At a crossroads right now. I have always been inclined to become a personal trainer. I have extensive knowledge and passion for the subject, a great physique and people skills, and LOVE the appeal of choosing my own hours. I even did training on the side for a few months and did pretty good! Got a small number of clients who loved me and had good progress.

I currently have a sales job that pays very nicely, and if goals are hit the commission is great. It’s incredibly easy/relaxed, good benefits, etc. However the main drawbacks are

1. It devours my time. Working for this company they expect your life to revolve around them. Shifts are always in the middle of the day (10-6 / 12-8) basically taking your entire day. Random mandatory meetings at 8am, etc
2. Corporate structure environment. You must do exactly as they say as they say it, etc

I have stacked up quite a large amount of savings this last year and could probably go without working for an entire year and still live identical to how I am now. Part of me wants to quit, and chase my desire to be a personal trainer(as well as online training). The appeal of choosing my own hours or days I want off is HUGE to me, massive. I value my free time above almost anything else. It would also be more morally beneficial to the world as id be helping people improve their health/happiness.

The drawbacks are in this economy it could be a very risky thing to try, especially with new restrictions on gyms etc. and having a job in this current time is a blessing. I also have a goal of having a net worth of $1million By the time i turn 30 so would prefer not running through my savings. If I kept this job and moved up linearly I could get there. The ego drive to have lots of money and a great job is still too big for me, plus having money is very beneficial for other avenues of life and I just don’t know if I could make it there with personal training.

What would you do in my position? All opinions welcome

I would honestly postpone any ultimate decision on the matter until the plague is less of a concern, in the meantime, continue to think about it over time.

For starters, right now would be a poor time to take any ventures due to the instability of the economy and the fact that we aren't finished with the plague yet. But I've got some thoughts on the matter so saddle up because I may have trouble condensing them.

Personally I can only speak from my experiences and how I view life, and what I'm doing now in my life to lend some perspective. To begin with, I think it's fair to assume that you recognize that jobs, any kind of job for that matter, is a trap. You trade in your lifespan for money, and that's it. I'd be tempted to tell you with that point in hand to pursue something that makes your life happy. That your time span is limited, and it's better to spend your time doing what you value than what society demands of you. This is only reinforced by all the friends I've known who've died. How many of them spent years of their time toiling away just to pay the bills only to die unexpectedly, their dreams and goals forever silenced.

We all make gambles that we'll wake up to see the next day, the next year, the next decade. This is ultimately a false notion we give ourselves to feel safe. You can die at any time, and so the question is whether or not you want to die doing what you want to do or not. But we have to take into account that while we're alive life can be hell if we make the wrong decisions. And it can drag on and on for years, to the point were you can't escape from the grave you made yourself. Sometimes pursuing your dream, if you haven't planned it well can make those realities.

I spent five years as a homeless wanderer, and those five years were hell. But currently, my life right now, where I work double jobs, is hell. Hell for different reasons. In one hell I was alone and constantly broke, always on the verge of starvation or death during the wintertime. In another hell I have no time to do anything in my life at all because I work eighteen hour days and if I'm lucky I get a day off every two weeks.

So the key is balance and planning, because there has to be something more than just the two absolutes I listed above. Personally, for myself, my plans consist of working at my jobs for a maximum of two more years. I'll be thirty three by then. That's a decent age to abandon the wage slave life. I take all of my paychecks and dump the money into a savings account and the stock market. I invest in companies that show long term stability and the ability to tank market crashes while still paying their shareholders monthly dividends. That's my plan for balancing things out to achieve my respective dream. I've been expanding my stock portfolio since the beginning of the year, so that I'm spread out enough that if the market dips I can still get paid from another sector.

Every ten months my earnings double as I dump the money I make from my jobs, so if I keep it up for two years, I'll have enough money coming in from monthly dividends that I can live comfortably and still afford to continually buy stocks so that my money pool continuously multiplies. I'm gambling that I can survive those two years to finally escape my jobs, and that hopefully in the long run I live long enough to enjoy the result of my planning.

So my advice to you would be to find some kind of middle ground. Because if you stay in your financially secure job, that's all you'll ever get to. But if you go all in and bet everything on that dream of yours, you could lose everything and end up lower on the rungs than you are now. Ideally, pursuing your dream is the superior option, but you need to balance it with some form of income that covers you, because our monetary system and societal structure don't give a shit about what you want, and they'll happily stand in ignorance to you whether or not you're homeless or a wage slave.

Thank you both, these are very thought provoking replies. And thank you to everyone in this thread

If you have wings that are colorful enough and you know how to fly, then it's worth a few hard times to get the most out of that.

nice post class

Quote from: Spagelo on July 13, 2020, 02:12:53 AM

If you have wings that are colorful enough and you know how to fly, then it's worth a few hard times to get the most out of that.

Take these big ass wings and learn to fly again

I should have read the post more entirely, but I essentially just answered the title. I was lazy - no excuse. What I mean is that if you have a talent or a passion or anything you're interested enough to be happy with, then you should try for it. Even if you have a hard time here and there, a few sacrifices are worth getting the most out of life. Otherwise, you can end up in a position where you feel as though you aren't truly living, and that isn't worth all the money in the world.

I feel like you have to be really meticulous when you're thinking about the balance of career and passion. I'm really lucky in the sense that what I wanted to do even since the early days of my college career is what I actually ended up doing, but not everyone's passions align with something that's explicitly viable as a career. For you it sounds like it's a possibility, but there's the aspect of uncertainty with leaving a stable place of employment.

I can't put myself in everyone's shoes, and because of how fortunate I was to find a career even in the midst of everything going on in the world, but I would never sacrifice my own personal happiness just for a bigger paycheck. If I'm gonna be doing something for a living, it has to be something I at least kind of like doing. I'd feel really unsatisfied, if it were any other situation.

It's good to aim for your passion, but use the well paying shit first as a stepping stone to get you there/buffer to fall back on if things get tough.

Stick with it for now, it's a bit too coronavirusey to be a PT, and you having had it doesn't give immunity either.