How To Manhandle The 9–5 And Retire By 40
“I was 25 years old making $200,000 per year,” she said.
I couldn’t believe it. My eyes widened, a grin slid across my face, and I took a bit of a deep breath at the news.
“She” was Dandan Zhu, a headhunter who worked mostly in New York City from the time she was 23 to the time she turned 28.
Then she retired.
Yeah.
Her story is definitely pretty remarkable, and she’s here to lay out the blueprint for how you can do the same thing she did.
Pay Close Attention To What You Like
Speaking on the phone with Dandan was incredibly fun. Her mind bounced from topic to topic pretty quickly — thank goodness I was recording everything!
It became clear she loved talking to people (and excitement), which made her a perfect fit for headhunting.
“In my post-grad internship I realized the sales people were having fun, and that it looked exciting also. The question became: Do you pursue something because it’s the mainstream thing to do, or do you go after a career that’s not so much in the mainstream but you know it’s what you want to do?
After that I moved to New York and got my first sales job in headhunting. I just knew that I needed money to live, and there’s no other job in the corporate world that allows you to make more money than you can besides sales. Headhunting was that gateway for me.”
Sure, finding what you WANT to do is important, but what if what you WANT to do is be a bartender, or a writer?
How can you retire young then?
The reality is that not everyone can realistically retire by 28 — there’s not always enough runway for that depending on your career. However most can retire before they’re 40, regardless of the career path they follow.
Here’s how.
Work Twice As Hard (It’s Easier Than You Think)
Dandan’s been in the corporate world for a long time, so she’s gotten to see how hard most people ACTUALLY work.
“Some people want a boring job where they don’t need to do much. I remember looking at my internship Junior year and saying ‘I don’t need to do this, it’s very automatable.’ Some people would go, ‘This is great! This is the job for me! I’m going to milk this thing until the cows come home.’”
It’s not exactly the most flattering way to describe how people approach their jobs, but in Dandan’s experience, it’s the truth.
“If I could summarize career success, it would be to work your ass off, save your ass off, and retire by 40.
That’s what career success should look like, but most people do the half-ass thing where they work to balance that their whole lives!
So what happens is, instead of working 10–20 years, you work at half that for 40 years. Basically you’re skimping out on yourself. If you just work a tiny bit harder, you could cut 10–15 years of work off your life. If you save up that little bit harder, you could retire younger.”
Commit To The Hand You’ve Been Dealt
Are you excited about your work? If you’re not excited, are you at least biting the bullet and putting your all into it?
Dandan says commitment to your job is absolutely essential to winning the 9–5 game.
“You will not get anywhere if you don’t fully invest yourself in the decision that you make. So if you go 9–5, you better go at it really hard. Your goal is to not make it suck. You need to work your butt off at it, make friends with all the higher ups — that’s your job.
“When you start, you need to make it your business to be liked. That should be your number one goal when you show up to work on day one.”
Choose To Be Independent
Why retire at 40 in the first place? Why not just keep working and enjoy the benefits, money, and comfort that a steady job provides?
And so we come to it.
If you want to retire by 40, you need to choose independence.
All of us go through the journey of actually becoming an individual. Sometimes we’re so busy being brainwashed by our family, our parents, and our socio-economic class that people grow up with zero independence.
They tell us to get married, to do certain things, to work in certain industries, to feel a certain way about money. People have to choose to be independent. People have to come to that realization if they ever have the boldness and courage to embrace that mentality.
In other words, you have to free your mind to believe that this is actually possible. Dandan retired by 28 years old — a far cry from what any financial expert will tell you is normal.
How did she do it?
“I think it’s products and services in the self-help realm that help people get to that realization faster. That was my personal experience. I was finally understanding that my parents don’t know shit, and that came from reading books!”
It’s not so much about working hard, committing, and choosing work you like — it’s about actually believing these things are the keys to success.
This article isn’t groundbreaking. It’s not telling you anything you don’t know, but it is — I believe — telling you pretty bluntly how most people work and what they SHOULD do to free themselves from the 9–5 game.
It’s almost like the majority of the American workforce is just a hoarde of zombies looking to cash checks and “depend” on their jobs (which they work very little at) for a comfortable life.
I can’t know for certain if this is true, but since someone who retired at 28 told me that’s how it is, I’m going to believe what she’s saying.
What’s REALLY separating most is that desire to live a life of independence.
Where do you stand?
Want to see more of my interview with Dandan? Check out her five page spread in the free Post-Grad Survival Guide digital magazine.
