Advice appreciated - may quit racing for a bit

[OmniGLH]

Alright well I've only met a few of you, and barely know you guys from the board.  But you're all racers, and most of you race on a budget like myself. So I think your comments will be valid.  

I'm in kind of a tough decision point right now.  I'm stuck in a job that I don't really like (read: hate.)  I'll try not to whine, and just say that it's a LOT of hours (including lots of weekends and random 2nd/3rd shifts.)  My job is not "racer friendly" - they don't like the fact that I race, and I have to lie about what I'm doing with my vacation time, or it gets denied.  And vacation time is granted only if I'm not already expected to work that weekend (which is 3 weekends a month.)  It's a hell job, but it's a steady paycheck, and as much as I hate it, I'm good at it, so I've been toughing it out... all the while searching for something better.

I've been searching since August and have only had a nibble here and there, nothing promising.  Back in March, I interviewed for a contract position with MyPoints.com.  Interview went great, they were all set to make an offer, and something happened on their end that caused them to postpone things.

Yesterday, the day after getting into a heated discussion with my manager over my Physical Therapy (she is upset that I am taking time off of work for it - it wasn't until I used the words "disabled" and "FMLA" laws that she shut up)... I get a phone call from my friend who works at MyPoints.com.  She says "If you want the job, you've got it.  But we need you to start ASAP."

Should be a simple decision, right?

But, as some of you know - I crashed at BHF in April, and really messed up my shoulder.  Thankfully, I was still working for Motorola... and I had disability benefits.  Going to MyPoints, it's a contract position - NO disability benefits.  And the rate I'd be getting from them is only slightly more $$ take home, than I'm making now (after paying my own taxes, health care, etc.)

Without any form of disability, if I crash again, and can't work, I don't get paid.  That's not good.  If I take this position, I can't in good conscience let myself get back out on the track.

However, taking this position would be 40 hours a week.  That leaves me a lot of time to tackle some other projects, and perhaps work at getting my own business started on the side (something that I have NO time for now.)  

I love racing.  I'm not one to toot my own horn - but those that have raced against me, know I'm good at it.  I really hate to put it aside.  I have some good sponsors for this year, have some good contacts, know some of you - I don't want to have to start at the bottom again if I drop this for a few years.  But maybe I should.

Yesterday, I was feeling I wasn't gonna take it.  But after sleeping on it, I'm starting to lean the other way, even if it means putting some things on hold.  

What do you guys think?

[lbk]

Jim, knowing the company you work for very closely I would lean towards the get out while you can theory.

However I completely understand and think it would be a huge risk to race without disability. I know I passed a job up for that exact reason.

It can only be your decision, but the economy isn't the greatest right now, so maybe this is a short term solution, you're out already for a big part of the season due to your injury. So why not give this job a chance, and then before next race season you can re-evaluate your decision and also who knows what the economy is going to be like by then?

Just my .02 but that is a difficult decision. I know because it's one I look at frequently. Similar circumstances about a new job probably meaning no racing. But racing can only keep you happy so many hours in a week, but your job can make you miserable for 40+ a week. Tough choice.

[sdiver68]

Hey Jim,

First of all, a contract position should pay you way more $$ than a non-contract position.  You are assuming your own benefits and your own risk (at being dropped with little to no warning)  Double that risk with a dot com company.  Risk is fine, with the reward...but where is your potential reward?

Second, DI is important.  I am running this year without it, but I banked away a year's salary in liquid assets "just in case"...most S-T-Dis policies stop paying after a few weeks, and most long term policies stop paying after a year or 2, so you can say I'm self-insured on DI.

So, if you are that miserable in your current job, then I would say that's your call on how miserable.  But, if they can't pay you decently (at least 1.5X current after consideration of benefits and self-employment tax (like the ~6% employer portion of FICA minus new deductions) I would be inclined to re-negotiate or say no thanks.

If you do decide to go on your own, consider getting a non-cancellable DI and life policies now and "retire" for a year.  After the period of exclusionary activites is up, then you can race and have both coverages continue without additional cost.

