The Myth Of "Job Security"

About fifteen years ago, I had just gotten my certificate of apprenticeship as a carpenter.

What was supposed to be a "safe and secure job" turned out to not be so safe at all — because about a week after I got that certificate, I had to end that career for good due to some serious injuries in my elbows.

So yeah, I had just spent almost half a decade of my life educating myself for a career that lasted about one week. So much for "job security."

But even before my elbow injuries got so bad that I had to end my carpenter career for good, I had already started to realize there was so much more I wanted to do in life than being a carpenter.

Now don't get me wrong — I have absolutely nothing against people working normal jobs. I started working at the farm with my grandfather when I was five years old, so I learned early on to work hard. It's not about working hard or not, but rather about deciding what to work hard on, and what lifestyle you choose to live.

More Opportunities Today Than The Last 4,000 Years Of Documented Human History

I used to think to myself: here I am in the Western part of the world, with more opportunity than the last 4,000 years of documented human history. There are teenagers making millions online right now — yet here I was, trading away my time for about twenty dollars an hour as a carpenter.

One of the most valuable non-renewable resources we have here on earth is time. If you lose a million dollars, that's a reversible mistake, because you can make that money back again. But you can never get back lost time. Like Benjamin Franklin said:

Lost time is never found again.

Or like it says in the Bible about the brevity of life here on earth:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

— James 4:14

Life here on earth is very short, and I wanted a different lifestyle than being an employee. I wanted to make a difference, and I felt that working in the 9-to-5 rat race was limiting the things I could do. I felt very much like the old Thoreau quote:

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Thoreau wrote that over 150 years ago, but I think it's more true today than ever. Are you living the life you think you're meant to live? Or have you gotten so busy making a living that you've forgotten to design a life? It's easy in this busy world to get caught up in the thick of thin things, like Seneca said:

There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living; there is nothing harder to learn.

Everyone's Trying To Get In, Everyone's Trying To Get Out

Isn't it fascinating to think about? Back when I was a teenager in school, it seemed like all the students were daydreaming about getting a degree and then going out and getting a job. Yet a few years later, once I actually had a job and looked around at everyone else working as employees, it seemed like almost all of them were daydreaming of quitting those jobs.

It reminds me of what the multi-billionaire Peter Thiel said. After graduating from Stanford Law School, Thiel took a job at a top law firm in New York — from the outside, a highly coveted position that many qualified lawyers were trying to get. After taking it, though, he developed a different perspective:

There was this bizarre dynamic where from the outside, everybody was trying to get in, and from the inside everybody was trying to get out.

And:

I left the law firm after seven months and two days. One of the people down the hall told me, "It's really reassuring to see that it's possible to escape from Alcatraz."

Alcatraz. Think about it — isn't that how it feels for a lot of people working as an employee these days? I've heard it said that JOB is an acronym for "Jail Of Boss."

Escape Is Possible

Do you want to know how you can escape from "Alcatraz" — how you can escape the 9-to-5 rat race and live your ideal lifestyle? The good news is that it's possible.

Recently I've been interviewing a bunch of real-life success stories for my online education and community platform, Terrific 30, and the way a lot of people have built their lifestyle business is by building their own online paid community.

If you want to learn more about that from real success stories, join our free online community.