Magical Career Change - Escape the Organization for Good!

Ernie Zelinski and Nadide T. at the Istanbul Convention Center after Ernie's speech about The Joy of Not Working

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Review on Quintessential Careers by
Nancy Miller

Review of Career Success Without a Real Job on A Dawn Journal

Check out this website if you are Organizationally Averse and Sensationally Creative and Innovative

Top 7 Signs That You Have to Read about unrealjobs in Career Success Without a Real Job by Ernie J. Zelinski who is now writing a book about The Joys of Retirement:

You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job by VIP BOOKS if you would like to simultaneously return dignity to the arts of working and loafing.

You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if your company has raised stupidity to the status of a religion.

You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if you have had 19 jobs in the last two years and didn't have to quit any of them.

You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job if the only time you feel comfortable at work is on casual Fridays.

You just may have to read Career Success Without a Real Job by VIP BOOKS if at your workplace a great work/life balance is something that happens elsewhere.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shely Skye" <shskye@cabrillo.edu>
To: <vip books (at) telus (dot) net;
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2005 4:57 PM
Subject: thank you letter

Ernie Zelinski,

Writing to you from Santa Cruz, I wanted to thank you for writing such funny and inspiring books. I have read the The Joy of Not Working and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. Both are a validation of the choices I have made over these last 20 years.

I am, by profession, a counselor in the community college system in California, USA. I am fortunate to have worked for the last 17 years on a part time basis, usually about 21 hours a week for 8 months a year. I say fortunate because I am able to live on my income, put away some money for retirement and have lots of time off. Because I am a temporary
employee, I also get to apply for unemployment during the times I don't have a contract to work for the school. Thus getting paid to look for work at other community colleges that don't have work for me either. An awkward sentence I know but a sweet deal none the less.

Actually, I never wanted to work. I hated the idea I would have to go somewhere and be trapped there, whether or not there was something for me to do. Finally, after I graduated from college with my degree in American Studies, I did succumb to the whole idea of employment and got a full time job for 5 years. At first it was ok to have enough money to
not have to worry about running out of toothpaste or toilet paper (my personal fears). Soon however, I began to feel dead and hated the whole thing. Two weeks off a year? That's crazy. Plus my work was boring. I finally quit that job, took my retirement money out and traveled around the US and Canada for 6 months. I didn't know what I was going to do but I swore I would never get into a trap like that one again.

During the next couple of years I did this and that, finally realizing if I got my graduate degree in Counseling, I could work for the community college system and only have to work 165 days a year. Plus make a salary that was plenty of money for me. (Did I mention that I am also very good at this work?) I did attend University and complete my graduate education, got a temp job at my current college but never did get that permanent position. This has been somewhat of a professional disappointment to me but on balance, a better choice not to work full time, even if only 8 months a year. Thus I have been, in effect semi-retired for the past 17 years.

I am now looking (longingly) towards retirement. Due to the lack of a health care system in the US, I don't see how I will be able to retire and have enough money for health care. Because I live frugally I will be able to live on my small retirement and pay my bills but as a temporary employee, I will have no access to health benefits as a retiree. I am considering moving to Mexico when I retire as the Mexican government has a health plan that non-nationals can pay into and it is affordable, at
this time about $500 a year.

I'm not sure why I am writing this to you except that many of the examples you highlight in your books are of people who live in countries that have national health care systems that pay for citizen's health
care needs. As a US citizen, I don't have access to any reasonable (i.e. affordable) health care and don't know when I can retire because of this concern. Of course, I could always just throw caution to the wind and hope I don't get sick until I reach the age of 65, when Medicare (for those older retirees) kicks into play.

If I chose to do this, I have 7 more years of part time work to do until I am able to retire at age 60. I have good health as of this time, probably due to not working too much! I backpack for fun and exercise, read and have a couple of book ideas of my own under my belt. I love alternative everything, from green building to living arrangements to lifestyles. I never have fit into the mainstream of western culture and doubt I ever will. More power to us, eh?

So, I just wanted to thank you again for giving voice to those of us who can't, or don't chose to make money in the standard way. If you can find a way to address the issue that US citizens deal with regarding health care it would be enlightening for others I am thinking. Many people have the idea that we, in the middle part of North America, have it made.

