Part 3 of 5 of my origin story.
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Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, where my goal is to give you 10-minute lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones.
Yesterday I talked about part two of my origin story. Here’s part three.
In yesterday’s episode, I talked about going into the Marines to pay for my college. Now that I got out of the Marines, I had access to my GI bill. The GI Bill is an amazing benefit because, for most schools, it will pay for all of your tuition and give you a monthly housing allowance that is tax-free. When I was living in Portland it was about $1300/mo and in DC it was $2100/mo tax-free. I went to Portland State University to study Public Health. I thought I was going to become a physical therapist because in high school I tore my ACL and I enjoyed how my physical therapist helped me get better and I thought it would be cool to do the same for others. But when I was going to school, I knew I had to take chemistry but I sucked at it or I didn’t really pay attention in class and ended up getting Cs. So then I transitioned into thinking I could get into healthcare management. My advisor at school said I should take an economics class because it would be helpful and I did and I fell in love with the field. I wanted to switch majors and get into behavioral economics. By the time this happened, my previous spouse got a job in DC and we were separated for a year. I told her I wanted to stay in school for six more months but she said if that happened, we probably won’t stay together. So wanting to keep my marriage intact, I followed her to DC to start my new life. My goal was to get a job and take night classes so I could finish my economics degree.
I graduate college in 2012 when the economy was still in bad shape and it took me a while to get a job. At first, I just spent my first couple of weeks unpacking and trying to find a job. I took a valet job for a month because I landed a job at the Pentagon as an office manager. While I was working, I had a lot of time to listen to podcasts and do homework while taking my night classes.
One great thing that I picked up in school was that I was reading non-fiction books and I started to listen to podcasts. I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell to learn that it takes about 10,000 hours to become a master in your craft and I read Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt to learn that there can be hidden facts to explain the world today like how Sumo wrestlers cheat and help each other out so that they can stay a professional sumo wrestler. So then I just started to read more and more books. I got book ideas from the podcasts that I was listening to like This American Life, Radio Lab, Planet Money, and Freakonomics Radio. I just kept getting more and greater information.
At first, I was grateful for having my job but after a couple of months, I was feeling miserable. I was feeling miserable because I feel like I wasn’t growing as fast as I wanted to be and I was doing things that were up to my values. I felt like I was just a cog in the machine where I was just going to work, waiting there for 8 hours, and then I would head home. There were a lot of other people that were miserable there too. I do not want to be in a situation where I feel miserable for too long. I think this has to go back to my Mom. My mom was a cashier in a job she hated. She dealt with rude customers and the work environment was stressful for little pay. She would come home upset and sit in front of the computer to eat ice cream and then go outside to smoke. I am so happy she is retired now because she stopped smoking and she eats better now. I know she did it for me and my sisters but I don’t want to be that miserable at work. After a couple of months at work, I had to take some mental health days because I did not want to go to work.
The thing that pushes me to start thinking that I should leave is listening to this one episode of Freakonomics called the upside of quitting. This episode was all about the sunk cost fallacy which is an economic term where you should quit the thing you’re doing as soon as possible because you’ll never get back your time or money back. They had different people in the episode where they quitted the thing they were doing like their job and it was the best decision they made. I knew I had to make a change as soon as possible and I get a lot of my ideas from reading books.
Looking back on life, I saw one of the best things that you can do for yourself is to give yourself options so you don’t become stuck in life because when you’re stuck, that’s when feelings of hopelessness creep in and stress starts to take over. Give you an option to pivot out of that situation. I had options because I saved some money from the Marines and I had my GI Bill so I didn’t have to worry about tuition or living expenses. I was able to pivot out of that situation. If I didn’t have these resources, I would have taken my time before I made the leap. It would have been rough but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about not eating. So give yourself some options by having friends to rely on, some money to help with expenses, and knowledge so you can make good decisions.
Thinking about it now, I am so glad I’m not in the Marines or Federal government anymore because I’m working on what I want to in life.
That’s it for today’s episode and we’ll discuss how the next part of my life prepared for becoming an entrepreneur.
I want to thank you for listening to today’s episode.
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