The Romanticization Of Work Ethic Got Us Into This Mess
Where I come from, work ethic defines people.
You judge yourself on the basis of how hard you work. You judge others—and judge hard—on the basis of how hard they work. Lazy bastard!
In today’s installment of the Never Retire newsletter, we touch on work ethic and ambition. It’s something I plan to expand on in the newsletter this spring. Yes, we’re planning that far out!
Here’s the deal—February and March looks like this:
As you might know, my partner and I will spend February in Spain and Italy.
The itinerary—Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Rome, Naples, Barcelona
For the month of February, I
’m currently planning(have) a month-long series of 20 Never Retire newsletter posts in 28 days (outlined and ready to be filled out and published while on the road).Each post will include the following (in no particular order)—
Photography from the cities we visit.
Thoughts, observations, highlights from the cities we visit.
A breakdown of what we spent each day to compare the cost of living in Spain and Italy to the United States and elsewhere.
A Never Retire checklist item. A total of 20 practical money/work/life-related boxes you need to check to live the semi-retired life you wanna live now and for the duration.
Then, in March, I’ll do 20 posts in 31 days, meticulously detailing each of the 20 items.
In April, I will switch gears a bit and talk about more abstract Never Retire thoughts and ideas, particularly work ethic and ambition. I will also do a series on investing for those of you who prefer your content a bit more concrete.
With all of this in mind and upcoming, now is a great time to become a paid subscriber. Because I plan on putting a majority of the February-March-April posts behind the Substack paywall. Subscribe now for $5/month, $50/year or join as a founding member and pay nothing after your initial token of appreciation.
I also have big February plans for my writing on Medium.
I have several articles scheduled on living the semi-retired life. What it is, what is isn’t, how it can look, how it looks for me, how to get there.
These articles get us started on the work ethic-ambition conversation we introduce today and expand in April. Because you subscribe to the Never Retire newsletter, you get a preview of some of the key points discussed.
My iteration of the semi-retired life, after embracing the reality that I’ll Never Retire, includes less work. I choose to work less now so I can work less longer.
Some people call this lazy. I call it smart.
You can’t be semi-retired and adhere to working class notions of work ethic. I come from a place where people believe that nobody wants to work today. It’s incredibly difficult to make the choices you need to make to be truly semi-retired when there’s a stigma attached to working less. Because being semi-retired isn’t merely working part-time. It’s a lifestyle. Not where and how often your manager puts you in the schedule.
On Medium in February, I riff on the idea of making decisions to craft your version of semi-retirement:
I’d feel like a dickhead, in part, because our parents, other family and friends instill the notion of work ethic—of deciding let work overtake your life and shape your identity—in us from an early age.
Another February Medium article gets at this using something I think you can relate to:
A key point from that article:
It’s not laziness. It’s working smart to put work in its proper place. To organize money and work around your life, not the other way around.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like to work or that I don’t work hard. Lately, I have spent more time writing this newsletter than on my other sources of income, even though it generates the least amount of cash flow.
Why? Because, in an instance where a cliche actually rings true, I don’t consider this work. I really enjoy writing these posts. Yes, I enjoy my other work, but I enjoy this more. Still, it doesn’t consume me.
You can probably see where this is going.
And we’ll take it there this month on Medium with a nibble and, later, in the Never Retire newsletter, where I’ll get considerably more personal and talk about times in my life when work absolutely did define and consume me. It wasn’t a good time.
We have a retirement crisis and an epidemic of overworking because we romanticize work ethic and ambition in this country. It’s something we rarely discuss.
Nice tease, if I may say so myself.
February and March on Substack—posts and photography and day-to-day expenses from Spain and Italy as well as a build out of a Never Retire checklist. In April, work ethic and ambition alongside a series on investing.
February on Medium—a righteous outline of what it means to be semi-retired and a surface scratch of the larger work ethic-ambition conversation we’re about to have.
From Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood during last year’s trip when some COVID restrictions were still in place. I need new pictures for my articles so I’ll be taking a ton all next month!