Just my $.02

[OmniGLH]

My dad mentioned DI last night, but he didn't know much about it.

How does one go about obtaining DI?  Who do you use?

The new position is definitely not 1.5X.  More like 1.25X.  So I wouldn't really be making anything for taking the additional risk.  The risk is the price I'm paying for getting out of a job I hate.  

[h8mondays]

Omni,

First off let me say, it's a tough decision and not knowing you makes it hard to give sound advice for you.  For some background, I am an emergency room RN and I work a lot on contract status with nursing agencies, so as far as the contract stuff goes, I'm at least a little familiar albeit not in the same field.

Here is what I did to make money matters much much better for myself when working on contract.
I incorporated myself, which in Nevada is around $500 for a quick incorporation (you are incorporated in about 5 days).  Nevada is one of the best states to incorporate in because our corporate tax rate is 15% and yes you can incorporate here even if not a resident. (more on benifits of incorporating yourself in a minute).

This sounds complex, but bear with me because it's rather easy once you get the concept. When I work contract, I have whomever I am working for, cut my checks to my corporate name and I deposit them into my corporate bank account. Don't think that the money is tied up in any way, you spend it how you see fit, you are just leaving a paper trail for tax purposes. Once I deposit the check into my corporate account, I write a check to myself as a payroll check (no taxes taken out... more in a sec) it's usually something menail. (example... I'm paid $1200 by company X and there are no taxes taken out because I'm on contract, I then write a check to myself for payroll purposes for $400, again no taxes withheld and deposit it into my regular checking account.) I spend the entire $1200 and it's just a game for tax reasons.

Here's the good parts...

Everything you do from driving to work, insurance, cell phones and about everything you can imagine can be written off from your corporation at the end of the year. For example if your corporation made $50,000 this year and you write off $20,000, you will only be paying 15% tax on the remaining $30,000, which is lower than your personal income tax to begin with.

Because you paid yourself as an employee with no taxes taken out of your checks and as I said, it should be something menial, your corporation fills out a form 1099 and you file personal income taxes on/with that. If you've paid yourself crappy, you will only be paying taxes on say $10,000. and your tax burden is really low both for personal and corporate income taxes, thereby saving you a ton of money.

The biggest benefit of going this route is that you can get short term disability insurance, long term disability insurance and health insurance as a corporation and write the premium amounts off at the end of the year, so maybe you won't have to go without benefits and thereby continue to race.

Any good CPA can make this work out easily for you and if you can get the company you are going to contract with to write your checks to your corporation, your golden.  The other benefit if doing this, is that your business shell is set up when you get going on your own, as well as, any side money can be shuttled into the corporation in the mean time.

I don't know that this helps and if you need or want any more info, just let me know.  I'd be happy to help you out if it's something you are interested in and believe me, it's a lot easier than this post makes it out to be.  I've been doing this for years with no problems and because it's all above board and very legal, you aren't creating a future risk of audit of other headaches.

I believe that if more people could work on contract and knew more about doing this, they would because the tax savings and the sheer amount of stuff that is written off, is amazing.

[h8mondays]

As a side note, if you get the above settled and do the corporate thing, you can start shopping for all your insurances with self employed groups that buy in blocks and thereby get group discounts.  I'll search around and talk to some friends who do this and see what I can find for you if interested.

[sdiver68]

h8mondays has some good advice, a C Corp. and an S corp or LLC is common, but may not be worth the extra hassle depending on your circumstances.  A good CPA or Tax Lawyer can help you through.

Like I said, I'm self-insured on DI.  However, you can join small business groups (best) or go through a broker or search on-line for DI insurance.

[h8mondays]

Damn,

I forgot the best part about this, if you talk about your business even if only to yourself while racing, it's a business trip and mileage, a % of meals certain other things can be written off as business expenses :P

Another good thing for write offs is if you have a small office in your home, it doesn't matter if it's only a computer, because you can write off a percentage of your home use, as well as, cable bills, phone bills %, electrical bills % etc.

