working for a livelihood is not a video game.
Precisely. That is the kind of article that could be written only by someone who really enjoys his job and doesn't feel daily financial stress. And if you're in that position, you've already won the game.
I do agree with the issues about the downside of sudden success. It illustrates the need to be retiring "to" something instead of just running away from a job you hate. Yes, if your plan for the future involves endless vacations and mai tais on the beach, you will be marvelously happy for a while, and then in a year or two you will very likely be bored and needing to do bigger/better/more exciting things to maintain the happy -- and suddenly poof, there goes that big windfall. OTOH, if you've always wanted to be a SAHP, or an artist, or run a soup kitchen, or rebuild old cars, or whatever, but you have to work a 9-5 job to pay the bills, then the windfall provides you the opportunity to devote your energy to things that are
more important and satisfying to you long-term.
I will also say that there is value in doing things the hard way. Looking back, the most satisfying moments of my life have been the ones that required the most effort, patience, and growth to obtain. The problem with the article is the automatic assumption that the end result must always be a material possession of some sort. I do get that: my StupidCar means a lot to me
because I waited and worked and saved for decades for it, and because I didn't indulge until I had all of my other bases covered. That is a tremendous feeling that I wouldn't have had if someone had handed me a six- or seven-figure check and told me to buy a StupidCar with it.
But you know what is even more satisfying to me than "earning" my way toward my car? Seeing my daughter grow into herself. She is at the very skinny end of the bell curve in several ways, and absolutely none of the parenting skills I know worked with her. So I read and I learned and I thought and I talked to doctors and psychiatrists and teachers, and I basically worked my ass off for most of 20 years to figure her out and give her what she needed -- which, again, did not come naturally to me, and in many cases was the opposite of what I needed (e.g., massive extrovert vs. total introvert). It is far and away the hardest thing I have ever done. And seeing her now, in college, managing herself, getting good grades, developing a tight circle of friends, having ideas and options for a productive career path, and just generally acting like a grown-up who won't need to live in my basement? That is, by far, the single-most satisfying thing I have ever experienced. Because it was hard, because I had to grow in ways I never even imagined -- and because the result of a happy, healthy adult child is infinitely more important than any consumer good.
Defining success based on "things I can buy if I save and am patient" misses the point. Think instead of "things I can do if I invest my skills, time, and effort."
