Perhaps, but I guess it's subjective to the person's own desire in life. It would seem unfulfilling to me, but maybe for the majority something like unambitious or not driven would be better.

There are other things in life than work. For example, people get a lot of fulfillment from spending time with family, volunteer activities, and leisure pursuits, and I don't think unambitious or not driven really apply either.

If you truly mean that the only way you can get fulfillment is to work long hours, you may find the day comes when you need to examine your work-life balance.

HE may not ever need to, at least until forced retirement. Others may want a different balance. Unfortunately making a decent income with any sort of reasonably balanced life has become a nearly impossible goal for recent workforce entrants.

I have to say, it would be pretty nice to center one's life around 60-80 hour work weeks. Unfortunately I'm not wired that way. I can do it for 6-9 months and that's about it.

Wait what? I specifically said that in regards to someone that doesn't yet have a family and is young. Work life balance need not apply if you can't make ends meet on your 35 hour work week and are single/young. Additionally working 50-60 hours as I suggested still leaves a ton of time for volunteer work and leisure pursuits and whatever else you want. The 50 hour workers are people who don't have real lunch breaks and eat at their desk, and come in just an hour earlier and stay an hour later. Lastly I said the hours that I referred to of people working banking hours of 70-90+ hours/week was of their own choosing and understandable to not be included with this discussion.

Also thank you for mentioning that last bit. It's sort of widely accepted that bankers who stick to banking hours for a long time, have the ability to retire at age 40, and when they do, often go into politics or philanthropy. Of course a lot of bankers don't do this, they are people who love to overwork themselves and are extremely ambitious people. All of my managing director's have had families and children despite working the same hours their whole lives other than when they were first starting out and working more. It's more commonly accepted for bankers to not stay in banking too long and move onto greener pastures well before 40.

In Canada it's pretty hard to get a 45-60k job right out of school. I'm graduating from university this year and from what I see most people make around 30-50k with science/math/cs degrees and much less with arts degrees. Also many people can't get one of those jobs and end up working for minimum wage (~20k). From what I hear, in the US the average job pays less. The reason you can't get a 45-60k job is not because you played poker for a few years, it's because it's really hard to get a job that pays so much. If you spent the last 5 years working instead of playing poker, chances are you would have a hard time finding a 45-60k job as well.

OK, I think maybe I'm just quibbling over word/phrasing choice, so I apologize if I've derailed us for nothing. You said:

The implication seems to be that life can't be fulfilling if you are only working 35 hours - I'm saying that it absolutely can be, even if you're young without a wife and kids.

That said, I completely agree that work-life balance can be difficult or impossible to achieve when you can't make ends meet, and that other people make a decision to give some of that balance up to make a lot of money when they're young and retire/semi-retire early in life. Also, if you truly love what you do for work, you can be happy working some very long hours.

Cliffs: Lots of roads to happiness.

I read the 1st page and last page. A lot of people don't have what it takes to get a job because they don't spend the time to learn another trade. They kick the **** on the forums and play some poker.

I do like that there are others that are not that naive and at least got a college degree...which means more or less **** if you don't actually have any experience.

Many posts in this thread alone are filled with troll responses.

The Real World= Billionaires making you their gimp.

Just put on your sheep suit and go be a snake.

Its different for every profession, but my god are there ever some terrible posts in here.

Historically in America a homesteader, a farmer or even a slaveholder could tell you exactly what they produce, who it helps, why they exist as an economic unit.

They could tell you in one sentence why they are indispensable. I would argue if you can't do the same then you might as well play poker because you are no better off. Now everyone's a cowboy, a freelancer whose labor is readily replaceable and who contributes only in the abstract.

I would rather just loiter around the saloon in a state of terminal disrepute.

dont u guys ever wish it was 1650 so we didnt have to have these ******ed discussions?

robot is you blind? ROBOT. Look at my ******ed post above jajajajaja XD jajja

Why isn't there a purple pill?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

matrix is so overrated

I just got a job as a mortgage banker at Quicken Loans in Detroit.

Average first year salary is 45-65,000. High turnover though.

I was surprised though. This company is a fortune 500 company, but the fortune 500 as in getting hired is moreso in the IT and HR/Training departments.

They hire pretty much any1 who says theyre driven by money, can make a sale, and give a confident interview.

If anyone is interested in this and has a business degree or sales experience msg me your resume, and I'll forward it to my recruiter.

This is a pretty good opportunity for someone who doesnt mind staring at a computer and working hard 65-75 hours a week. There's a ton of upside as it is a fortune 500 firm.

I went to orientation this week, I was shocked to see that out of the 30 new employees in the room, only 5 or 6 had a college degree...

Lol do NOT go work for Quicken Loans. I know 3 people who have worked there and 1 that currently does. It is truly hell, and not worth it.

Good luck tho bud.

LoL Detroit. Any sales job gives you the opportunity to make that salary. I'm not surprised Quicken hires just about anyone. Cheesy commercials scream shady to me.

This thread is great. OP is spot on. What most of these young poker 'pros' fail to recognize is the opportunity cost of poker is extremely high. Not only are you out of the traditional workforce, but you forgo valuable experience, retirement savings, health benefits, and being a contributing member to society (paying taxes).

I laugh at the threads in Poker Goals and Challenges. Guys stating they 'made it' making $40k over 18 months without a mention of paying taxes. Also, 'money doesn't mean chit to me anymore etc...give me a break. These kids have zero concept of reality.

I get what you're saying but it's not like a traditional job making 40k/year is going to provide any of things.

It is hard to return but not impossible and many are willing to give up these "opportunities" in exchange for having a job they don't hate going to every single day.

I started in Finance at a job that paid 40k/year. I got experience. I paid taxes. I contributed a small % to my 401k to get the employer match. I received health benefits.

People are always looking for the path of least resistance. The best advice I could give (regarding traditional work or poker) is there is zero substitute for hard work.

Stopped playing poker last year since low results/tilt, tried to find a job with a 3ygap.

Try to explain to a man in his 50-70's that you were making money in an online game.
Had 2 interviews (like half a year ago)

The first guy told me straight up he rather hire someone who was depressed for 3 years..

The 2nd guy was insulting me during the interview, saying it was monopoly money since online money isn't real, he made it very clear during the questions he was never going to accept a 'degen'.

I got out on the street and i felt like i wanted to kill somebody (pref that fukking guy)
Filled with anger and hate to myself and the game.


After that interview i was depressed for a week or two, and had 0 interest to apply to a new job/firm .


And back to the pokerzz..

What does this even mean? People making 40k annually in the US don't pay taxes? Can't save anything? Don't have health insurance in any case?