Welcome back to another episode of the corporate Cowboys podcast my name is Alex as always your host today’s Proof of Life it’s Tuesday May 16 2023 and if you’re not familiar with the format of the podcast the next 30 minutes you’ll be treated to a free corporate Cowboys consult so
If you are in a position where you feel you need some perspective contemplating your entry or your navigation through corporate climbing up the ladder lateraling to another department or a completely different organization making your next move to get noticed or maybe you don’t want to get noticed and still make moves
That’s what we’re in the line of business of doing that’s the line of business that we transact on a day-to-day so you can find us on Instagram follow us shoot us a DM that’s at corporates Cowboys with the Z at the end on patreon you can subscribe to any one
Of the tiers that are available there that’s the corporate Cowboys podcast and you can find the podcast any number of places where they are distributed follow us on YouTube or or on Rumble I think I’m not sure if it’s being maintained otherwise you want to send a donation to keep this podcast free
By all means do that there are a couple of links that are floating around so this podcast helps you and me right because it allows my partners and I have my associates and I the opportunity to Think Through real life scenarios right so simulated problems if you will
So the questions that we compile we pull them from online and try to answer them using the facts that were provided granted that we don’t have real life clients in front of us so any notes that we take or any notes that we mention those are points that you might want to
Take down those are points that you might want to keep track of questions and considerations to pose to yourself you could ask yourself ask your manager ask your employer these questions that will help you on your path of professional development today’s question comes from r slash find a path and they’re saying
I don’t want an okay job [Laughter] I don’t I don’t want an okay job okay why not they flared it for advice so they’re asking for advice they’re saying hi I’ll just start reading it here I mean after all the podcast serves as a as a way for me to practice also my
Skills for verbal communication and mental organization all the while sneak in a couple of reps dry firing so they’re saying I don’t want an okay job right they start with high please tell me if I’m out of my gourd here if they’re out of their mind if they’re [ __ ] crazy
If they’re not being reasonable if they are unrealistic please tell me if I’m out of my gourd here I can’t seem to be understood by anyone when I try to explain this okay well let’s hear it I don’t want an okay job and the occasion quotes
I don’t want an okay job so it sounds like they want something what high paying that’s where my mind goes to first they want something high paying so I should expect that they don’t want to um put in the time or the effort the energy the commitment they don’t want to commit
To something all right or or they don’t want uh an okay job just something that um gets them from Check to Check maybe they want that sense of satisfaction and fulfillment I don’t know we’ll see so they start with I can’t seem to be understood by
Anyone when I try to explain this I 28 they don’t put a sex or a gender I 28 I’m in the process of looking for a job slash possible career slash path and I’m really struggling because I can’t make a decision the only thing I have realized is that I
Want to do something I’m passionate about and in parentheses they put creative man I remember when I was in my mid-20s I was in a similar boat I mean this person already sounds I’m not going to say young maybe inexperienced they sound idealistic if you will when they should be moving realistically
And realistically statistically speaking realistically a lot of folks get a job that pays the bills first and then they pursue their passions off the clock unless your passion is Corporate then you could pursue your passions both on and off the clock if you’re moving like a corporate Cowboy that is
You can dictate to your own hours negotiate your compensation strategize your next move for the sake of clout or authority or power along with the salary I mean along with with the monetary gain right and you can be as creative as you want incorporate that after all that’s that’s how Corporate
Remains alive that’s how Corporate abides and adheres to capitalism I mean what we have now in terms of capitalism isn’t really pure capitalism capitalism in its natural state uninhibited unregulated is meant to innovate is meant to create it’s meant to self-regulate but what we have now is a lot of interventionalism
A lot of um regulation and restriction and uh pretty much Interruption of creative processes that could self-regulate but they don’t in the name of I don’t know subsidies subsidization and the name of in the name of under the guise of protection knowledge protectionalism protectionism under the guise of National Security
[ __ ] out of here man they’re just never mind I’m going off on a tangent so I 28 I’m in the process of looking for a job slash possible career slash path and I’m really struggling because I can’t make a decision the only thing I’ve realized is that I want to do
Something I’m passionate about creative in parentheses I don’t really care for money as long as I can get a small place for myself whenever I try to explain this to people whenever or whether it’s my dad or the employment office or the employment okay okay I see what’s going on here see
What’s going on here they’re not hungry they are literally not going hungry I mean I’m not I’m not saying they should right but got to understand that if you don’t have any immediate need right it’s going to be a little hard to innovate they say necessity is the mother of