Here in Nevada, you would want to set up a closed corporation for reasons that you can check out online.  The biggest hassle with being incorporated is saving receipts and keeping your check books cleanly. The once a year stuff you have to deal with, takes about 30 minutes and is easy.

Hope this all helps.

Jay

[OmniGLH]

h8mondays I'm definitely interested.  I want to get as much of the whole picture in front of me as I can, so I can make the best decision.

And Steve any more advice... keep it rollin...

[OmniGLH]

Damn,

I forgot the best part about this, if you talk about your business even if only to yourself while racing, it's a business trip and mileage, a % of meals certain other things can be written off as business expenses :P

Another good thing for write offs is if you have a small office in your home, it doesn't matter if it's only a computer, because you can write off a percentage of your home use, as well as, cable bills, phone bills %, electrical bills % etc.

Here in Nevada, you would want to set up a closed corporation for reasons that you can check out online.  The biggest hassle with being incorporated is saving receipts and keeping your check books cleanly. The once a year stuff you have to deal with, takes about 30 minutes and is easy.

Hope this all helps.

Jay

Well, I was told from another friend of mine who is self-employed that it's very hard to make a lot of deductions like this if I only have 1 client.  Business trips, racing expenses, etc might raise an eyebrow.  He suggested that I keep my "expenses" down to less than 10% of the corp's income.

[sdiver68]

True to be cautious about taxes, again it really is an individual situation.  Consult a professional, although an LLC or C Corp may makes sense from a liability perspective also.

I've given my advice for now, I just am worried about you taking too low of a rate...how long is the contract for?

[h8mondays]

I'm not one to argue with others on certain write offs, but undoubtedly, you can write off some race stuff if even only one time a year. Call it your annual meeting. I'm not advocating doing anything that could get the IRS's eye on you.

My CPA is amazing with what she can do and every bit of it legal. I don't throw a lot of extracurricular write offs into my corp. because my normal write offs more than take care of things.  Seriously, I play way above board because I don't want any heat on me from the tax man and I've been doing this for 6 years without any problems. I'm also not even the slightest bit worried about an audit or anything of the likes because I know my tax preps are sound and everything can be backed up 110%.

On the small business front, my wife runs a small business from home and does things almost identical to me.  She's been doing this for about 7.5 years and has never had any problems either.

Good luck with your decisions.  If you do decide to go for it like this, I highly recommend incorporating in Nevada and if needed, I can turn you on to my accountant, which may be good because she's here in Las Vegas.

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Some really intellegent people have given you some good advice.  This is what a ditch digger can offer.
I am trapped for life in a job I hate.  With no education beyond High School, I was very lucky to get a job working for a municipal water department.  All the perks are there; pension, vacation, holidays beyond belief, huge benefits package, awesome overtime and a pay scale that rivals any blue collar job.  Eleven years so far.  I don't hate the job, actually.  Running heavy equipment is pretty cool.  It's the politics that kill me.  
Motorola seems to be dumping workers like my Huskey sheds hair in the summer.  Will your current job last?  Important question.  Here's the part about racing:
The politics of my job render concepts like merit, hard work and intellegence useless.  You win or lose by marrying the right daughter or kissing the right butts.  I hate this.  Before I started racing, I was practically homicidal.  Racing has filled the need in me for a level playing field where I win or (mostly) lose  based on my own hard work and skill.  I don't think an hour in my life goes by when I don't think about racing.  Work has become simply the means to finance my passion, and no longer bothers me nearly as much.
I was miserable 24/7 before I started racing.  Now the unplesantness of life barely even regesters on my brain.  In my mind, I'm ALWAYS racing.  Personally, I don't know if I could stop.  There are always times in life when we have to make tough decisions.  I guess the real question is whether you can mentally survive quitting racing.  Give this consideration as well.  A better deal is not necessarily better if it takes away the thing you love most and makes you miserable.  My $.02.

