Can't find any passion in life (first mature man post)

[btownbuck2012]

Damn it feels a bit strange to post in this forum, but I guess now that I'm 25 i've gotta get used to it, HA!

So here's the deal. I'm trying really hard to accomplish something significant with my life. Like most guys on this site, I grew up very shy and reserved. This left me eventually very angry and bitter at the world and I decided to man up and start making things happen.

Got my college degree, have worked in Indiana, DC, and now, just recently, made the move to NYC and have landed a job working with a very promising start up that tracks data on private companies. People who oversee M&A, Strategy for their companies as well as VC's use us to make smarter investment decisions. We've got some great clients and the company is really growing.

Now don't get me wrong, I like my job, i like the company. But, since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a stand up comedian. So I'm going to start going to open mic nights in the city on the weekend.

Problem is that I'm just disillusioned with people AND women for the most part. People just aren't very intellectually deep IMO. Corporate America can be a joke at times too, and I'm worried I'm going to wake up 20 years from now and just be another corporate schmuck who has climbed the latter. I mean I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but I always thought what would it be like to be the next seinfeld or louis ck, OR (i've also been interested in politics/U.S. History) to be the next president of the united states...to go down that road, to really do something special. I've found that it's a different mindset, a different lifestyle completely than what most people are used to.

I've found that the effort and energy it takes to get laid sidetracks me from that type of life. But at the same time I see people my age in LTR's that seem very happy, career moving forward, etc. BUT at the end of the day I know that even that corporate lifestyle can be a gamble. I mean look at what happened to people in the 2008 recession.

My point is that right now trying to build that comedian/politician type of career is making me depressed with the work it takes now. I see people my age out partying, living it up, and i don't have the money to do that, and again, it sidetracks from the work i've gotta put in right now to make **** happen later on. But i don't want to waste my youth being unhappy either.

Basically I'm at the crossroads. Do I settle in to the corporate lifestyle (which does have it's perks, i like the people i work with (for the most part), the company intrigues me, and i could focus on meeting more women, dating, etc.)

Or do I keep putting all my spare time into the stand up comedy dream? Do I focus on busting my ass so that this company goes public and my stock options make me rich when I'm 40 so I can run for office?

-How do you all deal with these questions?
-am I missing anything?
-Advice in general?

Thank you,
Btown

 

[Rubirosa]

Are you actually talented in stand up comedy? Do you have the talent (and drive) to actually make a living at it? If nothing else, go and do it....amateur open mic nights....whatever...... Experience the reality of doing standup and take it from there before you struggle in your head about which direction to take in life....

 

[TheCWord]

Couple things, OP

1. My advice would be to keep your day job and continue doing those open mics then eventually getting booked gigs. As you spend time with comics you will come to see, if you haven't already, that even the working professional ones are generally very depressed, tortured individuals. It's a chicken/egg thing. It may very we'll be a prerequisite that you have to be miserable to do stand-up (so hey, sounds like you've got that going for ya!) but trying to make it as a comedian is a brutal grind filled with lots of rejection and not a lot of money, so it naturally breeds depression. You'll have to decide which brand of unhappiness you want: that of a sad clown or that of an unfulfilled worker monkey who at least has some money and pride.

2. Missing out on your youth is a myth. Now is the time to be poor and go after your crazy dreams. You'll eventually hit 30 and then 40 and realize there is still so much time left to party. And if you stay at home because you are poor and investing in your craft in your 20s while your friends are out partying with their office job money, you may very well end up with your dream job and lots of money in your 30s. At which point your friends will be the ones staying at home because they have a wife and kids hey hate and a job that is sucking the life out of them, while you are finally reaping the benefits of your sacrifices and going out whenever you want.

 

[Tenacity]

.....I'm worried I'm going to wake up 20 years from now and just be another corporate schmuck who has climbed the latter. I mean I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but I always thought what would it be like to be the next seinfeld or louis ck, OR (i've also been interested in politics/U.S. History) to be the next president of the united states...to go down that road, to really do something special.....

The vast majority of performers in the Entertainment Industry make hardly NOTHING. The vast majority of those that participate in Politics make hardly NOTHING. Your "chances" of being an A-list, B-list, or C-list Entertainer and your "chances" of being a top Politician (Senator, Congressman, Governor, PRESIDENT) are so low that you would have a better chance of jumping off a building and not dying.

When you talk about how "hard" it is, that just shows that you really don't understand the market of the Entertainment Industry today. The Entertainment Industry has changed a TON since the boom of the Internet. Going to local clubs and doing "mic night" is extremely outdated. Setup a Youtube Channel and drive people to watch your material online. Build a platform on your OWN, using your OWN CAPITAL and your OWN created content. Build your OWN AUDIENCE. From there, you continue to grow your audience through various forms of touring and charge people to see you perform your shyt in person.

But unless you can build millions of followers, don't expect to make a HUGE amount of money off of this. If you can successfully build the platform, you can make a good amount of "side money" but in NO WAY should it be your main form of income. That's insane.

The Corporate "schmuck" you talk about has job security, a network, and MARKET DEMAND for the service they provide not just in the US, but Globally. He/she can hedge against inflation and cost of living increases because their network allows them to have a great take home pay, great benefits, and great investment options. You don't have to work in Corporate per say for these benefits, you would just work in an area with a solid MARKET DEMAND, and the Entertainment Industry is NOT one of them, that is one of the WORSE industries to work for.

People complain about a Wealth Gap, lol, well there's no industry with a bigger Wealth Gap than the Entertainment Industry. About 3% of the total BULK of people that work in the Entertainment Industry make 98% of the income. If you think I'm lying, do some research on it. I have no idea how our generation has been programmed to want to be the "next" (insert TV or Sports or Political star here) but it's insane at BEST based on how that market is established.

It's not even about if you are TALENTED, there are a shyt load of talented singers across the country singing for free at the local Church Service. It's a shyt load of talented actors performing in their local community plays every year for little to nothing. It's not about TALENT, it's about if you have a PLATFORM...and either you can construct that platform yourself or you are going to get "hired or recruited" by someone with a platform already established. Good luck getting recruited over the 55,000 others in line to get on someone else's already established platform lol. Your best bet is to BUILD your own Platform, create your own content, and license your OWN SHYT.

If your dreams don't line up with the marketplace, than your dreams are very much nightmares.