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The First Day of the Rest of My Life
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Location: Blogs Shawn Morgan's Blog - Living Happier, Healthier, Financially Independent, and Boss-Free |
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| Posted by: Shawn Morgan |
8/3/2007 11:24 AM |
So after 13 years of working in a corporate setting, doing the 8-5 thing Monday through Friday, I took the big plunge. It was a long time coming...
I've worked in a lot of companies over the years. Several of them were Fortune 500, and a couple Fortune 100, companies...basically, they were big. I also worked in several smaller companies with as few as 10 people. But ultimately, it all seemed the same to me. I would go to work in the morning, spend my 8-9 hours there, and come home. I always did a great job for my managers, always got good reviews from my managers and peers, and received many promotions. However, things always seemed empty to me.
My job was a job...I mean, a real job, one of those things that you hated going to every morning. I hated waking up in the morning, hated driving into work, hated doing my work, and hated thinking about having to go to work the next day. I dreaded Mondays, and I longed for it to be Friday. I worked for one thing, the weekend.
There was nothing fulfilling about my job. My latest job was working for a huge retail store with almost 1,000 stores. Although I’m sure that it is important to people that there are stores to buy stuff at, ultimately my roll within an organization the size of this one seemed fairly meaningless to me. Contributing to the problem was that I chose (more on this later) to work with computers as a career (more on this as well). It’s hard to feel like you are making a meaningful contribution to anything when you are writing documents describing computer programs.
So, I quit. After 13 years, I just walked into my managers office and quit. I explained the reasons to them, the same things that I’ve listed here. I finished up some work that they had asked me to do, giving them six more weeks of time, and then I packed up all my stuff and walked out the door. I didn’t have any plans on what I was going to do next, only that I wasn’t going to come back into the office the next day.
This was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. Once I got over the initial fear of walking into the office and telling my manager I was quitting, I have had nothing but positive feelings about this move.
Of course, now the real challenge begins! I’m not currently independently wealthy, I can’t survive without making money for very long. I’m now put into the position of figuring out how to make money while still maintaining freedom.
How am I going to do this?
- Be Boss-Free – Obviously, a key tenet for me to be happy is to continue to be boss-free. Ultimately, this means that I can never take another job where I am an employee of someone else. Just moving from one job to another has never made me happy. Sure, there may have been more money involved, but I’ve learned over time that happiness isn’t about money. By staying boss-free, I will have freedom. Freedom to do what I want, when I want, and how I want.
- Use My Skills – Over the years I have built many skills: interpersonal skills, business skills, computer skills, and life skills. I’m not going to abandon everything I know and start from scratch. I’m going to use what I know to my advantage.
- Learn from Others – I know I’m not the first person to make this type of move. There are tons of books and websites with personal accounts of people quitting their jobs and starting their own companies. For every successful company out there, there is someone who quit working for someone else and began to do what they wanted to do. I will learn as much as possible from those people. I will seek out mentors who are happy, healthy, financially independent, and boss-free. By using their knowledge, I’ll be able to more quickly reach my goals with fewer set-backs.
This blog and website are here for both me and you. I hope that I will learn many things about myself, about happiness, and about freedom, and through this website I can share these experiences with you, so that maybe, one day, you will feel confident that you can also take the bold move and Live Boss-Free. |
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Comments (7)
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By XtremeCowboy on
8/7/2007 8:21 PM |
| Yea! Congrats on your "revelation". Living boss-free is great...throw on here being debt-free and retiring from EVERYTHING by 50 to 55. Who's going to be going on cruises with me every month? T - 16 years and counting! |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By host on
8/7/2007 8:22 PM |
| Thanks T! Seems like I have some issue with my comment form...great, something to do tomorrow! |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By BossFreeWannaBe on
8/11/2007 10:20 AM |
| When I first began reading this post, my initial reaction was, "Is he crazy?" But soon after, I realized that this is normally my initial reaction to new ideas I hear from people and it takes me some time to break it down and see the idea from different perspectives. I guess I have been conditioned to react this way after many years of not being "Boss Free".<br><br>So now I will say thanks for giving me something to think about, and I look forward to keeping up with you as you progress along your journey.<br><br>You're a good guy, Shawn, and a smart guy. I know you will do great. |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By CSimon on
9/10/2007 4:58 AM |
| I solute your bravery to quit your job. I always want to do it but fear prevent me from doing it. I am one of those thousands out there that don't like to work for somebody else, I hate my job, I don't like going to work daily monday to friday, I wish there's an option make it possible for others to choose whether to work or not. I've a family to feed and it not easy to give up my current job. I've started a blog about three month ago due to frustration. I'm in the same boat as you, want to earn income from blogging. I wish you the best of luck and I believe you can achieve it, be independent, be your own boss, financially sound, happy and most of all aquire the freedom you always want.<br><br>regards,<br>Cyril Simon<br>http://csgonsilou.blogspot.com<br> |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By CSimon on
9/10/2007 4:58 AM |
| I solute your bravery to quit your job. I always want to do it but fear prevent me from doing it. I am one of those thousands out there that don't like to work for somebody else, I hate my job, I don't like going to work daily monday to friday, I wish there's an option make it possible for others to choose whether to work or not. I've a family to feed and it not easy to give up my current job. I've started a blog about three month ago due to frustration. I'm in the same boat as you, want to earn income from blogging. I wish you the best of luck and I believe you can achieve it, be independent, be your own boss, financially sound, happy and most of all aquire the freedom you always want.<br><br>regards,<br>Cyril Simon<br>http://csgonsilou.blogspot.com<br> |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By CSimon on
9/10/2007 5:00 AM |
| Sorry for the double entry. |
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Re: The First Day of the Rest of My Life |
By Alex @ arec on
9/28/2007 6:53 PM |
| I agree with the previous - "wtf, you ok?" but a lot of people understand how your feeling. All I can say is more power to you. |
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