Sometimes when I try to explain to friends or relatives that I blog for money, I feel kind of guilty because it sounds like I’m a lazy person making money doing nothing but blogging. It sounds all too easy but it’s not! It takes lots of hard work and effort as any other regular 9 to 5 job. That is, if you want to earn a sustainable income.

Many bosses better than just one
Anyway, the main reason I chose this line of work is that I do not want my sweat and blood to go into any company owned by someone else. Also, I don’t want to depend on one person called THE BOSS who can really spoil your day just by saying “you are fired“. Nobody should have such power over you. I’d rather have multiple “bosses” in Google, Nuffnang, Kontera etc. The recent paid posts crisis caused by Google’s PR0 nuke is proof that if one channel of income goes down, there are other backups you can rely on.

In short, having only a full time job (without any other streams of income) is just putting all your eggs in one basket.

I was going over my old posts and noticed this comment from Lian Chye of LiveWellSimple. He mentions one Singaporean blogger who actually worked herself to death!

Pink May Flower blog

An excert from PinkMayFlower:-

Just after getting this recent position, I was thrilled to finally have the chance to “fly high” in a Fortune 500 MNC. It’s ok for me to wake at 3.30am to start work @ 4.30am everyday in the morning. But never did I realise what kind of stuff were coming towards me… What I face everyday as a partner support manager is having more than 100 emails per day (I’m not joking, they’re no good ones), partners from New Zealand practically “screaming” to be served first, getting their orders delivered ASAP, wanting everything, complaining of everything. Month end was the most “exciting” part, you get to go on concalls almost everyday,

This happened to be her last post titled Worked Up, Stressed Up, Crashed Down. She worked so hard that she actually fainted an hit her head on the wall. Her job was not any shitty job either. It was for a Multi National Company that to many new job seekers, always sounds like the job made in heaven. From the initial comments many adviced her to take a rest or quit her job not knowing that she had already passed away.

The main cause of her death was not the hit on the head (perhaps it was a contributing factor?) but prolonged use of the notebook on her lap that resulted in a deadly blood clot.

It is indeed a sad story. She did have the warning signs before she her sudden death but I guess she didn’t seriously think she would die. It was ironic that her closing statement for the post:

My mom’s really worried & I can’t do much to get less worried. Cos my focus was to earn lots of $. I really thought I was able to do everything, that I can be supergirl as well, but my health is worsening at a fast rate. Vitamin M(oney) isn’t gonna cure my health. Just yesterday, I received an email from my job agency saying that a contract staff who’s working in HP as well, passed away from heart attack, leaving his wife & kids… deja vu? coincidental? a warning sign? I dunno. I don’t wanna end up dead for the sake of dough. The moral of the story is don’t ever fall in love with your company or your job.
Tags: dear diary

So next time when you are working long hours or have tell-tale health warning signs like dizzy spells or faintings - time to stop and take a break or find another less stressful job. Losing your life for a job is simply not worth it.

Other related blogs entries:-

Popularity: 27% [?]