Post: #1

Most important thing i've read this week.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/09/how-to-be-a-slave/

I hate being a slave.

One might think: don’t be a jerk. You weren’t in chains in the 1800s. That was real slavery.

Ok, I hate arguing. Go away.

But let’s take a look at the average person.

The average person works at a job. Fine, you might say, a job is a lot different fromslavery: I can take a water break for instance. And sometimes go to the bathroom. And when I talk to people the same sex as me there aren’t even any rules governing what I can say.

Great. I agree.

But let’s just take a look at your income and your behavior.

Sure, you might say, I realize I don’t get all of my income. About 40% goes to taxes.

And there you would be wrong.



Your true salary is the value you create for the place you work.

Some percentage of it goes to your boss. He has to get paid also you know. Who do you think pays him? You do.

Some percentage of your salary goes to his boss and however big the hierarchy is. I know this, having been a boss, having run a company, and having been an employee.

Some percentage of your “salary” goes to the shareholders of the company before you even see it.

And some percentage goes to the vendors of the company. Like the insurance “benefits” your company gives you that you most likely will never need (if you were likely to need them, then the benefits would be higher, until you no longer need that much. That’s how insurance works).

And some percentage goes to employees that don’t pull their weight. The 80/20 rule applies where approximately 80% don’t pull their weight so any money left over from your efforts has to be used to pay them. You pay them.

Finally, you have to pay for your cubicle, your office supplies, the computer on your desk, your phone, etc. If you created no extra money to pay for these things then they wouldn’t exist. So this comes directly out of your salary.

I call all of the above your “Above The Line” salary. Try to figure out what your Above The Line salary is.

You can say, “my company gives me the opportunity to make this above the line salary”. That’s fine. But they take quite a bit. It’s probably four or five times higher than your “Below The Line” salary. There’s better ways to get your “Above the Line” salary so you personally benefit from it. Most companies are very wasteful and you pay for that waste directly out of your salary.

Then there’s your Below-the-Line salary.

40% goes to Federal and State taxes. This is already after your services have been taxed at the corporate level, now your being taxed another 40% at the personal level.

Note that only salaried employees pay 40%. Nobody else does.

The richest Americans pay less than 15% on average on gains in their net worth. That’s because salaried employees are slaves and have the least political power.

Another 5-8% goes to taxes on everything you consume. Now we are almost at 50%.

Then, like most Americans, you have a mortgage. Maybe this is another 10-20% of your salary. Your company likes you to own your house because you are less likely to quit (you need the money to pay the mortgage) and you are less likely to move (you’re not mobile).

Then student loans you are paying off. For the first time ever, greater than 50% of the unemployed have college degrees. So it”s pretty scary. You got this degree because (in part) you thought it would get you a job. But it didn’t guarantee anything and now you have to pay for it. Some percentage of your salary is sliced off every month to pay for that degree.

Then some portion of your salary goes towards health, upkeep of your relationships (they always cost money. This is not being cynical. Just reality), your transportation to your job (they force you to pay for the honor of transporting yourself to your slavequarters).

How much goes to you? You wake up before dawn. You travel. You work hard. You come home late. You’re feeling stuck. You’re mildly depressed and may take medication for this. And you have trouble sleeping and digesting.

Shouldn’t you get paid more?

As it stands, between above the line and below the line expenses taken out of your salary, you are probably left with 1/10 of your salary. In other words, you could be making ten times as much money if you started to un-slave yourself.

Then there’s behavior. “I can do whatever I want,” I used to say. In fact, when i was at a job I felt free. I could “sneak out” at 4pm. I could take lots of breaks. Vacations were big.

But did you look at the manual?

There’s a big manual. And sometimes there are workshops to go over the manual.

Like you can’t talk to people of the opposite sex in certain ways. They teach you what are good ways to talk to people of the opposite sex.

You can’t talk to your boss a certain way. Because for all of your slavery, all he has to say is, “you’re fired” and all of that goes away.

You can’t wear what you want. Most office situations have a uniform, either explicit or implicit.

You can’t be friends with who you want. You’re mostly just friends with the people you spend your day with – the other slaves. When they go away you never talk to them again.

You can’t be creative when inspiration hits. “Anything done on equipment owned by the company is intellectual property owned by the company”. Good luck arguing with that one.

You can’t have an office romance even though those are the only women you know. For one thing you might get fired. And all of your emails can be read by human resources. My closest friend when I was at HBO was fired when his office romance went awry and all of his emails were read by his boss.

