Tales of the Everyday Workingman (and Woman)
By Kimanzi Constable
Copyright 2011 by Kimanzi T. Constable
© 2011 All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition
About the Author
This is the part where I tell you a bunch of great stuff about me. I enjoy long walks in the park, watching sunsets at night…Are you kidding?
I’m just like you, I go to work, come home, and pray that I win the lottery (it’s kinda dumb seeing how I don’t play).
I am a married father of three children, and I own a bread service. I wrote this book because I’m tired of being told by society what I can and can’t do (we all can do anything!). I want to be a voice for all those who are in a job that they hate and want to find work that will truly make them smile.
If you’ve enjoyed this book, please tell all your friends, family members, and a bunch of random people on the street. The only way we can truly change anything is to get the word to as many people as possible! SPREAD THE WORD!
You can email me at: kconstable29@gmail.com or reach me on twitter: @KimanziC
You can also find me on Facebook as Kimanzi Constable or at talesofwork.com
Please contact me and tell me your story, I would love to get the word out about your situation, or just be a help any way I can.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I like to thank my beautiful wife Tanya Constable for being so supportive by letting me always follow my dreams. Without out her I would go nowhere; thank you, sweetie! Also I would like to thank all those authors whose books have inspired me to stop being complacent and get out there and do something to change my life. Next, I would like to thank my wonderfully supportive group of friends who always inspire and encourage me to push forward! Thank you Chaka Dillion-El, William Haeflinger, and David Constable—I love you guys! And last but not least, I have to thank my wonderful children: Michael, Matthew, Lana. They have been my biggest cheerleaders, I love you so much!
Disclaimer
This is where I’m going to say a bunch of stuff so that no one can sue me (please don’t sue me)!
The information contained in this book is for informational purposes only.
I am not a lawyer or an accountant. Any legal or financial advice that I give is my opinion based on my own experience. You should always seek the advice of a professional before acting on something that I have published or recommended.
No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or in part in any form. without the prior written consent of the author. All trademarks appearing in this book are the property of their respective owners.
Users of this book are advised to do their own due diligence when it comes to making business decisions and all information, products, services that have been provided should be independently verified by your own qualified professionals. By reading this book, you agree that I (Kimanzi Constable), am not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information presented in this book.
Contents
Chapter 1: Were my parents right when they told me to stay in school?
Chapter 2: Did I really think long and hard enough about my future?
Chapter 3: How did I get here? How did you?
Chapter 4: Do I really make good money?
Chapter 5: What do I do with the good money I’m making?
Chapter 7: I’m not in control, what can I do?
Chapter 8: I’m done with work for the day, but is it really over?
Chapter 9: Since it’s all connected, how is the rest of my life affected?
Chapter 10: I don’t belong here, now what?
Chapter 11: Can anyone really do this?
Chapter 12: Tales of everyday working men and woman!
Introduction
Granted I’ve only been an “everyday workingman” for about fourteen years, however I feel like I’ve worked every job in human history (that was a joke—nothing like starting with some humor, right?). I’ve woken up every day hoping my situation was a bad dream, only to find that this was real and I did have to do a job that I hated. I’m still a workingman, still working on the changes I want to make to my career. Is this similar to your work situation? I think it applies to a lot of us out here, even those that self-employed and own their own businesses. The worst part of the day is when you realize that this is not a dream but this is your everyday life. AHHH!!
This book is dedicated to you—the guy who’s doing a job that other people don’t even notice you working. I’m self–employed, and part of my business is to stock bread in grocery stores. Often customers will hit me with their shopping carts not even realizing I’m there working, or I’ll be in the store in causal work clothes and a customer will ask me where the pickles are. I always want to ask them if they notice every other employee in the store is wearing a uniform—a little common sense!
Too long, we have been happy to settle for these jobs because they “pay well.” In this book, I’d like to look at these “good”-paying jobs and challenge you with the fact that life is too short to do a job that pays well. I’d like to examine if these jobs and businesses even pay well in actuality. I’ve put many of my real-life work experiences in this book to illustrate some different things that I’ve learned along the way, as well as things many others have taught me.
As you look at these situations from my life, compare them to what you have experienced or are currently going through. My goal is to wake you up to all the possibilities that are out there. I start off each chapter with a question to get you thinking and to open up your mind. I know in the past I’ve read books that inspired me and I’ve been ready to take the world by storm, but it only lasted a week to a few days. It’s real easy to get excited about something, to know it’s really the direction you should be going in, and then you start thinking about everything that it would take to get that idea to happen and get completely overwhelmed and give up.
For me personally, I’ve had many different times when I was convinced about what I should be doing in life and was all pumped. I did the research about that certain idea, and things started to look completely impossible—I gave up! Have you done the same thing, or will you do the same thing? Research says that the average length you will be at any one job will be about three years. This shows that a lot of us are not doing the thing or things that we love. When you think about spending forty hours of your week somewhere, shouldn’t you actually want to be there?
Life is too short to be spending such a big commitment of our time wishing we were somewhere else. I know that’s a phrase we hear often and I know I’m kind of repeating myself, but I feel strongly enough about this to write a book about it.
Each chapter, if I’ve written this right, will lead you to the end result of self-examination and hopefully decision.
After the last chapter of this book, there are more stories of people like you and me and the different situations they have experienced in their work situations. In coordination with this book is a blog: talesofwork.com. I also started a podcast and a website for you to listen, share, and vent about what you go through every day. Send your crazy work stories so we all can vent together.
The sad thing is many people will read this book or other great books and say: “That was great; it was a really good book”—and that’s it. They won’t do anything mostly out of fear. I read a while ago about people with a “Hi-C” personality, meaning they figure out why something won’t work out before they let it have a chance to work out. Are you one of those people? Don’t let yourself or anyone else talk you out of doing that thing you really love.
When I was eighteen years old I worked for a major soda company delivering in the innercity of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The job itself, paid pretty well (about $50,000 a year). However, it wasn’t the right fit for my particular skills and abilities, and I wasn’t happy at all. Now I don’t want you to think I’m a whiner; many of you might say you made $50,000 and you’re crying. Yes! For a long time, I knew the job was coming to an end for me, but I made the usual excuses. One day I was delivering to a gas station when I heard someone calling for me. I looked over and saw a very attractive girl waiting by the truck. Normally I would do everything I could to avoid people, but once I saw that attractive girl I wasn’t thinking clearly. She talked to me about nonsense for about ten minutes when I heard a noise on the other side of the truck. I went over to look, and I saw a guy stuffing his car with the soda from my truck. WHOOPS! I screamed, and he dropped the case he had and got in the car and pealed out—all of this before I could shout, “Stop!” I looked over and saw that attractive girl run across the street and the guy pulled up in his car and picked her up. When I surveyed the damage, they got about twenty cases of soda. All I could do was laugh. As I drove home from work that day, I kept replaying the incident in my mind and realized the sad thing was that this was the highlight of my time with that company. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, letting me know for sure it was time to move on.
Now this is an extreme example, but has there been an incident that you’ve gone through that screamed to you that it’s time to move on? Are you ignoring it? Go through this book with an open mind prepared to do what’s necessary. Agree with yourself right now that you’ll do whatever you have to, to move past the work situation you hate and to the work situation you love! Could you imagine waking up every day with a smile on your face, and that smile is for your work? Seems like a pipe dream, doesn’t it? Well, there are millions of people who wake up this way every day, looking forward to their work. WAKE UP—you can be one of those people.
I’ve heard so many people say that because of our economy it’s not possible, no one is hiring. THAT’S NOT TRUE! Maybe they won’t hire you because of that negative attitude you have, ever thought of that?