Six years ago today I stopped working. I should explain how I define “work”. In my world, work is getting up at a time you don’t want to get up, to go someplace you don’t want to go, to see people you don’t want to see, to do something you don’t want to do, for too little money. I was definitely working.
Don’t get me wrong, I did well. I was in corporate sales and I was blessed to have a sales career which included highlights such as being the top salesperson in the world for an international consulting company and the top salesperson in the USA for three other companies. By all outward appearances I was living the dream. But I was working.
Over time I started doing some speaking on the side. And it grew as things do when you nourish them. And eventually I left my job. My last day at my corporate sales job was 6/5/09, six years ago today. And what a fun six years it’s been. I wake up every morning like a kid on Christmas. I still have crap in my life and it’s not always a piece of cake, but I’m definitely not working any more.
I hope you love what you do. I intentionally didn’t say “I hope you love what you do for work.” Because if you love what you do it’s not work. It’s play. And being paid to play is fun. You have gifts, talents, and natural abilities which you were given in order to help and bring value to others. And money is just an echo of value.
You are amazing. You are special. And you have ways of adding value which no one else has. Nurture and deepen your gifts, talents, and natural abilities and you’ll never work again. I wish you all the success you’re willing to work for. And I wish you a life of fun. Because that’s what you were created for. ?