2943: Reflections On Turning 30: From Job Seeker To Corporate Deserter In 10 Years by A Purple Life

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Finance Daily, Reflections On Turning 30, From Job Seeker To Corporate Deserter In 10 Years by A Purple Life of APurpleLife.com

[00:00:13] I'm currently in Mexico celebrating turning 30 years old. I'm sitting here watching the sunset against an orange and purple sky while listening to the lapping of the ocean waves.

[00:00:24] During this week of relaxation, I found myself thinking back to who I was 10 years ago, at age 20, and how so much has changed in the last decade.

[00:00:36] Ten years ago, I was a junior in college and finally hitting my stride. I had a nice housing assignment with close friends in my hall and a workload that was manageable.

[00:00:46] Ten years ago, I had a nice job of having fun and fun. I had heard from my recently graduated friends that despite having awesome grades and impressive connections, they were having a very hard time finding jobs after college.

[00:01:00] Ten years ago, I had a great job of having fun and fun. This knowledge struck fear into my heart because I had neither of those things. I didn't have the best grades because my mom told me to enjoy myself in college and I did.

[00:01:10] I was also basically allergic to the thought of networking. So almost two years before graduation, I started reaching out to every alum who had anything to do with marketing to pick their brains about the industry and how to break into it.

[00:01:26] A decade ago, I was obsessed with finding a job so that I could support myself and not be relegated back to my parents' house as a failure, my unfair thought at the time. Doing that is in no way a failure.

[00:01:39] On top of my schoolwork, extracurriculars and time with friends, I made it my main job to actually find one.

[00:01:47] And exactly ten years later, I'm focused on leaving the corporate world as fast as possible without sacrificing my current happiness.

[00:01:56] I'm writing this while sitting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, staring at the beauty of nature.

[00:02:02] The landscape looks like it's straight out of Jurassic Park, with lush jungles teeming with life.

[00:02:09] The water is some of the lightest blue I've ever seen.

[00:02:12] I'm writing this while feeling strangely calm, despite my plan to upend my life in less than a year.

[00:02:19] A strange juxtaposition.

[00:02:22] I'm surprised with how stark of a contrast there is between my current mindset and where I was ten years ago.

[00:02:29] I was so worried about finding a job.

[00:02:32] Any job.

[00:02:33] Not even one that I didn't hate.

[00:02:34] That wasn't even a consideration.

[00:02:37] I was worried about seeming like a failure.

[00:02:39] You gotta learn not to care what other people think, kid.

[00:02:42] I was scared I wouldn't be able to provide for myself, and in doing so, that I would disappoint my family.

[00:02:49] I'm shocked with how far I've come mentally, emotionally, and also financially.

[00:02:55] Hat tip to that initial worry junior year.

[00:02:58] It appears to have paid off.

[00:03:00] At that time, I had less than $5,000 to my name, and now I have almost $400,000.

[00:03:06] An amount that would have sounded ludicrous to my 20-year-old self.

[00:03:11] Here's what I've learned during the last 10 years.

[00:03:14] Number one.

[00:03:16] Corporate ambition is empty.

[00:03:18] After getting over the initial hurdle of finding a job in a less than ideal market,

[00:03:23] I was quickly sucked into corporate culture.

[00:03:27] I chugged that Kool-Aid.

[00:03:29] I was hired at my first company because the CEO was an alum.

[00:03:33] She actually responded to an email I sent and got me in touch with the HR department at her ad agency

[00:03:39] when my emails were relegated to the trash bin basically everywhere else.

[00:03:44] As a result of that referral, I got my first corporate job at a big agency in Manhattan.

[00:03:50] I saw this powerful woman running a company and having the power to lift others up with her.

[00:03:57] I decided that I wanted to become a CEO and walk in her footsteps.

[00:04:01] I wanted to make my prestigious degree worth it by doing something impressive.

[00:04:08] What the f*** do these words really mean?

[00:04:11] After a few years of following other people's paths for success,

[00:04:15] I had a revelation and realized that all this s*** that people said would make me happy

[00:04:20] was doing everything but.

[00:04:22] I had listened to others and bought the purses, heels, and first class plane tickets.

[00:04:28] I worked my a** off for a promotion that never came

[00:04:32] and waited for it all to bring me the happiness I was promised.

[00:04:36] In the end, I achieved everything I set out to.

[00:04:39] I got that promotion and then another by job hopping.

[00:04:43] I bought everything I wanted and everything I was told I should want

[00:04:47] and was still just as empty after it all.

[00:04:51] That's when I carefully assessed what I wanted and realized it wasn't this type of life.

[00:04:57] Corporate deference didn't mean anything to me.

[00:05:00] I didn't want a defining metric of my importance in this life

[00:05:04] to be how long people will wait for me on a conference call.

[00:05:08] So I turned my back on corporate America providing meaning in my life

[00:05:12] and instead started to see it as a means to an end.

[00:05:16] As a result, I have erected boundaries and become a much more calm and grounded person

[00:05:22] and counterintuitively, a better employee.

[00:05:26] I want my life to be filled with exploring this gorgeous world of ours

[00:05:30] and not sitting in endless meetings.

[00:05:33] I want to spend time with people I choose

[00:05:36] instead of people that are chosen for me by the HR department.

[00:05:40] And number two, loved ones are everything.

[00:05:44] When I was 20, I had a vague idea of how I wanted the rest of my life to play out.

