A couple months back I was working a job as a fast food attendant.

It wasn’t anything close to good.

• The break room (where the employees ate), was filled with geese sh*t

• The food that we were making was — at least from my point of view — pure chemicals
  (the oil in which we made french fries literally looked like something you’d put in a WW2 tank — aka, disgusting)

• I ended up conforming by eating said ‘chemical fries’

I was making minimum wage but the problem was that I was in ‘work’ mode for 8 hours whilst getting paid only for 5.

Here’s what a typical day looked like:

• 10:15 - start prepping lunchbox (cuz the food there was literally chemicals)

• 10:40 - start walking for the train

• 11:15 - reach work

• 11:55 - punch in

• 30 mins mandatory break

• 19:45 - start closing
  (before you even step out, your foreman has already signed you off lol)

• 20:00 - walk till ferry

  (oh, the last train was 5 minutes back. Now I gotta wait till 21:05 for f*cks sake)

• 21:15 - reach station

• 21:45 - reach home

This is 1 Day. Then you repeat it for 5 days a week

Very quickly this job turned into a nightmare.

I was giving so much of my energy to it, having negligible left for me for my personal life: -

• No energy to Gym

• No energy to stick to Diet

• No energy to Read books

• No energy to pursue Goals

• No TIME for everything

The most aggravating part of this job was that I had to wait till supervisor tells us to clock in.
(which was a minimum of 40 minutes wasted by just standing doing nothing)

I needed a way out.

My mind opened:

I started noticing so many Uber Eats bicycle drivers

• "Hey if these normies can do it, why can't I? I can be better, faster, I know downtown"

• "I will have autonomy over when I want to work"

• "I can do deep work in the morning and then bike uber after gym"

• "I will decide how much money I get because over here my effort will determine the pay - and I will put effort"

So I took the leap. I quit my job and researched e-bike options.

Found one where I could rent for relatively low price

The trial was for 2 weeks minimum

"great! I will try for 2 weeks see how it fairs out"

The thing is:

I didn't really need a job.

The reason I wanted to get this quick money is so that I can have a sense of 'independence'.

"Look at me. I spend $60,000 of daddy's money for university BUTTTT I buy my own courses and shoes and tshirts"

Lol.

I was also due for a phone upgrade (iPhone X) and wanted to get 16 Pro Max for my content recording (like a business expense).

It would cost be $2000+ (which at min. wage translates to 125 hours of my life)

"If I work twenty-five 5-hour shifts, I can pay for it myself!"

( AND KEEP MY PRIDE )

OR, I could just accept my mother's offer to buy me a phone since the past 2 years.

I talked to my sister and to get a second opinion.

She also agreed that I didn't really need to work and that I could rest instead till the semester begins; but that if I really wanted to, try it out for 2 weeks. If it's good, offer mom to pay for half and I'd pay for the other half.

I got greedy. I thought I was being a smartass by buying it all on credit

"Hah. I will make a YouTube video teaching 'How to Use Credit Cards Wisely'"

(I thought that with good intentions)

A Moment of Introspection

But I was still debating.

I had been doing this for the past 2 years and coping about "I don't want to work a job. I want to do a Business" ~ but like a The Virgin Sex Guru, I was all talk and no walk.

"What if I just went all in on building something instead of trying to make a quick buck? Would I not set-up my future self for a better position?"

It felt good. Divine I'd say; to coach yourself w logic.

Unfortunately, the night I made that decision, the next morning I woke up at 4 am to pee and couldn't sleep after that.

My sleep was disrupted, and historically as well as scientifically,
bad sleep = bad decisions

At 5:30 am I am up on the e-bike website again booking the pick-up.

I remember those thoughts that were running in my head in the haze of my disturbed sleep.

"I'll make money. I'll make it right now. I won't need to ask anyone. I'll be independent.

"oh maaz nice you got the new iphone eh?" 

"yeah yeah. I paid for it myself hah (feeling a sense of pride saying that)”

And with that I marched to that place to get the e-bike.

I had a few brain cells working still.

"I just want to try and see how good it is for a couple weeks."

There was a 2-week, 6-week and 12-week commitment.

The kicker here was that the 2-week had a starter fee of $50. And the 6-week one didn't (also the weekly subscription of 6-weeks was less).

I study business. I knew this is Pricing Psychology.

Longer commitment + Less Price = making them more money over a long period of time (as opposed to if I only took for 2 weeks)

But, I got greedy.

 This is an experience that will always stick with me because I was aware and spotted it at the moment... but decided to go with the impulse anyway (as all humans do)

I took the 6-week one thinking I'm a smartass -

"oh, 2-weeks is not enough data (lol) for me to know if this is good or no. 6-weeks gives me time to collect more data on what the right timing and locations for my shift could be. Yeah. This is a smart decision. I will commit longer.

I will make more money and save up quite some AND easily cover the cost of the subscription. Yeah, there is risk in committing longer (my wiser-self was screaming),

but I am willing to sacrifice (lolololol). I will work harder than anybody (LMFAO)"

“The Easiest Person to fool in the world is Yourself”

Two Massive Lessons here:

Lesson 1) Don't Commit to Shit without Proof of Concept

Lesson 2) We think we make decisions with Logic. We don't.
We make them with Emotions.
We then try to justify them with Logic

So I took the 6-week subscription.

