I spent a year pursuing an MS in pathogenic bacteriology, but dropped it when a severe case of pneumonia almost killed me. I picked up a job at $4.75 an hour in 1977. College grad w/all course work completed for MS. Now, a member of Local 569 IBEW and tending to the full range of electronics on 180 tuna boats, 14 base stations and assorted tugs, freighters and pleasure boats for fill. A far cry from genetics engineering. This little "wallow" in a blue collar job made me a very good hardware engineer (analog and digital) with lots of field experience. I left that job at $9.10 and moved to a "white collar" toll equipment engineering job at $19,000 per year...4 years following graduation.
The engineering job bored me to tears. I took a second job teaching electronics at the local college. That paid for a private pilot's license and a room full of computer equipment that I built one board at a time. Year 2 at the phone company yielded a first good raise to $36K (1981). I convinced the company to move me to a software support job. Finally, I was in my element. I worked 13 hours per day, 7 days a week for 2 years. That netted a promotion to $42K per year. July to December 1985 was "slowed" to 10 hour days during treatment for cancer. The company continued to heap very high risk projects in my lap. I continued to outperform my co-workers (who worked no more than 8 hour days with at least two 20 minute coffee breaks and a full hour for lunch). After two high profile successes on projects with $20 million on the bottom line, I had another promotion to $60K/year. 10 years after graduation.
In 1992, I moved to a new company as my old company downsized 6,000 employees. The continued to throw high profile, high risk stuff my way. I performed. They increased my pay to $78K.
In 1996, an internet startup needed my expertise to engineer a very large e-commerce platform. It was an industry first. It included direct connections to the banking networks. Again, more high risk. Once again, high performance. A raise to $83K. BTW, I'm working 14 hour days, 7 days a week. They continued to plaster me with work and increased my pay to $103K in 1998. I ran into a problem at that point. Carpal tunnel syndrome. I couldn't open doors, lift glasses or shift my car. The money was damn good, but at that pace I was on the way to being a cripple for life. This is now 22 years after graduation.
I resumed work at the office that I had joined in 1992. My new task was to build a million user ISP for a company in Denver, CO AND be technical lead of a maintenance software program for the 747 fleet of a certain German airline. Successes on both accounts and months spent in Germany and Denver away from my family. Stock options were offered as compensation for the horrific hours and extended time out of the country.
In 2000, I decided to relocate my family from California to Idaho. Entirely at my expense. That sucked up $60K of my home equity from the San Diego house. I spent all but 69 days working in San Diego while my family was at home in Idaho. 250 hours per month (for 160 hours pay). That contract continued until June 2002 when I was laid off. At that point I cashed out 80% of my stock and paid off the home mortgage. During the 6 weeks I was "laid off", I used accrued vacation to keep the bills paid. By mid-August, I had succeeded in rounding up $6 million in new business for the company. My layoff was over.
Twenty six years after graduating from college, I'm making $116K per year and my house is paid off. I'm 46. I'm one of those guys that Boortz is talking about. The nice people that were working as toll equipment engineers when I moved to that job in 1980...retired as toll equipment engineers. They all had degrees too. The difference is that they only worked the minimum 8 hours that was asked of them.
I'm not "rich". What I have is the result of damn hard work. Nothing was ever handed to me. People who don't know me think I just another lucky white male who was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
Getting back to Boortz. He's not an illiterate drunk on a bar stool. He's a disillusioned conservative lawyer who makes an honest living as talk show host. Roger Hedgecock is another conservative lawyer talk show host in San Diego. I find both of these guys to be entertaining and informative. The nice thing is that I can listen to them on the radio while still knocking out productive work.
My apologies to others on the thread for sucking up this extra bandwidth.
Your contribution to the American economy is appreciated, your debt to society is paid in full, and your personal rewards are earned.
Please help to do everything within your means to teach young people the lessons you have learned, and spend time every day helping to fight the immoral Socialism creeping its way into the fabric of America.
You are a living testament to the power of the individual.
But working your butt off is a hard habit to lose-- I learned to paint a few years ago, and this year started selling my oil paintings on Ebay, so I'm probably back up to 60 hours per week, but at least the hours are of my choosing and I'm always home and available to my kids. :)
Those of us who have been lucky in many ways to have the opportunity for advancement due to education and hard work. Some don't have the luxury of education or possibly the smarts to make it through college or engineering school. But they have an extremely strong work ethic.
I often hear from those who have no idea what hard work is wonder how people like you have made it. And I've also heard from the people I just described above ask the same question. "I work two jobs 14-16 hours a day 7 days a week and still don't have a nice car, 3500 square foot home, take luxury vacations or have a boat."
I too work 60-70 hours a week and still drive through neighborhoods wondering how those folks afford the nice homes that I only dream of. And many also have 40 hour work weeks (or at least they appear to have ample leisure time). They make it to their sons afternoon football practice, go on the scouting trips, serve as room mothers. IT appears that both you and I have missed many of those precious hours because we are working extensively.
There's a lesson in irony in there somewhere...
However, I disagree with you on whether Boortz is talking about you. That's not how I read him. With all due respect, in today's economy you're not rich, or even upper-middle class. And it should be obvious, that my post wasn't about you.
If my wife knew I was wasting so much precious time arguing with some cretins on this thread, she'd introduce the back of my head to a frying pan. But Neal Boortz notwithstanding, there are quite a few illiterate drunks on barstools right here on this thread, and I have a bad habit of arguing with illiterate drunks (including some with Ph.D.s) on bar stools and on "chairs."
Want some cheese with your "whine?"
Boorz is a pilot, too, or used to be.