Invention right and if you don’t really need anything all you have time is to think creatively and if you’re wasting it or burning it and you’re still not going hungry because you’ve got the unemployment office I think for um for those distributions for those checks that are coming to you
If you have them to thank for it you’re not going to be in any real Rush to get back in the game and work work for your worth so I could definitely see this this sense of entitlement growing or manifesting itself because I mean you’ve been living on the government
For a little while or for who knows how long and now that you’re considering contemplating it’s as if you’re bored of living on the government’s check it’s as if you’re bored of living on the check now you want to enter the workplace and you want to do something creative
Fam I mean work is work first you have to appreciate you have to appreciate the work you have to appreciate the fact you get to wake up to go work and can be productive can do something worthwhile with your time to make money then offer the back of your work ethic
Is how you can negotiate how much your work is actually worth otherwise you could easily do uh something highly technical of high utility that’s worth a lot but if you don’t know how to appreciate the work you won’t know how to negotiate your worth you could sell yourself short and I suppose because
You’re not really hungry you’re not really uh going for uh what’s the term I’m looking for you’re not really going in need you’re not really in need of a job that’s why you believe that you deserve more than just a job notice how I’m not even qualifying it as an okay job
You say you don’t care about money but what are you gonna pick up a [ __ ] job and continue living off of the government if that’s what you want to do you can be creative as a as a door greeter as at at the large corporation with the blue yellow background and the star
And I know you know which one I’m talking about you could be a door greeter a receipt Checker and you can be as creative as you possibly want try and strike up a conversation with every customer that walks in or walks out there’s creativity there you think you can be creative you think
You can be creative enough to um Garner some tips maybe you get some tips on the way out just for having checked receipts [ __ ] that’s a challenge in and of itself or or is it a challenge you don’t want see because even being creative is challenging you need some sort of metric
Some sort of benchmark some sort of measurement to know that you are being creative more creative than you were in the past it’s a way of measuring your progress and ultimately teeth game your professional development you like that outcomes back around how it comes full circle to moving like a corporate cowboy
Let’s read what the rest of they got to say here they say whenever I try to explain this to people whether it’s my dad or the employment office people or even when I look this up on Reddit I’m told that I should try to find a job quote I
Don’t hate or quote that I like that is probably the best option I have lots of people say that making it your job will kill your passion Etc making making your passion your job I mean I’m gonna be facetious here I’m gonna I’m gonna make a joke and say
That my passion is Corporate and my job is corporate and if I’m killing my passion I’m necessarily killing the [ __ ] game I’m just killing [ __ ] out here and I’m making a killing doing it uh I don’t I do know I’m not gonna say I don’t know I do know it just requires
Some time to contemplate to deliberate what questions we would ask this hypothetical client I mean if we if we took them in on an intake and ask them questions as far as their interest obviously we want to know if they have uh or what their educational background is what their working experiences what
They’ve done in the past and what what exactly this is key what exactly they consider to be creative because one person’s creativity Might be another person’s mundane or routine right so we want to be sure we want to be sure that this person’s creative energies are at least directed oriented in a way that allows for development their their own personal development to at least bring them up to speed on
The rest of the corporate world and then their professional development so that they’re able if they are so inclined if they are willing to spearhead sub initiatives of Their Own any job any job that you get into yeah I think creativity creativity is necessary in today’s day and age
I think it it requires creativity to be a good um service person in customer service to be a good salesperson working in sales to be a good manager working and management to be a good leader working in leadership or directorship an executive requires creativity otherwise you’re going to be um
You’re going to disappoint yourself with the lack of innovation and the lack of creativity you’re going to age yourself out prematurely you’ll paint yourself into a corner prematurely and they say they finish off here this the last couple of sentence I don’t they say um that’s probably the
Best option I have lots of people say that making it your job will kill your passion making your passion your job no it won’t it won’t I think not advancing in your passion if you make your passion your job that necessarily means you’re working on your passion why would your passion stop
Being your passion I get and understand that you could burn out you’re working 40 60 maybe 80 hours a week understandable that you might start running thin you might start running ragged especially if you’re sacrificing on the nutritional and Recovery fronts if you’re not eating right if you’re not sleeping right
