Workin It Out

The following is it Terry Wise Production. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Wise Thoughts. I'm Terry Weiss and I'm so glad that you've decided to join us today on the podcast. I'm gonna try and make it time well spent for you. Just remember I do have a website, wisthoughts dot com. Just make sure you spell my name right Wyce Waste thoughts dot com. There you can go listen to each and every episode of this podcast, by the way, and if you want to comment on the show, by all means, I welcome any and all feedback, both positive and done. Not so positive, I could say, but I just hope you're all doing well out there. And oh boy, oh boy, got got some things to talk about on the show today. As we're going to make this a special Labor Day weekend edition, but you're getting it a little bit early here on the podcast, a Labor Day twenty twenty three edition, we're going to talk about, well, what it's like to work, at least in the United States of America For some of you out there working, I'm sure some of you can probably relate to some of things we're going to talk about. Coming up in the program today, and just a couple of other quick things to get to before we do that. Though. If you want to communicate with me on X formerly known as Twitter, but I guess now it's known as X, you can. I used to always say you can tweet at me on Twitter. I love that. I'm like, man, that is so good. Terry tweet at me on Twitter. Well, now tweet at me on X. It's at Terry Weiss w y c at Terry Weiss. Also got a YouTube channel, just look for wise Thoughts if you want to search YouTube. I'm over on rumble as well. And what's the other one, Tumbler. I think we're on Tumbler if I'm not mistaken. And Facebook as well, Facebook dot com backslash, Wie thoughts on Facebook. Okay, and if you want to just old fashion, just email me. You can send it to mail m A I L mail at wie thoughts dot com. Don't be bashville, don't be shy. If you have questions for me, or if there's a topic or you need follow up on something or more information as well too, you can do that. Just mail M A I L mail atwice thoughts dot com. All right, sounds good. Great, So let's gather around the virtual campfire, shall we. Right now, grab your grab your favorite beverage, and let's get a seat around our virtual campfire, and let's get in to today's episode of Wie Thoughts. Now as we go along. This is the special special. It's just the Labor Day edition. But again you're hearing it a little bit early before Labor Day. But we're going to talk about what it's like to be a worker, especially in the United States of America. Now, I'm going to share with you some insight on some jobs I've had in the past. And I guess it's an exciting time to be a worker in the United States of America in that the work landscape itself is changing, and with the advent of technology, we've got remote you know, you can work remotely from your house. Man, you can work remotely from home, and there's a lot from what I've seen, there's a lot of decent paying jobs out there with some decent benefits. Now, again, working from home does not come without its challenges, of course, obviously, if you happen to have pets, children, other people in the household. Depending on your internet connection and the type of employment that you would have working from home. But it also offers I think a lot of freedom in that you don't have to spend that commute time to get to and fro you know two and back and forth from you from your job go driving to an office or a job site. Some other advantages is you don't have to worry about spending a lot of money and clothing. I mean, I don't know if any I don't know if any work from home job that has a dress code other than if you go on meetings like Zoom meetings or Microsoft team meetings that you have clothes on. Remember that have clothes on? Okay, do that. So that being said though, however, there's really not a dress code. I mean I've had some work from home jobs in the past where I've worn shorts and a T shirt because i didn't have to be on camera or anything like that. I mean, it affords you that freedom, and it saves you a ton a ton of money on having to go out by the clothing and things of that nature. So that's great. There's also the wear and tear in a vehicle, fueling the vehicle, etc. Another thing, you know, packing having to pack a lunch, you know, for your break or if you were like me, I spent a lot. And I mean when I say a lot my friends for me, I mean some of you might say it's nothing, terry. I spent when I was having to commute to and fro because I wasn't a very good person at packing my lunch or bringing over, you know, bringing leftovers to the office from home. I just I just wanted boom order it being boom. I was spending four hundred plus dollars a month on food, and my wife actually at the time, had brought it to my attention and she said, honey, you are spending over over four hundred dollars a month. I'm eating five days a week. She was, do you realize four hundred dollars a month, that's a car payment, you know, that's you know, a third of a mortgage. And I'm like, holy crap, you're right, You're absolutely right. So working from home definitely, you know, in today's society does have its advantages. Now, there are certain types of jobs you can't work from home. And I realize some of you don't have probably you know, some of you out there probably don't have them. The ways and the means to work from home, and I get it, I get it, you know, but if you can, man, I mean, it's a great gig to get, you know, like being a customer service rep, a sales rep, data entry, all kinds of thing, project planners, you know, things