If you were to ask me what I thought about my job, I would say I don’t like it. If you catch me at the wrong time, I would say I hate it. I never feel like I’m making a difference. I mean I’m basically doing technician labwork that, in my opinion, I could have done right out of high school. Why even work there with a degree? I wasn’t being trained to the best of my abilities and I let it show. I wasn’t exactly working at 100% efficiency all the time. And don’t get me started on my supposed “boss” but I’ll throw out narcissistic, inconsiderate, insincere, controlling micromanager who was training me to be his bitch for life, not training me to be an engineer.

There were times I wanted to quit and run away, but I stayed for the typical reason of keeping a salaried position. I had a job and I make good money so I should be happy, right? Well these weren’t happy times for me. I’d go to work, go home, workout, watch TV, surf the Internet, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day. Was this all there was to life?

What do you do to change this? I started reading books. A lot. More than I ever read in my life up to that point. I found a goal I wanted to pursue, and I read more about it. But then doubt starts to creep in. My goal was not as easy as it seemed. It may take longer than I estimated. Not a lot of people have done it before, it’s not the normal thing to do, how am I going to do it? Paralysis by analysis.

But I persisted. I found inspiration in people I read about. Stories not heard on the news but found by continued exploration. I looked back at my calculations and integrated this new found information and the projections look better. I decided I’m going to do this.

And then a “Gift from God.” Our Group President calls me to his office. Performance bonus. Really? For me? Our company exceeded sales targets so we all got bonuses. This remind me of my first evaluation as the Financial Coordinator of Samahang. I accepted a position nobody wanted and was setting up systems to prevent the occurrence of previous problems. I haven’t even fundraised a single dollar yet, but everybody was telling me I was doing such a great job. I felt like I couldn’t let them down. So it gave me this drive to do better than I had been doing. Long story short, I stabilized Samahang’s financial situation, and I hope that’s still the case today. Ok I digress, but the same feelings came through when I looked at that bonus check. I can do better than this. I can’t let the President down. I don’t want to be the problem.

This week has been a whole bunch of good feelings. If anything the bonus will help me reach my goal faster. I have a renewed sense of purpose at my job. I began to see that it’s not that bad. I don’t work for that “boss” anymore. I do get to interact with upper management. I write lab reports that they read, so I have to do my best. Today I sat in on my first conference call. I feel like I’m actually helping out. Sometimes it still sucks. Change is slow, but things are progressing.

This also reminds me of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith’s character  decides he’s going to become a stockbroker. With barely any money and no home to take care of his kid, he interns without pay and after that rushes to the homeless shelter to try to get a room for the night. When they don’t get a room, they sleep in a BART Station bathroom. Life sucks. But they survive and he studies hard for the job. He’s finally able to fix his last portable bone-density scanner and sell it. This is the turning point of the movie. For once they don’t have to rush to the homeless shelter. They can stay in a hotel. You get the feeling that everything’s going to be alright. He’s eventually offered a position at Dean Witter and he goes on to become a multi-millionaire.

The problem with long term goals is that we don’t know how they’ll turn out. As with investing, the only sure way to know if your strategy is sound is by doing it for 5, 10, or 20 years, look back, and analyze the results. The important things are to get started, keep moving, keep doing, and learn from your experiences. We all have realistic goals that we want to achieve. With the persistent desire and dedication to get it done, we can have faith that everything’s going to be alright.

It’s hard to beat a guy when he’s got his mind made up that he’s going to win.

-Muhammad Ali

I’m on my way. Who wants to come along on the journey?