Are you spoiled or clueless? Are you taking your beautiful life for granted? If you are, then try working minimum wage jobs. Better yet, work a minimum wage service job as an adult. You’ll eradicate your feelings of entitlement if you do!
For many, life is on extreme hard mode now with the coronavirus pandemic. However, we should also spend more time being appreciative with what we have and the people around us.
Sooner or later, this damn pandemic will end. Life will get back to a new normal. In the meantime, we need to wrestle with our demons. Being privileged is something easy to do in a country as rich as America.
Feeling like we are entitled to everything is a disease that must be eradicated.
Growing Up As A Spoiled Or Clueless Kid
I was born in Manila, Philippines to U.S. Foreign Service Officers. During my first 13 years of life living in Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, The Philippines, Zambia, and Virginia, I was able to see a great dichotomy between the rich and poor.
Seeing so much poverty really scared me into not messing around too much as a kid. But all the same, I still screwed up plenty of times. Despite living a good life, I was still quite clueless in so many things.
In high school, I decided to try and make some money for date money. So I applied for a job at my local McDonald’s for $3.75. Only a month later, I quit.
The main reason why I quit working at McDonald’s wasn’t the low pay or the abusive, ego-tripping manager. After all, the endless supply of broken apple pies went a long way to make up for the unpleasantry at work.
The main reason why I quit was because I was embarrassed.
I lived in McLean, Virginia, a now upper middle class neighborhood 20 minutes away from Washington D.C. Some kids would drive to school in new SUVs their parents bought them.
One of my friend’s even had a separate house just for his indoor pool! While other friends lived in government housing. It was a strange mix of wealth and normalcy.
As the son of U.S. State Department workers, life was low key. We had a seven-year-old Toyota Camry and lived in a cozy 3/2 townhouse. I rode my bike or walked to school.
My parents provided my sister and I all the opportunities we could ever ask for. I just knew we weren’t rich based on what I saw in comparison. The clues started seeping in.
The Upside Of Working A Minimum Wage Job
As a teenager, my biggest fear was working the McDonald’s cash register and being seen by a girl I liked or by the cool kids at school.
Wearing a purple colored shirt one size too big, a purple visor, and black pants was the opposite of cool. I was embarrassed they’d see me working for my spending money because I wasn’t rich enough not to work.
What A Joke To Be Embarrassed
As a 45-year old adult now looking back, I find it crazy that I was embarrassed for working for a living. Now that I have children, nothing would make me more proud if my kids worked minimum-wage service jobs so they could pay for things on their own.
Teenagers are so insecure. Every time I go into a fast food restaurant, all I feel is pride for the folks hustling back there for minimum wage. Instead of causing trouble or bumming around at home, they are working their tails off to someday make enough money to pay for school and lead a better life.
If I didn’t work for McDonald’s back in high school, I’m not sure I would have gotten a job in finance that lasted for 13 consecutive years while getting my MBA concurrently on the side. Both had constantly ass-whipping moments!
Getting up at 5:30 am to open shop at 6 am was miserable for a teenager. Trying to make six perfectly round Egg McMuffins at a time for three hours in a row in front of a hot stove while your manager eagle-eyed you was extremely stressful. Dealing with horrible customers while making barely anything tested my patience.
I remember constantly asking myself: Do I really have to work for five more hours just to afford to take a girl out on a date?
A Low-Paying Service Job Toughens You Up
By the time I joined GS in 1999, all the belligerence one normally would feel as a first-year analyst on a Wall Street trading floor was no big deal.
“Even a dog could do this!” one VP would constantly bark at a subordinate. A phone would occasionally be hurled as well.
“Get out of my face! Can’t you see I’m busy working a deal?” said a senior sales trader one time when I asked him if he wanted some coffee. He never got anything from me again, that prick!
