midlife crisis - realizing my lobbying job is bullshit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds amazing! Just curious, can you share how much you make a year?

PS - I don’t think you should feel bad at all!

Why? Do u believe in meaningless jobs? Do u care about money and not whether if you are doing anything of value?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, so I have been in various parts of media, law firms, and lobbying over the past decades and am increasingly realizing that I have found an easy/fun path and making lots of money, but that my job, itself, feels like bullshit. Feeling some regret about not actually building a business, or anything of value, and just being paid to be a spin master. Does anyone else feel this way?? I am so good at it, and it is just - bullshit. Maybe this is a midlife crisis, I am funding my kids lifves and they are on purpose driven career paths.... should I just be grateful for the paycheck?

I have a job that’s neither easy nor fun, and I don’t even make that much money doing it. I hate it and wish I could quit, but am so close to retirement that I’m staying just to get my retirement benefits. I’d much rather be in your position than mine.

[Anonymous]

I was in Biglaw for decades and made lots and lots of money knowing it was bullshit and hating it. But my kids are doing good stuff and I set them up for that. That’s how I sleep
at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, so I have been in various parts of media, law firms, and lobbying over the past decades and am increasingly realizing that I have found an easy/fun path and making lots of money, but that my job, itself, feels like bullshit. Feeling some regret about not actually building a business, or anything of value, and just being paid to be a spin master. Does anyone else feel this way?? I am so good at it, and it is just - bullshit. Maybe this is a midlife crisis, I am funding my kids lifves and they are on purpose driven career paths.... should I just be grateful for the paycheck?

I’m so curious about people like OP. I had a similar conversation with someone else who works at a big law firm… didn’t you know all of this going into it? Didn’t you choose this job knowing essentially that it was lucrative bullshit? My friend’s answer was very passive, that he just took one step after another without realizing where he would end up.

[Anonymous]

A PP. You mentioned that your kids are pursuing purpose-driven careers.

I wanted to say that many people who do good in the world are subsidized by others who make bigger bucks in careers that are kind of "sus" from my perspective. For example, the Manhattan public schoolteacher whose husband makes 15 times as much on Wall Street.

So raising good kids who contribute to society is a measure of progress and success.

Also, you might benefit from watching this YouTube video about a neurosurgeon's mid-life revelation.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=25LUF8GmbFU

"A former MIT-educated neurosurgeon, "Gooby," quit his job after realizing that many surgeries weren't addressing the root causes of patients' spinal problems. He felt ethically conflicted continuing a practice he no longer believed in. He now spends time in nature, focusing on his health and his dog, Doobie."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's just arbitrage. Taking money from a corrupt part of the system and using it to fund family and charity in another part.

It's what most of us do. You are just repatriating money from the undeserving to the deserving if you do it right.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.

Honestly, it's people like us who fund the do-gooders, homeless shelters, etc.

[Anonymous]

Im also a do-gooder lobbyist and yes it is all BS- mostly because Congress is totally dysfunctional and the and administration is crazy

[Anonymous]

Op here- ok i read a synopsis of Bullshi jobs, and i feel my job as lobbyist is bullshit but not for reasons described in book.

The book:

Goons, who act to harm or deceive others on behalf of their employer, or to prevent other goons from doing so, e.g., lobbyists, corporate lawyers, telemarketers, public relations specialists;


What I think;


It just feels like bullshit rhat we spend so much time socializing and hanging out, not building anything “real.” I would say lobbyists do have a value in education and explaining to the public how things work - and many of us are transparent and honest —- but it still feels like bullshit because 99% of my meetings are not about work but about relationship buoldong and fun bantor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re right. It is bullshit. It’s probably hard realizing you’ve likely done more harm than good. But I’m sure your kids appreciate the life you’ve been able to provide for them.

+1. I never understood all these people who take jobs that do no good, have no mission or meaning, just for lots of money. Seems such a sad life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel this way?? I am so good at it, and it is just - bullshit.

OP the book of Ecclesiastes (I believe the Hebrew translation is Kohelet) comes to mind. I highly recommend the book.

[Anonymous]

Everyone wants to hate Rockefellers and Carnegies, etc., but they sure don't mind going to their beautiful libraries or universities or Colonial Williamsburg, etc., or applying for grants from their foundations for do-gooder-ism.

If you want to be pure as the driven snow, wean yourself off their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants to hate Rockefellers and Carnegies, etc., but they sure don't mind going to their beautiful libraries or universities or Colonial Williamsburg, etc., or applying for grants from their foundations for do-gooder-ism.

If you want to be pure as the driven snow, wean yourself off their money.

If billionaires and corporations weren’t hoarding so much wealth, we wouldn’t have to go groveling for their grant money. They only establish their foundations to distract from the bad stuff they do anyway.

Colonial Williamsburg? I would give up that tourist trap in a second if it meant undoing some of the damage lobbyists have done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants to hate Rockefellers and Carnegies, etc., but they sure don't mind going to their beautiful libraries or universities or Colonial Williamsburg, etc., or applying for grants from their foundations for do-gooder-ism.

If you want to be pure as the driven snow, wean yourself off their money.

If billionaires and corporations weren’t hoarding so much wealth, we wouldn’t have to go groveling for their grant money. They only establish their foundations to distract from the bad stuff they do anyway.

Colonial Williamsburg? I would give up that tourist trap in a second if it meant undoing some of the damage lobbyists have done.

Yes, the corporations are hoarding all that wealth you've been creating down at the soup kitchen. Which is why you have to ask their foundations for money to run the soup kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Work is highly overrated and people who define themselves by their work are sad and pathetic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants to hate Rockefellers and Carnegies, etc., but they sure don't mind going to their beautiful libraries or universities or Colonial Williamsburg, etc., or applying for grants from their foundations for do-gooder-ism.

If you want to be pure as the driven snow, wean yourself off their money.

Don’t kid yourself. The plutocrats of yesteryear felt a sense of noblesse oblige and actually funded useful public institutions. The ones of today do jack shit for the public. There’s no sense of duty or responsibility, just the desire to extract as much value as possible from everything possible, leaving American society an empty shell.