Work!
This newsletter comes to you from my lunch break at a new second (third?) job at a grocery store!
I was just talking to a guy who looks early 20s but actually is 36, who has been working at this grocery store for 18 years. He was cheerful and competent and helped me get some cases of seltzer water out of a tall wrapped pallet in the back, punching the 4 I needed out of the thing like a high stakes game of Jenga.
I used to think people who worked in grocery stores were failures or somehow stuck. I never really thought of them as possibly having intention and purpose and good reason behind their way of working.
In the last 16 years since I was the age that this man started at this grocery store, I’ve acquired $100,000 in debt, zero assets, had 1.9 divorces, and lived in about 15 different homes. My earning have risen and fallen and not in the cyclical way; they have gone sky high, back down to near zero, back up a bit, back down a bit. I’ve lived in 1,000 square feet for $2100, and lived in a van in December. And in that order.
There’s nothing in my past or present that gives me any indication of where I’ll be in 2 years. I’ve built almost no consistent professional network, have no clear skill set that can be described, and have almost no long term business relationships that can be leveraged in a coherent way.
Meanwhile, I bet this guy is like, the best night shift guy in the store, particularly given how fast and helpful and sharp he was (when I had been warned the night shift was mean and not to bother them). And I bet in another 2 years he will be here at this store, making 6-8% more than he is now.