If you want more money, you have to beg for it. There are entire seminars created just to teach people how to ask for 5% more money at work. People are scared to death to Ask.

And by the time you get home to have real social interactions, you’re tired and bitter and angry at work.

I know I’m doing a little bit of projecting here. This was my personal experience about having a job.

I felt like a slave. I hated it. Maybe a lot of people like it. But I am just doing the math. The Above the Line salary is real and comes straight out of your pocket before you even knew that money was there.

Most people can make 5-10x more by being creative and figuring out how to offer services on their own without the company taking out all of the “Above the Line” expenses. And then there are ways to limit the “Below the Line” expenses.

Money won’t solve all of your problems, but it will solve your money problems. Don’t let them take your money so they can keep you in slavery.

You want to own your time. Own your work. Own the value you create for others. Protect yourself so nobody can fire you. Not be owned by the bank or the government. Not be owned by your relationships. Own your thoughts.

“I can’t just quit my job!” you might say.

And I agree with this. Don’t quit.

So many people read self-help books to help them deal with what they think are the realities of work. Self-help books are often self-hurt books because they try to keep you happy about being enslaved.

For instance, “show compassion to the people who hurt you” many of them say. This might be good advice. But I’d rather show compassion to the people who love me.

Start to be an explorer. We live in a 15 trillion dollar economy. You helped create it. Just like slaves and death and misery helped create the beautiful pyramids.

But 90% of what you create is taken from you.

Start to explore what parts you can take back. Work every day on ideas. List every interest you’ve had since you were a kid. List every business or job that can be started from that interest. Read every day about your interests.

Don’t be angry at the people at work, even your boss. They are all slaves also. You need to break free from them. Don’t indulge your free thoughts on the other slaves with their Rolex shackles.

Study the lives of people who aren’t slaves. What did they do? Study the people online who seem to have broke free. What are they doing? Keep working on the idea muscle I discuss in my book.

I did this. And in six months my life changed completely. Sometimes for the worse. Much worse. I didn’t know what I was doing and sometimes I ended up on the floor, depressed and suicidal.

Sometimes freedom is very scary. It’s outside of the jail cell (“comfort zone”) you created for yourself.

But every six months since then my life has changed completely. My life is completely different than it was even six months ago.

Sixteen years ago I had a boss yell at me. He’s a good guy and has since broken free himself. But one time he yelled at me and I couldn’t yell back or I would risk being fired. I felt like crying. Actually, I did cry.

So I went to the library on 41st Street and 5th Avenue. I found a science fiction book I read once before as a kid. It had that cellophane wrapping and a library card in it. And it had that smell when you open the pages.

I went three or four levels down, to my private bathroom in the library. My sanctum sanctorum.

And I sat there and I read about a man who lived forever and was happy. And the world disappeared and for a brief moment I was no longer a slave.

From that moment on I plotted my escape. And every day since, I figure out new ways to escape, new ways to be free. New ways to own my world.

Post: #2

I love James Altucher and I love this text! Its true there is so much money and opportunity out there but most ppl choose to be slaves and get only leftovers and scraps. They are too scared to ever leave the script they got from society and try something else. I blame the educational system because from a young age we are trained to be slaves and they try to break every sparkle of individuality and free thinking out of you. Society needs slaves, our whole economy depends on it. People always wonder how can humans in third world shitholes be so poor and still be so happy? Its because they are more free than the average wage slave in western society! They have a community and big family, they own their house and dont pay mortgage on it and they have a small business and are their own boss. Compare that to the average western lifestyle who has way more money but way less freedom. People here are isolated, work all the time and still live from paycheck to paycheck, they have to listen to their boss, are bombarded with marketing, brainwashing and advertising every day making them feel even more inferior. And all of this is considered perfectly normal! No wonder more people are getting depressed and take drugs/medication to cope with all the insanity. The biggest irony to me is that we are told we are the pinnacle of civilization and to look down on everyone else as inferior.

Post: #3

James Altucher is great. I recommend signing up for his email list. He always has interesting stories.

Post: #4

I am in the process of reading his book now. Do you think that it is worth to continue reading? I am not very far into it, but I want to come up with a new business idea.

I have a business school education (accountant), so I know I can be successful, but the trick is always coming up with that idea.

Post: #5

I don't even know where to start. So many things wrong with that blog post.

The ideas simply don't hold water.

(09-05-2013 07:25 AM)JA Wrote:  If you want more money, you have to beg for it. There are entire seminars created just to teach people how to ask for 5% more money at work. People are scared to death to Ask.

