If You’re Working in a Job You Don’t Like — You’re Being Average
This is why I quit my job as an attorney after only 1 year
Several months ago, I was sitting at my desk buried in legal documents with my head in my hands, crying and hating my life. I was a lawyer who, since the first semester of law school, knew that law wasn’t a good fit for me.
Nevertheless, I pushed myself to graduation and got a job as a lawyer because I feared people’s opinions of me if I dropped out, I feared the unknown, and I feared not being able to pay back all the student loans I had racked up to that point.
Unfortunately, every day at work was hard. Not so much because my work was challenging, but because I didn’t like my job, and I desired something different. Better. I wanted to work on projects that were meaningful to me, have full autonomy over my work, and become a high-earning entrepreneur like Robert Kiyosaki and all the other entrepreneurs I had read about during the latter half of my college years.
Nevertheless, there I was feeling stuck in a job I didn’t like. Because I didn’t like my career, I became an average attorney, working for an average firm, doing average work, earning an average paycheck. I had no desire to network, to improve my skills, and I had no interest in taking on any additional responsibilities that would entitle me to a promotion.
That scared me because I never wanted to be average. I wanted to work hard and do great work. I also knew that I had more in me than I was giving my job. Furthermore, I knew feeling stuck in a career I didn’t like wouldn’t make me successful and that getting out of law and starting over was my only real chance to achieving the success and life I had always dreamed of:
1. doing work that is meaningful to me
2. which makes a significant, positive impact on my community
3. and gives me the freedom to create the life I want for my family and me.
Take Multimillionaire Sarah Kauss’s story, for example: In a wonderful article called “How this Ex-Accountant Built a $100m Empire in Just 6 years” by Alan Trapulionis, I learned that before starting her company, Ms. Kauss was an accountant. She earned a handsome income of $200,000 a year, and while she didn’t hate her job, she wasn’t in love with it.
Accounting was just a job for her and not her dream. She wanted more for her life.
As such, Ms. Kauss began exploring other career opportunities and very quickly came up with a business idea that could reduce plastic waste and encourage people to use reusable water bottles. After a few years of hard work and persistence, she successfully secured a partnership with Starbucks, which would allow her S’well bottles to be displayed in all 14,000 of Starbucks’ stores worldwide (Starbucks’ store count at the time).
So in rejecting the average to go after her great, Ms. Kauss went from being an accountant to becoming a multimillionaire with a company worth over $100M.
Although I came across Ms. Kauss’s story only a few days ago, her story is a perfect example of why I decided to ultimately leave the practice of law to pursue my entrepreneurial goals.
I was tired of being average.
I also knew that I’d be leaving money on the table if I remained an attorney. How so? Well, because I hated being a lawyer so much, I knew my earning capacity over the next five years would barely amount to $100,000 — and that’s me being overly generous.
However, I am confident that, like Ms. Kauss, if I work hard and am persistent in pursuing my entrepreneurial goals, I will 10x my attorney’s income one day.
What about you?
Are you working in a job or career that you don’t like? If so, you’re being average.
Even if you receive compliments often about your work and you’re frequently considered for a promotion, you’re being average because there is more in you than you’re giving your job.
In a job you genuinely cared about, you wouldn’t wait for someone to drop an email about a workshop or conference coming up to improve your skills or connect with noteworthy experts in your industry. You would have a nice size list saved to your calendar. Also, generating ideas for your company or business would come much easier, and the desire to take ownership of projects would become your pleasure and not a source of anxiety.
Second, how much money are you leaving on the table?
I know that success is measured and defined in many ways, and I don’t mean to reduce success down to nickels and dimes, but I’m asking to make a point.
You may have traded in your dreams, and with it, an extraordinary life for an ordinary one because you’re afraid to look stupid, afraid of failing, and afraid of explaining yourself to family and friends.
But be more afraid of being average.
And yes, you may not achieve the same success that Sarah Kauss did. You may do better than her, or you may achieve success just short of hers.
Nevertheless, no matter where you end up, finding and doing work that is meaningful to you will always be the better alternative.
So stop being average if you know you are.
You are limiting yourself more than you ever know.
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