frustrated with figuring out what i want to do for work...

[Cantih]

That might mean more

if

it weren't for the fact Sath is a self admitted provoking asshole to the point he nearly got himself stabbed the other day,
and Zet's hobby is finding threads where he can shit on a poster on the slightest justification, then crowing about it on discord for half the day.

Maybe you guys should try not being dicks, for like a year or something, and see how that goes.

[Modoru]

Hold the fucking phone

there's a pie in the sky?

[Enedin]

That might mean more

if

it weren't for the fact Sath is a self admitted provoking asshole to the point he nearly got himself stabbed the other day,
and Zet's hobby is finding threads where he can shit on a poster on the slightest justification, then crowing about it on discord for half the day.

Maybe you guys should try not being dicks, for like a year or something, and see how that goes.

Still, I got a few pretty retarded friends, and one of them said something the other day that was just perfect for the situation.

[Roranora]

At least there's no literal dicks in this thread, so it's not so bad.

[Gabai]

The good old 'dude comes in to ask for advice and gets told shit's situational then complains about said advice' bg thread.

Stay tuned for salvage bans.

[Seraph]

Worst of all, you're not actually helping the guy. Want change? Great. Awesome. Good for you. Go out and change shit. Don't coddle this shithead's lack of motivation and desire to special snowflake his way through life because you think the system is broken. The system may be broken, but bills still need to be paid even if you don't agree with paying them.

I was going to type something longer out in reply, but I will just stick with what Sath said above. When it is time to be serious, BG usually gives some grade A no bullshit real talk useful advice. The tone is usually mean and asshole-ish, but it's usually what people need to hear.

If your shit was actually working, you wouldn't be coming here asking for advice. Keep that in mind.

[Zetanio]

I only crow about it with Sath.

[BerenTebogo]

That might mean more

if

it weren't for the fact Sath is a self admitted provoking asshole to the point he nearly got himself stabbed the other day,
and Zet's hobby is finding threads where he can shit on a poster on the slightest justification, then crowing about it on discord for half the day.

Maybe you guys should try not being dicks, for like a year or something, and see how that goes.

But did I die?

[Marootsoobutsu]

I've gone 32 years on this planet without smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco. Now I wish I had gotten the chance to enjoy those things if I'd known I'd get cancer anyway from reading this shit thread.

My Grandfather smoked his whole life. I was about 10 years old when my mother said to him, "If you ever want to see your grandchildren graduate, you have to stop immediately." Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake. He gave it up immediately. Three years later he died of lung cancer. It was really sad and destroyed me. My mother said to me- "Don't ever smoke. Please don't put your family through what your Grandfather put us through." I agreed. At 28, I have never touched a cigarette. I must say, I feel a very slight sense of regret for never having done it, because your post gave me cancer anyway.


Less deraily...

Here's more advice that can help you, but probably won't be taken:

Figure out what you love that makes other people happy. Make that your job. It's not easy, and there may not even be a market for it-- yet. Create that market, if so.

Currently, I work as a professional GM-- as in, Dungeons and Dragons GM. I realized, after years of playing on line and in person, that there were always more players than GMs. I love collaborative storytelling, and I'm really, really good at it. And so, I've shopped my services to folks who have played with me before, and encouraged them to tell their friends. It was slow going, and I couldn't have started it without another job to fall back on, but now that I'm going, it's amazing. I don't just love work, I love getting ready for it. I love talking about it, and the payoff of hearing/reading people excited about what they're doing. It's amazing.

It's also *HARD*. Selling myself was the the most difficult part for me, but I also have to work constantly to be creative and to understand what my players want and expect. I have to fulfill those expectations, and it's meant learning a lot of new skills. It means that, for every hour of "play time", I'm putting in 2 hours of work that no one realizes or sees, and as self employed, I have to be extremely disciplined about it-- though the funny part is, part of that discipline has also been knowing when to stop working for a day, to balance in other needs. It's a ton of work, and the pay isn't great, but I'm happy with it.

Every single job that anyone has, someone, somewhen, was the first to pitch it, to realize that this was something that improved the lives of others, and that they were good at it enough to be compensated for their talent, their passion, and their contribution to the lives of others. Creating a new job isn't easy, and it's not something to dive whole-hog into without having at least a steady day-job backing you up while you try (and possibly fail). It will mean feeling like you're working 3 jobs while you're setting it up, because you WILL be working 3 jobs while you do. But in the end, it boils down to figuring out how what *you* love makes the lives of others *better*, and then doing that with enough expertise that you can make them realize it, too. If you want a fulfilling job, don't wait for someone to offer it to you-- MAKE it.

[MrDodo]

OP you have three options:

1. Military
2. Trade School(Electrician, Plumber, Mechanic etc.)
3. College for Bachelors degree in something sensible

Based on everything you've said in this thread you really only have one option: college. You're too old for this finding your life's calling bs. To get from where you are now to a decent job that pays well, is safe, low stress, has career growth and decent job security is going to require a tremendous amount of work and grit. I know you don't like it but that's life. Just look at it as something you have to do to take care of yourself.

