Are you building your dream or someone else’s?

There’s an old story about the boss take a new hire to show him mansions, yachts, nice cars, tracts of land and other things. At the end, the boss puts his arm around the new hire and says, “If you work hard, put in overtime at night and on weekends, remain loyal and be consistent, all of this will be mine.”

Long ago, I decided that if I’m going to work hard and put in overtime, the dream that I build will be my own. As a former corporate IT guy, I spent a lot of hours working on problems long after everyone else had gone home. On top of all the time spent away from doing what I wanted to do, being an exempt employee meant that I didn’t get paid any extra either.

One company promised “comp time” but after 10 months of working there, I had accumulated the equivalent of 2 months of “comp time” which was never given.

I have only one life, so I decided to spend it the way I wanted to spend it. Nobody ever got to their deathbed and said, “I wish I had put in more hours at the office.” Memories and relationships are what matter most at the end of one’s time here. I am working to make it all worth it.