Who Are the Winners and Losers?

I recently heard someone say $150k (US) was a lot of money years ago (the late 1960s), but it’s nothing now. He then gave some context explaining that people who work dayjobs for an employer are “stuck in a cage” and “losers.”

This didn’t strike me as out of left field because I see this philosophy as the new narrative in many aspects of various social media and our new online society.

Though I certainly believe in being financially literate and fiscally wise, all of this is completely false. It’s your CHARACTER that makes you a winner or a loser, not your salary, not whether you work for someone or own your own company, and certainly not whether you work in a cubicle or in a fancy office overlooking the park.

I implore you to reject this notion that what’s important in life boils down to nothing more than your personal happiness doing only what you love at a magical company that you most likely own, constantly feeds your passion, and pays you enormous amounts of money.

This may be a matter of semantics, or in other words, how we define what it means to be a “winner” or “loser”, but I’m taking these terms at face value which I think is how they were meant to be taken.

I would love to own my own business, and I greatly respect successful entrepreneurs that do. I’m fond of being able to pay my mortgage, being out of debt, and taking my family on vacation once in a while, so I have zero problem with striving to earn more money. However, I don’t define someone as a loser or winner by their salary, their employment type, or if they’ve chosen to follow their passion or not.

Hating your job so much that it makes your stomach hurt really stinks. I’ve been there, but it doesn’t make you a loser. It just means you might want to think about making a change. The loser is the person who lies, cheats, steals, abandons their family, wastes their entire paycheck on nonsense leaving their family without provision, and so on.

Here’s a scenario: a person despises their job, but there’s so little other opportunity in their area they have to stick with it for years. In that time they maintain a great attitude, provide for their family, and make sure to be relatively prudent with the meager earnings they get. They’re a good mom or dad, a decent friend to those around them, and a trustworthy employee.

The top three or four people in my life that I respect the most are traditional wage-earners, not rich, and not following some ambiguous passion. They’re the top three or four people to me because of their character and very little else.

My take? WINNERS.

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Thanks,

Phil