Whether To Embrace The Suck
Whether To Embrace The Suck
There is a quintessential question that divides the financial independence community. The divide spans philosophy as well as the generational gap. it digs down to the core of what you believe about the path to financial freedom and the role of work and employment. There are two distinct sides that are deeply entrenched in their own dogma. I have touched on the subject with my post about front loading the sacrifice. I guess I have chosen my side. The quintessential question is whether to embrace the suck or to dispel of it altogether.
What do I mean?
Simply put, for many in this community, the road to success is paved with sacrifice. Put in your dues. Work long hours. Slowly move up the ladder, and nirvana eventually awaits. For others, sacrifice is a four letter word. They fear this concept of grinding away at a task they hate. They believe that passion is the bridge over troubled waters.
Which is right?
Front Load The Sacrifice
Work was never meant to be joyful. Especially in the beginning. Most jobs start with menial tasks. That’s because you don’t know anything and don’t own anything. You are the bottom rung of the ladder. You can’t climb unless establish a good base and work your way up.
Compounding. Not only money but the experience you gain during those menial tasks will pay dividends in the future. They will compound into a wealth of not only riches but opportunities. If you are wise enough to start young, that advantage over decades will be unimaginable.
But you have to start young. You have to put up with some of the drudgery. Sure, I had no fondness for all the middling tasks I performed as a med student and a resident. The knowledge gained, however, during those never ending days on call would be the fuel for my rocket ship.
They would propel me to heights professionally and economically that I would never have been ready for at the beginning of my career.
I had to put in the time. There was no question of whether to embrace the suck or not. I had no choice.
Breaking The Daily Grind
There is an equally compelling argument that the old way of doing things no longer works. Why spend our precious time working away at activities that we despise? There is a new world dawning. The gig economy and the liquid work force allow a person to tailor their work experience to fit their needs.
Why do something you hate when you can do something you love? There is no time to waste on the mundane. Follow your passion and allow it to lead you to monetization. Whether to embrace the suck is no longer a relevant question.
Embrace the passion and opportunities around you. They don’t have to suck.
Proponents of this philosophy rightly point to the failings of previous generations. Baby boomers and gen X’ers who are no better off financially, and yet were miserable throughout their work careers.
Who’s Right?
That’s a great question that I am not sure I have the answer to. I chose to grind it out and front load the sacrifice. This has served me well. But, I also didn’t even have an inkling early in my career that there was another possibility. I had no choice on whether to embrace the suck or not, it was the only path I knew to becoming a doctor.
Now, there are other options. Even if you want to be a medical professional, you can become a nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or even an EMT and foreshorten the pain quite a bit. With a little luck and entrepreneurial spirit, the pay gap may not even be that great.
More importantly, the world is big enough to accommodate both philosophies.
So do what you like.
Life is going to have a certain percentage of “suck” or grind – always. We’re never going to get rid of that. We have to learn to embrace it at some level, whether that be in a job, working out, forgoing foods that you love but that are bad for you, or whatever. If we somehow took all bad things out of life and made it 100% bliss and pleasure all the time, we would need to introduce challenge, struggle, and adversity back in to survive. Great thinking exercise 🙂
I think you and I know that. But there is a percentage of the population who think that there should never be any grind.
“So do what you like.” Couldn’t agree more! I think we all have suck moments, it’s part of life. But the sacrifice mode , or the stick with it mode to financial independence; thinking you can put in your time , work your way up, doesn’t always pan out. When it doesn’t it can be quite a shock. And you’re left with or looking for Plan B . Sometimes “B” is where you were meant to be all along. It’s all good.
Very true. There are no promises. Even if you do sacrifice.
Even if you follow your passion, there is going to be huge struggle and sacrifice in most cases. Our world is changing fast and the things that could not be easily monetized previously are not lucrative to some. This makes it hard to say to my niece that she’s foolish to get a Master’s Degree in Opera, for example. She’s the hardest working young person in my family, now teaching voice and piano while performing any gig she can get hired for. It is a huge amount of work, even compared to my long hours in Engineering. My gut says she has chosen the wrong path, but the creatives in this world possibly own the future. We shall see.
You make a good point. The world is changing. it may change our relationship to work and sacrifice.
I was lucky in that my job never felt like a grind after the first month or two. The next thirty years were pretty much all a lot of fun. I rarely felt like I was working, it felt much more like a hobby. I rarely felt underpaid, usually I was kind of embarrassed they paid me as much as they did. But I will admit that I haven’t met many people that had the same experience with work I did so I’m probably the odd duck who fell into exactly what I was meant to do, and even in my case the last two years of my career were forgettable. At least they did make retiring a very easy choice. If I had kept on having a blast I’d probably still be working and would have missed what, so far, is the best phase of my life.
I definitely think you are unique.
The “option” is an illusion. If you’re already rich, farting around getting richer is a hobby. The gig economy is also an illusion. When analyzed it’s mostly smoke. Drive for Uber? After expenses you make 2 bux an hour. Consult? Guess who’s the first to be axed in a downturn. Small business? 30% fail first year, 50% by 2 years and an additional 30% fail after 10 years. Lemme see 50 + 30 = ILLUSION. You spend a decade just for the privileged of failing 80% of the time. If you think you’re special, it’s a normal distribution. 5 people are special the rest are just the rest. Life is a series of serial probabilities and contingencies.
I think that there are many in this community who think there is an option. We might have to wait a few years to see if that’s true.