Going Long Podcast_SOLO Episode 451_Billy Keels

Thu, Aug 29, 2024 2:23PM • 14:51

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

corporate, priorities, obedience, promotable, put, machine, move, people, perform, realized, working class family, talk, wanted, boundaries, call, started, meant, life, point, bottom line

SPEAKERS

Billy Keels

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Billy Keels  00:00

Today's conversation is sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you want to learn more about how to make your nine to five optional, just go to Billy keels.com forward slash advising. Once again, that's Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising, the bottom line about how corporate obedience ruins your life. Such a topic of conversation all the time, almost every day, in some way, shape or fashion. Sometimes, you may not call it corporate obedience, but you have to do what your company tells you to do, because that's where you're depending on your paycheck. Your paycheck is helping you to make sure that you're doing the things that you want to be able to do for yourself or your family, and move closer to your towards your goals. I get it because I talk to people about it all the time, and I recognize that this literally is the bottom line about how corporate obedience ruins your life, especially if you're not careful, and if you're not doing some very specific things. One thing in particular, there's like a one thing, but it's like Part A and Part B. And I'll definitely tell you more about that, because the thing is, is, when you're when you're inside of a corporate machine, you just have to recognize that it's a machine, and the machine needs certain outputs, and those outputs come from the individuals that are there. Now I was a part of the corporate machine for 26 years. I really enjoyed it. And there's so many positive things that come from being a part of a big company, especially like a really big company, great processes, usually, lots of training, lots of access to super smart people. I was even fortunate because I was in the enterprise software space, so cutting edge technology understanding, deep industry process, knowledge, all this kind of stuff. So for me, it's like, I think about corporate and I smile. I still enjoy corporate. Just got to a certain point where I wanted my own life priorities to take precedence over the big corporate machines priorities. And so if I, if I, as I typically do, I like to think about my corporate days, right? And I'm thinking about how this whole concept of corporate obedience, how, if you allow it, it can ruin your life. It really can, and fortunately, I never got to the point where it ruined my life. But there are definitely some setbacks as a result of following corporate obedience, following the machine the way that the machine runs, and letting the machine's priorities overtake my own personal life priorities. So if you you go back, and I go, like, to go back down memory lane, I'm a part of what they call the catalyst program. So it's like, top talent, so like the, like, the top people that are supposed to be moving up the organization, and it's part of that. And at the same time, I've made no bones about it, where I come from. I've talked about that in the past, coming from a working class family, and being able to, you know, talk, understand what some of those struggles are. And I've talked about that in episode 447 so if you want to hear about how to overcome some common struggles when changing social class, you can go listen to 447 but as I think about being in the in the top talent program, and where I where I came from, or where I come from. I always wanted to follow the rules, because when you want to move from a working class family into more thinking and white collar and stuff like that, it is really about, how do I make more money? That's what I thought the game was about. And I knew that if I could make more money and I followed the rules, then I would continue to move up into the right in the quadrant, right? And so I also wanted to be a provider for my family, and I wanted to be known as the reliable one. I still want to be known as the reliable one. Like when I say this is going to happen, then it's going to happen, right? So all of these things are happening during my corporate life. This is where I am, where I come from, the rules that I need to follow. And when you put that, and you think about it, from middle school to high school, high school to college, college to your first job, and then your first job, and it's just the same pattern, and it goes over and over and over and over right to continue to move up into the right. Well, at this point in time, on the outside, I wanted everybody to know I'm promotable because I can move up the ladder. You know, the more I move up the ladder, that means the I'm going to have more people. More people means more influence within the organization. That usually meant more money. Remember, money solved all problems, at least that's what I thought at the time, definitely not what I think today. And then when all these things are going along like I wanted to do things and know that I could provide the comfort that comes along with it, like deep down inside, that's really what I wanted. And so after going to school, getting the good grades, and going through all these things, I realized that when you're in my corporate and the more that I moved up the ladder, it meant that there was much more responsibility I had. Be much more responsive. I was always caught up in the work more and doing more and more and more work. And I got to a point where it was even difficult to disconnect. I struggled to disconnect from work, right? I talked about that in episode 446 if you want to go back and listen to that episode 446 but the idea is, the more work that I took on, of course, there was collateral damage, because the more that I'm getting the phone calls in the car while I'm driving down the street, or I'm walking with my family along the Mediterranean Sea, getting a call, getting an email, I had to be responsive. So there was constant disruptions in family life that I allowed. By the way, this is the important part. This is the part about corporate obedience that you have to reflect on yourself. Because why is it happening? The more special projects that would come up. I wanted to put my hand up because I wanted to be promotable. Remember, I wanted everybody to know that, hey, listen, I'm going to continue to move up. This was I was obeying the machine. The machine needed the top workers, and so I was obeying, and I was being rewarded because I wanted to be a part of of that process. So more special projects meant me connecting with more people, increasing my networking within the organization, and at the same time, it meant more distraction. More obedience to the corporate meant more distraction for me, for internally and putting my priorities on the back burner. But then I also started realizing, like there were people that I was now starting to see outside of corporate, that were that they were succeeding in corporate, and they were building their own lives, they were investing in real estate, they were building small businesses. And I realized that there's also another way. I didn't just have to listen to and follow the corporate obedience. There was also a way for me to perform at the office really, really well, and also start to put my own life priorities in more of a front seat. So I sat down, and I was started to put together my own plan and setting and following