For Those Who Are Really Sick Of Their Jobs Working For Others

I'm your average salary-man. I have a nice house in the middle of an old city like Paris, France. I get my paycheck every month and spend it on large quantities of fine wines, expensive scotch whiskies or whatever seems to be the thing of the moment. I am 45 years old and work in the corporate world. My office is located in a big building which overlooks a green valley with imposing glass skyscrapers standing tall at its back. My job is to read, analyze data, draw conclusions and come up with tactics that will help my company generate a profit. That's about it. Great job as you can probably tell.

Why I Am Writing This Article

Recently I read this book called "The 1 Second Manager" by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom. The book is about the domination of an elite group of 1-second managers in American corporations, and how it negatively affects us all. As a result of reading this book I have decided to write this article about my job and the domination of 1-second managers in general. I am writing this article because I want to share with you my ideas on how to change the way we work and make our lives better.

What Is A 1-Second Manager?

A 1-second manager is someone who will see a problem, analyze it in one second and come up with a solution almost immediately. They don't give a lot of time and effort to long-term, strategic planning. Everything has to be done as expediently as possible. To achieve that they hire people who are only good at one thing or nothing at all. They focus on doing the minimum amount of work so that they can spend a lot of time job hunting (a process which greatly benefits them). They don't take life seriously because it's never going to go away, and the minute you actually choose the path you want to take, then you're finished.

I am your average salary-man like I just described before. I think carefully about my life and how to make it better going forward. I am interested in self-development and how to make everything that I do more effective. I like good TV series, reading books, researching stuff on the internet, long walks with my wife and going out with friends.

What I Don't Like About My Job

My main problem is that my job is changing me into a 1-second manager. This produces a great deal of stress, as every day of my life becomes filled with busy work and meaningless tasks that only serve to put food on the table or keep me occupied while I am hardly earning enough to live on. I have a mortgage to pay, my wife and I have a 3-year-old kid, and now that my parents have retired we are also responsible for taking care of them. I am also feeling stress related to job security. The corporation I work for is facing some serious financial problems which might affect my job in the near future.

I start to worry about stuff like if my company will make it or if something bad will happen that could cost me everything that I own – which is not very much at all. I even worry about the most embarrassing stuff – like death, poverty and old age with no money in the bank – which makes me feel a little bit less ashamed of worrying about other stupid things.

I also have a lot of stress associated with my personal life. My job doesn't really give me the time or energy to make long-term plans. In fact, I cannot think about anything else, because if I start to think about my personal life, I immediately get stressed out and feel like making things better for my wife and kid. So fear is an element that is not only affecting me at work, but also affecting all areas of my life.

Why Does My Job Affect Me Like This?

For me this is a very interesting question. For the last 15 years of my adult life, the best decision I have ever made was to pursue a career as a salary-man. It was a natural progression for me, as I completed my education and began working for a big corporation. I followed the formula that society had set out for me, and it made me feel part of something bigger, more important than myself.

This is why I like my job. It's more than just about financially supporting my family. It's about doing something that is bigger than myself – a "mission" if you will.

But today I feel really frustrated and alone at work, even though I am surrounded by other people all day long. This job isn't making me happy anymore.

Now I have a choice, to quit this job and align my life with something else or to sacrifice everything that I know to be true in order for my job to stay the same.

What I'm Going To Do

I have decided that I am going to quit my job. It's not an easy decision, but it's the most important decision of my life.

How This Decision Will Impact All Areas Of My Life

If you are reading this article, then you are already aware of how much your current behavior is impacting your whole life – not only for the short term, but also for the long term.

I am going to take the advice I have read in all the self-development books. I am going to reduce the amount of noise in my life, and focus on one thing at a time. I am going to learn how to be present, how not to let myself get carried away by my thoughts, how to stay calm and focused regardless of what is happening around me and how to live every moment as if it were the last moment I will ever experience.

In a similar way that society has forced me into a 1-second manager's life, they have also blinded me from seeing that which is actually possible.

Conclusion

The 1-second manager and I are not so different. We both have problems in our lives, we both have fears and we both have things that we wish to change in the world around us. But the difference is that I am going to do something about it – whereas he will continue to just pretend that everything is all right.

My life has been affected by a lot of people, but mostly my wife and my parents – who gave me all the advice I needed which helped me make this decision. I am grateful for every single day of my life, because without them I would not be who I am today.