That begins to add up and you notice the difference in your performance you notice a difference in your capability and your Effectiveness throughout your working day unprofessional notices these are things you want to keep track of you are an adult after all 28 years old but still an adult
I mean and it could be the fact that maybe you’ve been on the government teat for a while so that kind of that that safety net there sure we’re blessed to have it if you if you should take advantage of it but then the moment you become complacent with the idea that
It will be there or the moment that you become complacent and are not better in yourself or not exploring your own creativity while you can to me tells me that you’re not taking your own career search seriously I mean if creative is what you want to do then
Creative is what you should be doing creative is what you want to be then creative is what you should be doing something creative if creative is what you want to be then doing something creative than creating I guess creating is what you should be doing even if that’s creating connections creating
Connections mentally neurologically reading by picking up a book again we don’t know to what degree this person is talking about creativity is it mentally is it socially is it artistically is it physically kinesthetically we don’t [ __ ] know that being said those are questions that we would ask
This hypothetical client of ours so that they can inform their next logical step in pursuing whether it’s a job or an a professional interest and begin making moves toward obtaining a position a spot and starting a career what it is they want to be doing continuing here they continue
But I don’t want to feel mid about my job all right so this person speaks like they’re young they’re 28. so they’ve definitely taken to the slang maybe they spend a [ __ ] ton of time on Reddit maybe they should reconsider that maybe a topping them maybe they’ve got so much creativity
They’re oozing it at the seams it’s there they’re boiling over with creativity and have come to Reddit and asked for the advice which again I’m not I don’t take everything that I read through these posts on face value I definitely do try to draw some reasonable inferences for the most part
And sometimes I’ll go off on tangents on possible absolutes possible end conclusions am I jumping to conclusions no I’m not giving any definitive answers any any specific advice which is again a disclaimer you haven’t retained us none of what we publish across our social media platforms should be construed as legal
Advice we do not promote or advocate for any wrongful activity or any wrongdoing so take anything that you hear with the grain of salt they say from previous experience they continue I know I only have so much energy so if I put it into my job I don’t have it for
Anything else in my life so I want a job that fulfills me but it feels like everybody thinks this is unrealistic I feel very alone in this what do you think they only have so much energy to work or to create see what I did there but you’re gonna
Get tired of your passion that fast you’re gonna get tired of being creative even on the job even on the clock Comments creativity is a again creativity comes from Hunger you have to want it you have to really want it it’s a state of mind I mean necessity being the mother of all invention should push you should put you on your on your should keep you on your toes
Otherwise you’ll be on your heels all the time you’ve got to be aware you’ve got to be anticipating you’ve got to be expecting change and innovation and you should be speculating speculating on your own abilities prospecting possible changes possible outcomes given your ability and your capabilities uh
They’re not much younger than I am and I’m not saying I’m losing faith in the youth because there are a lot of young people who have great ideas on what to do and how to pursue those ideas but but it is a little disheartening when younger people are on some sort of
Government benefit or on some sort of fixed uh fixed State fixed position and it could have to do with with their lack of awareness to recognize their own circumstances their own lack of professionalism maybe they don’t have the adequate skills to to get a a job
And what they want to be doing and what they consider to be creative in quotes so those are definitely questions I would ask the client to be sure that any opinion any strategy that I create for them is going to be tailored to the creative components that they want to cultivate
In their own career but it could be working with people that could be working with products I could be working with systems and here we come full circle again if you want to move like a corporate Cowboy you will have to learn you must learn how to work with corporate
So that you don’t end up just working for them and so that’s a passion of mine the passion of mine is exercising my ability to work with corporate and empowering other corporate Cowboys to work for themselves but to work with corporate when necessary it’s how much time I got on this one I
Think I may have some time to read one or two comments yeah so all in all the um the prompt on this one was very general because we didn’t have much to go on if we had the client in front of us we definitely want to pin them down on a
Position at least get their get their position their argument their their consciousness pinned down on exactly what creativity means for them along with their biographical information their biographical history as far as their education their experiences their interests their skills their abilities that sort of thing and if you want to go through this
If you need some perspective some corporate perspective what would a corporate Cowboy do reach out to us our rates are more than reasonable after all you are investing in yourself so we’re just helping you we’re just helping you um on the uh on the cost of goods side