Frankly, it isn't what it seems. In fact, it is kind of bizarre to be living in such a wealthy country and not be able to afford health care.

The reasons for which are a whole other topic, which I won't get into here.

I hope this letter finds you still avoiding employment but full of energy to write and create up a storm.

Sincerely,

Shelly Skye
> Santa Cruz, California, USA

----- Original Message -----
From: "cashews1" <cashews1@telus.net>
To: vip books (at) telus (dot) net;
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 8:23 PM
Subject: I finally found something I can relate to

Hello Ernie Zelinski:

Just about finished your 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting and am loving it. ( I did skim to the end ahem.)

I think I will definitely have to take this book with me when I retire and purchase my motorhome.
(Should there really be a space in motor home?

Just doesn't look right lol. I don't think I could possibly remember everything you have said in this book so I'm sure it will be well read (and worn out) over the years.

Thanks for the write.

Sincerely,

Kathryn

Life of Ernie Is Wild and Free

From the National Post

To say Ernie J. Zelinski has taken the road less travelled would be a large understatement. Quite simply, the author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and other self-help best-sellers has taken the road never before travelled, living a life designed on his own terms.

In How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get From Your Investment Advisor, he writes: "The way I see it, you will have attained true freedom in this world when you can get up in the morning when you want to get up; go to sleep when you want to go to sleep; and in the interval, work and play at the things you want to work and play at -- all at your own pace. The great news is that retirement allows you the opportunity to attain this freedom."

Zelinski, 58, a professional engineer by training and subsequent MBA graduate, has been mostly semi-retired since 1980 and has not missed the corporate grind one bit, living his particular kind of freedom for almost 30 years.

"I semi-retired when I was $30,000 in the hole and I've been semi-retired ever since," he says over the phone from his home in Edmonton. "Even if I made $10-million or $20-million, I still think I'd want to be doing what I'm doing because I really like doing what I'm doing."

Yes, but what exactly does a semi-retired self-help author do to make a living and live his version of happy, wild and free?

Zelinski, a bachelor, is a night owl, usually not retiring to bed till 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. He gets up at 11 or 11:30 a.m., goes for a run or bike ride or exercises at home for up to 90 minutes, gets to the coffee shop around 3 or 3:30 p.m., reads the papers, talks to people and maybe does a little work on his laptop. Around 8 p.m. he might join friends for a drink at a local lounge. Then he comes home, does some work, reads more papers and goes to bed.

This semi-eccentric semi-retiree's "work" of about three or four hours a day has paid him an average income of more than $100,000 over the past five years. But financial success was a long time coming for the erstwhile Alberta farm boy and was very hard-earned.

"Remember, there were years when I was living below the poverty line," he says, "though I never considered myself poverty stricken."

He had self-published his first self-help book on creativity, The Art of Seeing Double or Better in Business, in 1989 after almost a decade in which he had been fired from his engineering job for taking unauthorized vacation, took two years off, earned his MBA, taught at a private school, became a motivational speaker and generally tried to find his way toward a satisfying, if youthful, semi-retirement. The book sold 2,000 copies.

But his 1991 book, The Joy of Not Working, published in the midst of the recession, struck a chord with readers and sold 10,000 copies a year for the next five years. "Everyone's writing about how to get a job and I came out with The Joys of Not Working," he says. "It did really well."

That it did really well caught the attention of Ten Speed Press in California, which picked up the title in 1997 and has since been Zelinski's partner in other ventures. Today, The Joys has sold 250,000 copies and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free has had sales of 75,000 [90,000 counting foreign sales]. It is the No. 1 retirement book on Amazon.com and Zelinski is aiming to sell half-a-million over time as the Boomers retire.

There are 200,000 books published every year in the United States and Canada, about 50 of them about retirement. Ninety-five percent of them sell fewer than 5,000 copies.

Zelinski's books strike a happy balance between light reading and enlightenment, with the author's cheeky observations and many famous quotations helping the mix.

Also key to the books' success is Zelinski's talents at marketing and promotion, mostly through the Internet. Readers are drawn to Web sites with marketing offers that often translate into sales.

Ironically though, even more key to his success is Zelinski's dogged work ethic. He may spend only three to four hours a day working, but you can bet he's thinking about his tasks -- and thinking smart about them--in his time "off."

