Promoted to Manager, Then He Quit
45sThe shocking decision to take a pay cut for happiness creates a relatable and thought-provoking moment about work-life balance.
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My first gym ever, I had my first manager who worked there. Um and he was a trainer. He was awesome. Best trainer I ever had. And I promoted him to manager. And with that pay raise, um he went from something in the neighborhood of like $25,000 a year as a trainer, uh paid by session, to getting a salary of like $45,000 a year, which for me was a ton of money at the time when I was
paying somebody else, right? And uh he did it for 6 months, crushed it, did an amazing job. And he said, "Hey man, can I talk to you after work today?" I was like, "Yeah, sure, man. What's up? Like you're Like you're doing great. What He says, um "Hey, I um I don't I don't want to be I don't want to be manager anymore." And I was like, "What do you mean? You're You're You're quitting?" He's like,
"No, no, no. I I just I just want to be a trainer." And I was like, >> [sighs] >> "But I mean, but you realize that your your pay would get cut in half. Like that Like that doesn't really make sense." And he just looked at [music] me and I still I remember this to this day. Looked at me, he's like, "I'll just be poor then." And I And I [music] It was like It was like
It was like a It was like It was like a bomb detonated. I was like, And I looked at it and I was I was literally speechless. Then I just said, "I respect it, but I will never understand it." And the thing is is that he is, to this day, I got to see him I got to see him 3 weeks ago, first time in like 10 years. He was then the happiest person I ever met.
And today, or when I just saw him, just as happy. >> [music] >> And he's like, "Dude, I mean, I Can Can you believe that we were starting that gym and you were at the floor and you you were We were kidding some of those stories." He's like, "Look what you have, man, all this stuff." And I was like, "Dude, you won. Like, I'm still trying to catch up to you."
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