Worlds Divided By Work And Wealth

I've met people that do all sorts of jobs, from menial and manual labour, through to executives and directors of companies who never leave their offices save for meetings where they sit in board rooms and listen to the same thing over and over again to the point of insanity.  One thing that strikes me about this wide range of careers that I've gained insights into through them, is that for many of these people, what they do as a job and where their skills are strongest, are often the things which socially they are either unwilling or unable to do.  To put it bluntly they seem only capable of doing what they can do when they are getting paid.

I've met people that have worked in call centres who can spend 10 hours taking or making calls back to back, talking with complete strangers without any problem in doing so, but outside of work they have social anxiety and have that fear of using a telephone for anything beyond work.  I've met people who professionally are the most organised people I have ever met, but outside of work their lives, figuratively, and literally, are often a complete mess.  I find it fascinating that it doesn't seem to matter what the job is, the same holds true for people through every career I've had the opportunity to discuss with people.  Now this doesn't apply to everyone, and there are of course exceptions driven by necessity or out of requests made by friends and family.  Still of all, from chefs who work all day preparing food who flat out don't want to cook, they want it handed to them, through to Doctors who never take drugs for any ailment - the vast majority of which also don't take the winter flu vaccine despite being offered it, something which I found curious.

The question I ponder is what is the motivation or rather what drives the lack of motivation to do these things for themselves outside of work?  Is it actually laziness, or a tiredness?  Exhausted from working all day, they don't have the energy to devote to these tasks?  I find that one hard to justify as the reason.  Beyond that there is the simple question of repetition and boredom - is it really the monotony of doing something all day and as soon as you don't have to do it you choose not to, and avoid it as much as you can?  Or is it something else?  Perhaps it's the knowledge that we are paid to do these things and once we find ourselves in a position where we have no financial gain in doing it we are reluctant. 

None of these possible explanations address the scenario where completing these tasks would actually be beneficial to the individuals.  Take a city trader for example who spends all day working with equities and futures, someone who could further their own personal wealth if they applied the same skill-set they use every day in their jobs to their own finances.  Now I know some will argue that it's easier to do when it's someone else's money and you don't personally lose the money when you make a loss, and I can accept that in part, I can also accept that some will have the drive to be self-made and pursue their own independent careers and form their own companies when they gain the experience to do so, but I would argue those people are in a minority, just as those in the above examples who put the effort in outside of work as chefs etc are also a minority.  Like a solicitor establishing their own practice, many prefer the security of working with an existing firm, it's only a minority that go it alone.

So whilst there are always exceptions, they are not the focus of my attention.  My attention is focused on those that choose not to use the skills they gain in employment in their personal lives.  I'm guilty of this myself as there are many things I have done through employment which I could pursue as careers on my own through self employment, but my reason for not doing so is a lack of motivation, but the reason for the lack of motivation is something that eludes me.  I know I could, I know the barriers that prevent me could be overcome, and I know that I could handle it as I have proven through employment I can do that work professionally, still of all I have no real reason why I don't I just simply don't, which leaves me asking the same question I ask of others - why?

I know many will read this and think this is very much a first-world-problem, and I will admit that it is, this entire post is self-indulgent, but I would argue this isn't limited to those that live in the first world, and it certainly isn't limited to the boundaries established by it.  There are many people in the first world who could use what they know within second and third world countries and produce results that would far outstretch anything they would ever do in the first world.  I was once told be a friend of mine from University whose family several generations back came from India, if he ever made enough money he would move to India and live like a King.  That's a bizarre concept at first to wrap your head around but that is mainly because of first world guilt at the suggestion of exploiting those in the other worlds.  Yet what he suggested highlights the truth, the further "down" the chain you go the more spending power your money gains, and ultimately the more your relative wealth increases, even if the principle sum remains constant.  Whilst many dwell on those in poorer countries wanting to come to richer countries for better opportunities, the idea of moving in the other direction seems to be forgotten.

If you can't increase your wealth where you live, is the answer to gaining a better standard of living perhaps that you should move to somewhere where your wealth has significantly increased spending power?  If the possibility of answering yes is dancing around in your mind then you find yourself in the same position with your career whether you realise it or not, the work you do in employment benefits someone other than yourself, whereas what you do in your own life benefits yourself.  You may not increase your wealth as a result of it but you would be taking a step towards "passing down" the wealth of information from the "first world" of your employment, to the second or third world of your personal life, depending on how abject the two are.  We live in an age where information is a commodity, and to possess it is to hold a form of wealth, like all wealth, the further down the chain you go the more powerful it becomes. 

That brings us to the final question - is the reason we keep wealth within the first world and do not pass it on to the others the exact same reason why we put the effort into our jobs but not the same effort in our personal lives?