[james-redsv]

If you own your own business you can sponser yourself and deduct all of your racing expenses as advertising.  ;D You have to put your company stickers on your bike just like your other sponsers. What do you think companines like UPS, Lowes etc do when they sponser a NASCAR team?

[james-redsv]

K3 Chris you need to start your own business where hard work will get you everything you could want.

[Dawn]

K3 Chris you need to start your own business where hard work will get you everything you could want.

Ahhh....  but the paid vacations, health benefits, pensions or 401k's without the worry or stress of owning or being your own business is worth working for someone else.

Take it from someone who has been on both sides of the coin.

Dawn   ;D

[Baltobuell]

 James, don't think for a minute that the IRS will let you sponsor yourself. A special olimpics team, yes, your saturday softball team, in an audit you could be in trouble.
 
 Omni, I have the feeling your realitively young and career choice is REALLY, REALLY important. As Chris points out, it can be a trap. Don't think about racing when you make your decision. Which job will give you more options, a better life in the long run.

[OmniGLH]

Omni, I have the feeling your realitively young and career choice is REALLY, REALLY important. As Chris points out, it can be a trap. Don't think about racing when you make your decision. Which job will give you more options, a better life in the long run.
 

Yeah, I think I'm one of the younger ones here, at 25.  I definitely understand how one can get "trapped" in a career.

Racing isn't really affecting my career choice... but like K3 stated, racing is one of the few things I can occupy my mind with that allows me to forget about work and how much I hate going there.  If I give up racing, I *have* to quit this job - I won't have anything to calm me down.  

My career goals don't really include working FOR a company, actually.  I do see myself running my own gig.  In working for someone else, there's always that "glass ceiling" above you.  I can sit and bust my arse until the day I die...that doesn't mean I'm going to be CEO of the company some day.  I'll never get to that point... somewhere along the line, I'll stop climbing the ladder.  I don't like the idea that my future will be limited.  In working for yourself, the sky is the limit.. it's all a reflection of how hard you work at it.  If I bust my butt for somethng, it'd better be something that rewards me.

Quitting my current job, for this other job, isn't necessarily a career choice.  It's merely a lesser of two evils, until I get enough ideas up to get out on my own.  It's an opportunity to see/do/learn something else.  My current position is a dead-end position.  The skills I have learned for the job, are ONLY applicable to THIS job.  I haven't utilized anything from my degree since the day I graduated.  I've now realized this and want out.

And K3 - believe me, things are NO different on this side of the fence.  If you'll notice in my .sig, I'm well aware that it's NOT about how hard you work.  It's taken me 2 years working in the "real world" to see it... and it sickens me.  Those of us that work hard, get rewarded with ---  more work.  Those that whine, complain, pawn work off on others, kiss up to the boss, and blame everyone but themselves for their mistakes, get all the "atta-boys", pats on the back, and promotions.  The only way *I* can see to get ahead by hard work, is to work for myself.  

It sucks you hate your job... I know how it feels.  A college degree doesn't really fix anything, tho.  Of all my friends, the ones that are happy, NONE of them have degrees (well, ok, except for ONE guy.)  Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, service managers, home theater salesmen, mechanic, fireman.  They all LOVE their jobs.  Of all my "educated" friends and friends I knew in college, all but ONE are truly happy... my buddy Jay, he's a programmer (and he's SUPER slick with it.)

[Xian_13]

... Before I started racing, I was practically homicidal.  Racing has filled the need in me for a level playing field where I win or (mostly) lose  based on my own hard work and skill.  I don't think an hour in my life goes by when I don't think about racing.  Work has become simply the means to finance my passion, and no longer bothers me nearly as much.
I was miserable 24/7 before I started racing.  Now the unplesantness of life barely even regesters on my brain. ... 

Wow, I thought I was the only one that thought that way about my job adn racing!

[Super Dave]

The Super take...

I ruined my normal life by starting racing at nineteen years of age, my second semester in college.  I was able to survive because my scholarship to college and my elistment in the Nebraska Army National Guard paid for college, and my mom helped me on the financial side of racing a lot!

