You need a menial job

A crappy stepping stone for long-term success

I’ve worked two menial jobs during my time in The Preparation.

I didn’t enjoy a minute of it, but I came to see that the importance of low-paying jobs is greatly overlooked.

Menial jobs have been a right of passage for young adults for as long as we can remember. Just now you probably thought of that one job you had in high school…

To make a bit of cash and gain work experience, you dragged yourself there a few times a week. Maybe you were supporting yourself completely off the work you did at that job. Either way, it was used as a stepping stone - the primary reason for it being to gain cash and experience.

But, could it be that we aren’t using this stepping stone to our greatest benefit?

A sinking ship with no lifeboat

“I don’t understand how people can afford to live.”

Chances are you’ve heard someone say this recently, maybe you said it yourself.

It seems nearly impossible to believe that the average person can afford anything. Whether someone has a job at Mcdonalds making $15/hour, or a “comfortable” sales position making $100,000/year - everyone is suffering from massive price increases.

This seems to be true throughout most of the western world.

Even having a “well-paying” job doesn’t matter much anymore.

Of course, an array of factors are at play: inflation and consumer culture being the top financial executioners for the average person.

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16 Bucks an Hour

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Young people feel as though there is no future for them, and older, already employed people can’t see a way out of their situation.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like things are going to get better for the majority of people…

Money is being printed out of thin air, consumer culture has a death grip on most even as they are unable to afford much of what they previously could, and few people have a strong skill set which would allow them to be their own saviors.

But, how does all of this relate to working a menial job?

Well, it all comes down to two things: shifting your perspective and gaining resources to use to your benefit.

Let me explain…

Long-term outlook

For the most part, we view menial jobs as an outlet to make a very small amount of money when we are young - we want enough money to pay for gas, snacks, and entertainment.

We wait to take anything seriously until we finish college and hope that the degree we received will guarantee us a comfy job somewhere.

All the while we could have adopted a different perspective, one based on our long-term success.

You see, I used to have the same view on menial jobs that most people do.

But, that all changed when I started The Preparation.

Why?

Because my perspective was shifted. I no longer thought that I could wait for opportunity to come knocking. I now had to do things that would put me in the position for opportunities to come my way.

Active pursuit of my own success.

So, a menial job could be used for pocket money. Yes. But what if some of that money was set aside to pay for access to new skills?

I worked as a pizza delivery driver and an employee at Office Depot during the first few months of The Preparation. To be frank, I did it because I was bored and needed something more to do.

Yet, those crappy jobs allowed me to make more than enough money to pay for the EMT class and BJJ class that I was attending at the time.

Those are two skills that can (and have) blossomed into several avenues of opportunity.

Now, did I use all of the money I made from those jobs wisely? No, certainly not. Some of the money went to snacks and some went to gas for the unnecessary and frequent late-night drives I’d take.

I could have used that small bit of money to gain more skills.

But, the point is that we’ve been missing out on a benefit of menial jobs which lies hidden in plain sight: they can help us get the ball rolling no matter how little money we have.

We can use crappy jobs to propel us forward, expand our skill set, and multiply our opportunities when we are young.

The people who are suffering the most now bet their lives on a single, commonly-treaded track which brought them a limited range of skills.

Opportunity didn’t come and it isn’t coming for them.

If they are lucky they will be let go from their job. If not, they will make enough to pay for food, bills, and just enough gas to get back to work tomorrow.

How different would things be for them if they used a small amount of resources to develop strong set of skills when they were young?

The skills you develop now, whether you’re 16 or 22, can set you up for success.

Menial jobs are actually the perfect opportunity for us to use to pay for the accumulation of useful skills. And, over time, the advancement of these skills can make us autonomous individuals who are not dependent upon an industry or employer.

Time and energy

Even when I was in EMT class, BJJ class, reading, learning Spanish, and learning how to play chess, I still had lots of time and energy to put to use.

That’s why I went ahead had worked at Office Depot, and as a pizza delivery driver later on.

If you’re young like myself, you have more time and energy than you know what do to with. Instead of wasting your time on video games or other meaningless pursuits you should get a job.

There’s lessons to be learned from any job, but on top of that, the money you accumulate can and should be used to build skills.

The accumulation of resources allows you to garner skills. The more skilled you become, the more value you can produce, the more resources you can accumulate.

It’s a virtuous cycle, and it sets you apart from the rest.

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The Preparation

I am being used as a guinea pig for a program which is meant to prepare young men for the future. This program is designed to be a replacement for the only three routes advertised to young men today -  go to college, the military, or a dead-end job. 

All of these typical routes of life are designed to shape us into cogs for a wheel that doesn’t serve us.  Wasted time, debt, lack of skills, and a soul crushing job define many who follow the traditional route.  

This program, which we can call “The Preparation”, is meant to guide young men on a path where they properly utilize their time to gain skills, build relationships, and reach a state of being truly educated. The Preparation is meant to set young men up for success.

What appeals to me about The Preparation is the idea of the type of man I could be. The path to becoming a skilled, dangerous, and competent man is much more clear now. I’ve always been impressed by characters like The Count of Monte Cristo, men who accumulated knowledge and skills over a long period of time and eventually became incredibly capable men. 

Young men today do not have a guiding light. We have few mentors and no one to emulate. We have been told that there are only a few paths to success in this world. For intelligent and ambitious people - college is sold to us as the one true path.  And yet that path seems completely uncertain today. 

We desperately need something real to grab onto. I think this is it.

I’m putting the ideas into action. Will it work? I can’t be sure, but I’m doing my best.  I’m more than 19 weeks into the program at this point. So far, so good.

You can follow me along as I follow the program.  Each week, I summarize all that I did.

My objective in sharing this is three fold:

1. Documenting my progress holds me accountable.

2. I hope these updates will show other young men that there is another path we can take.

3. For the parents who stumble upon this log, I want to prove to you that telling your children that the conventional path - college, debt, and a job is not the foolproof path you think it is.