Do you wish you were next to a waterfall of ... money?

TL; DR : What's abundant in your job? What do you WISH were abundant in your job?



"If you are near a waterfall you are going to get wet."

I check a question-and-answer website, quora.com, occasionally. Recently somebody asked, "Why are Wall Street jobs high-paying?" and a Joseph Wang answered, "If you are near a waterfall you are going to get wet.
At my old job, I was sitting next to a trading desk that was dealing in billions of dollars of transactions each day. My salary and the salary of everyone else near that desk was a rounding error compared to the amount of money that was flowing past."


So I started thinking, yes, that makes sense. When the decisionmakers are looking at annual numbers with fifteen and sixteen figures, then six-figure salaries would naturally seem like no big deal. Why not? It's not that much money.

And then, interestingly, that's probably true everywhere, with both tangible and intangible things. I cleaned carpets once for someone from Lindor Chocolates. She sent me and my technicians home with grocery bags of expensive truffles. Why not? It's not that much chocolate.

I heard a story just yesterday evening about a driver for a whiskey company who used to "accidentally" break a few bottles from time to time (over a funnel with cheesecloth to keep the broken glass out) because, why not? It's not that much whiskey.

I had a claim once with a bounty hunter (excuse me, "bail bondsman"). He casually told me about a time he handcuffed a snarky teenager and drove him a couple of hours to Fort Smith in the trunk of his BMW. Why not? It's not that much violence.

There's an exception: I know a couple of social workers. It seems like their work takes place next to a waterfall of bad decisions and suffering. They don't seem to have gotten wet. I can't explain that.

But I can picture this being true with all sorts of other things: music, clothes and fashion, paint, steel, computer parts, fitness, books, infidelity, wisdom and pseudo-wisdom, exotic travel, public speaking, power.

And so, my questions to everybody: What waterfall are you standing next to in your work? Are you getting wet?

What waterfall do you wish you were next to? Is there such a job?

Mike, this has been very true of every one of my jobs.....

As a carpenter, there was always wood and scraps to bring home. On remodel jobs, quite often I could upgrade my dishwasher or bathroom sink....And Nails... I knew guys who would load..and I mean load...their tool belts up on Friday at lunch..... guess what, they were pretty empty on Monday morning.

As a Chef, I rarely bought food. And When I ran a bakery and commercial kitchen and cooking school, my grocery bill for home was next to zero. And that extended to having lots of company and giving extra food and grocery items to friends...so they "wouldn't spoil".....

Being a farmer, I could use a cash waterfall. At my old farm it rained apples. And quite often enough, tomatoes, herbs and pork.... right now it's a bit of a dry spell. It's all relative.

I think the waterfall we need to stand under is LOVE. More of that and all the rest will fall into place. (And this is not a Purple statement at all....) Abundance is all around and if we cultivate love in our lives then everyone we know will bring their waterfalls of abundance to the party and we can share.

I have a great job.... I work for myself, get paid in cash, have the opportunity to work on cool & challenging building projects with no budget. But..... I spend 3hrs a day commuting. So, I'm looking for another job. One that offers an abundance of time....or at least more than I have now. 12hrs a week--I only work 4 days, with 3 for farmers markets, farming and life--commuting is leaving me burnt out and disconnected from my passion of helping people and working the land.

Even if I get paid a bit less and have to work for someone else.... I won't have the fuel bill for the commute. I won't have the responsibility of everything on my shoulders, and I will have more time. More time for developing my projects and my strategy for buying a new piece of land to work and develop and for building a new, tiny house so I can quite paying too much to rent someone else's ruin. Money would help...but not much. Time is better. Love even more so. A cash hose will wash away a great many problems, but without an abundance of love its all going to be pretty empty.