Being around so many “ambitious”, “career-driven” overachievers, I have noticed a few things which makes me really question the so-called “climbing the corporate ladder”/ “running the rat race” / “cog in the machine” / “career progression”. (Side note – The fact that there’s so many cliches shows how prevalent and normalized this is.) Pretty much most of these “hungry for success” people are attached to their title and incomes. Their self-worth is tied to something externally which is controlled by someone else. Whether that be their bosses or their customers. For these folks, they probably would prefer to have their title as their name instead of actual name.
There’s nothing wrong with this way of life. People can choose to live how they want to live. The only thing which I notice is the massive cost this has to a person’s only life.
Everything has a cost. Every choice a human being makes has a cost whether its emotional, financial, time or opportunity cost. The cost I see people who are attached to title and career is that their internal state is a rollercoaster. When something goes their way within their careers, they are ecstatic. When something doesn’t go their way, e.g. a client not paying the bills on time, people not performing to their abilities and being passed up for a promotion, they suffer. They are enslaved because of their attachment to the external prestige and money. They are enslaved to something which isn’t within their control. Human beings remember the negative events more than the positive hence, they become acutely pessimistic.
If they realized the following truths, then maybe they wouldn’t become so attached and enjoy the work for the hell of it:
- Everything we do at work will be forgotten. Every single achievement and promotion will last for relatively less than one millisecond in the universe. There is no importance or meaning in anything we do because nothing lasts forever. Everything becomes dust in the end.
- For pretty much every organization, if it doesn’t stack up financially, your position will be eliminated. I have witness firsthand multiple people who have been in organizations for 10+ years and nearing retirement age be made redundant for cost savings.
- Titles only have significance in their specific industry. Switch the industry or talk to people not in the industry and no-one cares.
- Working towards some future payoff i.e. (if I do X, I will get Y) is a waste of today and tomorrow because there is only one day. That future day when they do achieve the goal, it will either feel good for an instant before they subconsciously chase for the next goal, or they are disappointed reaching the end.
- How they are right feeling right now is how they feel in the future. That future will be today when it comes.
- Achieving career and financial success will not fill the deep hole within themselves.
- There is a way to achieve extreme success in careers and make a boatload of money without the emotional rollercoaster from attachment. There is a way for complete peace and bliss whilst achieving career and financial success. For this to happen deep psychological truths need to be realized and the human being will need to be unconditioned from society. Otherwise, it will be pain and misery until retirement.
- Attachment to anything in this life leads to suffering. Its only when the person see’s the devastation of attachment that there’s a chance to change. Anything else short of this leads nowhere.
I’ve also realized that people can endure this miserable emotional rollercoaster and have high pain thresholds. People are willing to pay the massive price for who they are. I’ve realized that I don’t want to be attached to my career or anyone. I see the emptiness and impermanence of the careers. All there is left to do is to play with my career and enjoy every day. I’m already certain that I will be a financial and worldly success in the future.