“I work at CitiBank.”. I replied confidently. A position at a well known and respected company somehow had given me membership into the grown-up club I decided I had wanted to be a part of shortly after tossing off my graduation cap and parting from high school’s bonds. Yet, whenever I walked through those security doors, I realized I was only one of the hundreds of thousands of other delusional souls slaving away under the neon lighting of a corporation’s 9 to 5 prison. Since when did the exchange rate for a salary become an entire life?

I spent 30% of my time weekly working (not including the 8 hours spent on lunch and breaks during any given week). Another 25% of time merely wasted on sleep. Out of the remaining 45% of my time, how much did I spend driving to and from work or other unpleasant things? Too much! In a world open to possibilities, I spent the majority of my time working or doing work related tasks.

The way that the average person’s life works is like this:

Time + product/service = money

How much money, you might ask? Average income is between $10 – $18 an hour. Which means that every minute you spend at the job is worth 15 to 30 cents. You, in essense, are being paid for the time you spend at the job. The rate is equal to what you produce while you are wasting your time at the job. How much is a minute of your time worth to you? A minute of my time is worth a heck of a lot more than 15 cents!

The most valuable currency we as humans have is our time. Each of us have a limited amount of it and it is never affected by inflation because the market in time is fixed, can never be saturated, and cannot be transferred. One can sell their time, which we do every day of the week, or we can buy another’s time, but we can never increase the amount of time we have received in life.

After college, I had suffered the delusion that I had reached the magic line that allows for dramatic changes in my work experience. Unfortunately for me, it hadn’t. Despite the years spent in a classroom, there were always new humps required to be overcome before I could see a substancial change in lifestyle. Yet, as I got older, my expenses increased in an unexpected porportion while my career stagnated.

However, in many ways, I learned a lot by walking through those electronic security doors day after day right out high school. That experience led me to develop Muses Publishing!

To be continued…