of that nature, coders, whatever, you know. I mean, there's just such a plethora of opportunity and employment out there to work from home. I would advise you, if you're not already working from home and you're looking for a job, look at those possibilities, explore that and see just be very careful because, like with anything, unfortunately nowadays, there's a lot of scammers out there that look to take advantage of One of the first things I'll tell you is that you should never whether it's a work from home opportunity or otherwise, you should never ever ever have to pay anyone to get a job. Ever. I don't care what the premises, I don't know, I don't care what the promises. Do not ever pay. That's a big, big, huge red banner, red flag that it's probably a scam. Because any company worth its weight and salt, we'll say, hey, we're gonna send you for a drug test. We're gonna do a background check, et cetera. We need this, or we'll supply you with the equipment. You know, some of the work from home gigs you know, will say, hey, you have to have your own computer and internet access. That's fine. But if a company or so called organization starts asking you to shell out money, shell out some bucks for you to have a job, to work for them, to generate capital for them, that's a big red flag and runaway, all right. I mean there are still a lot of traditional job opportunities out there as well. I don't know about you, but in my part of the woods, my neck of the woods in the Northeast from whence the program podcast here come to you on a weekly basis, there's a lot of job, job openings, help wanted signs. Now. I know, I know some of you are going to say, Terry, Yeah, every time I drive by a Tim Horton's or a you know, a Starbucks or something. You know, these pizzerias they got help wanted signs. But hey, there's a start, okay. I mean, just because you were making fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars a year doesn't mean you're going to get another fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars your job. You might have to take a do the Docy dough man, take a couple of steps backwards to move forwards again, or what have you. But those opportunities and you're just gonna look, you've I guess I can't stress enough that you have to be your own best manager, your own best agent. Let's let's put it that way. You have to be your agent. You know we've got movie agents, talent agencies, sports agents. You hear all that kind of talk all the time. You have to be your best agent for yourself. No one's really gonna that I know of, is gonna walk up and say, oh, you're Terry Weiss. Hey man, here's a job. Here's it. I mean. Granted, I've been offered opportunities in the past by people just through networking and connections and they heard I was a free agent. As what we're back in the market. Or I've had people call me in the past while I've been employed and said, hey, are you thinking, oh I'm making a move ever, because we'd love to have you over here on our team for this, or we'd like to talk to you about this project. Keep yourself open for opportunities always, I would say, explore the opportunity as far as you can if you're currently employed. Because getting back to the idea of you being your own agent, you're an agent for your life. You're an agent for what happens to you. You're an agent for how you you know, I'll fire you advance, and what's you're paid, and how you're treated, not just in the employment universe, but in life itself, my friends. I mean, let's just be honest here. You You know, there's a lot of great memes going around the Internet, whether it's on x slash formerly known as Twitter, you know, TikTok and Facebook, YouTube shorts and tumbling all these places, you'll see this meme creep up every once in a while, that you teach people how to treat you. And you know, it's taken me many, many, many a year to internalize that that thought and realize, you know, and it's absolutely true. I'm teaching people how to treat me all the friggin time, and so are you, my friends. So bear that in mind. You know, we're teaching people how to treat us. I'm in the level of respect they give to us. Now, I'm not saying you got to be a hard ass and be a you know, nasty and say, you know, the first time you feel that you're wrong, to just go off and and go off on somebody like a maniac. I mean, have a little hacked, you know, but just let someone know, Hey, you know, I don't I didn't appreciate that, or I don't appreciate being talked to in this manner, or this is a boundary with however you want to explain it. But you know, remember you're your own best agent. Be your agent, be you know, be an agent for yourself, especially especially in the workplace. Now, I've had some experiences both in working in the home and working out of the home in the past I'll give you the ladder first here and working out of the home, I have had some places that treated me great, treated all their employees like I don't want to say family, because it's not. I mean, any employer says, oh, we're like a family. I and again this is just my opinion, I think that's a very disingenuous statement. You know, it's you, it's your employer. At the end of the day. If you do something malicious enough to you know, defame the company or hurt the company, or you know, cause the company to lose face in the public eye or profits or whatever. They're gonna cut you. They're gonna cut you faster than you can shake a stick. So you're not really family, all right, at least that's been my experience. Not that I've done any of those aforementioned things. It's just that I've seen it happen to people i've you know, it's just very