Definitely comes from a mismatch in background, imo. The guy who asked that, his mom is our CEO, and has been ever since he was born. I think for him, it's always been a given that he'll start out here, hone his skills, and move on to own his own business, or become a CEO of some other, more profitable company. Worth noting too, that he's college-educated, and has only ever worked here. He started as an intern in high school, worked part-time in college, and moved to full-time work once he got his degree.
So contrast that with me: parents, factory workers. grandparents, drug dealers on one side and impoverished farmers on the other. I don't imagine his childhood was all that different from mine, but there are little things -- like I grew up without heat, Internet, TV; my bedroom windows were broken, so all through my childhood we had them covered in plastic and duct tape, which was miserable in winter! My parents' mental illnesses and drug habits plus their low rank in the factories they worked at combined to create unstable employment -- I got the impression that you fought hard for a job, and after a year or two, your employers got sick of paying for you and cut you loose. So! As an adult, I joined the military, moved all over, worked as a translator, a delivery boy, a mail room employee, a reporter, freelance writer, and finally moved to this very nice nonprofit office, which definitely seems like the cream of the crop -- far better than I ever expected!
Ah, to put it simply: his Ultimate Goal in life is probably to be the CEO of a profitable business, and I get the sense that if that DOESN'T happen, he'll feel like a failure (understandable with his background). My Ultimate Goal in life is to find a stable office job where I'm not afraid of being fired. And if I do get fired, or the company goes under, that's okay, I'll just find a new job; I won't feel like a failure.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2023-05-10 08:32 pm (UTC)So contrast that with me: parents, factory workers. grandparents, drug dealers on one side and impoverished farmers on the other. I don't imagine his childhood was all that different from mine, but there are little things -- like I grew up without heat, Internet, TV; my bedroom windows were broken, so all through my childhood we had them covered in plastic and duct tape, which was miserable in winter! My parents' mental illnesses and drug habits plus their low rank in the factories they worked at combined to create unstable employment -- I got the impression that you fought hard for a job, and after a year or two, your employers got sick of paying for you and cut you loose. So! As an adult, I joined the military, moved all over, worked as a translator, a delivery boy, a mail room employee, a reporter, freelance writer, and finally moved to this very nice nonprofit office, which definitely seems like the cream of the crop -- far better than I ever expected!
Ah, to put it simply: his Ultimate Goal in life is probably to be the CEO of a profitable business, and I get the sense that if that DOESN'T happen, he'll feel like a failure (understandable with his background). My Ultimate Goal in life is to find a stable office job where I'm not afraid of being fired. And if I do get fired, or the company goes under, that's okay, I'll just find a new job; I won't feel like a failure.