I’m Gen X And I Hate Hard Work, But That Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Work Hard

The #1 thing holding people back at the intersection of work, money and life

Call them microaggressions. I call them the modern day version of being lazy and somewhat entitled.

Basically, the big problem with the so-called creator, side hustle, follow your passion economy that dominates discussions around work these days. The idea that anybody who achieves even a modicum of success as a freelancer took a shortcut or found some hack that, if only they shared it with the world, could be replicated, resulting in immediate — if not overnight — and equal success.

I know this introduction feels like it foreshadows a negative article. Quite the contrary.

Instead, it spins the conversation positive, dosed with reality. At least reality as I have lived and experienced it.

I’m just a clueless Gen Xer making my way through life, telling it as I see it, whether you want to be a writer or start a food truck for your next act.

By the end of this article, we will have —

• Drawn important distinctions between hard work and working hard.
• Defined success, especially for self-employed people, for what it really is.

To help us get there, consider these aforementioned microaggressions.

It happens almost every single day.

I get an email or LinkedIn message asking…

Actually, here’s the most recent one.

I feel like a dick for doing this, but it’s important. Because there’s a fine line between asking for advice and genuinely wanting to connect (which I absolutely love doing) and quick hitting (using) somebody to discover the path of least resistance.

Before I show you the latest query I received, it makes sense to define the meaning of the path of least resistance:

That’s what people are searching for more than anything as they attempt to transition to some form of self-employment, particularly as writers and content creators. Heck, that’s what people are searching for in life.

The easy, rather than the best way.

Because the easy way is faster and the best way often requires something thousands of years older than the (I hate this terminology) creator economy — time, patience, some skill, a true willingness to learn and, most of all, luck and humility.

Make no mistake. I’m sort of lazy. I think work ethic is a dumb, increasingly irrelevant and wholly overrated concept. And I hate hard work. But that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard (most people just call it smart) or that I’m seeking the path of least resistance.

It started out innocently enough with a guy who apparently lives in Spain and writes about similar things saying he wants “to learn from me.”

After I responded, asking him where he lives in Spain, he replied with a one-word answer to where he lives and this. I instantly knew the direction things were headed.

Of course, there has to be a secret sauce!

Because the existence of a secret sauce implies everybody can do it.

I mean, if Tim Cook told me all about his secret sauce could I be the CEO of Apple? If the chef at my favorite restaurant told me about their secret sauce, could I open a restaurant and get a Michelin star? Fuck no, because I don’t have it in me to be a CEO or Michelin star chef. Knowing this puts me many steps ahead of the people looking for — and refusing to accept that there isn’t — a secret sauce.

Anyhow, here’s the reply I received to that:

Of course. There must be something else!

The only something else I left out of my original reply is to write not merely about what you know (or think you know), but write about your experience. You definitely know that. Or at least have the qualifications to try to make sense of it.

Things started to move for me when I said why in the hell am I writing about the general money (investing) topics everybody else is writing about?

When I asked myself — what is your situation?

When I took the reality that I was somebody who would Never Retire with plans to work into and beyond relative old age and turned it into my area of focus.

If I’m in the process of trying to figure out how to survive — and maybe thrive a little — in this world, why not write about it? And relate my reality to the broader issues of work, money, retirement and living a good life.

But that’s not the secret sauce. Because, again, one does not exist.

It’s merely your opening.

The specifics of my work only go so far. Ultimately they don’t mean much. They’re just an illustration of the broader concept. The idea that you have to find what works for you (drawn from your life experience), focus on it, then realize it’s not going to happen overnight. For every person who experiences overnight success, there are many who fail and many more who realize the more common experience of success — that is survival gone too far.

And this isn’t exclusive to writing as work. It pretty much applies to any line.

I used to think I could fast track time only through hard work and extreme work ethic. However, this assumes that these things are a substitute for time and patience. There is no substitute for time and patience.

You’re working just as hard 2–to-4 hours a day if you’re truly accepting and understanding all of the above and below as the person working 8-to-12 hours a day trying to find and monetize some so-called secret sauce.

Another microaggression.

You’re traveling to Spain and France for a month. Wow must be nice.

Yeah, it is nice.

But it implies I have an easy life absent any groundwork to get there.

I absolutely make and have less money — like a lot less money — than nearly every single person who has ever said or taken that attitude with me.

I just did what pretty much everybody else in the world — with choice — can do. I prioritized what matters to me most.

I want time. I want to do cool shit. I want to be able to travel. I want to pick up one day and move to another country.

I can’t do this — at least not in my world — with a demanding 40-plus hour a week job, a mortgage or high rent payment, an expensive car and other accoutrements of this American dream lifestyle.

So I said what can I do to live the life I want to live. One where I can blow off days, take long walks, and, yes, spend a month in Europe and maybe someday soon move there. I can embrace work that affords this freedom at the same time as I reject the house, car and American dream.

Simply in theory.

It just took time, patience, a little skill and mostly luck to get to the point where I can live this type of life like 50–75% of the time. I’m in the process of improving my lot to the point where my partner and I actually make the move abroad and fully realize the lives we want to live now and for the duration.

Some people call this success.

I — and Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers — call it survival gone too far:

Success becomes sloppy when you get sucked up in it. When you forget that it’s… survival gone too far. That you’re one step away from a setback or, worse yet, failure.

With this perspective, it’s much easier (and more practical) to aim for survival (or something just a little bit more than that) and be grateful for whatever else falls into your lap.

Sounds like selling yourself short to some people. However, experience has taught me that this mindset does three important things:

• Rightsizes your expectations.
• Helps you focus on leading a simple, relatively inexpensive life.
• Stops work from taking all of your time and becoming your sole identity.

Bottom line — we don’t live in the world our parents grew up in. And I say this as someone set to turn 48 next month. Some things they have/had are no longer within reach or even desirable. Therefore, it’s critical to stop setting unrealistic bars that can make your supposed passion turn into a soul-sucking pain in the ass.

It’s the number one thing holding people back at the intersection of work, money and life. The idea that there’s a secret sauce.

Just because we have new ways of working doesn’t mean some of the old ways of how to get there no longer exist. Yes, break your back work ethic is total bullshit. However, logically setting the stage for survival gone too far — and putting in the time to get there — remains and will always remain the not-so-sexy way to have the life you want now and going forward.

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This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.