I decided NOT to go into the active military, although I was approached and sometimes badgered to do so.  OCS, NCO schools, etc.  I just wasn't turned on by it anymore.  Eventually, I actually graduated college.  I was contracted to a team, but the team pretty much went belly up, and I continued with my graduate degree...why not...besides, they give you a cool looking stole when you get a graduate degree...it's cool!

Got serious about racing, did full AMA series, started my school, etc.  I've raced all over the country, I get to race some really cool bikes some times.  I'm in debt, and MY business is now in the MC industry, after getting fired from my full time job running a John Deere and Kaw ATV dealership.  What to do?  

First, there is little money to be made in the motorcycle industry without really screwing people...(opinion).

I understand, obviously, how consuming MC racing can be, although it doesn't consume me like it did.  But I still love doing it, but I really enjoy being part of others' personal victories as well.

At 25, you seriously cannot consider that you will have the contacts or money to get yourself a ride that might give you an opportunity to ride for team for pay.  Those opportunities are for the well connected, media-hyped, and some that just have financial support.  It isn't like the days before when the best riders got the rides, if that necessarily always happened back then.  

What to do?  I feel the pain your having.  But you do need a job...  What's next.  

And why can people be such D1ck's sometimes?  If you fell down in the shower, they wouldn't pull such cr@p on you.  If you got hit by a drunk driver, even though you were still driving around at 2AM, they wouldn't razz you.  It must be all the fun were having.  Maybe we should tell everyone that were just "exotic dancers" or something.  That's acceptable as a recreation, isn't it?

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Before I started racing, I was practically homicidal.

 ;D

Well I AM homicidal. Well part of my job is to kill things. ;D

[james-redsv]

Dawn I to have been on both sides and you will never make any real money working for someone else. There are way more benefits working for yourself than someone else, ask the person who owns the company you work for. Im not saying Im in the same legue as he, but ask Bill Gates too. BaltoBuell, check with your accountant, what I said is correct according to mine.

[ecumike]

Dawn I to have been on both sides and you will never make any real money working for someone else...

Reading this thread, just wanted to give my .02.. mostly my opinions.

I would have to agree with Dawn.  You CAN make real money working for someone else and it's not THAT bad.. ask my boss's boss, and his boss, and his boss, and Sam Palmisano. I think they all make quite a bit of money.

I've never workd for myself except in my current side business I have. I love doing what I do @ IBM. I can work anywhere I want... the beach, the track, my house. I can set my own hours, sleep in if I want... etc..  It all depends on WHAT your career is. I'm a Web Developer.. all I need is a phone jack and a computer and I'm 'working'. If I look at what I get paid and how many hours I actually do work, it's incredible.

I would say having a steady income as well as some side business is the best way. B/C you don't have to worry about having clients/work/paychecks, and having your own business on the side allows you to write off stuff. Every trip I make to the track is a complete write off for me, since one of my clients is a small newspaper Web site. Take some photos, write a little story.. write off ;)

I think the best situation (obviously) is to think about what and where you want to go in life.. take the job that's gonna give you skills that are transferrable IF they are relevant to what you want to transfer to.

Jim, not knowing much of you or your finances, or other aspects in your life, I think I would have to say something similar to lbk. Economy not the best, but picking up. Can you suck it up for a little while longer? Can you just take it easy the rest of the season or not race at all, and keep looking and start a side business? Or can you accept the risk of the new job and disablility, etc.  Just things to think about.

[Baltobuell]

 James, I was just forwarding what my accountant told me. He wrote off my HD bagger and smiled but forbode any racing writeoffs other than gas for the truck. Reality is, I think it's about how big your nads are at tax time. ;D
 Omni, clearly you need to leave your present job and search while your still young and without alot of people depending on you. It's a big world. The Hershey chocolate guy went bankrupt 3 times before he hit on a winner. If you were afraid of life, you wouldn't be on this board. Go for what you really want.
 PS: once you're a jillonaire, free track insurance for everybody.

