After reading many articles like this one — Jobless and Hopeless, Many Quit the Labor Force — that include stories of well-educated, middle-aged white guys who can’t find work, it’s occurred to me that I probably could no longer find a traditional job that paid well, either… given my age and, um, eclectic job history.
But I have a little of something I now call “the amateur spirit” — a willingness and a confidence to try a new job or profession that interests me. I’ve mainly attributed this to my whole-hearted adoption of the philosophy and techniques in What Color is Your Parachute? since it was first published in the early 70s. I’ve now adopted the phrase “amateur spirit” after listening to Kurt Anderson, host of Studio 360 and co-founder of Spy Magazine. He gave a speech on it in the Twin Cities recently and it’s now available in Real Audio on the MPR web site.
Three years ago this month, at the peak of the dot-com boom, I attended an expensive 3-day Garage.com conference in NYC on high-tech startups… and came back ready to launch Real Joe. I’m still whacking away at it, though I’m now focused more on learning to be a writer/essayist/commentator and figuring how to get published in traditional media than a CEO of a soon-to-be media empire. And since I’m still a long way from making any kind of decent income from this, I’m grateful to have a marketable skill I enjoy that just barely is keeping me self-employed — my so-called day job.
When the money’s tight, it’s hard to not dwell on how much it’s all a struggle… that gee, wouldn’t life be a lot simpler and more relaxing if I just had a steady job, with decent benefits, regular vacation, and money back at tax time? I think those days are gone forever. It’s more likely that I’ll end up taking a temporary job driving a truck to make ends meet than going back to the corporate world. And on most days, I’m okay with this.