The Part-Time Trader: Trading Stock as a Part-Time Venture, + Website

CHAPTER 4

Don't Quit Your Day Job ... SERIOUSLY!

Continuing the theme of the last chapter, I'd like to share with you my next motivational movie, probably as inspirational as Rocky, Rudy, and Chariots of Fire combined, and that is Office Space.

My favorite scene from the movie occurs when Peter Gibbons, who has completely lost all interest and motivation in his current job, tells the “Workplace Efficiency” job consultants exactly how he feels. In a moment of unabated honesty, Gibbons proceeds to share with the consultants how he uses the side door when coming in late, “spaces out” for the first hour after sitting down at his desk, and repeats those same methods during his extended lunch break.

What really hits at the core of my inner being is when he speaks to the “Bobs” about his inability to be motivated on the job, citing the fact that he works for eight different bosses, and how if he improves the efficiency of the workplace or saves the company a large sum of money, he doesn't see a single dime of what was saved as a result.

And to bring it home he concludes, “So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.”

For me it couldn't have been any different.

■ Just Like the “Real World”

That last statement says it all. When I was still tirelessly working ...