The Contractor & the Death of Loyalty: We Are All Him
“The Contractor” is a film about a Special forces operator who gets discharged after many years of distinguished, honorable service. He struggles to find his way and support his family after the military, so he joins a secretive Private Military Company otherwise known as a PMC.
His new boss said something that really struck me:
“We gave them our minds, our bodies, and our spirit and they chewed us up and spit us out. Left us with fear, rage, uncertainty, a sense of abandonment, betrayal and finally self loathing and guilt. As if everything that happened was our own goddamn fault.”
This is an extreme case and situation, especially for military men who have served and given as much as they have for their country. And this is why we honor them. But for us civilians we sometimes feel this to some extent too. Especially when we work for someone else. Not everyone is fortunate, smart or lucky enough to discover entrepreneurship early in our life.
How many of us have given all of our time, energy and soul for a company? We were loyal. Foolishly, loyal I might add. And then we find ourselves discarded when we weren’t useful or there were tough times in the business.
How many people do you know who worked for decades at a company or at minimum put their heart and soul into a place. Only to be tossed away like garbage, treated worse than trash. I know plenty. Heck, I’m one of them.
This is a fact of life in the market economy. It’s easy to become bitter and angry after what you feel you sacrificed for them.
But I’ve come to think about this in a different way. You’ve learned new important skills that you can stack on your previous knowledge, you built an incredible new network of people you can do business with in the future. And maybe most important if you are good at what you do, you build a good rep.
As they say:
“Our reputation is the only commodity we got left in this game.”
I think everyone needs to experience this feeling of disillusionment and betrayal. You learn a harsh lesson about the world. It’s the only way you can learn about yourself, to discover your mission. It’s the only way you truly understand the importance of becoming entrepreneurial. The freedom and control of the future you can build through this path.
And for those who are still working for someone else, I’ll leave you with some great advice from an old friend and boss. “Make Love, but Don’t Fall in Love”. The point: do your job well but don’t get too attached.
And most importantly, make sure you are building your side hustles and other income streams separately. You owe them nothing except a job well done. But you also owe your future self this. Become an owner. I can tell you this: I’m never ever working for anyone again. I’m done with the salaryman life & mindset. It’s the road to nowhere.
So I will end with a quote from the movie:
“Cash is real. It’s okay to cash in. It’s pure Darwin out here. We’re trained to be ruthlessly adaptable. Use it. We’re all just mercenaries in the end.”