Quitting The Day Job

Time and Effort vs. Results Based Economy

48 Days to Creative Income, Day 11

Day #11: DiscussTime and Effort vs. Results Based Economy with someone you trust.

First off, I took a bit of time off!  I had intended to try to complete the 48 days within..well..48 days.  My practical goal, knowing that this time of year lends itself to a lot of other non-work related issues, was to complete it within the next 60 days.

But on Wed I watched the presidential debate, then …well, I took a day off on Friday.  I did ZERO work on the web.  It felt like I was off for a week.  Very relaxed.  Low stress.  Coming back today (Monday), now I have a headache again.  Another reason to quit the day job.

Day 11 was to discuss Time and Effort versus Results.  I didn’t really do this because, Desk Coder and I discuss it practically every day.

In the 48 Days program, the basis is that in today economy, we have conditioned ourselves to be of the Time and Effort mentality.  You put in your hours and your get a specific amount of pay and benefits.  The origins of this began with the industrial revolution and specifically with the assembly line.  Previously in mankind’s history, he didn’t expect to make a living by punching the clock.  He was rewarded purely on a results basis.  His ability to farm, fish, hunt, etc. (Granted the peons did all this also to keep the knights from using them for sword practice, but ….).

In today’s world we have conditioned ourselves to expect to go to work straight from college or high school.  Work a specific job.  Get a specific amount of benefits and pay.  Retire.  At best we advance within the structure, but we still are receiving a “finite” amount for a set amount of work.

48 Days contents that though more Time and Effort may ultimately be required, we should work on the Results model.  We should put in time and effort as an ingredient to seeing results appear thanks to our hard work.  That we should not be dependent on “the man” to spoon feed us our rations of pay, but instead, bust our rear ends so that any achievements are our alone.  Results.

Desk Coder and I discuss this theme constantly.  In our environment, theoretically there is “pay for performance”.  But it is hard to take seriously when incompetent individuals are paid at the same rate or at a higher rate.  But enough grumbling.

Desk Coder and I still use our Time and Effort (desk job) as the foundation for trying to work together and independently on multiple non-corporate ideas.  We put in large amounts of hours hoping and praying that ultimately we will receive the results.  The results being streams of income that independent of the corporate world.  And not just streams of income, but an entire new set of careers and opportunities.

Quitting the Day Job, is just ONE of the many efforts that we hope will kick start our own personal Results Based Economies.  At the very least it is an incubator for ideas and concepts that we might be able to exploit.

If you truly want to break free of the cube farm or the assembly line or the delivery truck, then you must think not about how much you can advance within the traditional structures of careers, but how much effort you are willing to give to achieve results outside the corporate walls.