In his research about retirement, what strikes him the most is the fact that so many people have saved so little for their later years. "I know money can't make you happy," he says, "but a lack of money can make you very, very miserable."

What can also help make people happy in retirement, he adds, is to retain the three things that they lose when they stop work: Purpose, sense of community and structure. "You've got to put those things back in your life."

Ernie J. Zelinski, while taking the road never travelled, has seen to it that he has maintained those bedrock facets of life in a remarkable span of "semi-retirement." He has lived his self-help message and is living proof that one retirement does not fit all.

"I've learned to live very basically," he says. "I don't need what other people need."

By Bill Hanley

Author Ernie Zelinski working, or not, at the Sugar Bowl Cafe Photograph by : John Lucas, The Journal

EDMONTON - For a man who's relished the joy of not working for 25 years, Ernie Zelinski's been pretty busy.

The Edmonton author and world-class idler has just published his 15th book Career Success Without a Real Job, which touts the benefits of jumping off the corporate treadmill and restructuring your life so it has meaning, direction ... and joy.

The premise is that you can't be genuinely prosperous unless you have personal freedom, Zelinski says.

"You will have attained true freedom in this world when you can get up in the morning when you want to get up, go to sleep when you want to go to sleep, and in the interval work and play at the things you want to work and play at -- all at your own pace."

And how do you achieve this lofty goal?

By not having a real job, and creating your own "unreal" job instead.

That way you work for the best boss in the world, yourself.

The book, aimed at people who are tired of corporate politics or are just burned out, will also help retiring babyboomers who want to do something fulfilling, Zelinski says.

"It's not so much a how-to book, although there is some of that in there. It's more an inspirational book so people can make major changes in their lives."

While one chapter contains a comprehensive list of "unreal" jobs, the most exciting new area is information, Zelinski says.

"You don't need a lot of capital, and while it's true there is a lot of information already out there, the key is in how you present it."

Intellectual property, as he is finding out with his books, is a good way to keep getting paid for something you created, Zelinski says.

While it may appear Zelinski's literary output has put a lie to the premise of his The Joy of Not Working, which has sold 200,000 [now 225,000] copies in 17 languages over 15 years, he still has essentially the same leisurely daily routine he perfected after being fired from his engineering job for taking unapproved holidays.

He rises at about 11 a.m., rides his bike in the river valley for an hour, and then wanders down to a southside bistro for coffee and conversation, and to write on his laptop for three or four hours. The rest of the day he's busy doing nothing.

"I'm not lazy per se. I actually do run a company, and make a living at it. Sometimes I work seven or eight hours a day, and some days I don't work at all. The key is that it's my choice."

The frugality that's allowed him to do this is still evident in his 12 year old Toyota Camry, which he rarely drives, modestly furnished apartment and limited wardrobe.

He does spend money at favourite Edmonton restaurants - and tips well, he says - and visits friends across the country.

It's just that he doesn't put much stock in material possessions.

He estimates everything he owns, including the Camry and his beloved vintage MG sports car, is worth less than $20,000. But on the other hand he has no debts, not even a mortgage.

He has no new projects in the pipeline right now, and will spend the next months marketing the new book, and his previous volume Business Promo Book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, which has already sold 45,000 [now 110,000] copies.

Zelinski produces a letter from a 39 year old Los Angeles lawyer who wrote that he was burned out, and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free inspired him to change his life for the better.

"It's those kinds of letters and e-mails that make what I do so rewarding."

© The Edmonton Journal 2006

Review of The Lazy Person's Guide to Success in the Seattle Times

Ernie Zelinski hadn't quite gotten up when I called him early one Friday morning.

"I usually get up about 9:30," he mumbled. Around 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon, he'll get in a couple of hours' work, writing on his laptop at a favorite coffee shop, and maybe a bit more in the evening.

You have to keep to a grueling pace like that to write a book called The Lazy Person's Guide to Success: How to get what you want without killing yourself for it (Ten Speed Press and Foreign Rights at Vipbooks)

Work really can kill. You may have read last month about the Finnish researchers who followed 812 healthy men and women for an average of 25 years and found the ones who had the most job stress were more than twice as likely to die of heart disease.

