After 12 years of crappy work and dealing a terrible boss, he could final see freedom.
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I hated his voice. It didn’t start out that way, but after years of taking his verbal and mental abuse, his voice made me want to punch myself in the head. He always had to one-up me and made it very clear that I worked for him.
When I started the job at 19 years old, I loved it.
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He was the boss and could tell me what to do. Even on the day I told him I was quitting, he argued about when my last day would be. He said, “I’m the one that says when this is over.” What a jerk. In the end, I’ve had the last laugh. He’s still with the company, and I’m living out my dream on Maui, Hawaii.
The Job
For 12 years, I was a vendor. Specifically, I would get up at midnight and deliver bread to grocery stores. I had a wife and kids, and we had the regular life stuff; this meant I slept three hours a night for those 12 years. I was always cranky, tired, stressed, and a jerk.
When I started the job at 19 years old, I loved it. $55,000 a year that young meant I lived well. As the years wore on, the job and hours started to get to me. About eight years in, I began working for a spineless control freak. When we started working together, he knew I was working on my dream of becoming an author and speaker.
He took every chance to put my dream down. When I asked for time off to speak at conferences or attend some training that would help my dream, he was quick to come up with excuses. Coincidently, he started his blog and book. His ideas “seemed” to be the same as mine.
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Vendors have a hard job because they get it from everyone. If they run out of a product, the store, the customers and the companies yell at them. If they have too much, the store and company yells at them. You’re expected to be perfect no matter what. It’s a high-pressure job that is also hard on the body because the job is very physically.
My Escape
After spending three years building my dream on the side I was finally able to give this boss my notice. I worked 60 hours a week at the job and spent every waking moment after writing, travelling to speak, and building a coaching business. I finally made enough money to pay off all our debt and save ten month’s worth of expenses.
He was pissed. He didn’t think I could do it and still took the opportunity to remind me I had worked for him all those years. He made every day of those last few months hell and even tried to keep my last paycheck. None of it bothered me because I could see the finish line. I was finally free!
It’s been years since I worked for him and the crappy job. Today, I wake up on Maui, Hawaii doing what I love for “work.” I have complete freedom to spend my days and time on the things that are critical to the kind of life I want to live. I have set my life and finances up in a way where I don’t have to worry about money.
The Lesson
I know what you’re thinking, either, “yeah, right,” or “that’s good for him, but that won’t work for me.” I didn’t get any lucky breaks or a big inheritance. I wanted to quit so many times along this journey, but glad I didn’t. It took three years of busting my butt to get to this place in my life.
The lesson is that life is short and time is the one thing we can never recover. You may be working with a jerk, just like I did. That job and jerk are having an effect on your life outside of work. You try to leave the stress at work, but since you spend so much of your week working, that stress comes home with you. It comes out in your attitude and through your outbursts.
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If you are reading this and are skeptical, you’ll never get to a place in your mind that allows you to see past your situation. If you can’t see what’s possible, you won’t take the first steps, you’ll always be stuck. If you can open your eyes and mind a little bit, you can start the process of escaping.
I hope this little article helps you in some way.
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Don’t spend 12 years hating your life and work like I did. Start the process of identifying what you want from your life and your work. Start today. Research what it would take to make that dream a reality. It’s probably going to take some time, but the sooner you start, the sooner it can become your reality.
From time to time that jerk tries to contact me asking for help with his “dream.” I don’t take his calls or even think about him; I have important things to do. I’m on a mission to help everyday working men and women see that their dreams are possible if they do something about them.
How do you feel about your current job?
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Photo: Flickr/ Noemi F
I respect you even more for not hating him today despite all that he did to you!
Mahalo Aaron 🙂
Anyone would treated me that way, I would hate that person(s).
I try not to hate anyone, it takes too much from me 🙂
Good for you about not helping your former boss. Revenge is a dish best serve cold.
I felt it would be better if we never talked again. I don’t hate the guy, but the way he tried to make me feel was wrong and I don’t want that in my life.