The Worst Thing I Saw On The Internet Today
Brace yourself. Sort of.
As I’ve discussed here, I have been curating my Instagram feed to not just be full of golf, friends and family but also accounts that inspire and frankly just make me happy. This can be accounts focusing on puppies, inspiring stories of people being nice to each other, providing charity to deserving people in need, or whatever.
In doing so, I’ve ended up following a bunch of folks I likely would have never discovered, which is great.
One such account is Simon Squibb. With a name like that, you’ll be shocked to find out he’s British. But he’s also someone who has made a lot of money and decided the next stage of his life will be helping people realize their dreams. His account is great because you see him work with folks - not to hand them things, but to get them to take the steps they might not do without a gentle shove or incentive. He has written books about this, has a podcast, 3.3 million followers on Instagram, and basically makes a good living while helping others. That’s fairly great!
But today, he posted a reel where he asked someone what his dream was (his opener, always) and the guy said it was to make enough money to retire. Squibb’s response really, really bothered me. So much that I’ve transcribed it here:
“Oh no, retirement is fake. You don’t want to retire.”
“It’s fake?”
Yeah, yeah it’s just the thing set out so you don’t enjoy what you do. But accept that so eventually you retire. But most people die within two years of retirement. So do you really want to retire?”
The person eventually stated that he wants to make music, and Squibb talks about how the real successful musicians don’t retire, they’re still making music at 80. (For the record, that’s also not true. Most musicians, if they are playing music in their senior years, are doing so at small venues because they didn’t make enough money in their heyday - or blew what they did make. Just because Mick Jagger refuses to go away doesn’t mean all musicians want to be playing in between doses of Geritol.
Look, I get that there’s a school of thought of “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” But it’s an incredibly elitist thought, one born of privilege. Nobody loves working in fast food or on an assembly line or [insert whatever job sounds awful to you], but all of those jobs exist because there’s demand for the products.
People might, on average, die two years after they retire - but that’s because of a fundamental flaw in our systems. It’s because most people HAVE to work to much older ages than they’d probably prefer. When most people are retiring in their 70’s, THAT is why they die so soon after retiring, not because they’re bored or aimless. Not understanding this is the viewpoint of incredible privilege. I try VERY hard to not bring politics onto this site, so I’ll stop there but … come the F on with this nonsense.
My parents were both remarkably successful in their careers, and both have been retired for years, even decades. Their lives are … wonderful. They read and travel. They are both writing their memoirs. My mother has taken up painting. My father reads three newspapers each morning. They walk their dog, they see friends, and go to the theater. They are in a movie club where they watch a movie each month and talk about it with peers and experts. This is something that’s fake? In some way they should have regrets about this?
This is THE GOAL. This is why people work so hard. Not everybody has a dream job, and that’s okay. It’s taken me a long time to realize that and be okay with it, while I bounced around between jobs I thought would make me happier because they were in industries I liked. They did and so does my job right now, which decidedly is NOT in such an industry. I work with good people, the job is interesting enough to keep me interested and it provides the financial flexibility to help support my family AND do things like traveling with family or friends.
Are people who have their dream jobs not supposed to have other interests or hobbies? When do they get to spend time doing that?
Simon Squibb really, really bummed me out with this - and it’s the kind of mentality that makes people burnout at their job and end up hating the very thing they thought they loved. Do better, Simon.
You obviously need to work longer and harder if you want to understand what Simon is saying