How do you evaluate the cost on your own person of working for a sub-par employer? Which does offer you a meal and and place to sleep but not 1000x more than that? And you're like the guy capable of achieving 1e6+ at least for starters.
For me that's the slavery I was born into and still do which requires 12 hours straight before being allowed to do something else with your time. It's your decision from that point on if you exhaustedly sleep only to find your norm increased when you wake up tomorrow or you drink your minds in search for a 2-hour break only to find out you've payed for them with a 24 hours credit tomorrow.
There’s countless ways to make money these days without having to work 12 hours a day. I think they say millionaires have 7 different income streams. I bought a few 3 family homes when I was younger. Still have them, do all the required work and enjoy it. Definitely doesn’t take me 12 hours a day. I started mowing lawns around that time and still do it to this day. And I bet my net worth is more than every client I have. Had a trading blog years ago and was making a couple hundred from ad revenue each month. Still trade the morning session in the indexes. Long story short, if you feel like 12 hours working for the man is slave labor, then stop posting on these boards and take action. Little baby steps.
I spent a years as a regulatory economist in electric utility regulation. Loved the work. But every time I did something big (invented a fuel-costing algorithm in a Big Coal state, constructed a Lotus 1-2-3 forecasting system for a tiny, lines-with-a-ruler gas utility, wrote head-piece articles for the go-to reg journal, ......) I was "disciplined", demoted, disparaged, blahblahblah. Had to get my Ya-Yas elsewhere. So I: Opened a high-end stereo shop out of my house. Gave a paper on urban policy formation. Took my kids hiking. (Google "sloetoe kids hike" for an eyeful.) Took up running. Took up running marathons. Took up running ultramarathons..... You get the idea? For most of the last 10 years, I trade. And I stay home a lot more. I guess what I'm saying is, "You don't own my soul." (And, while I might LIKE to put heart&soul into my work, if you don't want it, then I will take it elsewhere. I also taught college and motorcycling..... $$$ are good.)
I don't know @EsKiller, but I can tell you he's one of the few people on this forum who gets it. Most traders on this site is so enamored by getting their account to a certain size that they don't understand cash flow. They feel that once their account becomes 500k, or 1M or 5M or 10M, they think they're set! So wrong! Its all Cash Flow!! @Aquarians first figure out how much cash flow do you need to bring food to you and your family. See if you can optimize that number. And then figure out how you can achieve that number, through passive methods. My personal yearly cash flow needs is 60k (3 kids and mediocre house in Dallas). Once I was fired from my high-paying executive job, I started a Executive headhunting business. Within 3 months, it was paying what I made the entire year! The only problem, I was working 100 hours a week. It wasn't a passive income stream. But it gave me the confidence that I didn't have to work a corporate job to make 6-figures. Then, I went off and bought real-estate. Signed commercial leases was able to generate 70k to 80k of passive income with little work. Once you have passive cash flow, your time is available to do a lot of thing. For 4 months I goofed around looking around for what my next needs to be. That got me into the journey to become a full-time Equity investor and options trader. 2 years and 24 strategies later, today I know truly know how to invest and generate income from trading. Enough to the point people are willing to trust me with their money. However, income streams are not consistent. I had a 65k drawdown last two days, due to NDX and CL correction. My hedges didn't work as expected. So 2 days, shocked my yearly cash flow needs. This is forcing me to build better hedges and diversity into other income streams (asset-based and less volatile). While the NDX and VIX was rebalancing itself out this afternoon, I delivered an asset that will give me 4k across the next 3 months. Not bad for 30 minutes of work. This will cover all of my expenses for February, without having to touch my real-estate or trading account. Only Entrepreneurs get the above statement. It is so important to have multiple income streams. And even more importantly to have them be uncorrelated. I had posted this question over the weekend. Personally as Ray Dalio said, its important to have 15 different income streams. And you need to design your lifestyle such that you rely income from one and only of your income streams! Good luck!
EsKiller is wise. Think creatively about different, independent ways to earn money. Do something every day to move you closer to your goal of independence, even if only for 10 minutes.
I don't know what to make of your posts. Are you living in a third world country or maybe you are working in your family business? If it is the first, perhaps you need to find a way out. If it is the second, maybe you need a heart to heart talk. Don't forget, if there is a will there is a way. Good luck and best wishes.