Ignore all this drivel about socioeconomics and the death of the American Dream. Man up and either adapt or perish. No one will care either way.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Greatguardian]

That might mean more

if

it weren't for the fact Sath is a self admitted provoking asshole to the point he nearly got himself stabbed the other day,
and Zet's hobby is finding threads where he can shit on a poster on the slightest justification, then crowing about it on discord for half the day.

Maybe you guys should try not being dicks, for like a year or something, and see how that goes.

Idk man I am literally a teacher at a low income, inner city public school that specializes in preparing students to enter a trade (most of our students graduate high school with a cosmetology license or auto body work experience etc because we have this shit on campus) and I'm saying the exact same thing they are. Only real difference is OP hasn't told me to fuck off yet. Or responded to me. At all.

Maroot's got the real bootstraps thing down, but honestly I don't think OP has the intrinsic motivation necessary to bootstraps anything. And that's cool. Not everyone does. Seriously. That's why I said from the very beginning that he needs to sit the fuck down and honestly figure out what it is he wants out of life. Does he actually want some sort of emotional fulfillment from his work or does he just want to graze on hot pockets and idolmaster in a not totally shitty apartment without feeling like a loser? I 100% don't care either way. Neither should you.

Trying to go to school or get a better job for the sake of e-cred is fucking terrible and only results in the proliferation of community college treadmills filled with unmotivated students wasting their parents' tuition dollars on classes they don't really want to take. If the crisis he's having is not one of fulfillment but of feeling like a loser on the internet, the answer is simple: stop giving a fuck. No one actually cares whether you're a millionaire Tech CEO or a basement dwelling neckbeard. This is BG: home of literal prostitutes.

If OP actually does want fulfillment, then he needs to sit the fuck down, boil that down to the simplest possible terms, decide the most effective way to satisfy those terms, and then just fucking do it. That might mean going back to community college and acing the fuck out of it until a real school is willing to pay for him to attend. That might require a lot of work because OP hates math or what the fuck ever. He might be nearly 40 by the time he even remotely feels like he's accomplished anything. Doesn't fucking matter.

There are no shortcuts. The past is immaterial. Fix your shit and move on or don't. Those are the only real options.

[Cantih]

That is probably the best example you're going to get.

But keep in mind that his case is a bit of a unicorn. Since it's almost entirely skill and personality, pro-DMing has an amazingly low minimum startup cost compared to other businesses.
Hell, if you pirate the books, it's really just the advertising you need to shell out to get started. In some cases, you don't even need any hardware like a musician or coder would. But as he said, it has the opposite demand imbalance music, writing, and coding currently has. (Lots of people trying to break into it, vs. people needing it but a dearth of people filling the need.)

Anyway, that's the mindset you need for doing something you love/find fulfilling and make money doing it.
Also, NOBODY, but YOU, is ever going to be able to answer the question of what you find fulfilling. Unless you can find a telepath, nobody is ever going to know you more than yourself. We CAN'T tell you, you are going to have to sit down and introspect yourself.


(Also, Maroo, are the numbers working out because you live in a low cost of living area and do the job online? Also, in addition to bespoke DMing, do you also run the less prep needed canned adventures too, to get occasional better per hour margins?
Years back I actually crunched numbers for what you're doing, but I dropped it because when I seriously looked at it, I knew I didn't really have the talent and temperament to be a DM. But I would be interested in knowing details from someone who managed to pull it off.)

[Zetanio]

Fuck the rest of this thread.


Maroot, please expand on this GM job and also are you strictly D&D or like Warhammer/CoC/Shadowrun?

[Rhyis.]

Just to help people out, if this dude was 10 years younger peoples tone towards this guy would be totally different.
31 and walking around with the belief he can work somewhere where he doesn't have to either work hard or be educated, but also get the green. Cool story bro. Even prostitutes work hard son, especially if they're male (hiyoo!).

[Modoru]

well yeah 10 years is a lot of time to do something more innit

[BaneTheBrawler]

holy shit maroot that sounds amazing. i've only just been getting into Pathfinder Society. I'm up to level three on my first character, and I decided that my usual build-myself-into-the-game, while fun, isn't as fun as pretending to be someone else. So I rolled two new characters: a half-orc warpriest who is arrogant and kind of a zealot, and a dwarf brawler with a ridiculous name (and a story to go with it). i haven't had a chance to play with either yet but it was fun just coming up with the characters. I can imagine DMing is even more so.

[zoobernut]

My Grandfather smoked his whole life. I was about 10 years old when my mother said to him, "If you ever want to see your grandchildren graduate, you have to stop immediately." Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized what exactly was at stake. He gave it up immediately. Three years later he died of lung cancer. It was really sad and destroyed me. My mother said to me- "Don't ever smoke. Please don't put your family through what your Grandfather put us through." I agreed. At 28, I have never touched a cigarette. I must say, I feel a very slight sense of regret for never having done it, because your post gave me cancer anyway.


Less deraily...

