$$ to walk away from being an O/O

The future is never certain in any career or life in general. 10-20 years from now, most likely less, he could be in that office taking a high dosage of anxiety medication everyday to deal with upper management breathing down his neck everyday crying about production and how its never enough.

 

This thread is perfectly timed as just sold my trailer, well in a couple days officially & running the same question through my head. Cash out now & go back to a time clock sort of gig with benefits or hope the artificially in inflated economy stays inflated for the duration of a new trailer payment.

This! Question most anyones sanity at that point...

Agree with most of this with exception to the master of ones own destiny. When I started years ago my thought there was value to me living in & near certain local businesses that I could work with & benefit them. The down & ugly of it was trucks were a dime a dozen & even the small company wanted to deal with fleets & one call corporate contacts for their freight. Redundant question was what were they to do when I am 3 states away? Valid point. They assumed service just came with the deal & never got much of a chance to show them. Never the less, it changed my perspective of master of ones own destiny.

Then add all the regs they write daily with astronomical fines & the risk vs reward really needs to be thought about. The smell of diesel burning 500 hp through the pipes may be intoxicating, but they have been working on regulating that for the last few years as well.

 

And you don't get that with trucking? Of course you do. You get that AND you get to risk your marriage, your house, your relationship with your kids, your CDL, not to mention your life.

 

I don't like that office environment or the politics and pressure that go with it. If I were going that route, I'd have to be the owner. I'd come in for 3 or 4 hours in the morning, plan and delegate out tasks, and then disappear to my hobbies in the afternoon.

The two things I want are freedom and making a living for myself without having to work myself to death. It's said throughout ancient history the typical human only needed to work a handful of hours per day to provide a life for himself. Then came feudalism and then the industrial age, where that human had to work every waking hour of everyday almost. The reason is most of his effort and ever efficient productivity from technological gains went to enrich others that were over him. That's what I try to avoid. I'd rather work for me as much as possible.

If I left trucking, It's more likely I'd go live off the land somewhere. Maybe run a trap line, fish, hunt, and do odd jobs. Making my life my own.

 

I have quit several times but I always come back to it. Its not for every body honestly I'm glad it ain't. Takes us all to make the world go around. the only thing I'm sure of in life is money isn't every thing. Can't take it with you if you are a slave to seeking it there is no time to enjoy it.

 

What I meant by "master of your own destiny" is: You get to steer your business in whatever direction you choose. Using your example, the difference would be you being able to make a decision on the spot and immediately seek out business elsewhere, versus having a strategic manager over your head directing you to keep chipping your way into that local shipper for some greater good that you probably won't benefit from yourself.

 

The only way a person would need to walk away from being an O/O, is either they cant handle it financially or they just are not into being an O/O.

If you like what you do, why bother to change.