[clutch]

If you are not happy doing what you are doing get out. You have to think long term. If you are miserable at work then how can you be happy at home or doing hobbies knowing you have to go back to the dump.  Can you bargain with this other company? Perhaps take a little less pay rate and gain health benefits in lieu.  This sucks. It is one of them tough descions.  But bottom line is if you are not happy at work and have to lie about what you are doing then you dont need to be there. What happens if you are caught in a lie and they terminate you...that will look bad.  I just found out at work that we have what is called an ORDINARY Retirement.  I was glad that I and several hundred others at work found out about this. No one really knew it exhisted. If for say and God forbid I was injured while racing and couldnt perform my duties as a LEO (Police) anymore then I would get full pension benefits and retirement right then and there good for life.  This was one awesome benefit that set my mind at ease a little when deciding to get into this stuff.  I now know that if somthing bad happens I can still get a full pension.  Of course this has to be medically proven and it does cover off duty events to include racing and track days.  Read the fine print..you never know what the hell you will find.  Good luck in whatever you decide, but I think that I would have to leave the job I was at if I was as unhappy as you are.

Sean
817

[clutch]

BTW...Super Dave gave some good advice.  Actually, maybe switch to Track Days. A lot of employers and insurance companies I believe dont look at these as racing and as a way to better yourself as a rider.  Employers who hate this MC Racing probably are jealous and mad about all the fun we have. Debt does incur with this addiction and the chance of a factory ride is far..even for the best.  It takes a large fortune to make a small fortune in racing. I think Robert Yates of RYR said that one. (NASCAR). Most factory guys are or their families were connected.   But hey, my girlfriend and soon to be wife supports me..so do my parents..they know I love this stuff so much that they fronted me cash to get another bike..even though it scares them half to death watching.  I am 28 and been a police for 6yrs and felt like a 10 year old asking for a new BMX bike. But this is my way of relieving stress and having fun and I would rather blow $300 for a weekend of racing than $300 at the nightclubs.  You do need a job and preferably one that your employer will not bash you for what you do in your own time..that just isnt right.  I am lucky enough that all of my superiors wish me luck each time I go out and never bash me about doing this..just the occasional be careful.  Sorry to get off topic kinda, but tryin to help.

[james-redsv]

BaltoBuell, I did leave out one thing, Im in the fiberglass business. I build surfboards mainly, I can also repair boats/watercraft or repair fiberglass race bodies on race bikes. So anytime im at a track days or race Im advertising to fix your bike if you crash and tear it up. If you pay me to fix it Im making a profit and I got the business by going to the track and advertising. So everthing I do at a race is promoting and advertising for my business. I guess it depends on what your business is as to wheather you can deduct all your racing expenses. If you owned a MTC shop you can write off all your racing expenses advertising for you shop. Racing should relate to your business somehow. Although I have read in a Tax book called "How to pay Zero Taxes" a guy who raced cars deducted all his racing expenses was audited. He owned a lawn care Bus., totally unrelated to car racing, and used his racing as advertising. In the audit the IRS did allow him to do this totaly because he had his business plastered all over his car and trailer. He was no different from a billboard and totally legit. Atleast my business can relate to a race bike.  ;D

[james-redsv]

Dawn, in these time I have yet to see a company that is really secure. They have stolen workers pensions and 401ks, they have gone bankrupt at the drop of a hat, and people are laid off with no notice. I have an Uncle who is a captian for USair, almost 20 years, if you read the money section in the papers he has recently had to take major pay cuts, lost almost all of his pension, and is in fear of being laid off everyday. Companys many thought were rock solid are struggling, look at Mcdonalds and Burger king, both are hurting bad. Not to mention the DOT.COM and tech blow out. As you can see Im all for doing you own thing and not reling on someone else, Im a republican and proud of it. Also Dawn check with an investment adviser, there are more things you can do investment wise when you do it through your business than reling on someone elses pension plan. I even know a person that makes thousands a month selling junk on E-bay, thats all he does, his biggest headach is standing in line at the post office.

