Quit Your Retail Job, The Pay Sucks Anyway

Retail sucks.

Yeah, I've been there and I'm sure you've heard those two words next to each other plenty of times before. You may actually work in retail yourself so I might actually be pissing you off a little bit inside because

you're the one 

having to endure 

the hell that is retail. 

But don't worry. It's all going to be over soon. Just kidding it might not be,but have you ever stopped and asked yourself why it is that you are having to actually work a job that you otherwise wouldn't? If you think I'm about to delve into the spectrum of "stay in school" and "follow the rules and you'll make it to the top", that's not at all what this post is about. Actually, it's about the complete opposite. Okay actually the stay in school part will actually benefit you, but the others won't.

Here's the deal.

School is important for two types of people in this world:

1. Those who wish to obtain an education in hopes that one day a fancy printed design on a paper will make them a lot of money.
2. Those who believe an education is important and see the value of an education much higher than the power of the dollar.

People who follow the rules get one of two outcomes in their lives:

1. They follow the rules so well that they expect a perfect life in which everything will always go as planned and in which people that choose to not follow the rules will never live a good, comfortable life.
2. They realize that in the end, if they would have taken a risk somewhere down the path of their life, they could have done things much more differently. This doesn't necessarily have to be in a negative point of view.

So what the heck are you trying to get at, Juan?

Stop being afraid of taking risks in your life. Now, I'm not the biggest risk taker in the world, but over the past 4 years I've taken very random and often dumb risks that have actually shaped my life for the better. 

I woke up one morning

and decided that 

I hated my retail job.

So, what did I do? I went into work and at about the five hour mark I got on the computer and typed up, what I will proclaim, as the most badass one day notice ever written. Keep in mind that I am the type of person to follow policies and procedures to the T and I'm not generally a superior you'd want to work for... but that all changed when I wrote that notice.

I'll be honest, I'm money hungry, but I had had enough of retail hell.

In 2011, when I was first able to start working, I started at a modest retail hourly rate of $8.20, got fired and then worked a couple of months after at my next retail location starting at $7.85. Within 3 years I was making $30k in a new management role, the next year after that I was bringing in $45k. That $45k that I was making at 22 years old was coming from that lousy, unorganized retail position that I ended up leaving in the most unexpected way.

"Why are you stating how much you make, it just sounds like you're trying to show off..."

I'm showing you what I was making to place the emphasis on the hurdle of money. Money, while it can give you almost everything in the world, will eventually make you work for it instead of it working for you. Money sucks. Money lies. Money cheats. Money gets the best of you and money acts like your friend. Your life does not revolve around money, it revolves around your will and endurance and the perseverance you have to life your life the way you want to. Drop out, start a band, run away. Do it all because you want to, not because money tells you to.

So, screw money in my situation right? It's not like I had just moved out to an apartment, was paying off a car along with other bills, and finally living on my own like a big boy... except I was. That's where the "leap" I mentioned before comes into play.

I quit a job I was making pretty decent money in and pretty much had to say goodbye to the life I had just embarked on. I was jobless for a good month. I broke my lease, said goodbye to the semi adult life, and moved back in with my parents.

Because 

if you're going to work 

feeling sorry for yourself, 

you aren't really working, 

you're struggling to work.

That's what I was doing: struggling. Not struggling as in I don't have food to eat or money to drink (I'm leaving that typo there because I meant to say water, but instead said money and it just plays so well into the point I'm trying to get across), but struggling to realize that I was letting money control my life. I was letting money play the role of parents when my parents were doing everything they could to give me a better, more fulfilling life.

The fact that I quit that job the way I did tore me apart. I was thinking, "This isn't like you, but this job is making you miserable." It turns out because I quit my job I was able to take an internship in what I really wanted to do with my life: code. Three months later I am making more money that I ever dreamed I'd make at the age of 23, but that will be another post for another day because I got to that figure by doing some key things that others are afraid to do.

Don't struggle to realize that you could be doing bigger and better things just because the money is not there.