Went home feeling the high, the scratch in my palms, the dopamine of making $1000+ every week (lmao)

The next day I started.

Long story short - I biked 50 kms to 4 different hot zones.

0 Orders

I ended the day with $0,
minus some shitty food I purchased from outside (because I was feeling shitty about myself. Classic)

I went back home, thought about this, and it was starting to hit me...

"Look.. no, LOOK at the people who are doing this. The guy who you talked to outside the bike store. The other one at the signal. The one outside the restaurant. LOOK at them. They can't speak proper English. All of them seem uneducated, fat, tired, and have grimaced faces. They are actual 'retards'. Look at 20 of them lined up outside McDonald's sitting on their bikes eyes on the screen just waiting to earn a $."

It reminded me of a business lesson I learned from The Millionaire Fastlane:

In other words, I would be competing with the same level of retards for the same pay; because all this requires is a bike and a cellular phone.

I started to punch myself. I knew this, and a constant loop played in my MONTHS before I even knew that I could deliver for Uber Eats with a few press of buttons...

"What a miserable way to waste your time. The number of bikers just loafing in front of the restaurants is increasing everyday.

Are they dumb? Do they not understand basic Supply and Demand? There are more of these bikers than there are orders coming in. And when the orders come, it will be such a low payout because so many people are desperate to earn just a few bucks.

Heh. I am smarter than them. I know how shit works."

Yeah well great going. It came right back to bite me in my ass.

Just a thing to remember... when your sleep (one of the pillars of every living organism) is incomplete, your prefrontal cortex - The Thinking / Command Center of your brain - is inefficient and ineffective.

Despite having knowledge and understanding, I made a bad decision.

Lesson 3) Always make decisions that are important after a good night's sleep when your brain can function at its highest

To continue the story, I told myself that I'd continue for a week (even though inside I knew there was no hope - "Why would they risk giving a newcomer an order when there are hundreds already doing it for a while?")

The next day I went 1 hour before rush time started, and waited 1 hour after it ended

(4 hours of my life just thrown away).

Result?

Zilch. Nada.

"Yup fuck this"

Such a lump came in my throat.

"I will have to pay $300 in total as a penalty for defaulting on this commitment. I should've just taken 2-weeks. I got too greedy to make money. I got too optimistic that everything will workout like I thought it would"

Lesson 4) Optimism can be dangerous most times. Having a Lens of Pessimism / Realism; to view things in every way that could go wrong for you makes you realize that Expectations & Reality often never match; and hence, making better logical decisions instead of emotional.

This is a moment that I am quite proud of (considering my stupidity)… keep reading.

$300 means approximately 20 hours worth of minimum wage pay

(not including the time it took to get ready for a shift as mentioned at the start), just gone in a matter of 2 days because of a couple of bad decisions.

I was disheartened, frustrated, called up my sister to tell her all this, saw disapproving and disappointing looks from my dad in the background, and felt like a pussy for not sticking it out (for something that isn't even a marginally good use of my time & energy).

I pulled out my journal and wrote, "Cut Your Losses and Move On".

My past self would scrutinize and beat myself over this. Over all the things, courses I could've invested in with that money. Over all that that time went down the drain at working that shitty job. Over all that energy and mental anguish... gone.

But from going through this exact same "Beat-yourself-up-for-mistakes-I-didn't-know-I-would-make"... when,

Lesson 5) Mistakes made with Direct Experience in Life is How you Learn,

I realized that,

Lesson 6) No amount of regret about the past, or anxiety about the future, can do anything to make your present better.

It felt... again... divine (hahaha), to be able to comfort myself and treat myself with kindness for the first time in half a decade.

All the realizations I had is what I wrote in my journal that day, and now I am so glad that I am sharing this with You (whoever is reading this).

It wasn't all in vain you know?

If you could take even one of these lessons and experience them for yourself, that 'aha' moment is something I'd love for you to have that.

To end it off, this mistake is something I made 2 years ago too.

I had rented a guitar for the first time and wanted to learn how to play.

Yousician was an app that I heard.

The monthly subscription was (and I'm guessing I don't really think it's accurate) $24.

But the yearly was coming out to be $15 per month (but you pay for the year upfront - again, pricing psychology).

"Hmm. Anyways I want to learn the guitar properly. And it will take a LONG time for that to happen yeah? So let's take for the YEAR cuz it means less money gone in total if I took 1 month at a time. Yeah it'll be the smart thing to do".

^ This right here is what is known as a 'Scarcity Mindset'

"it'll be cheaper in the long run" ~ yes but why are you committing to something that you don't really know you will stick with? (Lesson #1)

Any guesses as to what happened next? (haha)

I didn't really want to learn what they were teaching.

I just wanted to learn easy songs that I could play to impress people.

Barely used 3 months of the subscription.

I begrudgingly used to look at my guitar at times because everytime I picked it up,

"I should be doing that instead of what I want to because I've committed/paid for it already"

AND another commitment to a borderline scam course I put around $3300 of the first few paychecks of my life in (but I'll spare you the details now. I think you get it now :)

(if you really are interested... here's the video

I made about it 1.5 years back ~ p.s. Ignore the cringe. I can't even remember who I was).

sigh

I've been writing this for more than 2 hours now.

Didn't really think it would come out the way it did.

Hope you could take away something from this :)

~ Maaz