I just don’t know what to think these days when it comes to work.  There are so many mixed messages out there.  I am really at a loss as to which direction I want to take my career.

When I am on the road for my current job, it isn’t rare for me to spend up to 8 hours a day in the car.  It can feel like a huge waste of time.  To make myself feel like I am accomplishing something, I will at times listen to an audio book.

A Thirst For Knowledge

One audio book that graces the speakers of my company car is that of  Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  When I first listened to it, it re-opened my eyes as to what I really want to do and what kind of life I really want to lead.  It began a rampage that turned into a thirst for knowledge on the subject.  The subject of entrepreneurship which also made me stumble into self development.

To give an example of one of the results from this quest for entrepreneurial knowledge, I came across 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job by Steve Pavlina.  It proved to be more about how I need to get out of my current job situation .

Having Doubts

It is a lot easier said than done though.  I mean we all want to do what we want, right?  But we have to pay the bills somehow, I just don’t know if I can make the leap to self-employment.  What if I fail?  How am I going to take care of the baby?

Ah yes, failure.  I recently wrote an article called Don’t Be Afraid to Fail and how accepting failure might relate to business success.  I give the example of how LeBron James uses this mindset and how I was attempting to apply it to my life.

I am applying it to my life with more of the everyday situations as related to what I felt was causing some of my procrastinations.  I just don’t think I could possibly apply it to something this big.  Taking the chance to leave a job, my main source of income, to hopefully do what I want while paying the bills is quite a huge step.  I just get shaky knees when standing at the ledge.

My Current Situation

I mean I have wanted to leave my job for one reason or another for about the last year.  But on the flip side, there are some great advantages to my job that I would be worried to lose.  I just don’t know what to do.  It could just be the old case of the grass being greener on the other side.

One great thing about my current job is the flexibility it provides.  It is because of this job that I am able to be currently sitting at the office writing this post.  (I hope my boss doesn’t see this)  When I am not at the office, I can pretty much do whatever I like as long as I am producing the kind of results expected of me, which is a breeze.

But the negatives of the position keep on popping up.  Things like the feeling of no accomplishment at the end of the day and knowing that the position is leading me to a dead end as far as career progression is concerned has become almost too much to bare.  Not to even mention that I am getting underpaid as compared to the industry standards.

The Job Market

I feel like with the things the way they are, economically speaking, I just can’t do anything about it right now.  To give you an idea of how the current job market is, my company recently put a new position on Craigslist for an adminsitrative position vacancy.  Within 24 hours, there were nearly 300 applications submitted!  This same position a few years ago would have seemed lucky to get 5 applicants within 24 hours.

Every position out there has plenty of people vying for the opportunity.  There are just too many people out there that are unemployed at the moment.  Maybe I should just be happy to have a job.

What I Want To Do

I feel like the guy from Office Space.  I could take any number of quotes he says in that movie an apply it to my situation.  But what do I really want to do?  Even in the movie, they say that you should do for a living what you would do if you were already financially secure.  The main character in the movie said “I would do nothing.”  I would say I would like to own multiple businesses, play poker, and travel.

I have even taken a self-assessment test and not the basic 10-20 question ones you can get by surfing the internet.  I took a in-depth profile test.  To make a long story short, its top recommendations for me were:  small business owner, stock trader, CEO, and sales representative.  If you are interested in finding similar tests, at a cost, check out www.attributesforsuccess.com.

How Can I Get There?

The aged old question for me I guess.  I could just drop everything today and start playing poker and probably have a decent shot at making the same amount I do from my current job within a year’s time.  Too risky though.  I have a family that relies on me to be able to pay for my half of the bills.

I could apply for a job where I might feel a little bit happier.  But the feeling of happiness would just be temporary until I reach my end goal.  Besides if I do take on a new job at this point in time, I couldn’t be 100 percent sure that I would be guaranteed that income stream for the next year or two.  So many people are getting laid off these days.

My best option right now seems to be what I am doing at the moment, plus some things I would like to do:

1. Stay at my current job, which is flexible enough to allow me to chase my dreams away from work.
2. Attempt to start up some businesses, which is exactly what this blog could be looked at if I can drive enough traffic to my site on a daily basis.
3. Make money playing poker.  Something I would like to do more of as I have only played one session of poker in the past 2 months.
4. Start setting up some assets.  Back on the topic of Rich Dad Poor Dad, it is the way to be financially secure.  Don’t let my main resource of money be from a job’s income.  Let it be from assets.  I need to start letting my money work for me.

In Closing

I am not sure if I am just up in arms about nothing.  I just feel as though I have hit a temporary dead end as far as my young career is concerned.  I know many people out there would be happy to have my job, and maybe the standards I have set for myself are too high.  But then again who knows.  I am not even sure what I want to do anymore (outside of what has already been mentioned).  If you checked out this video I posted the other day, you can see how the future job market is likely to be completely different than it is today.  It is almost scary.

This feeling of hitting a stalemate in my career could be short lived and I hope to look back on this post one day and feel happy with the progress I made at that point.  When that day comes, I will share my experiences and hopefully help out someone that might be going through a similar situation.  Until then, I will be working on bettering this website to hopefully bring in more traffic and I will be keeping my ear close to the ground for any potential dream jobs that may arise.

It is funny, after writing that last piece on the BCS bowls I am fittingly staying in Blacksburg tonight for work. Yes, the home of the Hokies. If it wasn’t for Va Tech, there would be absolutely nothing out here.

I used to love staying in hotels in college when playing away games for baseball. It was fun. I still like going to hotels when I am on vacation or at a casino. But staying at hotels for work sucks! Especially since I know what I have to do tomorrow.

When I first signed on to this job about 3 years ago, it was originally an outdoor sales position for outdoor advertising. For at least the last year, I rarely do sales and it has become nearly 80% maintenance of current signs within the state of Virginia, and yes I have to do the whole state of VA.

A monkey could do my job just as easily as I do. I have thought about leaving this account executive position many of times, but one thing or another keeps me here (like being offered promotions to assistant GM, that I still have yet to receive). I have weeks where I see the reasons why I like my job. Then there are weeks and months where I have to ask myself how I am still with my company.

Unfortunately times are tough right now, economically speaking, and I still am happy that I hold a job in these times. But now I feel stuck here knowing that there just isn’t much else for me to fall back on. No, poker is not something I can fall back on at the moment, though I hope that can be the case in the future.

I have taken those assessment tests to see what type of stuff I would like to do. The specific test that was given to me also compared my thinking style, behavioral traits, and interests. The test also compares your scores to people already in the workforce with similar types of traits.

At the top of the list for me was CEO and small business owner. Sales and stock trader weren’t far behind, though I am starting to think that I don’t like sales. The only thing that didn’t make me a perfect match for CEO was that my math results were a little above the average needed to be CEO. So essentially saying that being CEO might not challenge me enough in that category.

I have always known that I wanted to be on my own and run my own business. It is something that I still plan to do one day. Whether it is owning a gas station, online store, or just playing poker for a living, whatever; I definitely feel I would be much happier.

I just hope that one day I can find a way to own or run such a type of thing.

Ok, done ranting….let me go fire up some poker.

Oh and for a link to the test (and other tests) that was given to me by someone close to me it is here: www.attributesforsuccess.com, unfortunately they are not free.