Anyone quit their job to play poker full time and now they think that

[PokerBob]

i'm going back to my old job come September. I don't think it was a mistake to take a year off from my job. things didn't go as well as i'd hoped, but i don't regret the decision to be pro for a year. i will still play lots of poker, but (a) there will be less stress involved because if I go BUSTO, it's really no big deal and (b) i can play in bigger games as i won't have to be so anal about my roll/living expenses.

[ilovebadbeats]

[ QUOTE ]
Whether you decide to play poker full time or not, you must quit your office drone job sooner than later. All those jobs do is slowly extract your soul. I recently quit my office drone job to play full time, and while it has only been a short time, I love it for one reason - It's what I want to be doing. Contributing to society is done in more ways than just working at the local non-profit or being a public servant. One way to contribute to society is to be happy and true to yourself by doing what you want to do, no matter what a bunch of tools try to convince you is the "right" thing to do.


[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for posting this! I agree 110% with this post.

My current job has been "extracting my soul" for almost 4 full years now and
if I don't get out I feel as if I will soon die (literally (physically) and
spiritually).

I go into an office and sit at a cubicle for 9-10 hours a day each day I go in.
The people I work with are not nice and are all (with the exception of very few others)
DOUBLE or TRIPLE my age. We have 70 year olds who retire, and then get a deal to
come back to work (while still collecting their retirement) and
getting paid a new pay check (one they don't have to pay into retirement, social security, etc. into b/c they are already retired!!!).
These people just come into work and screw things up and chat with the other old heads all day while I work and get more done in 2 hours than they do in a week!!! (and we both get paid the same, or, in many cases, they get paid MORE!)
Then there
are the "Baby Boomers" (which are like 47-55 now? Is this right?)
which make up most of the employees where I work. (there are literally
almost no ~25 year olds or anyone in their 30s...It's all 70 year olds and 47+ year olds...)
Now,
nothing against the 70 year olds or "Baby Boomers" (well, I'd tell the 70 year olds to
go move by the beach or something and collect their "free" retirement money and enjoy their liveS!!! Not come into the office to "work" - I can't understand why they love it so much, but they do!), but
It is tough for me to find "friends" in any of them. And the jokes I make offend them/they don't get, and the jokes they make are simplistic and stupid and offend me/I don't get!
It's really tough to find middle ground with the people I work with...
So, in my case, I just go into work and try to mind my own business most of the day...
(which make the 9-10 hour days even longer!).

And most of the people I work with have
kids who are older than/around the same age as I am, so they look at/upon me and either:
1. treat me like they do one of their kids (assuming I know nothing (or assuming they are smarter than I), and act rude to me
as if fearing no consequence), and/or
2. Look upon me with jealousy and or hate for whatever reason
(being younger, better educated, etc.)
Seriously, I have been nothing but courteous, professional, and polite to people and have had them
threaten to "beat me up" for no reason!
One guy actually threatening to kick my a** and was waving his arms up and down and his face was all beet red! I did nothing but say hi to him when he said hi to me, and then he looked at his 70 year old friend and said, "Is he giving me attitide?" Then he looked at me and asked me "If I was giving him attitude?" I said nothing and smiled at him like I thought he was nuts and he then proceeded to threaten me up and down and in all sorts of ways (cursing every word in the book at me!).

I did not say anything back to him, I even avoided all eye contact (pretty sure I would have...let's just say "over-zealously" defended myself had he struck me...(which he was VERY close to doing...).
I then reported the situation and the boss actually ended up giving me a harder time than the guy! (like I was the one that did something wrong!)

A lot of
the ppl. I work with are the older "high-school grad" blue-collar types and
and will curse directly at you when you just say "Hi" to them (and they even sometimes interpret you being genuinely polite to them
as a "daclaration of war" or something against them...I'm not sure why...).
And when you go to the
boss
and complain (like I did), the boss then "comes down on you" as if YOU are the one with the problem!!! (I got in trouble for "making noise", "making waves" etc.)
The boss defends the people that curse and threaten with violence!
(note: I work in a Federal Gov't office job, and it is near impossible to fire (really tought to even justify disciplining someone!!!)
anyone for anything.) So, the bosses here have no power and the employees know this...creates for a horrible environment and attracts scum-bags to come and work in it (b/c they know,
once they get the job and pass the trial period, then they have the job for life as long as they:
1. Keep showing up, and
2. Don't bring in a gun to work and shoot a few people
(note:
bringing a gun into work and shooting 1 person might not even get you fired from a Fed. Gov't job, as I know one guy here who told me of a guy who did just this and actually KEPT his Fed. Gov't job...no joke).

So, (without my post turning into something that should have been posted in OOT) I work in
an antiquated organization (both in it's philosophy and ESPECIALLY in the
make-up of its employees) - it's not a great place to work.
It's like a "backwards organization", where commonly acceptable and sensical practices are nowhere to be found and
old-school blue collar f**ck-you type behavior rules.
(and yet,
MY position required a 4 year degree with a 3.5 or better cum GPA JUST TO BE HIRED!!!)
Lot of the old school types got "grandfathered" in back somehwere in the late '70s -80s...

Although I'd be giving up a nice paycheck and benefits...and basically wasting the past 4 years of OTJ training (not counting all the times I've been "flipped-off" for no reason - joke...haha),
I'm NOT exactly giving up working in a nice place working with nice people (i.e., no/"Zero" human interaction would be better than the current
human interation I get at my 9-5).
I work with mostly people who are as old as they are dumb as they are rude/ignorant.
(any one of them however, you would very much want at your poker table b/c
1. it'd be good entertainment (with the casino security actually taking action if they
caused a big scene and threatened another with bodily harm), and
2. They'd be bascially leaking off all of their money to you.

I kinda got "trapped" into the job I have though, which is why I'm still there and why I have stayed for so long.
Both of my parents
are Fed. Gov't employees (as are a few other members of my family), so
they kinda kept pushing me towards a similar/"stable" career with "good benefits", and, being a "good son", I fell in line.

But I have been slowly (over the past year) letting my Mom and Dad (and a few others)
know of my intent to making a living playing poker and they are OK with it.
(At first they were like "no way," but after much much logical presentation and
voicing MY opinions with them over months and months time, they are all realizing that:
1. It IS actually possible to make a full-time salary playing POKER!, and
2. It's what I want to do and I'd be a much happier person pursuing the "career" I want (rather
than being sad all the time going into my office drone misery-loves-company hellhole).

On a positive note (about my 9-5), my commute is only 12-15 minutes each way!

Have a nice day!