Revelations come from the oddest sources. While watching the Nanny Diaries, I heard Scarlet Johanson say that the biggest problem for any anthropologist studying a particular sociological model is that being exposed to this segmented group of people eventually leads to a total assimilation with them and the only way to stop this process is to immediately remove yourself from that environment.
That says a lot about the power of the environments we put ourselves in.
Listen to a little story about me.
Before I moved to America I was a successful businessman, pulling down a decent income, wearing cashmere coats, eating in fine restaurants, driving nice cars. I'd never done any manual labor.
When my country's economy went belly up, I lost everything and came to the United States to find a new beginning.
I had no money, didn't know a soul, and took a job in construction because nothing else was open to me.
My environment all of a sudden changed: from business-development to vinyl siding installation, from cashmere coat to Carhart overall, from a good food to McDonald's, from sedans to pickup trucks, from my friends with college degrees, clean clothing and intact teeth to a bunch of stinky beat-up dentally-challenged rednecks.
At first it felt awkward and in some sense entertaining, but then I started noticing that my entire system of values started to change: good food would mean Burger King instead of McDonald's, good clothing would mean Carhart instead of Wal-Mart, good car would mean an old pickup truck with a few hundreds miles on it that you can haul a pile of tools in instead of new shiny sedan (how are you going to put an air compressor in there?)
It didn't even bother me to wear bandanas in public and to admit that I only made $10 an hour!
Life has a funny way of sucking you in until you are too far gone to even know that there's something wrong.
Before I knew it I became a construction worker from some Jerkwater, USA and I actually spent a few years doing construction before I found enough strength to pull myself out of this situation and to come back to being an entrepreneur with clean clothes and clean car.
Now, just a few months after I left my Carharts behind for business casual clothes, I don't eat whoppers and I don't go crazy over the Lowes' sale flyer.
What do you think the grunts I used to work with would have said to me if I asked them what they thought about home-based businesses and internet marketing? Would they even know what I was talking about?
Was it hard to drag myself back up out of the mud? Yes, it was.
Was the hard work worth it? Definitely!
Remember what Scarlet said: Being exposed to a segmented group of people eventually leads to a total assimilation with them and the only way to stop this process is to immediately remove yourself from that environment.
What do you do? - 15431
That says a lot about the power of the environments we put ourselves in.
Listen to a little story about me.
Before I moved to America I was a successful businessman, pulling down a decent income, wearing cashmere coats, eating in fine restaurants, driving nice cars. I'd never done any manual labor.
When my country's economy went belly up, I lost everything and came to the United States to find a new beginning.
I had no money, didn't know a soul, and took a job in construction because nothing else was open to me.
My environment all of a sudden changed: from business-development to vinyl siding installation, from cashmere coat to Carhart overall, from a good food to McDonald's, from sedans to pickup trucks, from my friends with college degrees, clean clothing and intact teeth to a bunch of stinky beat-up dentally-challenged rednecks.
At first it felt awkward and in some sense entertaining, but then I started noticing that my entire system of values started to change: good food would mean Burger King instead of McDonald's, good clothing would mean Carhart instead of Wal-Mart, good car would mean an old pickup truck with a few hundreds miles on it that you can haul a pile of tools in instead of new shiny sedan (how are you going to put an air compressor in there?)
It didn't even bother me to wear bandanas in public and to admit that I only made $10 an hour!
Life has a funny way of sucking you in until you are too far gone to even know that there's something wrong.
Before I knew it I became a construction worker from some Jerkwater, USA and I actually spent a few years doing construction before I found enough strength to pull myself out of this situation and to come back to being an entrepreneur with clean clothes and clean car.
Now, just a few months after I left my Carharts behind for business casual clothes, I don't eat whoppers and I don't go crazy over the Lowes' sale flyer.
What do you think the grunts I used to work with would have said to me if I asked them what they thought about home-based businesses and internet marketing? Would they even know what I was talking about?
Was it hard to drag myself back up out of the mud? Yes, it was.
Was the hard work worth it? Definitely!
Remember what Scarlet said: Being exposed to a segmented group of people eventually leads to a total assimilation with them and the only way to stop this process is to immediately remove yourself from that environment.
What do you do? - 15431
About the Author:
Author: Pavel Becker is a known contributor of articles about Web-Promotion and Working From Home. To find out how to earn money on-line go to his website PavelBecker.com
