I also noticed that there was actualy HAY on parts of the floor. Obviously tracked in by employees during their comings and goings. I thought it was totally cool.
That was then.
Now, a decade later, I work for a company that generally hovers in the top 50 of the Fortune 500, where I can grab free coffee, tea, or soda from any of the pantries on our floor, or go down to our subsidized cafeteria for a Starbuck's coffee (NOT free). I work, not in a converted dairy barn, but on a "campus" of offices owned by my company, and I make more than three times the amount I used to earn with ClarkNet.
Is that an improvement? I'm not sure.
Life is certainly different. I have resources that I never dreamed of, a company which treats me well, compensates me well, offers me challenging work, opportunities for advancement, etc.
Truly, I live now in "Corporate America."
When I think back to my earliest days with ClarkNet, I wasn't even sure whether or not I'd be paid from one week to another. And, Jamie was a notorious workaholic. He NEVER took vacation. A year or two later, after Jamie hired Drew Clark, his cousin, to take the financial and business reigns of the company, formal vacation days were established. Before that happened, however, you just sent Jamie an email which said something like, "I'm taking tomorrow off, see you after Christmas." His response? Generally it was along the lines of "have a great day off! :-)"
I couldn't do that again. I have kids now, and they expect to see their daddy. And their daddy looks forward every day to going home to see them. Yet, if I could afford to go back to another startup led by a young, intelligent, ambitious person, would I do it?
It depends I guess. But for today, the question I've found myself asking at the cusp of my fifth decade is this: Am I a better person today than I was ten years ago?
I think so... I hope so.
I'm fairly sure.
David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com
Article comments
1 - SFC SKI
I'll say one thing, at 40, I don't feel I have to explain or justify any damn thing I say or do, I am a curmudgeon in training.
2 - gonzo marx
thanx for the good Read, David...
43 and doing ok with it, thank you ever so much....
and Ski...your natvie Talent fuels the true Skill in your training.....
{8^P~~~~~~~
>bows, hand over fist<
Excelsior!
3 - swingingpuss
David, you seem to have laid a solid foundation in your thirties and are now reaping the benefits in your forties both in your professional and personal life:)
Many salutations and compliments.
4 - Shark
And if you're really lucky -- in your fifties -- you'll realize you wasted most of your life chasing money, prestige, resources that you never dreamed of, a company which treats you well, compensates you well, offers you challenging work, opportunities for advancement, etc. -- that eventully drops you like a hot potatoe for economic reasons -- and you'll dedicate the rest of your life to having fun, finding True Meaning, contributing to your community...
and then you'll become a liberal.
Or you could continue at this pace, have an epiphany, and pull a Hunter S. Thompson.
Ya never know.
5 - Shark
*spelling error = obscure Dan Quayle reference
6 - David Flanagan
Shark,
What are you talking about? Hunter S. Thompson was a liberal. He also did a boatload of drugs, which, as you might know, tends have a causal linkage to suicide.
My favorite drugs are caffeine and whatever that chemical is that you get from eating chocolate. Not something I'm likely to blow my head off over.
David