Guest Post: Working without getting paid

This is a guest post by Robby G@ShiteIlike.com

I’m one of the few cases who is constantly working on something; always thinking of some way to broaden my opportunities and create something that will make me a multi-millionaire, but never actually seeing a dime. From a young age I realized that working for an hourly wage under someone was not the way for me to live. I guess my dad had an impact too. He is a businessman and I’ve never seen him wake up earlier than noon unless he really has to, which is why I think he’ll end up living to 110 years old. Once I held a series of little jobs here and there and that really turned me off work and right after high school I went straight to University. If I’m going to waste my time, at least I’ll get a degree out of it. So as I sat around listening to my Prof lecture on the greatness of capitalism and the inefficiencies of socialism, I realized I had lots of time on my hands and I wanted to do something bigger and better with it.

I started to write short stories here and there and then that developed into full manuscripts. From there I thought I’d get a side career as a writer so I began to send this one book I’d finished to publishers. And no, my phone wasn’t ringing off the hook to praise me for my distinct style. Instead, the rejection letters filled my mailbox. I was cool with it though. I continued writing and eventually finished another novel and self-published it. Damn, if Walt Whitman did it, why couldn’t I luck out, too. Well, anywho, it hasn’t brought a whole lot of money, but it’s out there making the rounds somewhere and even brought me an opportunity to write a new piece for a publisher.

Then since I didn’t want to get a summer job at McDonald’s, I went ahead and got into summer college to get a Real Estate license. The studies went well into the second University year and I was juggling both university and college, still not seeing a cent out of anything. So what did I do then? Started a variety of blogs and forums. Out of the bunch, one blog still kept going strong and it’s been up and running just over a year. I made some money from it, but definitely nothing anyone should quit their day-job over.

Once summer I was really broke and had no intention of wasting my time waking up early and going to sleep before midnight for a job… so what did I do? Me and a friend started an unlicensed window washing company. We went around my neighbourhood, getting quick cash for quick work. I could easily say we were the laziest workers in town. We’d get drunk on the job and it would take us 3 hours to do a house that needed an hour. But though the final product was always a well-washed house, the main thing was that we enjoyed what we did. We would work during the day, make around one to two hundred dollars each, and then go out and party until we’d need more money.

So when I finally got my real estate license and it was time to get to work, I decided to get out of the damn country and study abroad in Amsterdam for the year. So now I’m writing this out of a Dam good city with damn good beer and women. By the way, I’m paying for this trip myself. “Bloody how?!” you may ask. Well, throughout the time that I was “working” without getting paid: on my books, blog, real estate license, and getting my Political Science degree in University, I actually somehow was able to mastermind things here and there that got me enough money to survive. Also, bursaries and scholarships, and some government funding helped. But other than that, I’m just hoping that one of these days something really takes off. Either one of my books gets mad recognition, or my blog explodes all over Google, or when I get back home next year, the real estate market will really start to expand so I can get a piece of the big pie. Plus there’s always my university degree to fall back on if all else fails.

Basically, I’m trying to say that my experience with personal development relating to jobs was that I don’t work any jobs I don’t like for the sake of survival, because those hours working at dead end jobs can be used to work without making money that same week, but it could make me millions some day in the future. Plus, I enjoy working for myself with my own-made schedule: always waking up past noon (and without a hangover if I’m lucky). And trust me my class schedule was chosen so no classes start before I’m ready for them.

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