Follow Your Passion
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Chapter 9 |
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Chapter 10 |
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Life's a Beach
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The partners were expected to have over a million invested in Andersen’s stock, and that was all wiped out like a sandcastle on the beach - not as secure as we all had thought! When people talk to me about job security I take it with a grain of … sand! ‘Show me the money!’ I said (18 years before that film came out!) They never found much cash left in their pockets from this ‘well paying job’! They worked a whole week just to blow it all on a weekend of restaurants, clubs, fancy bars and having to buy the right clothes to wear in the office. Living for the Weekends They seemed to be living for the weekend – quite happy to work Mon to Friday just to blow their pay check on a wild Saturday night! (I thought that this was just a Scottish thing until I saw it taken to the extreme in Manhattan!) In compensation for 5 dreary work days, my friends were given a few hundred pounds to spend on a good time! They gave up 50 hours in return for a handful of ‘Green Purchasing Rectangles’ that they then exchanged for 12 hours of party! Money was a medium by which they attained elation! I wrote down the words: Work - Money - Fun. I wished that I could miss out this Money in the Middle. If my job was fun, then I would be working directly for kicks and would not mind missing out on some of the cash! If I could only create a job that I loved, then I would be having the fun without the work involved, and then I could make those pencil pushers dance! It worked like a dream! Making the Accountants Dance
The ironic thing was that my Andersen's buddies came into the pub (after a fancy restaurant meal) to keep me up to date on office politics and have a laugh about old times. I got them all singing and dancing and we all had a great time, but the difference was that they were spending $100 for food and beer while I was getting paid $75 to do the same! They were getting paid for their work and spending the money on enjoyment. I was working straight for the same enjoyment! In fact, I was having way more fun by Missing out the Money Medium altogether! I did this for three glorious years while I worked on my chops. It soon got better (when you are out at sea, you catch more waves!) Other pub mangers came to see me play and asked me to work at their bars! I soon had three nights a week at the Ensign Ewart by Edinburgh Castle. I could earn enough money to survive now that I did not have to buy the things I had previously needed to fit into the business world! Buying the Things you Don't Need to Impress the People You Don't Know When I was in CPA much of my income had been actually consumed by the office culture. It was like spending your money in the company store! Andersons do not turn up in a VW bug and jeans! I watched my managers spending much of their income just fitting into the corporate mould - an apartment near the city, a car to get you there, silk suit, leather shoes, thick pen, skinny watch etc. They were working hard to afford things they needed to work, all for people they didn't really know that well! Because they worked so hard, they were too tired to cook for themselves when they got home and so spent more in restaurants, and while they were there they might as well go out for a drink ... Before the weekend was out, their disposable income was all gone and they had to go back Monday morning to earn it again! It cost them their income just to be able to work there! The Toys of Detox!
However, the reason they needed these things was that they were tired from working in the first place – did they not see the circular anti-logic here! If they did not work they would not have the money for this stuff, but they would not need it in the first place! It was the work first, buy later mentality. They had already done the work and this seemed like spare money sitting idly in the bank waiting to be spent - they were swopping time in the office for something that they really didn’t need in the first place. Spending Their Life Times Another thing they saved for was the holiday. On the micro scale they were working for the weekend exchanging 5 days for 2, and on the macro they were working hard for 50 weeks so they could splurge it all on a ‘well-earned’ 2 week holiday in the Caribbean! There seemed to be a competition to see who could go to the most luxury hotel in the furthest flung place! The partners talked about retiring as if they were giving up their 50 years work for 20 relaxation! In trying to ‘make a life’, they were spending their lifetime! They were all exchanging time for money and then squandering the cash. Did they not see that they were then also squandering their time – their life time! Anderson's told me that if I left the firm my life would be turned upside down and they were right! I took my 9 -5 life and turned it upside down into a 5-9! Everything changed from Accordion to Zen! Next Chapter = From Accordion to Zen! ©2000-2005 JB |
When
I told my Andersons buddies that I was 'taking the plunge' they thought I
was talking about hanging myself! They couldn't believe that someone would
leave the security - after all there was always going to be Arthur
Andersen.
Little did they know that an unexpected tidal wave was churning far out at
sea - that Tsunami
they called Enron! 
I had always loved playing music in pubs but
Andersons warned me that this constituted a second job and so was not
allowed, nor was I allowed to grow facial hair! So when
I quit, I literally let my hair down, grew a beard and took a
job singing in a bar! I played guitar, banjo and
sang Pogues, U2, Delimitri, Christy Moore covers and sing-a-long folk
songs in a wee scots pub called The Royal Oak. You can only imagine the fun I had!
They also spent so much on what I called ‘detox
toys’.