rather than your own hard work. Grow some balls, stomach your problems, and power through it.
That's always worked for me, but it's never been something I could do by settling for less, as you were initially advocating. I always had to shoot for more.
Another thing that worries me, however, is that I know a lot of people who worked at least as hard as I did, and are still stuck in that $10/hr job. Who've made the leap, and fallen hard, and had to work their way back up to having a car and new clothes and a steady job again. Why has it been different for me? It doesn't seem like I've worked a lot harder. It doesn't seem like I'm vastly more intelligent. Basically, it seems like I was lucky to be intrinsically interested in things that turned out to have market value (programming, system admin, etc). None of my childhood friends were interested in those things until recently, and none of them have made it to the middle class, financially.
Look at it like a basic negotiation. You suggest a proposition, if it gets declined, you keep coming back with propositions more in the favor of the other party until they accept.
That is how I view it. I can't get a job that pays 60k right now, so I'll take this job at McDonalds that pays 20k. Meanwhile, I will continue to work my ass off to find a 60k job and prove to the hiring manager that I am the person that will benefit them the most.
The difference between people that work hard and have something and people that work hard and don't have something is a combination of desire, drive, and confidence. As I stated before. You obviously have a mountain of heart.
The difference between people that work hard and have something and people that work hard and don't have something is a combination of desire, drive, and confidence.
There's certainly something to that. For me, though, it was psychologically difficult, to say the least, to hold the confidence and drive to make something of myself, while doing a good job at manufacturing refrigerators or operating a cash register. Given the large number of folk who never seem to get out of those dead-end service jobs, I think there may well be a lot of people like me. :)
A lot of people that stay in dead end jobs either don't mind being there or aren't making the effort required to get out.
Don't make excuses for them or yourself. It is a matter of ignoring the negative things (or spinning them in a positive light) and not giving up. Change can happen if you let it.
That's always worked for me, but it's never been something I could do by settling for less, as you were initially advocating. I always had to shoot for more.
Another thing that worries me, however, is that I know a lot of people who worked at least as hard as I did, and are still stuck in that $10/hr job. Who've made the leap, and fallen hard, and had to work their way back up to having a car and new clothes and a steady job again. Why has it been different for me? It doesn't seem like I've worked a lot harder. It doesn't seem like I'm vastly more intelligent. Basically, it seems like I was lucky to be intrinsically interested in things that turned out to have market value (programming, system admin, etc). None of my childhood friends were interested in those things until recently, and none of them have made it to the middle class, financially.