In comparison, the racial tirades my McDonald’s manager spat out at me and my Hispanic colleagues were much worse than the screams on a trading floor. At least the traders verbally abused each other based on competence, and not their ethnic backgrounds.
Each fireball hurled my way after college felt like baby kisses instead. Mwah!
Time For Redemption
I’ve longed to redeem myself for quitting McDonald’s too early. If I met my younger self now, I’d be severely disappointed. Quitting too soon is a cowardly act of the spoiled or clueless person.
There are many things I regret not giving my best growing up. One was training harder to be a better tennis player. However, in 2016, I slayed my demons by making it to USTA 5.0.
In 2019, I overcame the impostor syndrome by publishing 3X a week for 10 years on Financial Samurai. Now I plan to keep on going to demonstrate to my kids the importance of grit.
But the ultimately way to redeem myself from being a spoiled or clueless kid was finding a close to minimum wage service job. Therefore, I decided to sign up to drive for Uber and give it a go.
After giving over 500 rides over a two-year period (80% were in the first year), I’d like to share with you some important reasons why everyone – rich or poor, entitled or grateful, should consider working some type of minimum wage service job as an adult.
Reasons To Work A Minimum Wage Job As An Adult
You’re forced to develop your social skills.
As a driver, you’re in the service business. Your goal is to take your passenger safely from point A to point B in a comfortable way.
Part of making a passenger feel comfortable is by knowing how to communicate. Being a good communicator with excellent social skills is one of your most important job skills. Developing a strong support network is how you get promoted and paid in any industry.
You know how some people are annoying because they can’t STFU? That’s because they don’t have high enough social skills to figure out when to speak and when to listen.
There are plenty of straight A students with encyclopedia-like minds. But these guys will never go very far because they are awkward as hell! If you drive for Uber, you’ll meet every single type of person imaginable and learn how to better interact with each of them.
You develop tremendous work ethic.
Some of the best times to drive are at 4am, 5am – 8am, 6pm – 8pm, and 11pm – 2:30am. These slots are where demand is greatest. Those also so happen to be times where no regular person wants to work!
To make money, you must sacrifice and do the things other people don’t want to do sometimes. However, any person with tremendous hustle can drive for three hours before or after their day job in order to make extra cash.
Do these double shifts for a year, and I promise you will develop a tremendous amount of discipline. Out of necessity, you’ll also become much more efficient at work. If there comes a day when you no longer have to drive for Uber, then just doing your day job will seem so much easier.
Between 2003-2006, I worked 60 hours and spent an additional 25 hours a week going to business school part-time. After I graduated, I didn’t know what to do with myself for a while. Then I used the extra time to get to know more clients at work, which resulted in better results, better pay, and a promotion.
In 2009, I decided to spend 25 hours a week working on Financial Samurai after work from 9pm – midnight. It was so much fun and didn’t feel like work at all!
Here’s how to start your own site if you find yourself spending lots of time at home during the middle of a pandemic. I’m actually buying another site to help boost my income sources.
You will become a nicer, more empathetic person.
Do you know who tips the best? People who work in the food and beverage industry. Why? Because they know it’s hard work to make a living as a waiter, cook, bus boy, bartender, or greeter.
It’s the average person who has never slaved behind the grill for six hours straight who tips the least. They expect perfection and impeccable service for the money they are paying. Little do they realize that nobody makes very much. Many in the service industry do little extra things in the hopes you’ll leave something extra.
Being a driver makes you appreciate the millions of people out there struggling to make ends meet. With the pandemic raging on, there are now tens of millions of people who are unemployed or underemployed.
Once you work a minimum wage job, you no longer make a fuss about petty things because you understand what they are going through! You will not have your entitled, Karen moment where you blow up at a service worker at Costco for asking you to put on your mask. Instead, you begin to thank people profusely for their service.
Your spoiled or clueless self will realized how good you had things all along.
Related: Want To Be Nicer? Get Richer!
You’ll get out of your bubble.