Here's more advice that can help you, but probably won't be taken:

Figure out what you love that makes other people happy. Make that your job. It's not easy, and there may not even be a market for it-- yet. Create that market, if so.

Currently, I work as a professional GM-- as in, Dungeons and Dragons GM. I realized, after years of playing on line and in person, that there were always more players than GMs. I love collaborative storytelling, and I'm really, really good at it. And so, I've shopped my services to folks who have played with me before, and encouraged them to tell their friends. It was slow going, and I couldn't have started it without another job to fall back on, but now that I'm going, it's amazing. I don't just love work, I love getting ready for it. I love talking about it, and the payoff of hearing/reading people excited about what they're doing. It's amazing.

It's also *HARD*. Selling myself was the the most difficult part for me, but I also have to work constantly to be creative and to understand what my players want and expect. I have to fulfill those expectations, and it's meant learning a lot of new skills. It means that, for every hour of "play time", I'm putting in 2 hours of work that no one realizes or sees, and as self employed, I have to be extremely disciplined about it-- though the funny part is, part of that discipline has also been knowing when to stop working for a day, to balance in other needs. It's a ton of work, and the pay isn't great, but I'm happy with it.

Every single job that anyone has, someone, somewhen, was the first to pitch it, to realize that this was something that improved the lives of others, and that they were good at it enough to be compensated for their talent, their passion, and their contribution to the lives of others. Creating a new job isn't easy, and it's not something to dive whole-hog into without having at least a steady day-job backing you up while you try (and possibly fail). It will mean feeling like you're working 3 jobs while you're setting it up, because you WILL be working 3 jobs while you do. But in the end, it boils down to figuring out how what *you* love makes the lives of others *better*, and then doing that with enough expertise that you can make them realize it, too. If you want a fulfilling job, don't wait for someone to offer it to you-- MAKE it.

You officially have the coolest job ever. You should start writing. You could really do some amazing things if you basically be DM to your own characters and write it in novel form. I appreciate all of the other advice in your post. I am a semi-professional photographer and it has taken close to 10 years to build it up to the point where the hobby basically pays for itself. I have a regular full time job which I love too but the feeling of having a hobby that supports itself through sales is exhilarating. Eventually down the road it might tip the scales enough where it could become my full time gig.

Also for Psion what about all of those jobs apps like Uber and the one for running errands and the handyman one? What about creating something I know a lot of people who create pottery, jewelry, photography products, and other craft items and sell them successfully online. You can set up an ebay account a website and an etsy account. That can turn into a lucrative career but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication and getting word out.

[Yuri-G]

Less deraily...

Here's more advice that can help you, but probably won't be taken:

Figure out what you love that makes other people happy. Make that your job. It's not easy, and there may not even be a market for it-- yet. Create that market, if so.

Currently, I work as a professional GM-- as in, Dungeons and Dragons GM. I realized, after years of playing on line and in person, that there were always more players than GMs. I love collaborative storytelling, and I'm really, really good at it. And so, I've shopped my services to folks who have played with me before, and encouraged them to tell their friends. It was slow going, and I couldn't have started it without another job to fall back on, but now that I'm going, it's amazing. I don't just love work, I love getting ready for it. I love talking about it, and the payoff of hearing/reading people excited about what they're doing. It's amazing.

It's also *HARD*. Selling myself was the the most difficult part for me, but I also have to work constantly to be creative and to understand what my players want and expect. I have to fulfill those expectations, and it's meant learning a lot of new skills. It means that, for every hour of "play time", I'm putting in 2 hours of work that no one realizes or sees, and as self employed, I have to be extremely disciplined about it-- though the funny part is, part of that discipline has also been knowing when to stop working for a day, to balance in other needs. It's a ton of work, and the pay isn't great, but I'm happy with it.

Every single job that anyone has, someone, somewhen, was the first to pitch it, to realize that this was something that improved the lives of others, and that they were good at it enough to be compensated for their talent, their passion, and their contribution to the lives of others. Creating a new job isn't easy, and it's not something to dive whole-hog into without having at least a steady day-job backing you up while you try (and possibly fail). It will mean feeling like you're working 3 jobs while you're setting it up, because you WILL be working 3 jobs while you do. But in the end, it boils down to figuring out how what *you* love makes the lives of others *better*, and then doing that with enough expertise that you can make them realize it, too. If you want a fulfilling job, don't wait for someone to offer it to you-- MAKE it.

I love this so hard. basically this is exactly what I was trying to say. want to have it easy? work some bullshit job. don't want a bullshit job? be prepared to either a) be poor but happy or b) work your fucking ass off


Grats to you for creating your own position, and a badass one at that. You're my new idol :3

[synistar]

Fuck the rest of this thread.


Maroot, please expand on this GM job and also are you strictly D&D or like Warhammer/CoC/Shadowrun?

Quick, to the D&D thread. I, too, would like to know more. Hell, Maroot is reminding me of Adam Kobel, resident GM of roll20.net and the Rollplay brand that blew up on Twitch.

[Marootsoobutsu]

To answer questions, but not completely derail this post:

Questions answered here.