what you know you must and do it quickly. You can blame me for the consequences but don’t forget to credit me with the good that comes of it either.

Finding Your Starting Point

There is one part of the business your boss doesn’t own. The part inside of your noggin. It’s true, you might not be able to quit today. Maybe you have to stay with it for a few months.

The ideal situation is to stop working for someone else right now, but maybe you need some time to prepare yourself. Some time to get ready. It’s okay. Really.

The important thing is that you know you can start working for yourself at any time you want. Can you imagine what it will be like to be your own boss? To have total freedom?

That’s what this is really about. It’s about having total freedom and being able to let go of the burdens of others that you have been dragging around for your whole life.
It’s the most important thing you can give yourself. If you are like most people, you don’t know if you can handle it or not. It scares you. It might even make you lose some sleep when you start thinking about it seriously. That’s okay.

Listen to all those reasons that tell you that you have to continue to be a wage slave and then think of all the reasons that you can be free. Just walk around for a while imagining what it will be like to be your own boss. Keep doing your work for as long as you need to but don’t take away the permission that you’ve already given yourself to quit. You are a free being. You were born free and you still are. You have the freedom to leave the job you hate.

If you plan on keeping your job, I wouldn’t tell the boss what’s going through your head. In fact, the more you focus on it, the more real it will become. As humans we tend to get what we envision. We focus on something enough and it becomes real. The sad thing is that most of us spend more time focusing on misery than on victory. And guess what? That’s what we get.

Making Up Your Mind To Be Free

If you want more freedom all you have to do is take it. Determine your own future just like those who have done it before. Buckminster Fuller was a failure in everything he did until he learned this secret. So was Henry Ford. So was Steve Jobs. If you want more freedom, you are the only one who can give it to yourself. What are you waiting for?

If Bill Gates had kept working for IBM there wouldn’t be any Microsoft. FDR was right when he said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. The Wright Brothers were right when they decided they could fly. You are right when you make up your mind that you can do what you dream of. All there is to it, is to do it.

In his book Don’t Ask Stupid Questions? There Are No Stupid Questions, author Tim Brownson. says “People make money doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things, things they genuinely love. People actually get paid to go shopping, eat food, tell jokes, play with toys, design things, play sports, pretend they are other people, write stuff, daydream, drive cars, care for animals, fly planes, talk, coach people and more or less anything else you can imagine.”

His book is filled with common sense inspiration that has led many to discover what they love and what they want to do with their lives. I recommend it. The sad thing is most people that read his book just say “Yeah, but that won’t work for me. I’m not good enough to do that.” But the truth is that you really are!

Others say that they don’t want to make money from their passion. That’s fine too, but you should still keep reading because I’m going to show you other ways you can leave the job you hate and find the joy you are missing. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Freelancing = Doing What You Love

For many people, passion and being good at something go hand in hand. If you are actually good at something, you usually become passionate about it. Even better, if you’re lucky, your passion is something you can actually sell.

Let’s have a look at some very sellable passions that are shared by a lot of people:
Writing, Web Design Skills, Blogging, Cooking, Computer Programming, Foreign Languages, Native Languages, Photography, Graphic Design, Teaching or Coaching, Sports.

Believe it or not, there are ready markets available where you can make money with these skills today! I’m not talking about waiting around. I’m talking about finding a way to make money today. Doing something you love and getting paid for it within the next 24 hours.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at craigslist and see if there isn’t at least one ad asking for writers. Ask your friends if they know anyone that is having a wedding, birthday, or party and would like a photographer, cook something delicious and see if you can sell it in front of a local business. These may sound absurd to you, but I’m telling you they are not. The only thing holding you back from making money right now is that voice in your head that is telling you that you can’t.

Or let’s say that you really like your work but you hate having to go to the office. In that case, you should look into freelancing in your field. Maybe you won’t find the same pay, maybe you will have to work harder, but you will make your life and your situation better.

Almost everyone I know who has a ‘real’ job hates it. And yet, these are the same people who tell me they are buying their freedom. At what cost? My friend Jeff had a heart attack and died at the age of 39. Luckily he had ditched his career a year earlier and started to live his passion, radio. Unfortunately the toll of heavy smoking, bad diet, and poor health from working in a job he hated for so long took his life before he could recover. Don’t let that happen to you!

Do you know who works for their freedom? Slaves do. Are you a slave or are you free? If the answer is that you are a slave you better get back to your master’s work, but if you are free, then what are you waiting for? In fact, none of us are slaves unless we choose to be. Do you really want to spend the next thirty years being a slave? Do you think people will respect you more if you continue as a slave or take the chance of a lifetime? Freedom is yours. I hope you are starting to understand the truth of that.
Ask yourself what it really is you want. What is it? Money? Fame? Time? Or would you prefer to have time and money? In truth, you really don’t want to be famous, you want the time and the money that fame can give you, right?

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