I'd bet money we're more stressed out here than folks are in Finland. The St. Petersburg Times surveyed the statistics and reported a soaring number of people calling in sick or taking more vacation time than they are due. The cost to employers of unscheduled absences reached a record this year and is 30 percent higher than it was two years ago.

Every statistic pointed in the same direction. A survey by the Conference Board this year found 50 percent of workers unhappy with their job. And, not surprisingly, prescriptions for antidepressants are way up.

Something is amiss, and Zelinski thinks he knows what it is. You probably know too.

Many people have given up control of their lives to the pursuit of money to buy stuff that they don't need because they are bombarded by messages that tell them everyone else has it, and they'd better get it too.

Too many people work for security, when security is not ever a sure thing. A lot of people have been thinking about that after Sept. 11 and while watching their investments shrink, but it's hard to get off the treadmill. A person still has to eat.

Zelinski thinks people would be happier with less stuff and more time. We'd be happier if we defined success for ourselves rather than wearing an off-the-rack definition that doesn't fit.

Success for him means doing work he enjoys and feeling he is contributing something to society. He'd also like to make The New York Times best-seller list some day, but he's done all right. This is his eighth book (published by Ten Speed Press - in Berkeley, of course), and he says he has $200,000 in the bank. He lives in a duplex in a nice part of his hometown, Edmonton, Alberta, and his time is his to do with as he pleases.

Zelinski, who is 53, was an electrical engineer once. "I did well in university in courses but never liked it. I went into it because they told me I should because I was good at math."

He was promoted quickly, but his heart wasn't in it. He was putting in the time, though. He'd gone nearly three years without a vacation when he decided he wanted to take two months off. The company said no, but he went anyway. They fired him.

Zelinski still wanted a job. He got an MBA and thought he might teach, but nothing came along. "I thought, 'Well, I could become a public speaker.' But you need credibility. A book gives you credibility. So in 1989 I did a book on public speaking.' "

Bingo, instant credibility. He made a living speaking but kept on writing, too. When he realized he could make a living writing, he stopped speaking. Less stress, more free time.

He also learned about and adopted the 80/20 principle, which says the first 80 percent of our productivity comes from the first 20 percent of our effort.

So a person could dispense with the 80 percent of effort that is mostly busywork and still do a good job.

Work smart, not hard. Tell your boss that, or your co-workers.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, our society has been preaching industriousness as a moral virtue. People think they need to be busy all the time. But, Zelinski says, do the essential things well and forget the rest. Use the saved time to play with your kids or have coffee with a friend.

Maybe you'll make less money, but what's more important, money or time?

Zelinski did have that year when he was $30,000 in debt, when a cubicle started looking good, but he stuck it out.

That's easier for a single guy, but he says you can be responsible and still have balance. What good is a family, he asks in the book, if you never see it?

He's not anti-work, anti-stuff, or anti-money. It's just a matter of who's in control of your life - you or those other things.

Too many people, Zelinski says, sacrifice their present working toward a future when they'll be able to enjoy life. That future isn't guaranteed to anyone.

Everybody already knows this stuff, Zelinski admits, they just need to be reminded. They need someone with credibility to say it's OK. And Zelinski gets more credibility all the time.

By Jerry Large

Excerpted from the Seattle Times

NOTE: Also see The Lazy Person's Guide to Success in One Chapter Free

I will be the first one to admit that I am not a great writer. As I have indicated previously, by the time I realized how bad of a writer I was, I was too successful to quit.

In spite of my bad writing, it still has resulted in hundreds of positive letters, e-mails, and phone calls about my books from readers. This is one of the magical rewards that come with being a writer - knowing that people are benefiting from your books.

Here is an e-mail that I just received from Deepal Peiris in Sri Lanka.

Dear Ernie J. Zelinski

My good friend Anil Fernando now living in Edmonton sent two of your books How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free and 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting, with your personal endorsement addressed to me.

I am not an ardent reader but I finished reading both your books and now have taken to reading as a hobby.

Your letter to your mother that you placed in the chapter called Thank Your Mother a Lot While She Is Still Alive in your book 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting is extreamly touching as my aged mother now 89 is hoping to celebrate her 90 th birthday in December.

I gained a lot by reading your well written books and I shall continue to "LIVE" without simply "EXISTING".

Thank you Ernie and I wish you all the very best and hoping to read more of your books.