disingenuous for a company to say, oh, we treat everyone like family. We're not a family. You're my employer. Okay, we're distant acquaintances, work colleagues, what have you. You are not family. I draw a very different line between people I associate with at a job, whether it be virtually or in person, and my actual family and my actual quote friends. Now I've made friends, I have made friends at jobs, mind you, and outside of work, we've had things, but at the end of the day, like you know, people like supervisors, people on a management role, what have you, they're just my employer. You can be friendly, but in no way that I ever consider these people family. And again that's just been my experience. Now you out there may have had a different experience, and if you have, hey, you know, comment on the podcast. You know. If you're on Spotify, you can put comments below. If you're on the White Thoughts website at wice thoughts dot com, you can log in and comment below this episode, or shoot me out an email at mail at waite thoughts dot com. Let me know if your experience, as far as you know, in the workplace, have you ever been felt like you were treated like family. I'd love to hear you know, hear back from me and let me know what you think. If you're listening on YouTube, you can put comments down below there as well. For that I believe on YouTube were distributed through Purple Pit Studios. If you look for Purple Pit Purple Pit Studios on YouTube, and it allows you to comment underneath the episode. If you're listening here or there, they're here. It's also confusing. But anyway, I just think again, just to close this out, I just think an employer saying we treat our employees like family is just very disingenuous. They're your employer, you're the employee. You have a fiduciary responsibility to show up for work, perform the best that you can perform follow the realistic and lawful rules and regulations of an organization. And that's where I stand on that, and you know that's that's the way it should be now. So I've worked for some great organizations in the past, and I've worked for some not so great organizations. There was an organization back in the nineties, the nineteen nineties for you out there listening that may be a little younger, not the eighteen nineties, the nineteen nineties. That was a large retail organization which is now bankrupt, but they were doing very questionable shall we say questionable? Hang on one second, hear just fix in the min fixing the microphone. Apologies for that, my friends questionable business practices and myself and others. I'm not going to take full credit on this particular information I'm providing, but myself, along with some others didn't think it was right. So we confidentially reported that organization and I similarly left that organization not very long after that because I just didn't feel comfortable working for an organization that was doing something that I felt was unethical and turned out to be unlawful. Down the road that we found out with that organization I did not wish to participate, and some others as well, and we left the organization. Other than that, the people that worked there were great. It's just the marching orders I guess they had gotten from the higher ups was sketchy, questionable, and turned out to be unlawful. That's all I'll see on that. But again, I've worked for some organizations that treated their employees very well, and some that were indifferent, and some that were just outright terrible. One experience I'll relate to you here was my most recent experience. Now, for those of you that follow the podcast, you know, if you dig into some past episodes, about four or five episodes, the past four or five episodes back or so, I had related to you that I was working for an organization, a nationwide organization, mind you, which for the under the auspices of professionalism, into quorum and just being in good taste. I'm not going to mention that company's name anymore, although they are out of business now. They were quote unquote acquired by another organization. And anyway, this nationwide company that I worked for, and again you can dig into my feelings, and just to confirm here that I was having I myself and many others. I mean literally, and again, I'm not trying to be I can't stress enough. I'm not trying to be you know, say overstate this or garner your support or empathy on this, but literally, a fair estimate would say sixty five to seventy percent of my co workers at this organization had similar, if not more intense feelings of angst that I had in regards to the way that the organization started treating us in the past twenty four months before it finally you know, went defunct and was acquired and taken over and put out of its misery. It was a nationwide organization that had used to you know, some six plus years ago when I had first joined, it had a fantastic management team. They were phenomenal. I mean it. You know, when you you hear corporate buzzwords like coaching and you know, things like that positive work and fire environment. We respect your opinions, we welcome your suggestions. We want to summarily as as a you know team, you hear the corporate buzz word, We're all a team here. Everyone's ideas are important, were diversified. There's no retaliatory process. All these corporate buzzwords that HR and corporate corporations you know, throw around and throw at you. And when I first I was recruited by this organization, and I was in a whole different field. I used to work in the in the cellular industry in a mid level management capacity, and I saw this opportunity at a something that was totally different. I had never done before, and I thought this might be a different opportunity because my career in the cellular phone industry was getting stagnant. There was a rumor that the company I worked for was going to be bought out by another one, you know, that company in the cellular industry was trying to sell the company for like four or five years that I was there, and I was there, you know, pretty much a decade. