I started working professionally in the computer industry when I was only 13 years old.

There were times during my career that I got paid less than minimum wage, and there were times that I got paid hundreds of dollars an hour.

The times when I enjoyed my work the most were times when I was learning and mastering things every day. But that is happiness incomplete unless my efforts are also noticed and fairly appreciated.

Being happy at work is kind of like playing an MMORPG. As long as I have a sense of progression and mastery, I’m hooked. All of the gold in the game won’t matter though if you don’t make friendships along the way.

My dream is to one day have enough money saved up to where I can just do my own thing. I want to play games until I’m sick of games. I want to read books and watch movies until I’m sick of books and movies. I want to drive around and explore. I want to meet people and make friends. I want to spend time learning new skills and crafts. I want to learn how to work on cars. I want to learn how the human body works, like a doctor. I want to learn how to do woodworking. I want to learn how to weld things. I want to learn how to make my own gadgets and electronic devices from scratch.

I can’t do any of those things though, because I work long days and give all my time to my job, and at the end of the day I’m so exhausted that I don’t feel like doing anything else.

I’m worried that by the time I have enough money to actually quit working for other people, I will be too old to actually do the things I want to do in life.