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Should I worry about my lack of ambition..?


John K

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Just found out a younger (and smarter and better looking) bloke at work is at a residential school working towards his MBA in Business Studies or something like that.

 

Not only is he trying to keep on top of his day job as well as doing the studies, but he has taken all his years holiday allocation to match his residential schooling sessions.

 

I spend my evenings cutting up pound coins or drilling a few holes in a wall to hang radiators and try very hard not to think about beer.

 

I suspect in not very long he will be my bosses boss.

 

That doesn't worry me, what sort of worries me is that I'm not worried...

 

My only goal in life is to have two Westies. One for the roads and one for the track and a triple garage for them both, with under floor heating...

 

And my own micro brewery...

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I think they are excellent goals. If you're content, who cares? Let him be the one to lose 10 years of his life to stress and workload whilst you enjoy yours. Work to live not live to work, took me many years of 12-hour day 7-day week power station outages to fully realise that one.

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Nothing wrong with that at all. I've no desire to be the boss at all either, although I do want one more promotion just for the car allowance and an extra £500 a month! After that I'm not fussed. Peers getting on used to bother me, but now it's only where the rationale isn't obvious.

To add... my Dad was VERY stressed by work for a good portion of my teen and pre-teen years. He wasn't fun to live with and hated going to work. Retirement made him a much better person. I don't want to be the former.

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My only goal in life is to have two Westies. One for the roads and one for the track and a triple garage for them both, with under floor heating...

 

if carslberg made garages....  :)

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I think your being over ambitious and will almost certainly fail to reach your goals in life .

 

Try cutting out the garage , underfloor heating and owning two westies   :t-up:  :t-up:  :t-up:

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I think if you can afford to have a (or two) Westy, then you're not doing too bad on the scale of things.

Life's about living, not how successful you are in your career.

Some people get on by being in the right place at the right time, not because of their ability but because someone believed in them and no amount of desire/ambition on your part will change that.

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I think your being over ambitious and will almost certainly fail to reach your goals in life .

 

Try cutting out the garage , underfloor heating and owning two westies   :t-up:  :t-up:  :t-up:

So basically if I give up all of my ambitions, I will by default have achieved them.

So I will be happy...

You have a career in motivational speaking ahead of you..!

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i always wanted to own my own factory like where i work now in effect being where my boss is now and after seeing what he has to put up with and all the faffing id sooner not.

i would like to go on a tig welding course but thats for my own personal gain at home nothing to do with my job

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I have to admit I used to have great ambitions, but 15 years of working has taught me that no matter how skilled you are or how much raw talent you have in your specific area of expertise, if your face doesn't fit and you don't pander to idiots, then people will make sure your never able to achieve anything. Particularly if your chosen area of expertise happens to be anything remotely technical. If your like this, then the only real way forward is through someone you know and a bit of blind luck.

 

I basically work to earn a living, to pay the mortgage/etc. I don't try too hard (it gets me into trouble) and I spend my spare time working on my own little projects at home, but in all honesty i'd rather be doing something that stretched me and something that made a real difference.

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15 years of working has taught me that no matter how skilled you are or how much raw talent you have in your specific area of expertise, if your face doesn't fit and you don't pander to idiots, then people will make sure your never able to achieve anything. Particularly if your chosen area of expertise happens to be anything remotely technical. If your like this, then the only real way forward is through someone you know and a bit of blind luck.

 

Absolutely but my bosses boss would trust engineers because of their linear thought process - abcd... 1234... etc. Provided a technical justification. Didn't trust architects because their thought process didn't seem to be the same and was unpredictable.

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So basically if I give up all of my ambitions, I will by default have achieved them.

So I will be happy...

You have a career in motivational speaking ahead of you..!

 

Think you forgot the brewery   :)

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Your goals are the right ones :yes:     I had a stint as a lowly manager years ago but the engineers job is the best.   Our managers come and go, sacked, sick with stress, made redundant, just burned out or divorced and living like a Zombie, I've seen it all. As for me I'm still here as an engineer, good pension, still working, great family and in Westfield Utopia.

 

If I had my own business, I would have liked that but never had the balls to leave a steady job, Hey Ho! I'm happy.

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As an old friend once said  "it's almost impossible to be a failure as the competition is just too fierce".

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Hard one isn't it.

I am currently, as the saying goes 'living the dream' having got to where I thought I wanted to go.

School, A-levels, Degree in Engineering, Design engineer for JCB, 8 months secondment to India, back home to a promotion to Senior Engineer.

Bought a house three years ago at 25 and rent out two rooms to colleagues my age pay for the mortgage and various toys including the kitcar.

Did a load of work on that, new ceilings, insulation, re-plumbing it, and also do all my own work on the kitcar, a high-maintenance family owned boat.

Until we split up just before Christmas also had an attractive driven girlfriend and plans to move an hour and a half north and live together.

In practice however, recent work has seen me develop issues with fatigue and stress, headaches etc. which combined with finding myself unexpected single has lead to depression and loneliness.

Summary: If you know what you want to do, how you plan to get there, and are enjoying the process then that's an much a anyone can ever have.

Obviously if you feel something is missing and you want to do more, then don't let anyone get in the way of getting that to your plans either!

Daniel

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