No One Gives A Sh!t About You—You Have To Take Control Of Your Own Career
It’s been like this before Covid-19 and it’s only getting worse. Corporations don’t care about you. The CEOs and executives are only looking after their own interests. They want fat bonuses, lush stock options and big salaries. If costs need to be cut, they’re immune, but you’re losing your job.
It used to be different. In past generations, people agreed to work hard for 20 to 40 years and would be rewarded with a gold watch, hearty handshake and pension. The world is completely different now. Corporations don’t really care about you any longer. You’re like a desk, computer or piece of furniture. You’re useful until you’re not.
Management will suck you dry and toss you out the door. You’d like to think that your boss is your mentor and cares about your career. They may, so as long as you’re making them look good and allow them to take all of the glory and accolades. If there is a choice between saving their job or yours, you know who’s getting the ax. Your boss doesn’t want you to get a large bonus because there will be less for him. When a project goes sideways, watch how fast you’re thrown under the boss.
Technology, artificial intelligence and robotics are deployed with the pretense of making your work-life easier, but the real reason is to cut the workforce to save money. If the company can move jobs to cheaper locations around the world, they will. “Thanks, we greatly appreciate your contributions over the last decade, but your services are no longer required. Good luck in your future endeavors,” they’ll tell you.
Co-workers may seem like friends, but they have their own agenda, jobs and family to look after. Most people have a scarcity mindset, in that if someone else receives more attention, they will receive less.
As you start getting noticed and attain a small modicum of success, you will create enemies. They will be envious of your emergence. Secretly, they will hope you fail. As you climb up the corporate ladder, internal enemies will grow in numbers and they will give half-hearted smiles and good-morning nods, but seethe with resentment because they believe they are so much smarter than you.
If you have a longtime spouse, partner or significant other, they are probably sick and tired of your talk about your job by now. Your friends, family and siblings were once interested in your job. Now, they are too busy to bother. They couldn’t care less about your promotion. Some start resenting your success. Parents may have had their own agenda for you and are not terribly happy that you chose a career other than the one they had planned for you.
Your career is all up to you. No one is going to knock on your door with a great opportunity. It’s up to you to make your own breaks in life. You need to think of what you want to achieve in your career and life. Set a plan and work like hell to get it. If you have the chance to succeed, do whatever it takes. Don’t look at what others are doing; focus on yourself.
Go to sleep early, wake up early and work your butt off. If there are distasteful and hard tasks to do at work, take them on and prove yourself. Fight for promotions. Fight for raises. If you can’t get ahead where you are, find a new job. If you become stuck, consider a new career or become an entrepreneur. If you need to get a college or advanced degree, don’t make excuses—just do it.
It sounds scary, but it’s not. It’s actually liberating. Think of how much easier your life is if you don’t have to worry about what everyone else is thinking about you. How much could you achieve if you follow your own path? Think of how far you will go in your career if you don’t subject yourself to oppressive managers who don’t have your best interest at heart.
Why should you give precious years of your life to a company that would replace you with a robot or slave labor in a Third-World country? There is a sense of power when you take back control of your career. In light of the short window of time we have, you owe it to yourself to make the most of it.