May the Good Lord bless you!!

Deepal Peiris,

Mologoda Estate, Mologoda 71016, Sri Lanka



Note: Here are some other chapter titles from 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting,





• One true friend is worth more than 10,000 superficial ones.


• Good deeds are seldom remembered; bad deeds are seldom forgotten.


• The surest way to failure is trying to please everyone.


• Your past is always going to be the way it was - so stop trying to change it.


• A walk or run in nature is the best medicine for many of your ailments.


• The shortcut to being truly fit and trim is long-term rigorous action.


• Compromising your integrity for money, power, or fame will come back to haunt you.


• If the grass on the other side of the fence is greener, try watering your side.


• No matter how successful you become, the size of your funeral will still depend on the weather.


• Be happy while you are alive because you are a long time dead.










Purchase 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting (Vipbooks) at:101 Really Important Things at Amazon.com
or:101 Really Important Things at BarnesandNoble.com

This is a photo taken by a fan of both Ernie J. Zelinski, author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor and Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. The photo was taken at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Alberta Career Education Network has asked Ernie Zelinski to make a keynote speech about The Joy of Not Working at their Annual Convention.

The Alberta Career Education Network Conference (SUMMIT 08) is taking place October 6 & 7, 2008 at The Red Tail Landing Conference Facility (near the Edmonton International Airport).

Summit 2008

Connect with key people, share information and effective practices, and optimize resources. ACE Network conferences, forums and learning events ensure that participants/members are kept up to date with the latest thinking and trends in the career education and development field.

The Summit will be attended by teachers, career practitioners, counselors, sales managers, campus coordinators, government, employment specialists, principals, superintendents, business sector, community relations, executive directors, presidents & ceo's, consultants and school staff.

Even The U.S. State Dept LikesThe Joy of Not Working

This short review of The Joy of Not Working comes from the United States Department of State.
"A delightful indictment of workaholism and ways to counteract it. The author views unemployment as a true test of who one really is." - U.S. Department of State Book Reviews

My Gift to the Workers of the World

This free E-book in PDF format called 1001 Best Things Ever Said about Work and the Workplace is the ultimate book of quotations about work for the professional speaker, journalist, author, career advisor, life coach, and connoisseur of great quotations. It also makes great reading for just about everyone.

Refer to the Table of Contents and you will see that this E-book is organized into over 125 subjects and categories for easy reference.

What's more, all you have to do is place your cursor on the category and you will taken to the respective page for the category.

Partial Table of Contents of Subject Areas

• Ability
• Accomplishing the Impossible
• Action
• Aggravations of Work
• Ambition
• Artists at Work
• Bad Days at Work
• Boring Work
• Breaking New Ground
• Bureaucracy
• Busyness
• Careers
• Career Advice
• Change in the Workplace
• Committees
• Communication in the Workplace
• Competence
• Competition
• Computers
• Creativity in the Workplace
• Crisis Management
• Dating People at Work
• Delegation

You can place 1001 Best Things Ever Said about Work (and the Workplace) on your website as an important retirement resource for your readers and clients.

Download this E-book for free:

Creative Free E-books at the Real Success Resource Center

If you would like a JPG of cover of the E-book for your website, let me know.

Ernie Zelinski

Author of the Bestseller Retirement Book: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Top-10 Reasons to Retire Early by Ernie Zelinski

Retirement Planning Coach

Retirement Sentiments by Ernie Zelinski

Jobs for Retirement on Real Success Resource Center

Retirement Jobs on The Retirement Cafe

Reasons to Retire Early on The How to Retire Happy Website

Unreal Retirement Jobs

Also See:

Retirement Quotes and Sayings on Squidoo

Review from I Have an Idea

The Lazy Person's Guide to Success: How to Get What You Want Without Killing Yourself for It (Ten Speed Press)

A great self-help book for those lazy creative people. After reading it it made me feel great about being lazy. Lazy is looked at as being
a bad character trait, but this book puts it into perspective and shows you a path in which you can profit off of your creativity.

Its a great tool to put money, success, and the lazy route to those dreams in perspective. I would definetly recommend this book to anyone, lazy or not. The book has showed me that hard work is no match for relaxed and creative action. Also includes many thought provoking quotes for your mind.