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to be proactive this time instead of reactive. So I started looking again, being my own best agent, see seeking what opportunities were available out there. And I came across this company and I thought I filled out the application literally at like six o'clock in the morning one day, I think it was a Wednesday. As a matter of fact, I had filled it out some six plus years ago and literally at nine thirty year I think it was either nine thirty or nine forty five am. I got a call from their recruiting team saying, hey, we like, you know, we liked these qualifications that you put up and can you come in for an interview. I'm like, sure, when how's tomorrow? Well, it happened to be my day off, you know, that was the day off I had two days back to back at Wednesdays and Thursdays at the cellular company I was working for. I said absolutely sure, tell me you know what time and where they did. I went in dressed business casual, you know, I you know, I just made the assumption business casu roll, you know, nice dress pants, shoes, shirt tie, went in and interviewed with two individuals in a room. You know. The interview process was about an hour, you know, lots of questions, you know, back and forth, feedback, what have you, just you know, gauging. They were getting a feel for me and I was getting a feel for them. I thought it was a great process. Afterwards, they said, hey, you know, we like what we hear, we like what we're you know, we like what's in front of us and I was feeling comfortable, and they asked, would you like to stay for about another half hour to an hour and go to our sales floor section just to get a feel for the company and get a better gauge. I was absolutely yeah, Sure, so I did. And again this was on my time. I wasn't expecting any kind of compensation. I'm not like that. I'm not always with my hand out, okay, And I did that similar you know down the road. Summarily, I was went through the process drug test everything, you know, second interview, what have you, and was presented an offer letter and you reviewed it. I took forty eight hours because that's usually what I take. I usually take a couple of days to mold something over. That's just me. Your process might be quicker, but I like to have just at least that forty eight hours two days just to let things settle, because emotions can run high and feelings and what have you, and I for me, I have found for myself anyway, that it's better if I review those things and give myself that forty eight hour window, because I feel I make a better informed decision. So anyhow long long short than the matter of the onboarding process. I accepted their offer. It was actually a little bit better money than I was making, but again I was you know, it was a little it was a little daunting because I was stepping away from an organization that prior in the cell phone industry, that I had over almost a decade in of time, experience, comfortability in the job, a lot of friends, you know, work type friends and colleagues there, okay, and felt comfortable with the organization. Only outlier being is that they were actively shopping themselves for the past two years to try and get bought out because they just wanted to dump the company. So anyway, I come on with this, you know, the new company here, and it's an inside you know, in an office and a big call center type situation, and I was going to be an agent for you know, customers, clients calling in and acquiring services. And again, I don't want to divulge too much because I'm going to tell you some of the things that happened there, but I'm not going to mention names or again the company or companies names in this just for again being in good form, all right, you know, I'm I'm trying to to be vindictive and I just don't think it'd be good form to do that. So anyway, I went through their training process. Now their training process was two solid weeks of in classroom training on their facility with a great trainer. I mean a guy that was very affable. He was funny, you know, and everything else. So anyway, so we can do that. And I went in there, did the training. We did all that stuff, and then we hit the floor and started taking calls and bound calls and what have you. So anyway, long and a short of it, you know, got comfortable in the job, started, you know, learning the job. The Ropes had a couple of little bumps in the road, but the management at the time that they had there some six years ago, you know, if you made what if you want to call it an error or a mistake, they were very forgiving. They were very helpful. They understood, Hey, you're new, you're just starting out. They would call you into a small office and say, hey, I just want to show you something, or let's listen to this call and what do you think about that? What do you think though about this section here? Is there something that you might have if you had to take that call over? But I didn't take it as confrontational, It was very very helpful. It was like almost like a friend pulling aside and saying, hey, man, you know, we're playing baseball, and you know you're kind of missing when the ball because I think you're swinging to earlier this or that. It was very helpful, very