I always encourage folks to travel internationally to gain perspective. Once you gain perspective on how amazing America is, you’ll no longer complain as much about whatever it is that’s bothering you.
I currently live in a bubble where I don’t remember the last time I had to worry about money for food. But by driving for Ubeer, you may very well get reminded that some people aren’t so lucky.
I was driving home from poker one day when I got an indication to pick up a passenger at the mall along the way. As soon as I accepted, the passenger gave me a ring! “Hello sir, just want to let you know we are right in front of Target in the cold. Three previous Uber drivers cancelled on us. We have a lot of things, a double stroller, and a couple kids. I hope you can come.” he said somewhat frantically.
That’s a lot to fit in my Honda Fit! But I went to pick them up anyway. After about 10 minutes, everything was packed in my car and away we went over the dark San Bruno mountains towards Sunnydale, one of the largest low income housing projects in South San Francisco.
Doing What You Can For Your Family
The mom and dad were incredibly grateful that I came to pick them up. Almost all of their stuff were necessities; an industrial size bottle of Pine-Sol, a mop, and a whole bunch of window wipes.
The father said he was a janitor at San Francisco Airport, and the mother said she helps out when she can. They didn’t have a car because he didn’t keep up with the proper maintenance, so it died. Now they have some money, but they are unsure what to buy.
Instead of getting out of the Projects as fast as I could, given it was around 10:45pm and there was a police car with lights swirling just one block north, I spent some more time talking to the mom who wanted to chat as the husband unloaded their things. She told me a little about the economics of living in Sunnydale.
“If you’re a single mother, you’ll get at least a one bedroom once you go through the channel checks. It shouldn’t cost you more than $100 a month. For folks like us with two kids and a steady job, we get a two bedroom apartment for about $200 a month.“
I was happy for my passengers because they seemed to be a happy family. I was glad they were getting subsidized housing because how else is a janitor who can’t even afford an old car, supposed to live in the Bay Area? Any annoyance about paying an exorbitant amount of taxes faded away.
Then as I made my way back home, I started feeling guilty about my living situation. So, I went online again and drove for another hour.
You’ll become a more disciplined spender.
When you’re making minimum wage or close to it, you become hyper conscious of your spending habits.
During a pitstop at Burger King one afternoon, I was considering a Whopper Junior for $2.6 because the normal Whopper cost was a whopping $3.8! But instead, I went for a double cheeseburger for $1.69 because I wanted to save what little money I had earned that day.
I’m now much more cognizant of how much I spend on food, clothing, and other non-essentials. You naturally adjust your spending habits based on your income. So for those who are afraid that their quality of life will suffer in early retirement, don’t be.
You’ll become much more business savvy and entrepreneurial.
There’s no better teacher than experience. After spending a couple months on the road through various trials and errors, I’ve figured out a way to best maximize my operating profits.
For example, I discovered that waiting in the SFO airport lot is a waste of time. I learned that driving to the surge pricing areas almost never pans out. I’m very aware of which times provide maximum return on effort.
As a freelance driver, you’re essentially your own small business owner. You figure out ways to maximize revenue, improve productivity, and reduce expenses. These are fundamental skills that can be honed if you are ever to go out on your own. And even if you don’t become a full-time entrepreneur, you’ll become a much better employee.
Financial Samurai started as a personal journal. Starting in 2H2018, I decided to be more entrepreneurial after the birth of my son. I discovered some amazing things people were doing in my space. They were making tremendous amount of money despite having no relevant finance experience. It was eye-opening.
You’ll get accustomed to life not being fair.
A lot of people get angry at those who are born rich, attractive, smart, and connected. Some people really do have all the luck. Instead of accepting who you are and trying your very best to improve, it’s easy to just give up and believe things are hopeless.
But driving for Uber mentally toughens you up because you are constantly put into unfair situations. The easiest example is picking up UberPool drivers. Around 30% of the time, there will be some type of snafu, usually in the form of one passenger being late.
