What do you guys do?

I know more people that have graduated college and are now waiters, waitresses and landscapers then graduated and went on to do what they thought they were studying for. This is not just recent grads but people my age out of high school 35 years ago.

 

I play music for a "living". I actually do quite well, for a musician. I do wish I did better in high school but I was in a weird situation and music was all I was interested in at the time. But money isn't guaranteed and I usually have to sell a surfboard to buy another one. I almost never have more than two boards at a time. Long and short.

 

I think alot of that is caused by people expecting to make big bucks right out of school. the people who start with the lower paying jobs tend to do well since they work up the ladder.

 

Here's an observation that seems to hold true. I am good at many things, but great at none. If I had a deeper attention span, and if I could do it all over again I'd focus on one thing I love and become GREAT at it. My observation is that people who focus on one thing and become great at it always find a way to make plenty of money doing what they love.

 

I will give you one guess...


I am currently a performance development engineer, working with diesel injection systems. Boring job, but I get to actually work in a lab most of the time.

 

I used to be a Repo Man. Seriously. Right out of college. Why did I become a Repo Man? Because I dug the freakin' movie! I used to pop cars and then drive off with the Repo Man Soundtrack playing in the cassette. I thought I was a bad a$$. I once popped a crawler loader (piece of heavy equipment) from a hillbilly in the mountains of Tennessee. Why am I bringing this up? When you are young, you can try all sorts of stuff and go where ever you want. Makes for an interesting life, which is what it is all about.

 

I own and work at a small group home for special needs individuals that sits about 20 steps from the ocean so basically anytime there's a decent wave I get to surf. I'm totally blessed (and thankful) to live at the beach, actually make a difference in someone's life and get to surf whenever. Getting paid tax-free is nice too My wife actually talked her company (robotics/sales) into working remote so she works from home which has been great for her and cool for me when the waves get really good it doesn't take much more persuasion than an ice cold beer for her to sit out front and snap a few pics during a slow day at the job. I really couldn't ask for a better setup.....knock on wood.....but it definitely hasn't always been this way.

 

Find where you want to live and then worry about the job. Work evenings to free up your days for surfing. Consider Florida east coast for weather and waves. California would be a tough nut to crack but southern Cal would be ideal. I'm a restaurateur but started as a cook/chef working evenings and eventually got my own place. You have to make sacrifices to make surfing part of your lifestyle. You only live once and it shouldn't be all work and no play...

 

Interesting thread...

MadAtom, you're a jack of all trades, master of none! I'm the same way man. Used to think it was a bad thing but now that I'm a little older it makes me realize I can do just about anything. I also have the attention span of two year old!

I did spend ten years of my life driving cross country with my wife. We owned our own tractor trailer and drove team. Pretty much lived in the truck for four months at a time and when we came back in town I would drop the wifey off and head out for a three week surf trip. Saved every dime we made (and we made very good money!) Spent almost $700,000 on a horse training facility in Florida. That was the wifes dream. Fast forward a year or so and now that the wife has her horses she doesn't need me anymore! So got a divorce and the wife got it all! Just now starting to get back on my feet and this time I'm doing it for ME! Gonna build up another nest egg and head south where the don't speak english and there's waves everyday!

If I manage to find a girl who would like to follow my dreams then cool, if not, me, me, me, surf, surf, surf!

Sorry for the pitiful story gang! It may take me a couple years but I promise I'll have a much better story!

Any girls out there wanna live on a third world beach? LOL!!!

 

i'm in the witness protection program, for what, i cannot tell you. my cover is living in a predominately elderly community in florida as a middle aged beach bum, you'd never know that i was once an international man of mystery. i go to the beach wearing flip flops and surf shorts, which are paid for by the government, and bring an old used longboard but i can't actually surf as its just a "cover". mostly watch girls in bikinis all day, of course only ones that are over 18.

 

I'll give you the advice I gave my 21yr old. Find out what you want most in life and go for it...her passion is acting, and she's going for that. If your passion is surfing, look for a career and/or location that will let you do that as much as possible. If your passion is something else, then concentrate on that. If you work hard enough at it, it will sort out. And if it doesn't, you'll never look back and wish you tried, or tried harder. The saying "if you love your job you'll never work a day in your life" is true.

Had a friend who was an engineer fresh out of college, had a good job, blah blah blah, but wasn't happy. She wanted to bail and travel the world. Everyone told her not to, except my wife and I. Told her to go for it, you only live once and nothing's holding you back. Eventually she ended up in Maui and has been there ever since. Surfs and fishes all the time and makes as much waiting tables at nice restaurant as she did as an engineer. She's happy now.

Just be prepared to sacrifice and work for whatever you want. When you get old you realize that you really can do whatever you want in this world, it just takes a ton of discipline and effort to get there. And the time really does fly by, don't waste it...seems like yesterday I was graduating college and driving out west on I-90.

