When we're little kids, we're often asked that stereotypical question "What do YOU want to be, when you grow up?"
I never had a good answer for that; and whenever I was prodded sufficiently to proffer one, it was invariably different from the previous time I had been asked.
Of course, that continued as I made my way through high school; eventually it persisted all the way through my University days, as well. That might sound a bit crazy... but my having Bachelor's degrees in Finance and Marketing didn't happen because I wanted degrees in Finance and Marketing, but because I sat down with a degree counselor at the start of what was to become my final semester and we figured out that the 190-odd credit hours I'd amassed (A normal degree required about 120 credit hours) left me 6 hours short of a degree in Finance, and six hours short of a degree in marketing... so I signed up for the four courses that would complete both...
... and added another random advanced psychology course to the lead because it sounded interesting.
So I Became a House Painter...
I skipped almost all the so-called "career fairs" and the few I did go to were annoying and unappealing because (A) they required me to wear a suit, and (B) everything I saw suggested that corporate life required you to give up your humanity and instead live life as a robot.
However, a friend I'd made along the way was managing a growing portfolio of rental property, so I "got work" as a "make-ready" worker and house painter who got his properties cleaned up and prettified between renters. He had close to 50 properties, so the turnover rate meant there was enough work for me to "get by."
Not so long after, I ended up in the import business with couple of college friends, which turned into the art and decorative crafts business (a retail store), from which I segued into being a writer and editor of company newsletters and printed materials, because we couldn't find anyone who could do a decent job with ours.
As a result of moonlighting to write other people's newsletters I also started writing ad scripts for radio advertising (because I became friends with many ad sales reps), which led me to also become an free-lance editor of already-written copy, as a result of which I spent some time being "Globalization Specialist" in the IT industry where they discovered I had a knack for usability so I slid into Usability and Human Factors for a large OEM who — in turn — wanted me to be a technical writer because they felt I was "underutilized" as an editor.
So I did technical writing until "corporate bullshit strategy" wanted to promote me to some kind of management position which I didn't want... I'm good with words, no with being a people wrangler... so I quit and became a contract technical writer instead.
That lead to a new branching into designing corporate employee "skills assessment tests" for an interesting start-up company... until they were bought out so I went sideways again and started working for an educational testing company as an online grader... until most of that was outsourced to S.E.Asia for cost reasons. I can't compete with someone with a Master's degree in English from a US or UK university who lives in a part of the world where $1,000 a month is a "good salary."
In between, I had gotten increasingly interested in a different startup called "eBay" and gradually built several online sales ventures (a couple of which continue to this day); but it didn't take but a few years before everyone wanted to cruise 2nd hand stores and antique malls to find treasures to resell on eBay.
Some of this, however, made it possible for me to move across the country from Texas to Washington state where I pretty much ended up being "a beach comber for a living" for about four years.
Somewhere in there, 
And So, Lessons From the Road...
Sitting here, in my 63rd year on this planet, perhaps the most significant take-away from a life spent moving from opportunity to opportunity is that the instant anyone discovers you can make money at something, thousands flock to whatever you're doing, bringing more energy and resources... and in short order renders to the whole thing unviable for ANYone.
So you constantly have to be ready to "pivot," because your cushy situation can vanish in a matter of months... through no fault of your own!
Society — and particularly corporate society — doesn't want you to be able to be independent, so you will always feel squeezed by various obstacles. So my best advice in that sense is that if you find your own little "pocket" that works for you, don't TELL anyone! And if you do? Just tell them it's an endless struggle, and you're thinking of getting a part time job flipping burgers, just to make ends meet!
In many cases, the only way to get a toe-hold is to take on something that has been deemed "not worthwhile" by others and then do it really well, but that comes with it's own caveat that you ARE agreeing to work with something already declared not worthwhile so there's a good chance your results will only be marginal. And should you succeed, be aware that aforesaid swarm of competitors will soon descend and "dilute the opportunity" to the point where everyone is pushed back over the edge of non-viability.
In some ways, the "Corporate World" works because those huge profits we so often are outraged by goes to paying people considerable sums of money to do "things' that don't actually need to be done," trapping people in (mostly) relatively meaningless "salary dependence." Let's be honest here: If you're being paid $80K a year to push irrelevant numbers around a spreadsheet, quitting so you can have the "freedom" to do what I do for $30K a year just doesn't look that attractive.
So, What Prompted This Essay?
Well, one thing is that I wanted to get back to trying to write more in the mornings, rather than late at night when my brain is already knocked out.
The other goes back to some of the earliest intentions back on Steemit where a number of bloggers felt the immutability and relative permanence of the blockchain makes this a suitable place to "archive" stories from your life for future readers... be it your kids or grandkids, or whatever.
The final impetus was the fact that I am busily working on selling (someone else's) beach glass collection... a reminder of one of my own potential path's to freedom; and selling their collection being yet another in a very long string of opportunities.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the remainder of your Sunday!
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Created at 2023-03-26 13:12 PST
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