very helpful, you know, and that I was so pleased with. I was so happy with. I was like, wow, this is kind of something different instead of the I got you, you know, or the wagging of the corporate finger at you, you know, so that I really enjoyed. So, you know, I continued to grow with the company and learn in my role, learn new skills, learn the industry I was in, and taking my vast customer service skills that I had acquired over the years as well and management skills. Proceeded to build upon a career there. Now fast forward a couple of years, about four years into it, and the current upper management team and our CEO decide it's time for them to move along, you know, they and God bless them, you know, they created a product, they created a business, and they poured a lot into it and what have you, and now they wanted to, you know, move on. Down down the road and enjoy their life. And that is great. I mean that that's what it's all about, isn't it, building building a life for yourself and moving down down the line and reaping the benefits of your harvest. You know. With that. However, however, my friends, I digress. Upon departure of the leader of the helm Our CEO, within about three months the individual they brought in, it went from the way I described it to my fellow employees that I was seeing about six months or so in and going down the road, and then a year in just one particular phrase kept popping into my mind. We went from a culture of caring about the customer as well as the well being of the business to caring only about the cash register. Let me repeat that the company that I was working for went from caring about the customer as well as the success of the business to only caring about the cash register. And policies were enacted and things were changed that not only did not benefit the customer, mind you, it was at the detriment of current and longstanding and new employees. It started breeding an atmosphere of resentment of confrontation from management instead of cooperation. A lot of long standing middle and upper management team members left the company just for the sheer environment that was becoming very toxic. Where I last worked was a clear, clear example of a toxic working environment. I mean, if you would look up toxic work environment on Wikipedia, I could give you the where I last worked and for the last three years, especially the last two years, hands down number one, and the award goes to them. It went from again a platform of cooperation and coaching with your employees to confrontation, constant confrontation. And I myself cannot speak to how many times I was told by man different different members of new management that was brought in, well, that's just the way it is. It has to be done this way. That's it. We're changing, the company's evolving. Or the buzzword, the corporate buzz fraid that I learned to fucking hate and pardon my f bomb there, ladies and gentlemen, but that I hate. It's the needs of the business, the needs of the business. Can I say that with anymore disdain in my voice? The needs of the business. Their emphasis on my disdain and what I felt that management was like there and a lot of good people left. I was one of the last handful of surviving team members that tried to rough it out, you know, and it was awful, awful the gas lighting that went on the out and out and you know, ladies and gentlemen. I think, in my humble opinion, the term gas lighting is just another term for being a frigging liar. You're lying. That's what I equate gaslighting to gaslighting. Is that as George Carlin, God rest his soul, used to say, that soft language, you know, when you say someone is calorie challenge, No, they're frigging fat. Okay, same thing. Gaslighting. No, you're a dog one liar. That's what you are. You're a liar, a no good, dirty, rotten scoundrel, and a liar. And it just started infuriating me. I mean, just the lack of respect by you know that we had great management team members leave and they replaced them with overgrown narcissistic children that got excited and pounded their chest at the title behind their name. I'm a supervisor, I'm a supervisor, I'm a company you know, call center director, and blah blah blah. You're idiots, you're insensitive narcissistic children, is what you were That's what I call you, okay, And that's exactly And ladies and gentlemen, I don't say that as a singular opinion. Ninety percent of the staff they're currently held the same low regard for them. I just happened to be more boisterous and vocal about it. Now. I was respectful to them as human beings. I didn't say the words I actually wanted to say to them, but I did call them out on many occasions. I even went as far as to go to Human Resources to ask for help. And I know because I was in management. Believe me, I was in management, I was in at other things, and I knew going to Human Resources was basically painting a large target on my back and eventually I was going to be broomed out the door. But at that point, when you go to HR, I feel and again just my humble opinion, ladies and gentlemen, just my opinion. My humble opinion was, when you go to HR, you are already one foot out the door. You're just waiting for them to usher you out because you don't want to give them the satisfaction of resigning your employment. And I wasn't about to do that I wasn't about to give them the satisfaction. I was also exploring other job opportunities along the way until I started and did something else. So that being said, the last two years of working for the last organization I was at was complete and utter. There's no other way to describe it. It was a toxic hell. I started having