Define Career To Me

It's been way too long and I apologize. I have been so focused on work that everything else has taken a back seat. Too much. I realized this when today I took my obligatory nap in my bed after work and I had my daughter crooked in my arm because I put Curious George on the bedroom TV. She was so happy to watch with me. Of course after the show was over she told me, "Daddy, while you were sleeping it was raining really hard outside." Ooops...busted.

Work has been good. I work hard and the people I work with seem to like me. It's a little weird because I used to be the boss and now I'm the worker. It's fine because I'm getting paid good money. Better money than the people who worked for me. Is "for me" the best choice of words? I guess they are because I was the person responsible for their effort. I was the person responsible for fighting for their cause. I was the person responsible for arguing why they deserved better pay. All along I was the person responsible for realizing the pros and cons of making a business profitable and successful and how it effected them.

Today it's different. I'm not that high up. I'm first level(I'm not even sure what that means but c'mon it can't be all that high up). Compared to the craziness that was running a sports radio station to what I'm dealing with now is just silliness. My boss isn't Jerry Reinsdorf. He's just a guy working for his paycheck like me.

People at my company aren't doing what they do because it was a career choice. This is a job they can perform and make decent money doing it. Because face it, after awhile you start to realize it isn't about having a career you can brag to your friends about, but it's about making enough money to keep your family happy and well fed!

I work with people who could bump my old boss at the radio station out of his position because they are 50 times smarter and know how to keep a business afloat. Intelligence is so underrated. I am in awe of the accomplishments of my co-workers. Understand this, not many people go to college and pick a career choice that states, "I want to schedule technicians for AT&T." But for whatever reason, these people are here and have the personal drive to do the best job possible. Even when they could just skate by and collect a paycheck not caring. It's impressive. I wish you could see it. It motivates me every day.

The fucked up thing about it all is this. When I worked in the radio business all I ever cared about was making good sounds come out of the speakers that everyday people were hearing. I knew deep down that a good sound from those speakers would meld into people wanting to pay to be a part of it and in the end programming and sales would become a unity toward a successful business.

But the regrettable fact is this. The people making the decisions are not career driven like I was. All they care about is their paycheck. They have forgotten about their career mission. The mission to make good noise coming from people's speakers and selling that beautiful noise. Instead it has become an irritable montage of broken dreams and unsuccessful ideas just so the chosen few can keep their nice houses.

As I moved up the ladder in radio I came to the realization, no one wanted to hear the truth, they just wanted to hear they were right.

Radio is failing because anyone who speaks out about their true feelings about how to make terrestrial radio successful are ignored and eventually let go because he/she just doesn't fit into the norm. The norm being people who will compromise their beliefs to protect a paycheck. Bummer for us.

Someone needs to take me aside and define the word career to me. I always thought I knew the meaning of the word until I had children.