A word on the left coast, it's expensive the economy is tough. Not gonna sugar coat it for you, but you may have to scrap and scrounge for a while. But if it's worth it go for it. Only get one ride on this merry-go-round. I tried Seattle for 3 years, but after 3 years of rain and working crap jobs and never having any money I decided NC ain't such a bad place to be. Moved back and met my soul mate, best move I ever made.

Best of luck to you...

 

BTW - Guess I should answer the freaking question. I'm an IT sys admin for a corp in the Raleigh area. Not the best job, not the worst. Pays the bills and most nights I get home in time to see my girls. Not my passion though. We're lucky enough to have good friends in Wilmington that have an open door policy for us, but don't get down near enough and can't catch those early morning or eve weekday sessions. If it weren't for my daughter's school I'd move to Wilmington in a heartbeat. Gotta do what's best for her. I still catch myself looking at classifieds though...

 

Some more advice "live small". Don't get caught up in trying to out spend, out do, out build, the next guy. Spend as little money on housing as you can. Live in a small house, put your money in the bank and live free. Belongings weigh you down even when your in a place you are happy with.

 

Print this & frame this.

 

Yeahhh !!!

Best contextual post ever.

 

There was some good advice posted in here, but NOBODY has it all figured out, just keep that in mind and take the advice you get here with a grain of salt. One thing I see in common for the majority of people that posted is that they aren't 100% fulfilled with their jobs / careers (or even lives) and only do it because that's what is expected of them. I'm no different, I don't enjoy my job, but I do it because I gotta make money somewhere. I won't get into what I actually do because it really doesn't matter, it's just another job. Do yourself a favor and don't ever let a job, your house, your car, etc. be your identity. Life is not about what title you hold in the company you work for, and it certainly isn't about who has the biggest house or the coolest car.

If you're lucky you'll do something that you truly LOVE and as a perk, you get paid enough to live. But that isn't the case for most people. If you have a superior talent at something then focus on that and hopefully you'll make a living from it. If you aren't extremely talented at something like that then do your best to find something that allows you enough free time to do the things that you love to do the most, which for most here I would think would be surfing.

 

I've had a ton of jobs and realized that I was never going to make decent money doing something I loved. I had to come the realization that I was either going to make crap $ doing what I liked or good money doing what I did not like...
I ended up getting a sales position at a large medical supply manufacturer... I now make very good money and have the best of both worlds. I make my own schedule and work out of my car. If there's waves I surf... And I can travel as much as I want.

My advice is keep your options open. Try as much as you can until you find the right thing for you.

 

Oh 34th St., if you are going to the left coast.......forget Southern California.

Have any of y'all read The Grapes of Wrath by that Steinbeck dude. Well, people have been moving there to find golden rays of sunshine and the good life for almost a century. It's filled up, the dream has died. And the "natives" are tired of newcomers. Yeah, they have better waves(who doesn't besides the gulf and great lakes), but you won't get any of them. You ain't getting a set at Swamis or Rincon. Lowers? Malibu? HA !! Dudes, you won't even get a set wave at Leo Carrillo...........

Go to Northern California, Oregon or Washington. I got into an argument with AO/OO aboot Washington vs the east coast - AO claiming Washington sucked and Jersey was b!tchen. Then he posted some Washington pictures and it was 10x better than anything we will ever see at North St. or the 59th St pier. I'll take the adventure of the Pacific Northwest over New Jersey anyday.

Just remember guys it's all in your perceptions, your expectations and your wants/desires. This world is so meaningless if you really stop to think aboot it. Nothing matters. Everybody just views life as they matter. They don't. Chasing paper and material goods may make you 'happy" for a moment, but then the moment's gone. All we doooooo......

Accepting jobs you hate only leads to crack and Kasser's vodka and opiates. Don't let the world define your existence, create your own. Really, this existence doesn't matter. Surfing is one of the only vechicles on this planet worth chasing, and it is one of the few things that let you even begin to undertsand anything. Dogs help, too.

That job could be gone tomorrow; your "pals" come and go; that spouse either gets annoying, boring, or a betrayer; everything you count on to be "normal" and that of which provides homeostasis in your life could be gone in an instance....

Don't hold on....just go with the flow..

Hey, too bad I don't do yoga and that sh!t, huh ?? I could sell this off to a bunch of new age, sissy vegan, wannabe hippies in a second......

And if all else fails you could always become South Jersey's version of "The Ex-Presidents." I get to be Carter......

 

I call nixon! and you're seriously right. nothing matters in the end. even though point break was corny, Bodhi was right. dont let anyone or anything break your human spirit. i go to college right now and im graduating in the spring. thinking back, it was good to go here and get educated on things but i catch myself thinking was it even worth it? i come out in debt and probably will end up continuing to lifeguard until i find a job so i can use my degree in Earth and environmental science. **** this haha. all i know is there is windswell this week and i am paddling out no matter what!