The Redcoats Tortured Thousands on Prison Ships…So Quit Your Job.

One of the interesting things about hitting year two of full time entrepenuership is the number of people who hit me up to bounce ideas around. And 90% of those people want to quit their current job.

Then, I get the “yeah, but.” As in “YEAH, I hate it, I’m at a dead end and the whole place functions about as well as a circus run by meth heads…BUT you know, there’s health insurance. Nobody expects that much from me because of the chaos.”

The second case I normally hear about is the golden handcuffs. “I’m not happy, but I’ve been here so long that I have four weeks off a year. They let me go to conferences.”

Cool. Now let’s talk about how you got to that job.

You got that job because these people and a lot more like them risked everything.

James Monroe — 18 ||Alexander Hamilton — 21 ||Betsy Ross — 24 ||George Walton — 27 ||John Paul Jones — 28 ||John Jay — 30 ||Abigail Adams — 31 Thomas Jefferson — 33 ||John Penn — 35

I just teared up again looking at that list. If you aren’t doing the same right now, it’s because your high school teacher never fully conveyed the weight of joining the revolution. Benjamin Franklin put it best. “We shall hang together, or we shall all hang separately.”

Despite the Downton Abbey version of British culture that lives in the heads of many Americans (and indeed, there is much to be enjoyed), British Warfare in the 1700’s brought “brutal” to a whole new level. The Redcoats killed more than twice as many civilians during the war as Colonial soldiers. And their favorite method of ending life was via prison ships.

The most infamous British prison ship was the HMS Jersey or Old Jersey, referred to by its inmates simply as “Hell.” More than 1,000 men were kept aboard the Jersey at any one time, and about a dozen died every night from diseases such as small pox, dysentery, typhoid and yellow fever, as well as from the effects of starvation and torture. Even after the British surrender at Yorktown in late 1781, prisoners were kept aboard the Jersey and other ships until the war formally ended in 1783. At war’s end, there were only 1,400 survivors among the inmates of the entire prison ship fleet, and at least 11,000 men and boys died aboard the ships from 1776 to 1783.

The British loved their prison ships. In fact, they held the prisoners from 1781, when the surrender at Yorktown marked the unofficial end of the war, until the paperwork went through in 1783. We don’t know how many more prisoners died during that time. You could be thrown onto a prison ship for almost any perceived slight against the empire. If you looked at a British officer funny or spoke up as the empire took your house over for “the war effort,” you could find yourself chained against a wall, never seeing the sunshine for your last year or two of life, as dehydration and disease slowly drained the last drops of life.

That’s what those 18–30 somethings knew they were facing if they didn’t win. That’s why the Declaration of Independence ends with this: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Ok, back to 2018.

Now you know what it’s like to believe in something. As I read back over those final eight words, I still feel a twinge of regret that I never put on a military uniform. I was 18 when I saw the Twin Towers fall, but a birth defect (which I won’t disclose on the internet) kept me out of the military, despite the fact that I played college basketball that same year.

I’m not sure that I ever felt that same sense of urgency as when I started Digital Profit Farm on July 1, 2017. The last year has been thrilling and terrifying, heartbreaking and joyful, stressful and freeing. And somehow that’s translated into the content I put out. People can just tell I’m bought in. It’s a much milder case of what I’m sure the founders were feeling as they declared war on their oppressors…a solemn and joyful moment that would lead to victory of slow, painful death…with very little middle ground between the two.

Starting a company doesn’t carry that kind of weight. You can always just go get another job. No one is going to throw you into the lower part of a shiop and laugh as you succumb to small pox.

But the upside, I would say that it’s a thrill to be right where you need to be in your work. It is, by definition, much riskier and involves more dread than just playing it safe.

I’m not telling you to start a company…but here’s three questions that I ask everyone who talks to me they’re frustrated at work.

1. Are you actually getting better at anything? Growing your long-term skills is more valuable than getting a few more short term dollars. Even if you have to take a pay cut in the short term to be in a position that makes you a much better professional…it’s worth it. You’ll be happier in the long run, and odds are that you’ll make a lot more money.
2. Are you already emotionally checked out? Most people who stay at a job too long sit around for six months to a year hoping things will “get back to normal.” They very rarely do. If you no longer have a genuine love for the work and the company…it aint coming back. There’s no need to Jerry McGuire it and get fired tomorrow after a crazy speech to your coworkers…but it would be best to update your resume and get going on your next step.
3. Are you tolerating abuse or harrassment in the name of keeping a paycheck? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been overly aggressive in the past five years of my career when faced with conflict (I’m learning to adjust my behavior), but it’s only because I was so passive for the first few years. I was brought up on a farm, and taught to always “respect the boss.” From age 14–19, it served me pretty well. Later, when a boss made me work weekends because “you don’t have kids and it wouldn’t be fair to people with families,” I uhh… “respected my boss.” When the company took a week of vacation away one year (from me, not the whole staff) because a big project was going online, I “respected my boss” and took it. Heck, when a supervisor intentionally sent me to an event where Chick-Fil-A was being served and I nearly wound up in the ER from a reaction to peanut oil in the air(the supervisor falsely told me the fast food wouldn’t be present), I “respected my boss” when I should have filed a lawsuit.

Is that last one an extreme example? For sure. But just because your manager isn’t literally putting your life in danger doesn’t mean you haven’t put up with some inappropriate, unethical or illegal behavior.

You have more options to make a living than our grandparents ever dreamed. If you’re up against a wall, frustrated or being threatened, it would be a shame to just endure more of the same when something else is better out there.

I’m not telling you to start a company just because I did. It’s not the right thing for most people. But what I am saying is that we only have a nation because a group of people loved the possibility of what could be more than they feared failure (which, in this case, would mean their deaths).

If you’re reading this with a lump in your throat and a weight on your chest…its likely time to move on. The economy is great. Your friends and connections will help more than you realize right now. The biggest obstacle between you and a job you love…is likely your own hesitancy to begin.

Happy 4th. Enjoy the holiday.

Tomorrow, start.