I've found myself lately urging friends to quit their jobs and take six months to a year off. I made that decision mid-2004 and it was one of the best decisions I'd ever made. I had friends, Dennis Bastas and Mike Vallender who had done this a few years before me and I didn't understand their reasons at the time, but they both came out of their "breaks" with new and exciting careers, both as CEOs, leading new enterprises. I know for certain that if I had been still working a full-time job when podcasting came along, The Podcast Network wouldn't exist today. I wouldn't have been ready to jump as fast as I was. I wouldn't have been primed.
And from this perspective I've been watching some of the best minds of my generation work in jobs they admit they don't like, earning reasonable money, but who could afford to take a year off, if they really wanted to. Some of us are fortunate enough to have developed some asset wealth at a relatively young age that previous generations never saw in their lifetimes. Most of us have been conditioned to believe we have to re-invest that wealth into an ever-increasing asset portfolio, so we can die the richest guy in the block.
I had lunch with Mike V today and he made a great statement. He said something like "My great fear isn't getting to retirement age and not having an asset base to live on. My great fear is getting to the end of my life and not having done all of the things that are important to me."
He also said some interesting things about why high inflation is GOOD for us, and bad for the rich white guys who run the world. But more on that at another time.
Anyway, I've found myself urging some friends to take a year off lately so they can just "explore" their life and change direction. And I realized today who I have become. I am John Galt.
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,
nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.
Have moved from CA to North Thailand, my children enjoy an academic education far above what I can obtain even in Ventura County and will spend their off time with their grand parents at the edge of the Thai jungle learning how to live off it. The tool of academia is brittle and useless when not tempered by the realism of life, death, and the usefull purpose of survival. My wife (Thai) degreed in teaching and raised in the middle of nowhere in NE Thailand (they make their own charcoal to cook with), me- degreed in Chemistry/Medical Tech/Chem Engr. world backpacker and scuba diver, we are also each the first generation out from natural selection in each of our families(my Fathers side have no birth certs). Our kids are intelligent and raw and it is our intention to continue this duality in their development. If they survive it and can control it, they should end up some pretty interesting people. The world is too much with us late and soon, geting and spending we lay waste our powers. Thanks for reading! JLG
Posted by: JLeeG | Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 04:46 PM