Justin Benz

Month: October 2023

  • Everything Is A Hobby

    Everything Is A Hobby

    I’ve been analyzing how I spend my time for the last few days.

    As I write these words, I’ve undertaken a project that is very large: I’m building my own house from scratch with no assistance from a construction crew, just me, with a few friends and my wife lending a helping hand from time to time.

    If I wind back the clock 5 years, I was spending an immense amount of time on schoolwork in a degree program that I had interest in, electrical engineering.

    Wind back the clock 5 years from that, and I was spending an immense amount of time on schoolwork that I had no interest in.

    My point is, as I’ve gone from financially insecure to financially secure, I’ve also gradually moved from work and school relating to subjects that were of minimal interest to me, to ones that were exciting to me and that I’ve always had a basic curiosity about.

    From that viewpoint I’ve basically moved myself from doing things that were fun and or satisfying, but I had no intrinsic interest in, to things that were fun, satisfying, and I was also interested in. It was merely happenstance that the career path that that I chose also happens to be incredibly challenging, it also rewards those who choose it with higher than average career earnings.

    But honestly, we live in the United States of America, and there is so much cash floating around out there that basically any career path can experience a similar trajectory. Which brings me to the point of this post. Any pursuit that we choose as humans must satisfy an innate curiosity that we have (and some people are obviously more curious then others) and when it doesn’t, we will inevitably be dissatisfied with the way that we spend the vast majority of our time. The average person will probably struggle to locate more than 60-70 hours of “free time” per week. If 40 of that is spent at work, what are the chances that you can really satisfy that desire to pursue hobbies and interests in the remaining 25 hours? Perhaps you can, but I think your chances would be significantly better if your career would also provide at least some satiation to your interests.

    Here is where people get lost; your career cannot be 100% pursuing your hobby. Every person I’ve ever discussed work/career/life with has always expressed a few things that they wish their job didn’t require them to do. I’ve even had the conversation with people who made their art into a career, (think pottery studio owner) and these people complain about the administrative tasks that are draining for them. You must analyze what your deepest curiosities are about, and then pursue a career that begins to help you satisfy those curiosities.

    It is human nature to be dissatisfied with the career that you’ve chosen, but if it is assisting you in your pursuit of a hobby, it becomes a much easier choice to stay with a company or a career path.

    Granted, I do have a certain advantage over many people because both myself and my wife know how to live within our means, and that has set me up to pursue school as an adult without crushing student loan debt. But this path is open to far more people then might initially consider it, since the beauty of student loans is that if you carefully choose a higher paying career that aligns with your interests you can use your earnings AFTER the degree program to pay for current expenses.

    The moral of the post is that when you have the financial security to do so, making the move to a job that satisfies an innate curiosity of yours can be a very satisfying and engaging life choice, and will definitely increase your satisfaction with your career path.

    If you are this far through my blog post, I already know something about you… you care more than the average person about what you end up doing with the majority of your time. Make your job have elements of your hobbies, and you will not dread the morning commute to work.

    I hope this post gives you some food for thought. Here are a few steps to get you heading in the right direction:

    1. Never give up, and don’t settle. If you are late in your career, or far into schooling for the wrong thing, and you aren’t sure you can make the switch, believe me, it is possible.
    2. Don’t expect everything about your job to be perfect. Even if you are in a good job, there will likely always be things that will bug you.
    3. No regrets. If you know you will get to the end of your life and regret what you are doing right now, stop doing that thing as quickly as possible. You are never as stuck as you think.
    4. Write down the things that you research and the things that interest you the most. This is an exercise that you can do in one sitting, or sit on it for a few weeks and write down thoughts as they come to you. One of the ways that I discovered my life path was that I spent a ton of time researching Nikola Tesla (a famous electrical engineer) my senior year of high school. I also read a TON popular science magazines as a kid. My curiosity was captured and it (eventually) directed my career path.
  • College or Not?

    College or Not?

    Reasons NOT to go to college:

    1. Graduation Rates:

    The overall 6-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree at 4-year degree-granting institutions in fall 2012 was 62 percent. That means that roughly 1/3 of people who start an undergraduate program don’t finish it.