When one passenger is late, your existing passenger gets upset at the rider experience. As a result, your rating takes a hit, even though it was the other passenger’s fault for being late.
After a while, you begin to realize that the world is filled with people who blame innocent people and there’s nothing you can really do. After enough mishaps, you’ll snap out of your victim mentality and just keep going. You become happier and internalize the following prayer,
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Never Take Your Life For Granted
After living the good life for so many years, it’s easy to take things for granted. As a result, we become spoiled or clueless.
We get out of shape because we forget there are millions of starving people around the world who would do anything just to eat a quarter of what we eat.
We become lazy because we no longer remember what it was like to struggle. Maybe we never knew.
Our communication skills go out the window because we become impatient.
We fail to learn another language because we’re accustomed to everybody speaking English.
Our spouses and our parents are taken for granted. We stop telling them how much we appreciate their support because they’ve always just been there for us.
We stop taking risks because life gets a little too comfortable. Then we wonder with regret when we’re older why we never bothered to try.
Although the coronavirus pandemic is terrible, at least it serves as a wake up call to billions of people who are just going through the motions. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so we need to make the most of our lives today.
Related: Confessions of a Spoiled Rich Kid
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You linked me this post, and I know more of where you’re coming from now. A lot of your worldview is due to growing up as a Third Country Kid all over Asia, probably as one of the many higher-class kids in elite international schools. So your worldview and values are a bit different from Asians who were born and raised in the US, with middle class parents (mine).
I never thought working a minimum wage job at a fast food place was bad or lowbrow – it’s almost like a rite of passage for any kid, at least in the middle class SF world that I grew up in. It would be seen as cooler if the kid worked at a coffeeshop, though.
I feel elitism is more along class lines in Asia, while in SF, it was more about racism (always there, now as extreme as ever), extreme stereotyping towards Asians, and looking down on people for supposedly being less cool, edgy, hipster, or whatever subculture they look up to.
It really is about ignoring those who don’t support or ‘get’ you and living your own best life. Yes it is more difficult without social support but nevertheless it must be done. Lack of social support means we must build our own support networks and social structures.
Thanks for your insights. Indeed I do recommend working a variety of lower paying jobs on your way up in the world. At age 83, I am on my way down in the world, and I must say that I still enjoy working part-time at lower paying jobs after 20 years of college teaching and another 20 years as CEO of my own company, with a salary in the six figures.
Yep…today I typically earn about $15 an hour with three advanced degrees, having been officially retired for nearly 25 years. At this point, I’ve just about done my bucket list having worked and traveled overseas for nearly 10 years, built a lovely home, have a wonderful wife, etc. In good health, I spend three days a week devoted to kayaking, golf, and bicycling, which leaves another three days for work of four to eight hours a day. I was offered two jobs last week, one at my former wine company where I do demos at Costco stores, and another for the Census. Perfect timing as my unemployment checks of $750 a week for the past two months have run out of my allotted sums.
Here’s what I learned in the process. 1) It ain’t over until it’s over. I’ve lost a lot of good friends who have passed away, mostly successful and some very wealthy. And…we all die whether we are rich or poor. 2) Working is how you hold it. I started out at age six because my mother loved to work, so we wrote a local two page newspaper together in our apartment block during WW 2 while my father was overseas. I would sell it by knocking on apartment doors and always sold out each edition for two cents each. My most fun job was fishing my way through college catching 200 dogfish (sand sharks) a day on a Maine Island for Wards Natural Science Establishment at 35 cents each for $70 a day or nearly $2000 a summer, enough to comple
tely pay my way through Duke U.
3) Supposedly retired people don’t work. But,in fact, I really enjoy it and have had at least a dozen interesting jobs from camp hosting to teaching ESL to wine demos at a variety of grocery
stores. People have been great and age has not been a factor for hiring or…firing.
