burning the candle at both ends
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burning the candle at both ends
Ive been burning the candle at both ends for years now, its starting to catch up with me. do any of you think this ?
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- betchrider
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- Been-Grant-Mitchell'd!
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- thecannonball89
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My personal experience of professional fruits is as follows:-
1. Professional playing was great when i'm my twenties.
I had the energy to go around towns all day, drink a fair bit with few side effects, not mind so much about pub losers, fetid drinking establishments and proving to landlords that I didn't have plastic attracting magnets surgically embedded in my fingertips. After a hard days graft, I could party at night and be up the next day for doors. There was much easier money to be made back then too, so it wasn't a chore.
2. You slow down in your thirties.
I no longer have the wind in my sails that I did in my youthful years :-) My whole body ached after a days work. Drinking more than a couple of beers makes me sleepy and lethargic. I also found that the depression and low-level aggression inherent in pub staff and their persistent clientele started to affect me more. I stopped going to the more lucrative spots just to avoid this. Even worse was the uneducated stupidity and idiocy that was encountered on a daily basis. To witness this day-in day-out brought my spirits down.
3. You get life responsibilities.
Most people settle in their 30's and get married / start a family. Machine playing is not a good future to offer your family. There is little stability, antisocial hours and health risks.
4. Have an exit strategy.
I always knew that I couldn't play fruits forever, and planned ahead about 5 years. I now have my own successful businesses and part-own another. This foresight enables me to live a very comfortable life on a tax haven paradise island :-). Being successful in business is much more challenging and rewarding than scraping by in life with fruit machines. I've said before that it's alot of hard work, but the best thing about it is that each project that will make you money has a defined end-point that you can work towards. The more successful projects you complete, the better your reputation and the bigger contracts that come your way. I'm currently in the deployment phase of a national project that directly affects ~150 million people. That's real job satisfaction, which means more the older you get. I'll have achieved something good in my life that my children can look back on and feel proud of their father.
When I compare that with "my dad hanged around pubs and services all day and played gambling machines.", I know which legacy I prefer.
--blackmogu.
1. Professional playing was great when i'm my twenties.
I had the energy to go around towns all day, drink a fair bit with few side effects, not mind so much about pub losers, fetid drinking establishments and proving to landlords that I didn't have plastic attracting magnets surgically embedded in my fingertips. After a hard days graft, I could party at night and be up the next day for doors. There was much easier money to be made back then too, so it wasn't a chore.
2. You slow down in your thirties.
I no longer have the wind in my sails that I did in my youthful years :-) My whole body ached after a days work. Drinking more than a couple of beers makes me sleepy and lethargic. I also found that the depression and low-level aggression inherent in pub staff and their persistent clientele started to affect me more. I stopped going to the more lucrative spots just to avoid this. Even worse was the uneducated stupidity and idiocy that was encountered on a daily basis. To witness this day-in day-out brought my spirits down.
3. You get life responsibilities.
Most people settle in their 30's and get married / start a family. Machine playing is not a good future to offer your family. There is little stability, antisocial hours and health risks.
4. Have an exit strategy.
I always knew that I couldn't play fruits forever, and planned ahead about 5 years. I now have my own successful businesses and part-own another. This foresight enables me to live a very comfortable life on a tax haven paradise island :-). Being successful in business is much more challenging and rewarding than scraping by in life with fruit machines. I've said before that it's alot of hard work, but the best thing about it is that each project that will make you money has a defined end-point that you can work towards. The more successful projects you complete, the better your reputation and the bigger contracts that come your way. I'm currently in the deployment phase of a national project that directly affects ~150 million people. That's real job satisfaction, which means more the older you get. I'll have achieved something good in my life that my children can look back on and feel proud of their father.
When I compare that with "my dad hanged around pubs and services all day and played gambling machines.", I know which legacy I prefer.
--blackmogu.
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
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Thats so true and often a veiw I put forward when people start to praise individuals that are seen as succesful in this way. I found that most of the public are to stupid to work out how they have got to that posisition.Noels Beard wrote:Some very salient points raised. However, being successful in business usually involves ripping people off on a much bigger scale than taking money out of the fruit in the corner of the pub. So for those of us more socially minded, I know which I'd prefer.
But then no-one likes a Socialist.
Being successful in business involves working damn hard - what you've described is how to stay in business whilst not being successful. It's an unsubstantiated viewpoint to say that most businesses rip people off somehow.
Being an armchair socialist doesn't help to bring across your point either. Do you voluntarily pay income tax on your earnings from machines and pay your fair share into the socialised services that Britain provides ? I didn't think so. I certainly didn't when I played fruits, but I never claim to be a socialist or socially minded.
When I was living in the U.K I was paying more than 20K/year in taxes. I've done more socially with the wealth i've created and brought to the U.K and given back to the state than someone who "takes money out of the fruit in the corner".
The measure of your worth is in what you do, not by what you don't do ("I rip off people less because I don't run a business"). I kill people less because i'm not a dictator of an african state and don't make my money by robbing the populace. By your logic this example is just as valid in making me a socialist.
--blackmogu
Being an armchair socialist doesn't help to bring across your point either. Do you voluntarily pay income tax on your earnings from machines and pay your fair share into the socialised services that Britain provides ? I didn't think so. I certainly didn't when I played fruits, but I never claim to be a socialist or socially minded.
When I was living in the U.K I was paying more than 20K/year in taxes. I've done more socially with the wealth i've created and brought to the U.K and given back to the state than someone who "takes money out of the fruit in the corner".
The measure of your worth is in what you do, not by what you don't do ("I rip off people less because I don't run a business"). I kill people less because i'm not a dictator of an african state and don't make my money by robbing the populace. By your logic this example is just as valid in making me a socialist.
--blackmogu
"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"