    2. Skilled Trades:

    You don’t like school, or you like working with your hands. This was the reason that I initially went into the trades for work. I didn’t believe that school was “for me”. I wanted to work with my hands, and I knew I could succeed at it.

    3. You Will Be Successful Regardless

    Perhaps you are incredibly gifted. There is a famous study that indicates students who were accepted into elite schools, but went to less selective institutions, earned salaries just as high as Ivy League grads. In other words, successful people are going to be successful regardless of what advantages they are given.

    4. Low ROI on college for your career path

    High loans/low wages. Many students who graduate have debt that exceeds their annual starting income by 2x or more. This seems problematic. I graduated with less than 1/3 my annual income in student loan debt, and I didn’t pay it off only because I wanted to use that debt to build my first house.

    5. You Have Connections:

    I’ve run into several people over time who got a good job that they shouldn’t have been able to get because they (or even their parents) were friends with the hiring manager or business owner. Most of the people that I’ve met like this were still working on a college degree, but they were doing it part time because they were also gaining valuable experience. If you have connections, use them!

    6. You Don’t Know What You Want To Do:

    If you don’t know what you want to do, no reason to waste time and money on a degree. College is expensive and shouldn’t be undertaken on a whim. Do research. Assure that you will succeed in school.

    7. You Lack Self Discipline

    If you aren’t certain that you will be able to succeed at college level academics, I’d HIGHLY recommend that you search for a career path that would allow you to avoid it. First of all, if you flunk out of or cannot finish for personal reasons, you’ve wasted an incredible amount of time and potentially a lot of money as well. Just wait, your life situation may change in such a manner as to set you up for better success later. But perhaps right now isn’t the time.

    Reasons to go to College:

    1. You Lack Self Discipline

    I want to stress that you won’t succeed in college without a significant amount of self discipline before you begin, but if you have an interest in something but lack the self discipline to successfully self study that topic to mastery, college may be the route to go. There are people out in the world who can master any topic they put their mind to. My brother happens to be one of them. He completed his bachelor’s degree using primarily CLEP testing. He did it on an accelerated schedule by taking a lot of credits, and while doing so he worked a full time job and had two small children, and carried a 4.0GPA. That is serious discipline. If that isn’t you, then consider college as an alternative. Speaking from my own experience, college vastly improved my self-discipline. During my high-school education I wasn’t forced to keep track of my calendar because of the home-school setting that I grew up in. It was only after several years of college that I developed the ability to work ahead on assignments. College was very good for me in that respect.

    2. You are Greedy

    You want a decent paying job (especially if you don’t want to work in the skilled trades). If you want a job that clears 6 figures, you’ve got to show your future employer that you’ve got self discipline. The easiest way to do that is by finishing school.

    College is not a magic pill that you take once and it solves your career problems forever. College is a key that opens the door to potential career fields you otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. It doesn’t guarantee a job, and it certainly doesn’t a successful and interesting career. But decent grades coupled with some club involvement and/or summer internships virtually guarantee successful employment upon graduation or shortly thereafter.

    3. You are interested in a career path that requires a degree.

    The chances of you being able to break into a career path without the required schooling are low, very very low. I don’t know how to emphasize this, but especially when you start looking at some of the higher paid positions, you won’t likely be able to work your way into those positions without the required schooling.

    4. You don’t like menial labor.

    The vast majority of jobs that you can get without an undergraduate degree tend to include a fair amount of drudgery. These jobs usually get more appealing once you have some experience and your wage becomes too expensive to pay for low skill, simplistic, or mindless tasks, but it may take you as long as several years to get to that point. I have friends who have worked very unpleasant jobs for many years, simply to get to the point where their job was almost as pleasant as mine was from day one.

    5. You want to broaden your worldview.

    It is hard to quantify what it means to be in relationship with people from other cultural backgrounds. If you haven’t gotten the chance to do this during your adolescence, it can definitely be a formative experience that you will carry with you for the rest of your life.