Purchase
The Lazy Person's Guide to Success:

Any fool can criticize,
condemn and complain . . .
and most fools do.
- Dale Carnegie

Let this be a warning to you: Instead of getting you on the road to Success City, trying to belittle successful people will get you headed full tilt in the opposite direction toward where the misfits of this world hang out. It's called Loserville. So where would you like to hang out? Loserville or Success City? It's your choice. Personally, I prefer Success City.

If you choose Success City as the place you want to be, entertain no notions about avoiding criticism directed your way. Those who are motivated out of a higher level of consciousness do; those who are too lazy or too ignorant to do become critics. The thing to remember is that the more successful you become, the more criticism you will receive.

Avoiding criticism is an unattainable task - even to the most renowned individuals of this world - because the most degenerate of misfits can easily belittle the highest of world class accomplishments.

There is no reason to despair, however. Receiving a lot of criticism from the misfits of this world is a good sign that you are well on your way to success - or that you have already arrived.

As much as possible, disregard the comments made about you by the negative people of this world. A critic's most cherished beliefs are often in inverse proportion to their actual worth and relation to reality.

Truly successful people get bashed a lot, mainly by the lazy, jealous, or broke, who apparently have nothing better to do with their time, aside from watching a lot of bad TV.

Successful people, however, are used to - and spiritually above - the misconceptions, criticism, and untrue statements that negative people utter about anybody and everybody who is successful.

Putting things in the best possible way, these negative, faultfinding people are just ignorant and don't know any better. What's more, they are not complete failures - we get to use them as great examples of the type of degenerates that we don't want to become ourselves.

I received the following e-mail on August 31, 2008 about my book Real Success Without a Real Job

----- Original Message -----
From: M.M.
To: vip-books@telus.net
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 4:43 PM
Subject: Real Success Without a Real Job

Dear Ernie:

When I saw this book title in the Ten Speed Press Catalog I could not resist it and I am very glad I bought it.

What a great read!

I enjoy a book where it feels the author is sitting next to me having a conversation.

I just finished this book and it has helped me during a rather difficult time in my life.

I collect quotes and was inspired by the quotes you included along with the real life stories you included in the information.

And your book has given me an incredilbe reference list of books I can not wait to read and learn from.

An entry-level job will seldom be a great fit for the employee; indeed, to find such a fit would be a fluke. Even most seasoned employees are limited in how much influence they can have on their job duties
and workplace environment.

To be sure, corporations seldom allow employees to delegate or contract out tasks that they don't like. Few, if any, corporations have formal structures in place that permit employees to modify the specific nature of their jobs or the broader work environment.

Clearly the most unfortunate people are those who must do the same
thing over and over again, every minute, or perhaps twenty to the
minute. They deserve the shortest hours and the highest pay.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something
that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office
everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything
else to do.
- W. H. Auden

The bigger the bore, the greater the knowledge of computers.
- Unknown wise person

To err is human - and to blame it on a computer is even more so.
- Robert Orben

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things
they make it easier to do don't need to be done.
- Andy Rooney

One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do
for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can't eat eight
hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight
hours- all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason
why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.
- William Faulkner

Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be
sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

See:

FUN SPEECH IDEAS FOR WHEN YOU QUIT YOUR JOB

Warehouse Worker Wanting to Experience The Joy of Not Working

Working Salesman Wanting to read Retirement Book Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Worker in the Dark Looking for Career Change

Artist at Work Looking for a Career Change

HAVING A BAD DAY AT WORK

1. If you have the time for a work project, you won't have the money. If you have the money for a work project, you won't have the time.

2. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

3. Every solution breeds new problems.

4. Nothing is as inevitable as a screwup whose time has come.

5. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

6. Things go right in the workplace sometimes so that they can go terribly wrong.

Contains:

Friendship Poems

Best Friends

QUALITY versus QUANTITY IN THE FRIENDSHIP GAME

FRIENDS HEAVEN SENT

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES

How to Make Friends

Friendship Proverbs

Friends and Money

Where to Retire

Retirement Jobs

Retire Happy

Fun Things to Do When You Retire

101 Resources to Help You Retire Richer, Smarter, and Happier

HEALTH IN RETIREMENT

Never Too Young to Retire

Retirement Planning