Oh, I wasn’t afraid to work a respectable job, but I would no longer consider working at jobs that I thought I was too mature for, or too girly, or just plain beneath me as a young adult!
I passed plenty of interesting jobs because of the way that I thought. I worried about how I would be perceived if one of my peers saw me. In some ways, I was embarrassed to work such jobs because I didn’t want people to think that I was desperate and would do anything for money!
I was so afraid to do work that wasn’t traditional, that I wouldn’t take any job that wasn’t something that I considered normal and respectable! This was incredibly wasteful of me, and I’m embarrassed to say that I was too timid to pursue any ideas that I had to innovate or come up with an original ideas to make money.
So what ideas did I have that I was too afraid to work at, you might be asking?
One such idea was a Lawn Mower Artist! I always thought it would be cool to offer a lawn mowing service that through the use of fertilizers and cutting lawns at different heights could create different pictures in potential client’s lawns.
As a test, I once carved the batman symbol in the grass at my parent’s house, just to see what it would look like… (it looked awesome by the way).
But the same technique could be used to carve a football, soccer ball, family name, and even more complex visuals!
Now I look back and wish I had tried creating such businesses when I was a young adult with more time on my hands. I think it could have been at least a little bit of money, and a lot of fun!
Do you know what I mean by being afraid to work? Hopefully it was just me…
-MR
I’ve always had unusual jobs, so I guess I can empathize. I do think it would be very cool for a teenager to be a lawn mower artist. I do agree that the business skills alone would have been worth it!
Yeah, it was a missed opportunity on my part. Not to mention the social aspects of it.
Too often we’ll only look at work from a dollars earned perspective, but there are other rewards that could help later too.
Nope, I’ve never been afraid of work, but I distinctly remember banquet waitressing in college for a bunch of pharmaceutical sales reps. Quite a few of them treated me like “the help” and looked down on me.
I’m sure they thought I was some high school drop out or something. I just remember thinking to myself…someday, I will be better off than you and you can stuff that attitude in a place where the sun don’t shine.
People have pre-conceived notions about why folks are in certain jobs and they are often wrong. Drives me nuts.
I guess I was insecure financially growing up. We moved from a lot of houses when I was a kid. Plus, when I was 16 working as a bagboy, the manager was old school and use profanity as a managing tool. I think that stained me for a while… Luckily, I bleached myself out shortly after graduating college. 🙂
I think it has a lot to do with your personality and circumstances. I was raised to think VERY independently (my mom would not tolerate us being in cliques or anything), so I never seemed to care what people saw me working at. I’m also a girl which sadly seems to lead to less razzing for doing “menial” work. Now, I was and still am not a fan of manual labor. I hate getting sweaty unless it’s for fun. 😉
Ah true, very true. As a bagboy, I didn’t have a lot of fun at my first job… Sometimes friends from school would come and and kid of get one of those smug smiles where they think they are now better than I was…
Water under the bridge now though
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The only job I was ever afraid to do (besides a 900 number…) is a waitress. All those trays always scared me. I am short, and my arms probably couldn’t hold many trays, and I would have ended up spilling everywhere.
Offer up the lawn mowing MR! Don’t ever give up on a dream.
Ha, I don’t think there is much of a demand for a Batman symbol lawn artist anymore… hehe
It was pretty darn cool though, if I may say so myself!
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