issues with my health, everything from migraine, headaches, blood pressure going up, stress, anxiety, you know, depression, you name it was, it was happening. And it was an environment I definitely, most definitely was not going to stay in. But I was trying to weed my way out the door. But again without giving them the satisfaction of resigning, I was going to let them, you know, end my employment. I guess. Call it a punitive thing, call it a you know, being childlike, I guess, you know, and especially at my age, you know, being over half a century old. But they brought out, they were bringing out the worst in me, and I wasn't liking who I was becoming there and I knew it, you know. But if I may pat myself on the back, I did everything I could acquiesce to try and conform, to try and cooperate with that management team to no avail. They just found new and in more inventive ways to screw with me, not only me, but over eighty five percent of the other staff that were there. And uh, you know, some people just did things to get themselves fired. And I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't violate company policy or you know, be disrespectful to a member of a management team, no matter how low I think of them as a human being and how unqualified I think they are to lead people. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of stooping to that level. Nor would I disrespect my clients. My clients had nothing to do with the poor decisions made by the organization, not their fault. So that being said, you know, I acquiesced, and when the buyout offers started coming and my company was eventually sold to another organization, I cheered that. I was happy that had happened. In that it was almost like being put out of your misery, you know, it was like take an old yell er out to the back. Now there was again still some gas lighting, i e. Lying going on by the you know, those administrators and managers and supervisors. While the takeover was happening that they well, we might keep a lot of you, et cetera, et cetera. Well, the new organization that came in, I don't have anything against them. They were just doing what a new corporate entity would do. They looked at what they had, they looked at their staffing compared to the staffing of the organization they were acquiring, and said, you know what, we don't need a lot of these people. So basically, they cut about eighty five percent of us loose, and I was one of them, which I'm totally at peace with. I'm fine. I guess the moral of this long story that I'm telling you is that, again, folks, be your own agent. If you're in a work environment that's unhealthy, it's causing you sleepless nice nights, stress, high blood pressure, anxiety attacks, migraine, headaches, upset stomachs ulcers, or whatever, get out. Do what you can to get out. You got to do something that you feel comfortable in. Comfortable in your own skin. I'm sure you've heard that that phrase many a time. You've got to be comfortable in your skin. Well, you've got to be comfortable and enjoy doing what you're doing. You know, there's no magic pill, there's no magic organization that's going to acquiesce and give you everything you want. There's give and take. It's a relationship. It's like anything in life. It's a relationship. And being employed is a relationship. Whether you're working at a large organization, a small organization, a family organization, or you're running and doing your own thing and our self employed, it's always a relationship, a relationship between you and management, you and your clients, you and your vendors, you and your fellow employees, employer, what have you. It's all about a relationship. However, if that relationship, and please, I can't stress this enough, guys, if that relationship is toxic, at the hell out of there as fast as you possibly can. You, like I always tell you on the program on Whice Thoughts, you only get one life, right, you only get one life. Why spend it somewhere where you're going to be miserable, and especially at a job where you're miserable. And I know, I know I said the same things that you said have probably saying right now in your mind are out loud. But Terry, this pays the bills, this pays the mortgage, This is paying for my mom's medical treatment. This is putting my son, daughter, friends or college. This is buying my car, this is buying my boat, my summer home. But at what price, That's what I want to ask you. At what price is it giving you? Is it taking your health? Are you going to die ten years younger from a stroke or a heart attack because you're going to put up with stress for the next you know, five to ten years that you're just well, not me, my friends, I mean, if you can, if your constitution can handle that, God bless you, God bless you. You're a better man or woman than I am. I was thankfully put out of my misery from that that last work environment, thankfully, and I've gone on to do bigger and better things. You know it, I know it. I mean, if you go to Terryweise dot com t e r R y WYC. I've launched a voice over business. Okay, I've kind of been doing it off and on, but I really just started pulling a lot more into that, you know, and you can check that out. I'm not going to shamelessly plug myself here on end. I've also started another business where I formed a partnership in an event entertainment organization that you're going to be seeing coming down the road as well. Hoping to launch that later this year and have we got our first event coming up later in the year hopefully so should start seeing some repercussions and some financial gain from that in twenty twenty four early twenty twenty four, and