The 9 to 5 Trap

In the last few years, we have been shown movies that glorify two things. Traveling as if it is the one true purpose of our lives, and following your passion, as if a 9-to-5 job is a curse. 

We are forced to believe that the only way we can enjoy our lives is by traveling and by following our passion. Movies like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Tamasha have hammered this into our heads that living a monotonous life of living with your parents, following your parents’ advice, going to office every day, saving money, having a stable life are a waste of life. These movies have dialogues like - Paisa to haath ka mel hota hai. Isse bachaate nahi, udaate hai. 

When impressionable teenagers and youth watch such movies, they start to believe in this fallacy that life is all about living in the moment. Don't worry about future, seize the day. Follow your passion of travel photography and theater acting. When a superstar like Ranbir Kapoor says these lines, it legitimizes their authenticity. 

But I want to show the youth the other side of the coin. I have lived long enough to witness the repercussions of such idiotic lifestyle. If you also believe in such Bollywood movies, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you even want to travel so much?

Most people who travel in India or outside, come back home feeling more exhausted and drained. Traveling is stressful. You need to spend so much time, money, and energy in planning the trip. Everything hardly goes according to the plan. Flight delays, unexpected weather conditions, crowded tourist destinations, poor amenities like washrooms, unhygienic food, expensive yet poorly maintained hotels, car breakdowns in the middle of nowhere. - Who needs all of these? On top of that, for someone like me who has a terrible motion sickness, traveling can be a real nightmare. 

So, before you blindly follow this trend of traveling, ask yourself - do you even like traveling? Or do you just do it to show off on social media? If you really do love traveling, it's high time you realized that one should start exploring their local tourist places. If you believe in this myth that traveling only matters if you travel thousands of kilometers away to an unknown land, I am sure you haven't explored hidden gems of your state. Work your way from local to global. It will yeild high amount of fun and satisfaction with a very small investment of money, time and energy. 

Plus, the reason traveling is fun is because you get to spend time with your family and friends. I don't understand solo traveling so let's leave it out. But people who like to travel with family and friends need to understand that it is the people and the shared experience that generate fun and joy, the place has a very little to do with it. I mean if you are with your loved ones, you will have the same amount of fun at a beach in Gujarat as you would have it at a beach in Maldives.

2.   What is your passion?

It has never been easier to earn money quickly than the modern times. Influencers and content creators have created this fantasy that you don't have to slog yourself to earn money. You need to work smart, not hard. Then the movies tell you - follow your passion. Make your passion your profession and you will never have to work a day in your life. 

This mentality couldn't be farther from truth. The moment you make your passion your profession, you lose the joy of doing it because now you are stressed about earning your living from it. First of all, wildlife photography, theater acting, travel vlogging - these are not your passions, these are your hobbies. Second, the internet is full of failed content creators who quit their jobs and spend hundreds of hours creating content, and still cannot generate revenue. I have seen these people asking for a job on their YouTube channel. 

The same goes for actors and people who are trying to make it in the film industry. I can't tell you how many men and women in their 40's I have met who left their homes and studies in their 20's to follow their "passion" of acting or filmmaking or directing or writing, but now they are broke, at a dead end of their passion cum career and have nowhere to go. They are unable to feed their kids. They are unable to pay their bills. They have no savings. No retirement plan. They just live in the moment. One day at a time. They don't know how they will bring food to their table tomorrow, the day after, next month or next year. 

On the other hand, those people who chose the difficult path in their 20's, studied for years, got a stable 9-to-5 job, started from the bottom and climbed up the ladder of their career with perseverance and hard-work, are now leading a happy, secure and fun-filled life in their 40's. These are the people who are truly capable to follow their passion now. I see these people finally reaching a point in their lives where they don't have to worry about financial security, at a respectable position in their career, have sufficient savings to now spend time and money on their "passion" AKA hobby. They work from Monday to Friday from 9-to-5, and spend their weekends and vacation time following their passion of photography, rock climbing, cooking, writing, singing, whatever it is. They don't do these things to earn their living. They already have stable well-paying jobs. They follow their passion just for the sheer joy of it. Nothing else. That's the right way of pursuing your passion. 

3. What is wrong with the 9-to-5 routine?

All these years, movies have been telling us that a 9-to-5 job sucks the life out of you. It is the worst way of living your life. It is a system of slavery. Let's assume for a moment all of this is true. Then what's the alternative? In the perfect world, the ideal alternative would be to do what you love, do it at your own pace and flexibility, earn a lot of money from it. Show me one job or passion that will immediately give you all of these. 

In every profession or passion, you first have to put a lot of hard-work, time and energy to learn it, master it, prove yourself and before you can make any meaningful contribution. When you follow your passion, let's say travel photography, you will not make any money until you reach this state  after slogging yourself for a few years, unlike a 9-to-5 job where you start getting paid from day one even before you start your training on the job. 

Second, in such fancy professions like photography and acting, there is no stability. These professions are susceptible to recession and pandemics. Remember? During the pandemic, these non-essential professions suffered the most. People who had a job in essential fields like banking, healthcare, engineering didn’t have to struggle financially. Moreover, these professions have project-based work. You may have a project today, you don't know where you'll bring money from after this project is over, unlike a 9-to-5 job, where you are assured that you will get your salary on the 1st of every month. 

4. What are THEY doing?

Do you ever wonder what these people who ask you to follow your passion and refuse to work in a 9-to-5 job are doing?

You will find that these people work long gruesome hours in their job. There is no concept of weekend or time-off. They are always stressed and exhausted because they don't have the luxury to stop working at 5pm. You don't believe me? Look at the latest controversy in the Indian film industry. Deepika Padukone was kicked out of big movies because she demanded 8-hour work shift. 

The irony is the people who told us to break out of the shackle of monotonous 9-to-5 routine are now asking for the same routine. Don't get fooled by them. They are disconnected from reality. Reality is very different. It is not as easy as their sugarcoated fantasy but it is also not as hard as they claim it is. 

The hardcore truth is life is hard. You will not achieve anything in life by taking the easy way out. The surest way of leading a balanced life is what your parents told you to do. Study hard. Choose a career in an essential field. Start your career at bottom. Work your way up the career ladder. Reach a point of security and stability in your life where you can follow your passion. 

Live wisely.