In summary, I learned that it’s all part of the journey. I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, mostly I’ve been happy, partly because I have a wonderful family and I was able to pursue my dreams. The destinations were just part of the travel along the way.
This is what I aspire to be…
So cool, I want to meet you!
Great article, reminds me of the Stoic philosophers advising that you seek discomfort so you can better appreciate the good life.
I worked a couple summer jobs in college in a chicken plant. I distinctly remember one day working in the box assembly room when my back was on fire and I was sweating so much I couldn’t see, and realizing I was making the same $7.15/hour that all my immigrant co-workers were making. I felt so guilty and so lucky that it was only a temporary job for me.
The next summer, my college teammate hooked me up with a job at a tennis resort. I doubled my pay and didn’t work nearly as hard. It was a good lesson in how the world works, for better or worse. I also signed up to teach more lessons, string more racquets, and pick up more balls than any of my co-workers; I think they just didn’t understand how lucky we were to not be in the box room!
Translation and summary:
The failed millionaire’s life isn’t working out so he’s going back to work at McDonald’s to support his spendthrift family. And this is his way of justifying it.
Blogging just doesn’t cut it (regardless of the padded ad-driven conent) to survive on. He’s hoping that a dozen “totally awesome post, Sam!” replies will boost his own self-confidence.
P.S. This reply of mine will either A) Never see the light of day since it will be instantly deleted or B) Be posted in an appropriately edited-down or modified form. That’s “freedom” and Capitalism for you in 21st Century America. It’s phoney and benefits those in power–or those behind the keyboards Running the show!
Just getting this out of my system again. It’s the closest I’ve come to “contributing” to a site in years. There no longer is Freedom of Speech in this country.
Thanks for your comment. Life is tough now during the pandemic and I’m just trying my best to help take care of my family and make the most out of a difficult situation. Hopefully this post can give others motivation to.
Not sure what’s going on with you, but I wish you the best. We’re going to get through this!
Related: July 2020 FS Recap
Classy response to an absolutely disgusting post from SincerelyFrugal. Clearly a pathetic, miserable person.
Low paying jobs can definitely help to build character, but I’d rather have had a high paying job as a teenager and the foresight to invest it! Could you imagine make $250k while 16 and living with your parents?
My first job ever was being a tutor before and after school for no more than 30 min at a time. I wish I kept my paycheck stub! I was in middle school.
I do remember growing up that my dad worked whatever job he could to support the family. He worked at a gas station in a tiny wooden booth where people paid for the gas (not the highly-secured ones we see today) and was paid $2/hr in the 80s. He wasn’t confident in his English although he graduated with a B.S. from the Philippines. But he was a true handyman and could do wonders with his hands. At one point at his final job working in a cannery, the company was doing lay-offs when machines were being shut down, and he pivoted sideways and took a janitorial position in same company knowing for security and a steady paycheck, even if it meant a temporary pay cut. My dad was a true hustler. He didn’t say it in his words, but never doubted his actions to “do what he had to do” to support a family of 4.
I started working when I was 13. Lots of odd jobs. I’ve taken my dad’s work ethic and “whatever it takes” attitude and it has paid off in many ways. Not all my jobs were minimum wage, but I do remember the sweat and tears and having to deal with unsympathetic or pompous bosses or co-workers. It’s been humbling, I never realized how much my dad had to put up with even as an educated immigrant. And yet, we’ve benefited immensely.
I feel I’m rambling, but this article touched a nerve and made me grateful and sad for the opportunities that minimum wages provide. My dad has passed but his legacy of hustle and not taking things for granted is within me. I wish more could see the silver lining in these experiences.
I wanted a minimum wage retail job in high school but nobody would hire me. It was so discouraging. But I didn’t give up too long. I got a couple jobs in college with measly pay but it was nice to feel wanted and it got me motivated to study hard to get a much better job after graduation. We all gotta start somewhere!