So that the rate of so that the return on investments are more easily accessible to you you are after all the actor and we’re just the Consultants right you are after all The Professional in this particular scenario we are Consultants to professionals the first comment here writes there
Isn’t much information to go on here yes right however they write I’d recommend you prepare yourself for a rough ride it’s hard enough finding a job that pays enough for you to live in a way that isn’t paycheck to paycheck and if you’re looking for something specific and
Creative it’s likely going to be significantly harder as long as you are okay with applying to thousands of jobs and potentially failing in the end then it’ll be worth it that being said nothing is impossible and you could likely find something that is adjacent to your creative interests
That is more mainstream good luck it’s a rough ride if you wanted to be and again because we’re not able to pin down the client’s interests and unique abilities because every everybody’s case is unique especially when it comes to their relation to corporate right they could be entry
Level they could be at the executive level for all we know this person has managerial experience but the organizations they’ve worked in before and I’m being generous here by saying organizations maybe they’re past employer maybe their past employer didn’t have the resources available or the systems available for them to develop professionally
And the reality check of that was that as a professional we are responsible for our own professional developments and if those systems are not in place when we go into an organization then might it might be on us it might befall us to take on that initiative and set up a
System in place it’s not for our sake but for our subordinates that I mean that’s if you are a leader at Heart Right otherwise I mean look out for yourself you’re in corporate after all do or be done it’s a do or die out here even in management even as a leader
You could have some ungrateful colleagues some ungrateful subordinates skullduggery is abound and there’s no end in sight to that form of creativity either a second comment here says my step brother is into welding and art my stepbrother was into welding and art in high school so he found an
Apprenticeship with a local sculpture artist where he got to do a lot of construction on large-scale sculptures if that’s what you mean you see what you see they’re right if that’s what you mean because the op doesn’t even know what the [ __ ] they want right they’re living check the check getting EBT
Probably so it’s not like they’re in any dire need and have a creative skill that they could make money on otherwise they would be applying otherwise they would have told us that first and they would have they would have been applying two jobs in in those that particular area of
Interest in that particular area as a strength I mean if if they haven’t been or they don’t know that that’s how they should be prioritizing a job search especially if they want to work in something that they are comfortable with creatively that’s how you prioritize your job search
First build you know further build out and hone your your creative skill set and then apply to work from there if you haven’t held a position using that ability more than likely it’s going to be entry level right and that is a job but whether or not the
The hypothetical client here is going to classify as that that as an okay job or not a job they want well then that’s just [ __ ] personal prerogative right they are in no real position to be negotiating unless they’ve got the talent and the ability and the capability to back it up
An okay job I mean I’ve said it’s time and time again and that’s a major theme of the podcast is that every job is entry level everyone is entry level forever even the CEO even the one at the top of the pyramid can get knocked off tomorrow
And it’s as if they never worked there create a power vacuum they become nameless oh they might name like a wing or the break room after them hey have you have you I’ll see you in the Alex room the [ __ ] it’s just a conference room with a oblong table [Laughter] all right
Um one last comment that I’ll let you go it says oh this is perfect they write I don’t want okay food either but I also don’t want to starve so and because this person obviously isn’t starving right they’re getting government money so they’re getting fed they don’t have that hunger there was a
Time when I was younger and I think it comes with uh with conditioning with socialization it’s just how we um how we sharpen our professional skills where I was going hungry I was living Check to Check and a little bit less so it was low key actually kind of high key living on
Credit so um at least on paper right on the books legally and that hunger is what pushed me to to advance to move further up into corporate to learn what it took to be promoted to move up make more money and I’ve mentioned it before that’s a
Long story but a long story short I had to take the initiative myself to promote myself because if I had waited I mean I was entry level and one of the youngest if I had waited in corporate just operated like I normally did a lot of positions in corporate
Especially when it’s very much running on status quo it’s based on seniority it’s just the people who are there the longest are just next in line for a promotion I figured [ __ ] that I’m cutting lines I’m taking I’m taking the initiative I’m gonna be creative with my professional development
And then you ask yourself what a corporate Cowboy would do we work creatively within corporate to make money make a killing we’ll catch you next time
source