[sdiver68]

OK, I'm going to let you anti-butt kissing people in on a little secret....and those that know me know I'm fairly well qualified to speak on success in money matters.

You can't do squat on your own, work wise, efficiently.  You can't dig a ditch, set up a network, sell a house, stitch together leathers, run a school, etc...  This means succesful accomplishments rely not only on your own hard work but your ability to work WITH other people.  Much of what some people call "butt-kissing" or politics, as much as I hate it as well, is really how projects get done efficiently.  It takes teams of people, all with their own qualities, to succeed as a whole.  some offer more than others, and some are throw-away, but it still takes many.

Given that fact of life and business, it follows that those who are good at working with other people, both "above" and "below" them in the organizational hierarchy, offer a distinct advantage in business.  Unfortunately, there are those whose only skill is politics.  There are those whose only skill is the task at hand.  Sometimes these 2 people get together and succeed as a package. Those who are good at both, eventually, will rise to the top and be in the most demand.

[OmniGLH]

The Super take...
At 25, you seriously cannot consider that you will have the contacts or money to get yourself a ride that might give you an opportunity to ride for team for pay.  Those opportunities are for the well connected, media-hyped, and some that just have financial support.  It isn't like the days before when the best riders got the rides, if that necessarily always happened back then.  

What to do?  I feel the pain your having.  But you do need a job...  What's next.  

And why can people be such D1ck's sometimes?  If you fell down in the shower, they wouldn't pull such cr@p on you.  If you got hit by a drunk driver, even though you were still driving around at 2AM, they wouldn't razz you.  It must be all the fun were having.  Maybe we should tell everyone that were just "exotic dancers" or something.  That's acceptable as a recreation, isn't it?

Oh, believe me Dave, I don't have any delusions of a Factory Suzuki team coming and knocking on my door.  A personal racing goal of mine is to eventually make it to the AMA level, and be competitive enough not to finish last.  Be a front runner, no way.  I don't have the money or the balls to do it.  I race for fun.  Not in the sense that I hear a lot of other people say it... "I race for fun..." and then treat a race like it's a track day.  I have fun racing, I love the competition.  Figuring out how to go faster, to beat the other guy next time, etc.  Passing 2 guys at once in the bus stop and never looking back.

As far as why the people in my office are D1cks... I can agree, seriously, that it's probably jealousy.  I am the only person (seriously, the ONLY person) in my group of 12 people, that has ANY kind of life outside of my job.  Everyone else, ALL they do is work.  And they're happy with that.  I'll send out an email inviting everyone to see a friend's band playing on a Friday night... and I'm instantly labelled as the "group party animal".  So I'm sure a lot of it is "Why should HE get to have fun if WE don't?"

Sad.  A pathetic way to live.  I refuse to be like that.  A job is not what I live for.  It's something I do in my spare time... something I do so that I can go out and do what I want.  This job, right now and for the past 8 months or so, hasn't allowed me to do anything but work.

[Super Dave]

You can't do squat on your own, work wise, efficiently.  You can't dig a ditch, set up a network, sell a house, stitch together leathers, run a school, etc...  This means succesful accomplishments rely not only on your own hard work but your ability to work WITH other people.

Very, very true....

[Decreasing_Dave]

Dawn, in these time I have yet to see a company that is really secure. They have stolen workers pensions and 401ks, they have gone bankrupt at the drop of a hat, and people are laid off with no notice. I have an Uncle who is a captian for USair, almost 20 years, if you read the money section in the papers he has recently had to take major pay cuts, lost almost all of his pension, and is in fear of being laid off everyday. Companys many thought were rock solid are struggling, look at Mcdonalds and Burger king, both are hurting bad. Not to mention the DOT.COM and tech blow out.  

Work for the government.

I'm with the U.S. Border Patrol.  I make good money, have a real good retirement plan (I can retire at 50 ;D), and job security (Mexicans are a tenatious people).

The only catch is you have to relocate to where THEY want you to work....oh, and you have to go to an academy for 5 months.

If my employer goes belly-up...we have bigger problems than unemployment.  :-/