Rod was a talker. Before I could feign fatigue and pretend to sleep, I knew all about his love of Duke basketball, bass fishing hobby, two kids (a girl and a boy), and political affiliation. I didn’t talk much, just enough to be polite and keep the conversation going.
The majority of Americans would never share their yearly earnings with a stranger, but Rod did just that. Weirdly enough, I shared my salary with him as well. The kicker- we made the same amount. Why did this give me pause? For the past 4 years of college, 2 years of engineering experience at an international company at the top of the industry, and being interviewed for a job with the title of “consultant”, I was leading myself to believe I was doing better than I am.
Rod was older than and had more relevant job experience than I did, but not by much. He didn’t own his company, just drove one of the trucks for a small towing business. He worked the day shift, so no special pay for slaving through the night picking up dead cars and their bored and stressed owners.
Over the three hour conversation, he completely casually mentioned that he owned his own modest home in an area not far from a major metro area, which he had saved up and bought owned outright with cash. His wife enjoyed working on her tan on the days he went fishing on his boat.
“God damn,” I thought, “does this guy have life figured out?” What was my life missing that made me jealous?
Rod had something I wanted, an autonomy that didn’t depend on some grey-haired suit above him. It wasn’t until just recently that I realized he has another distinct advantage that I didn’t. Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s most recent book is called Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. He posits that workers in a large corporate enterprise are actually at a less stable position than those who ‘work for themselves’ or similar situations. Consider people who work on a commission or piece work basis, such as taxi drivers, artists, and yes, tow truck drivers; they have immediate feedback about the worth they create and are able to notice patterns and therefore adapt to maximise their profits.
According to Taleb, a cog in a gigantic corporate machine receives the same paycheck every other week, so they feel awfully secure about their financial position. That same accountant, customer service representative, engineer, assembly line worker, etc, may hear that the company is about to go down in flames, or they may not. In the end, if it makes sense for the whole, or at least for the board of directors, that worker may be cut loose. Suddenly, the corporate worker goes from having steady income, to none at all.
Considering the other view, a prostitute would only see that the economy is in recession via more clients seeking services during the nine-to-five hours they had previously been working. Eventually the johns would become fewer and farther between, but, noticing the decline, the courtesan could move onto greener pastures. There had been no rumors of a layoff at my job - yet.
It seemed that I’d worked hard on setting up a life that had been nothing more than ticking off boxes of a to-do list. High school graduation with honors, a college degree, corporate job, and moving up to something new within a few years in order to ‘keep climbing’. I was pretty well set up for life, and pretty happy, but I wasn’t really much more steady than I had been as an 18 year old, working as an apprentice for a guy with his heating business.
I got the job I was interviewing for. Still, boring moments staring at Excel spreadsheets make me ponder the conversation with the tow truck driver, Rod, and his bass boat on a lake. Coincidentally, I’ve also searched for used tow trucks for sale.
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