Live to Work or Work to Live. Make the choice.

When you entered Sales you made a choice. Chances are you choose to bet on yourself. Most of us in this gig are commission based. I made a choice 30 years ago to take a salary with a smaller commission primarily because I didn’t believe in myself, I didn’t believe I could cover the draw or make enough money month after month to survive.

I had several other sales folks (PC reference) tell me I did fine, and I could definitely support myself and any number of family units I might put together over the years (sometimes “I Do” becomes “I Did”). But I didn’t buy it. I knew me. I’d seen me take a perfectly good position and flush a future down the drain.

But as I grew older and bolder, I finally made the switch about 15 years ago. That guy from 15 years and one day ago was an idiot!!! Yeah, he did the right things for him at the time, I guess. He showed up early, worked late, made the sacrifices he needed to in order to move up the corporate ladder, one rung at a time. I went from Product Support Rep, selling service plans, parts, and rentals to making Service Manager. Then a few weeks later they threw Parts Manager in my title as well and I ran both sides of the service department. Then came Operations Manager and finally Branch Manager. I was really picking up steam.

But somewhere along the way I had forgotten why I worked. There were rumors I might be moving on to Corporate Headquarters at some point in an even greater capacity. But did I want that? I suddenly wasn’t sure. I thought I did. But I didn’t have a degree (still don’t), I lacked some of the finer points of the jobs above me like really dialing into the numbers for budgeting and sales projections (crystal balling it doesn't work for me) etc.

What I didn’t know at the time was the future for me would take a hard left one day and what I thought I wanted would be replaced with what I really wanted. You see, a decade earlier I worked for guy who asked me a simple question. He said it like an old sage sitting on top of a snow covered peak at 18,000 feet. His face weathered and his clothes glistening in the finest Sherpa reliefs of war and conquest (might have just been a cheap suit) he looked at me and said, “Son, one day you’re going to have to decide if you live to work or work to live.” The hell?

Well, I nodded like I understood and went about my day. It rattled around in the back of my head from time to time like when you pick up a Rubik’s Cube you’ve never solved because your day is going too well, and you could use some frustration. I’d shake the question off and keep rolling, after all, I was making headway. But in my mid 30’s it started working it’s way closer to that part of the brain that actually makes decisions (the decidibellum or something) and it started nagging at me.

“I work to live” I told myself, knowing that was the right answer for me. But what did I mean by that? I had two daughters who were nearly grown and a “wife” I was increasingly unhappy with (and she with me, it’s always a two-way street). The girls were starting work and as a child does, they were asking questions about what I did for a living. I tried to make it sound exciting but let’s face the facts, Material Handling and being a spy for the CIA are not even in the same ballpark, let alone the same sport. In fact, if being a spy is a sport then selling forklifts and racking is like driving the cab behind the cab that James Bond jumped in the back seat of. But it paid the bills.

The difference between “Live to Work” and Work to Live” are simple. Some people are wired to love working. They truly live to work. They enjoy the job, the challenge, the frustrations, all of it. It gets them up in the morning. Those who work to live want as much free time as they can muster. But that doesn’t mean they don’t work just as hard as the other group. I found for me, I worked even harder.

See I’m a simple guy who loves finding a dirt road I’ve never been on and seeing where it goes. Not like a few miles back, but to the end of it, whatever county, or state it stops in. Sometimes that takes entire days to get back there. I like the outdoors (and hate the office, even though I had worked in one for a decade and a half) rafting, 4x4 off-roading and BBQ’s with friends around a fire. I don’t like the city, can’t stand pavement, and love watching the sun set, the moon rise, and a storm reveal the true power of nature and God across the open desert.

That meant a return to sales. But with a new vigor to earn my time off. Weekends are no fun when you spend them dreading Monday morning because you know the same old shit will be waiting for you when you walk in. I had worked hard before because I was working to stave off the pending doom of what was next. But I found I was willing to bust my proverbial ass even more to give me the income and the time to “LIVE” the way I wanted. That meant I had to “WORK” harder to make it happen. And work I have, every day. But instead of feeling trapped I found liberation in it because for the first time in my life, I knew why I was doing it. And on the weekends, following a week of 10–12-hour days, I feel no guilt in putting the laptop away and truly enjoying what I want to do.

The old me was looking at emails on a Saturday morning, asking the wife to “give me 10 minutes” before we left to go do whatever mundane thing she planned (I see it, no wonder we didn’t work out).  Sunday evenings were used planning the next week. But not anymore, I give the job every moment it deserves to get what I want out of the life it funds.

And please don’t take this as negative judgement of those who Live to Work. You do you. If that is what makes you happy, by all means, live the best version of that you possibly can.

There is no right or wrong answer to the question. It’s a very personal choice to make. I was fortunate to have my Sherpa ask me that question early enough in my career to have time to digest it and its meaning to me. Hopefuly someone will read this and sit back and ask it of themselves.

In closing I know you like some Ra-Ra crap so… make a choice. Decide what version of your life you want to live, whether in sales, management, trash collection, whatever floats your boat (ooouuu, a boat?), gets your off-roading going, sews your quilt, or flies your kite. Just make sure you know why you are doing it. 

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