Ain't No Job Like Farmin'

When I was 15, I had the most impactful conversation of my life. I was stacking bags at my grandfather's feedmill when he told me about a fantastic job offer he once had to pursue a career in music. (He was an excellent musician.) I asked him why he didn't take the job, and his answer was the most important thing anyone ever said to me. He simply responded, "They would have made me wear a tie. There ain't no job like farmin."

For a minute, I thought he was crazy. But as I thought about it during the rest of the work day, I realized he wasn't actually talking about neckwear. He was talking about the difference between independence in your life's mission vs. going the easy route and taking a job that stifles your self-determination. 

That day, I decided that he was right. While I didn't think I'd ever become a farmer, I could agree that there ain't no better job than farmin'. There ain't no better job than the one you do for yourself, the way you want to do it -- a job that puts you in control of your own fate. 

So looking back on my career from this perspective, I've had the ability to get both points of view. I spent the first 7 years at a software company in a more typical job that didn't make me wear a necktie, but did have the rest of the trappings of what Pap was talking about. But despite that beginning, I was able to spend a few years making my own way as an independent consultant and software entrepreneur.

Don't get me wrong: the grass is pretty green on both sides of the fence. But Pap Lehr wasn't wrong. There ain't no job like farmin'.