So now you're running your own business and you want to raise your billing rate 5% to your most important client. And you have huge overheads to pay, employees who expect their pay packet. If your client walks, you might go bust. Is that somehow less scary?

Can you talk to your client any way you want? Or do you have to manage your relationships carefully?

Cristiano Ronaldo makes 1 million euros per month as an elite soccer player. Maybe 4 days a week he has to show up to training at 10am. When there's a game, he gets told to show up with a certain uniform at club headquarters, ready to catch the departing flight to another city.

When a company wants to pay him 500 grand to promote him in an ad campaign, he has to show up on time so they can shoot some photos of him.

So don't be Cristiano, because you have to show up places on someone else's schedule and comply with something greater than yourself. You're a slave.

Instead, we should all aspire to write blogs to each other on our WordPress sites.

Post: #6

Interesting read..

Post: #7

Quote:When a company wants to pay him 500 grand to promote him in an ad campaign, he has to show up on time so they can shoot some photos of him.

So don't be Cristiano, because you have to show up places on someone else's schedule and comply with something greater than yourself. You're a slave.

The analagy is faulty: I doubt Cristiano is living pay check to pay check and has multiple investments(EFT's, real estate, savings ect) unlike most middle-class Americans are.

Depending on his lifestlyle he won't be on the dole the next day if he tells the team:"Fuck you, I quit"

Obviously the mega-rich and self-employed don't control 100% of their lives but the football example takes the OP's premise to the ridiculous extreme.

Post: #8

I wouldn't say I agree 100%. I am a slave by his definition, but I don't feel like one. The key is to find a bullshit job* that meets the following conditions:

- You don't hate it. Ideally you love it, but I can't love any job, so not hating it is ok.
- The less you see your boss the better. He doesn't bother you too much.
- The job doesn't spill over outside work hours (a few times a year is ok, but not regularly). Even during work hours you have enough time to relax, run some errands and think about non-work related things.
- You have a reasonable amount of paid time off and are not afraid to take it (I would say at least 20 days/year in the US)
- You are paid reasonably well and don't have to worry about basic things like shelter, health, food, etc.
- You have some degree of stability and job security. Also, because you're paid reasonably well, you can save some money for your own safety net in case you lose the job.
- Probably the most important one: because it's a bullshit job, you don't really feel bad about getting paid 1/10 of what you produce, because bullshit jobs by definition don't add much value to society. For example, a construction worker laying brick and working outdoors all the time feels much worse about getting paid 1/10th his real salary than a "bullshit strategist" whose job is to sit around and bullshit in meetings in a comfortable office between coffee and lunch breaks.


* http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

Post: #9

(09-05-2013 06:47 PM)Goldin Boy Wrote:  The analagy is faulty: I doubt Cristiano is living pay check to pay check and has multiple investments(EFT's, real estate, savings ect) unlike most middle-class Americans are.

Depending on his lifestlyle he won't be on the dole the next day if he tells the team:"Fuck you, I quit"

Obviously the mega-rich and self-employed don't control 100% of their lives but the football example takes the OP's premise to the ridiculous extreme.

I disagree. The blog is trying to drive toward some theme. It wants to point out what's desirable and why. My post works just fine as a counter-example.

I mentioned the example of a guy who runs his own business. He still has the same problems as the employee, only more acute.

I mentioned the example of a high value guy who still has to work within the employee model. Those restrictions are not important. His life still kicks ass.

So the difference in getting to an awesome life doesn't all come down to being an employee or not. It must be some other dimension, some other variable. What could it be?

My immediate answer would be something closer to the philosophy WestCoast often talks about. Have a high value skill, stack cash, achieve financial independence.

You just alluded to that in your post. The fundamental difference between Cristiano and a clock watching drone living paycheck to paycheck is - net worth. Also fame, but mainly net worth.

How do you achieve net worth without trading your time/labor for income?

How do you earn good money without being answerable to someone? Whether that someone is a client, a boss, a cornerstone investor, the general public?

I guess you could be a trustafarian. Nice work if you can get it.

Do you have any other ideas?

That said, I also take issue with the idea that employment is slavery. The whole premise makes me angry.

People are dying of exposure in the desert or washing up drowned on the beach in a vain attempt to cross the border. All they want is to get to a rich country and work.

Why is it so hard to accept that a regular job can provide a pretty great material standard of living? I see that as a flagrant lack of gratitude and positive thinking.

Post: #10

edit: and only now I see the last post was a year ago. I feel like a dolt.