Summary

The article reflects on the idea that actively pursuing personal interests and professional growth already puts one ahead of a significant portion of the workforce who are constrained by financial and life circumstances.

Abstract

The narrative begins with a conversation among colleagues during a smoking break, where the author, Kriss, questions the nature of their routine lives. The colleagues, Bob, Hussain, and Will, have been working for 15 years at minimum wage and express a sense of resignation to their circumstances, highlighting the pressures of supporting a family and the layered complexity of life's challenges. Kriss, on the other hand, advocates for the pursuit of passion and the choice of challenges one faces, suggesting that those who contemplate their work performance, strive for improvement, seek their passion, and learn new skills are already succeeding in life. This perspective is underscored by the statistic that 60% of salary workers in America earn minimum wage, a number that has increased due to economic impacts of the pandemic. The article concludes with an empowering message that readers who are considering how to excel in their work and personal development are already outperforming a majority of the workforce.

Opinions

Life is perceived as a series of layered problems that become more complex as one progresses.
Individuals from impoverished backgrounds often prioritize survival and family responsibilities over personal interests and passions.
The societal expectation to start earning early to support a family can limit one's ability to choose their path in life.
Pursuing what one loves and seeking to improve oneself are indicators of success, regardless of current socioeconomic status.
The ability to react positively to life's circumstances is crucial, as emphasized by the quote from Charles R. Swindoll.
The article suggests that a significant portion of the workforce does not have the luxury to consider personal passion or job satisfaction due to economic constraints.

Why you are already winning at life?

You are already doing better than 60% of the people.

“Life is shit, You won’t like it Kriss” Bob told me. Wait, Let me go back to the start.

So, It was a Wednesday evening, Around 6 pm at work. We were taking small break, a smoking break. I don’t smoke so normally I stay in my office. But, because it was a nice weather I was just sitting out there with my colleagues Bob, Hussain and Will.

“So, this is it. This is life huh?” everyone were silently smoking so to break the ice I asked this question.

“What do you mean?” Hussain replied.

“This job, you come to work everyday at fix time with fix salary, have a weekend with family. That’s it” I elaborate.

(Little backstory — This is my first job, I studied Mechanical engineering for 6 years, while on textbook it was all cool but when I got a job I realized that I don’t like it anymore. While these all people were machine operator at the same company working for long time at minimum wage.)

“What else do you want?” Will asked.

“Life should be exciting, where we do what we love to do. We push our self to get the best out it, to become successful. Not where we work hard for some millionaire who keep becoming more rich” I replied.

All of sudden, there was a silence among us. They started to think intensely and I saw the feeling of regret in their eyes. I realized I might have asked a wrong question. They all were working for a same company for almost 15 years, at a minimum wage. It felt like all the wrong decision they made in life started coming in front of their eyes as a flashback.

“Life is shit, You won’t like it Kriss” Bob told me.

“That’s how it is. When you are from poor family you need to find a job to start earning early then get married and then you have responsibility to feed your family. You can’t do a shit about what you like in life” Bob added.

“Life is complicated, it has a layer, layer of problems. By the time you realize that you solved the first layer of problems, you will presented with next layer of problem which will be harder to solve. That time you will realize last layer was really easy.” Hussain said.

“Right, Life is like that. But if we know next layer will be harder. Why can’t we choose what we like to solve instead what has already been assigned to us?” I asked again.

“This is Life, You don’t get choose in life.” Will said.

That day that conversation made me realize that most of the people working at the minimum wage they don’t have an option to think about things like — finding a passion, working on an exciting project, doing what you love, good office etc.

Most of the time they are coming from poor family or some bad incident happened in their life early on their life such as death of their parent at young age or something like that. So this people don’t have an option to do what they like because they want to stay alive and they just want to make sure they are feeding their family on time.

You might have heard or read stories of a successful person who came from really poor family. But not all of them have courage to do such things knowing they might become homeless if they fail.

I am specifically focusing on them because they are not just few people, they are a majority of workforce in any country. According to U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS there are 80.4 million people who was working at a minimum wage in 2017. Which makes almost 60% of salary worker in America. That number is only rising with pandemic crushing world economy.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” — Charles R. Swindoll

So, if you are thinking about ‘How are you performing at a work?’, ‘How you can do better at what you are doing?’, ‘What is your passion?’ and ‘Trying to learn new skills’ you are already winning.

You are already ahead in a race than 60% of the people. If you clicked on the title in the hope of answer for — how are you winning at life?, how can you learn something new today? You are already winning my friend.