I'll give you more information on that as it becomes available as well, and things too. It's wholesome family entertainment. You know, we're not doing anything crazier outlandish, you know, like having you know, porcupine races or anything crazy. But it's wholesome family entertainment and it's based around the rail industry and such and holiday train rides. It's something that everyone can enjoy, something where you can you can make lifetime memories. Am I doing more than when I was doing at my other quote unquote job career? Yeah, I'm doing more now than in trying to get these things launched and off the ground. And there's a lot of there's a lot of what they what they called footwork. There's a lot of footwork involved in it. But you know what, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying the process. I'm enjoying the stress that may come along with it because it's good stress. It's better stress, as if there is such a way. I mean, we all stress in our lives every day, good, bad, and indifferent. It's it's it's good and indifferent stress. It's not the you know, like I feel like I'm just banging my head against a brick wall, all type of stress, and I'm thankful that the Good Lord above for that. You know. All I'm going to implore upon you is, like I said on this labor day, think about it. Think about where you are, who you're working for, what organization you're working for, or better yet, what hopes and dreams do you have? Have you ever thought about starting your own business, writing a book, becoming a musician, a poet, becoming a caterer, becoming a voiceover artist, becoming an actor an actress, maybe serving the elderly, maybe doing something. If you have a tattoo artist. I have a friend who wants to become a tattoo artist. And the man I'm telling you is drawing freehand. Wow, he is talented as all get out, and I keep encouraging him. I'm saying, man, do it, do it, And he throws up some of the blockades that I did and you do. Yeah, but I've got a family, I've got responsibilities, i gotta pay the bills. Well, then ease into it. Don't give up on your dreams. Okay. If you've ever thought about working for yourself, being an entrepreneur, starting your own business, it ain't easy, man, it ain't easy. I'm telling you. I used to have a cleaning business many a decade ago. It wasn't easy then doing that. It's not easy being your own boss. A lot of people have the misconception of I'm gonna be my own boss. I'm gonna do what I want, and I can know when. Because when you start your own business, you don't have one boss. You have all your clients, all your customers and or ie clients are your bosses. Okay. And if you're in a business partnership or corporation you form with some people, they're all okay, you're all equals, and you're the bosses of each other. That they're always You're always gonna have some type of a boss. And if it's a sole proprietorship, again, you're still your clients and your customers or your industry that's gonna be your boss. That's gonna be your plateau, your level, your measuring stick of getting paid and being successful. So remember that, however, the satisfaction you can gain in working for yourself or working with others in a partnership, if you so desire and following your dream, there's nothing, Folks. I lean my head down at night and I know it that I'm working towards something. And you know, I've had people say to me, Hey, Terry, what if that i'll fails? What if your voiceover business fails? What if your entertainment event company fails? Then what are you going to do? Well? I'm going to sleep well at night. I'm going to know that I took a shot at it, and maybe I have to reinvent or just certain parts of the business or businesses, or if all else fails, if all is lost, I'll go to work for another company. I'm employable. I'll find the right fit. I'm employable. So you've remember you've always you always have options. Okay, until they're shoveling dirt into you and putting in the ground, or they're sticking me on the oven for bacon, You've always got options, don't give up. Don't give up and be your own best agent and take care of yourself. You take care of yourself and your mental well being, in physical well being. I'm telling you, my friends, the rest is going to start falling in line. Take it from Terry, I know, run this journey together. If you have any questions, comments, feedback by all means, mail at wise thoughts dot com, email me, love to start a conversation. Tweet at meat well I say, tweet at me on Twitter, Tweet at me on X at Terry Weiss. Let's start a conversation there about this episode. All right, reference this episode in your comments. I'll get back to you absolutely, or leave a comment in the comments sections on Spotify if you're listening on Spotify, or at my website White thoughts dot com. If you're listening there, there's a spot for you there. I'd believe you have to have a Facebook account on the Facebook page. You can do it too, Facebook dot com backslash White's Thoughts. Hey, Terry, I want to talk to you about the episode you had on work for Labor Day. The Labor day and we can start a conversation there. Be happy to have a dialogue with you. Back and forth. Absolutely, but just remember be your own best agent. And like I always tell you my friends, if you want to see a change in the world, you have to be that change you want to see in the world. It all starts with you, the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to animals. God bless you, and I look forward to getting together again around the virtual campfire with you again real. So now take care and have a great day. Thanks for listening to white thoughts.