through. And the thing that was absolutely critical was being able to realize that I also was allowed to set some boundaries. And this was completely like new for me, because when as I started talking to people, and I started asking, like, how is it that you're like, you're still performing so well, but you also have, like, this business on the side that you're telling me about, that some people had had both a boat business and another person had an online business. Another many people were investing in real estate and stacking assets, as they called and so one of the things that I realized is that there was this common theme that came up, and it was about being able to set really clear boundaries and not just set the boundaries, it's set the boundaries and actually respect the boundaries that you set. Talked about this also, too in episode 424, so if you want to check that out, you can check out episode 424, or talk a lot more about setting boundaries. But this was the whole key, because once you set the boundaries and you then you respect those boundaries, that whole corporate obedience, you can still have the corporate obedience, but you now are starting to put a line in the sand that says, hey, listen, I want to continue to move. I want to continue to perform, but maybe I'm not going to be as promotable, because I'm not going to take on as many special projects. I'm still going to perform. I'm perform, right? I'm still going to perform in my role, but I may not be consistently over performing. And I will tell you, once I started doing this, my life started changing. In the beginning, it was uncomfortable. Just going to put it out there. I'm not going to tell you something that is not the case, it was definitely uncomfortable recognizing that the corporate machines dream and role for me was no longer my dream because I had some of my identity caught up in that, right? Because your phone's constantly ringing, your all the emails come you're you're part of everything that is the highest priority, at least, that's how you perceive it. So as I started drawing my line in this and it meant that I was saying no to other things, I wasn't I was no longer being as obedient to the corporate machine as I was before. So you're going to feel uncomfortable. So when that starts happening, it's okay. It's part of the process. You'll be okay realizing that corporate dream was no longer my dream. It was now time for me to put my priorities in the front seats, start to draw the boundaries. That's the thing that had to happen. And I can tell you, as I started realizing that corporates like my the corporate obedience began to not ruin my life, but to started to deteriorate some of it. And once I started to draw the line in the sand, things started changing. I was able to perform at work. Still performed even the literally, the year that left corporate, I'd just come back from Hawaii because I. Overperformed against the sales quarter that I was given, right? So even through my last days, I was still performing. I was just no longer 100% lockstep in corporate obedience, because the machine was still moving, and I was part of the machine, right? And I was, I was happy being in the machine, and I was able to build my own priorities, and they started taking more precedence. And it was great. And so got to a point where, yeah, eventually was able to leave corporate. Left at 48 spent from 44 to 48 was going into the job because I really liked it and I didn't need it. No longer needed it anymore. My whole concept of what I thought I needed to be in corporate completely changed. So I spent four years going to a job that I liked simply because I liked it. The return on my time was worth it. And then I got to a point where it didn't make sense anymore. But more importantly, when I realized this whole bottom line about how corporate obedience can ruin your life, that that is the thing that was a part of it. But more importantly, I became comfortable in my new identity, knowing that I could perform at the role, at the job I'd taken on some of the inputs that I also received from from my coach, a paid coach, that I had put those in place, and I guess what? Like it was okay to put in some of my boundaries and respect those boundaries, and the corporate machine didn't even notice anyway, that was the whole thing. And so I realized that I had the ability to decide myself and put my priorities also first and they could coexist my personal life priorities and having an understandable, I don't want to call it obedience, but an understanding with the corporate machine that I would continue to do the things that needed to be done for the corporate machine, and, more importantly, my life, priorities were going to be put in in in first place. So I became comfortable with this new identity that I had, and also understanding that I had the ability to decide just like you do. And so this is the bottom line about how corporate obedience can ruin your life if you allow it to, but it everything starts with you. There is no victimism. Here. You are the one who allows the obedience to put their priorities, put its priorities in front of you. And there is a way to accomplish both. It doesn't have to be an either or. It can be and, and I can tell you, when you put your own life priorities first, it will make you a much better, happier individual, which then can translate if you decide that you want to continue to stay in corporate, which I did for a long time, and when it's time for you to leave, because you've already made your nine to five optional for so many years, when it's time to exit stage left, you exit stage left, and everything is All good. So let me stop there, because I said I want to keep these episodes brief. I wanted to talk to you about the bottom line about how corporate obedience ruins your life or has the ability to but I also want you to understand that it is in your hands, it is your power, and is putting your priorities first, so that you can also be comfortable with the identity that you have and the ability to decide for yourself. So while you think about that, guess where I'm going to be. I'm going to be right here. I'm going to be producing another episode. I'm going to talk about things that I continue to hear, whether I'm talking to people on LinkedIn or whether you're contacting me through the podcast. But these are things that I know you're going through, and they're things that I went through too, and I'm here to help you move forward and move forward faster. So enjoy the episode. Love to get your feedback. Love to get your review. Feel free to do that. We make it easy for you here, and if you want to reach out, we also make it easy for you to reach out. And if you want to talk about any of these topics, I love talking about them. I'm talking about them literally on a daily basis. If we're not connected on LinkedIn, do that as well, and let me know you listen to the podcast. We'd love to connect with you by email and see what we can do to to help you move forward faster and more importantly, I hope this understanding the bottom line about how corporate obedience can ruin your life has been useful. So with that, I want you to go out and make it a great day. I want to thank you very, very much, and we'll talk to you soon. Today's conversation was sponsored by the Billy keels advisory program. If you're looking to make your nine to five optional and need some help, just go to Billy keels.com forward slash advising, once again, that's Billy keels. Com, forward slash advising, Freedom

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