[00:05:49] And the first order of business after finding a job was leave the US.

[00:05:54] I wanted to live abroad.

[00:05:56] I had traveled around the US and Europe at that point

[00:06:00] and decided that Europe was a better fit for who I was

[00:06:03] with its pedestrian first mentality

[00:06:05] and seemingly higher level of empathy for fellow human beings.

[00:06:11] To test this lifestyle, I lived in Italy for six months

[00:06:14] during the latter half of my junior year.

[00:06:16] It was a precursor to me moving out of the States ASAP

[00:06:20] and I expected to be instantly ecstatic with my surroundings

[00:06:24] and how well the continent fit me.

[00:06:27] I was shocked with my findings.

[00:06:30] I learned that I deeply missed my family, my mom in particular.

[00:06:35] And this was before we were very close.

[00:06:38] We have since become attached at the hip,

[00:06:40] but the amount I missed her was staggering to me.

[00:06:44] It felt like a constant pain in my gut

[00:06:46] that would flare up when I should have been enjoying myself

[00:06:49] on a spontaneous trip to Rome.

[00:06:51] This was accompanied by a weird low-level stress at all times

[00:06:56] that took me a while to identify.

[00:06:59] I originally thought that it was because I was speaking,

[00:07:02] reading, and living in Italian at all times,

[00:07:04] but that wasn't it.

[00:07:06] It was the lack of deep connections around me.

[00:07:09] I made great lifelong friends in Italy that I see to this day,

[00:07:14] but that distance from the closest people I love

[00:07:17] was surprisingly unbearable.

[00:07:19] So I changed my life plan.

[00:07:21] I came back to the States

[00:07:22] and have included proximity to the people I love

[00:07:25] as a key consideration in all of my decisions since.

[00:07:29] During my working years,

[00:07:31] that has required some tough decisions,

[00:07:33] such as moving further from my mom to Seattle

[00:07:36] in order to cut my time to retirement in half

[00:07:39] so I can spend long, uninterrupted stretches with her sooner.

[00:07:44] This is still something I'm working on,

[00:07:46] but learning this about myself

[00:07:48] has helped me pinpoint what exactly makes me happy

[00:07:51] so I can go after it.

[00:07:52] Having more time with loved ones before it's too late

[00:07:56] is my main impetus to retire as early as possible

[00:07:59] without sacrificing my happiness now.

[00:08:03] Conclusion

[00:08:04] So now I'm here,

[00:08:06] less than a year before I quit my corporate job,

[00:08:09] enjoying uninterrupted time with loved ones

[00:08:11] and looking towards the future with hope and satisfaction

[00:08:15] while knowing that I'm working towards the life I want

[00:08:18] instead of one that's driven by fear

[00:08:20] or the expectations of others.

[00:08:22] How have you changed in the last 10 years?

[00:08:29] You just listened to the post titled

[00:08:31] Reflections on Turning 30

[00:08:33] From Job Seeker to Corporate Deserter in 10 Years

[00:08:38] by A Purple Life of APurpleLife.com

[00:08:41] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:08:44] As soon as I read the line,

[00:08:46] corporate ambition is empty,

[00:08:48] I was transported back to how soul crushing my corporate job was.

[00:08:53] On the one hand, it was a very creative job.

[00:08:56] I got to dream up new products and brand extensions

[00:09:00] and then go figure out how to bring them to market.

[00:09:03] But on the other hand,

[00:09:04] I spent an unreasonable amount of time

[00:09:07] stressing about things that simply didn't matter.

[00:09:11] It's not like I was curing cancer

[00:09:13] or contributing to society in any meaningful way.

[00:09:17] I was actually contributing to the consumerism

[00:09:20] I've come to find so harmful to our sense of well-being.

[00:09:23] I would lose sleep over a late shipment

[00:09:27] of Budweiser t-shirts to Walmart

[00:09:29] or a client who was losing their shit

[00:09:32] over a product being a slightly different shade of blue

[00:09:36] than the brand book specified.

[00:09:38] So now I had to ask the manufacturer

[00:09:41] to spend tens of thousands of dollars to remake it

[00:09:44] and add all that less than perfect product to a landfill.

[00:09:49] I prioritized this meaningless work

[00:09:52] over my health and relationships.

[00:09:54] From my current vantage point, it's embarrassing.

[00:09:58] But at the time, I thought my career was impressive.

[00:10:01] I had an office in the Empire State Building

[00:10:04] and I worked with billion-dollar brands and celebrities.

[00:10:08] I made a six-figure income doing work

[00:10:11] that didn't contribute to the world

[00:10:12] in a way that I'm proud of.

[00:10:14] There will be no mention of my corporate career

[00:10:17] on my tombstone,

[00:10:18] but it did serve a purpose.

[00:10:21] It got me to the financial position

[00:10:23] to be able to opt out.

[00:10:25] Now I have the privilege of making much less money,

[00:10:28] but doing work that I know is having a much bigger impact.

[00:10:32] And that should do it for today.

[00:10:34] Thank you for listening every day

[00:10:36] and sticking around till the end.

[00:10:37] Have a happy rest of your day

[00:10:39] and I'll see you tomorrow

[00:10:40] where your optimal life awaits.

[00:10:42] and we will return to Office of Development

[00:10:42] to political specifics.

[00:10:42] We will return to Office of 민주's