{"id":677,"date":"2009-07-24T09:41:08","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/?p=677"},"modified":"2009-07-24T09:41:08","modified_gmt":"2009-07-24T14:41:08","slug":"the-virtues-of-vice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/24\/the-virtues-of-vice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Virtues of Vice"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I wrote about the dangers of dependency<\/a>: the narcotic effects of a regular paycheck and the false sense of security that comes from working for a corporation. Many RMITs never allowed themselves to get cornered in a corner office, embarking on an independent career right out of school (or during, or before). The best way to kick the habit, of course, is never to start. I found that those RMITs who did spend time in a gilded cubicle, however, looked at the experience in one of two ways: Some saw a stint in corporate life as an apprenticeship (or sometimes as indentured servitude)\u2014an opportunity to learn everything they could. Others hit bottom, and found they just couldn\u2019t go on putting all of their ideas and energy toward someone else\u2019s vision. Some of these, like Bernard Jacobs<\/strong>, who cofounded Home Depot<\/strong> after he was fired from his job with the Handy Dan hardware chain, were forced to go cold turkey. But all of these recovering salary junkies told me something unexpected. What I\u2019m about to say will sound counterintuitive at best, plain crazy at worst: Addiction is a good thing.<\/p>\n

A funny thing happens when you go into business for yourself: all of the drudgery of corporate droneship turns into pure pleasure. Roxanne Quimby<\/strong>, the richest woman in Portland, Maine, is no drone\u2014she\u2019s the queen bee who cofounded Burt\u2019s Bees<\/strong>. She told me, \u201cIt sounds trite, but I know it to be true: Hard work is the only sure path to success. It simply can\u2019t be avoided. Nor should it be, because work should be enjoyable.\u201d And she\u2019s right: when you\u2019re your own boss, work provides a high unlike any other. Gary Tharaldson<\/strong>, the richest man in Fargo, North Dakota, explained it to me this way: \u201cThe height of your success will be proportionate to the depth of your self-belief.\u201d That faith in yourself creates a \u201cvicious\u201d cycle of self-reinforcing satisfaction and accomplishment. The more you work, the more you succeed, and the more you\u2014not the Man\u2014reap the rewards. When you love what you do, when you\u2019re really good at what you do, and when you do it for yourself, work is joy. It\u2019s pursuing your passion and getting paid for it. And that\u2019s a greater rush than winning Employee of the Month could ever provide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I wrote about the dangers of dependency<\/a>: the narcotic effects of a regular paycheck and the false sense of security that comes from working for a corporation. Many RMITs never allowed themselves to get cornered in a corner office, embarking on an independent career right out of school (or during, or before). The best way to kick the habit, of course, is never to start. I found that those RMITs who did spend time in a gilded cubicle, however, looked at the experience in one of two ways: Some saw a stint in corporate life as an apprenticeship (or sometimes as indentured servitude)\u2014an opportunity to learn everything they could. Others hit bottom, and found they just couldn\u2019t go on putting all of their ideas and energy toward someone else\u2019s vision. Some of these, like Bernard Jacobs<\/strong>, who cofounded Home Depot<\/strong> after he was fired from his job with the Handy Dan hardware chain, were forced to go cold turkey. But all of these recovering salary junkies told me something unexpected. What I\u2019m about to say will sound counterintuitive at best, plain crazy at worst: Addiction is a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[250,114,153,157],"tags":[252,253,251,255,256,78,254],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}