What prompted this post is an email I received today telling me another of my competitors is now out of business. I say "another" because over my nearly 45 years of being in the custom homebuilding business I've seen many more competitors close their doors than survive. In fact, thinking back on all my professional contemporaries from 30 or 40 years ago, I can easily count on one hand those who have survived this far with me.
But I honestly DO like what I do....most of the time at least. I like building things. To me it's like figuring out how to assemble a giant 5,000 sq ft 3D puzzle. Some are easy, some keep me awake at night wondering how I'm gonna get tab A into slot B. But in the end it really is gratifying to drive through a neighborhood where I built 5 or 10 or 20 years ago and say to myself, "I built that one, and that one, and...".
But then there are the frustrations, too. Like how today building isn't as much about knowing how to actually build, but knowing how to maneuver your way through the bureaucratic / regulatory jungle. And the financial uncertainties! O M G! A few good years can bring a pot 'o gold for sure, but you can just as easily get blindsided by some near-cataclysmic world event (think 9/11) or giant fraud that can cause the world's economy to crater (think 2008). There is no linear route to success, regardless of how hard you work. Grrrr!
Oh well, another one bites the dust. And now that he's moved on, someone else will probably come along tomorrow with a great "new" business plan which he's too ignorant to realize is the same business plan that's been tried over and over for years and NEVER worked. DUH!
So do I like what I do? You bet! Would I choose this career field again if I were just starting out? In hindsight, seeing how things are today vs how they were 45 years ago when I began....no way in hell!
How about you? Do you like what you do specifically, and are you happy with your career field?
S
Hahaha, some of us don't get lucky enough to choose a "career."
ReplyDeleteyeah .... but maybe I wouldn't have met you ..... and that would be sad.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with my life but no so much with where my industry has gone. Kinda like you, I guess.
ReplyDeleteWe left the workforce in 2011, we both enjoyed what we did and we enjoy not doing it more.
ReplyDeleteI like what I do at work, though some of the jobs I've had were better than others. If I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I'd choose a better-paying career. I'd be a computer geek or an engineer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not that good at anything I really like to do. I always envy'd people who earned a living doing what they like to do. That is a career. Earning money doing something you don't like doing is work. I never had a career, but I worked for 40 years.
ReplyDeleteOMG, I just read the other comments and I kind of agree with Pat...maybe the second time ever.
DeleteHaving stumbled into a career in dentistry (admin staff), I do like what I do, but I don't LOVE what I do. That's mainly due to working in a field that is full of women ~ backstabbing, gossipy, irritating, emotional women, who can also be supportive and smart. I hope to get out of it once I get my degree in Anthropology....doing something anthropological.....what ever that might be.
ReplyDeleteI like a lot of things about my legal assistant job - the tasks mainly: running reports, drafting letters to angry people, working from home. But I'm not necessarily proud to tell people who I work for (student loan collections). We do try to help people get their loans out of default, but the whole student loan industry needs an overhaul.
ReplyDelete