At some point in your life you should work some sort of shitty minimum-wage job[preferably a retail job as a young adult]. This advice is especially vital to the new millennial generation who think a retail job is “beneath them”. For one, you haven’t accomplished anything noteworthy in life yet so no, you are not above anything yet; even though your worthless degrees in Basket-Weaving at some limp-wrist-lib college may proclaim otherwise. Degrees these days mean nothing as they are handed out like candy on Halloween to pretty much anyone who can take out a Student Loan. Colleges accept pretty much anyone these days [mostly women] because they just want your money, bottom–line.
Of course, retail jobs and min-wage jobs suck. However, there is a caveat to actually experiencing the soul-crushing hell-hole that is retail. You have to go into it though with a certain mindset: That the job is just a job and you don’t want to invest your heart and soul into it because it’s temporary. Now, I am not saying be shitty at your job, I am saying do it, but also mentally checkout at the same time. Don’t let the job bring you down to the bitterness that most of your blue-pill co-workers (who are stuck there) are experiencing. The bitterness is real and is a disease that spreads to every new employee who enters. But you are better than that. You can see everything for what it is. Do your work, get your money, and gain perspective.
In retail, like in life, you will find that most people suck, and suck HARD at life because they make stupid choices and are not disciplined in their behavior. Most 9-5 jobs are legal scams where you will notice the pyramid power of hierarchy in all its glory. Retail,especially, has a high turn-over rate as people come and go fast, get fired, quit and or get pushed up the ladder because they know somebody. Most jobs in our modern society are surrounded by cronyism and are incestuous. So, why work a job like this?
It will force you to be better, and to do better
You need to experience the Suck for yourself to understand the Suck.I can tell you about how much it sucks but then you still won't understand, fully, what I am talking about. Working these jobs should force you to think long and hard about what you want out of life. Everyday experiencing the inherent stupidity and entitlement of the modern consumer, the thanklessness of your routine, and the shitty pay should make you strive to become your own boss. The ultimate goal should be to never, ever, have to answer to someone else and be someone’s bitch in life. It doesn't matter how you do it and what age you are at. Balance is key. Have your “job” so that you have money coming in, and on your spare time, work on your own stuff so that it’s parallel. The point is to always be pushing so that you can eventually become self-sustaining. It may take a long time but it is going to be the most rewarding “job” you have. Most people won’t think about working min-wage in this way because they don’t have the mindset. They don’t see beyond what it is. The job should be a means to an end for you. It’s another way to have revenue coming into your bank account.
Use that money to make more money. Take it, invest it into something that will pay dividends (i.e stocks or your own business).Everyone has to start somewhere. Keep a min-wage job on the side anyways(even if you don't need the money) so that you are constantly reminded of where you don't want to be. It's like keeping a old photograph of you as a fat kid by your beside; to remind yourself never to be like that ever again so that you don't slip back into contentment.
It will show you the value of a Dollar
Above else, working a shitty labour or, retail job, will show you the value of money. It will show you that your ultimate goal in life is to work less (work smarter) and get paid more. It will be a part of your character; as you will know deep down inside that you experienced the plight of working hard for a buck. That should be motivation enough. This should be the perspective and it will cause you to be fiscally disciplined later on in life because you experienced what it was like to have to make a dollar stretch.
You will learn a lot about people
You will see people in their rawest form, especially in retail. We humans are still very much like animals. Case in point- Black Friday. When you are working, take moments to pause and watch people. You will surely have plenty of time to do this as there will be days where you don’t have a lot to do. Keep a journal or notebook. Minimum-wage jobs are great in this way because there are a lot of boring moments; the jobs are routine based. So take the time to be creative. Go off into your head and your world and think about events, your observations and expand on them. You can use these ideas to write a book, a novel, use the people around you as character outlines etc. Our society today is so rapid, so fast and technology has almost completely erased what we've known as “boredom.” Shitty jobs are the best places to feel that boredom, which is a good thing. Boredom causes you to be creative, to entertain yourself, and to think about something other than what blow-up doll Miley Cyrus is giving oral to, or what the Kardashian’s are having for dinner tonight.
That's what is being truly lost, especially to millennial teens that can’t even get a minimum wage job in this shitty economy. They are losing all of that insight. You won’t learn how the world works from some snapfuck professor. You won’t learn about how shitty life and people can be and how to navigate that in a lecture hall. School is important, but the experience of actually seeing the grind, the 9-5, and how fucking nauseating some people can be is more important. The thing you want to learn, and what schools should be teaching, is how to avoid the rat-race all together. But schools won’t teach this because the institution is the very thing that keeps the rat-race fueled, with more rats and drones. So dip your toe in, but don’t stay forever. Your goal is to pump and dump that job like a whore. Gain experience/perspective, and move on.