Time, Money and the glory of saying NO!

Where I originally went wrong...

How did I get myself here?

I asked myself this nearly every day when I was working in radio. The answer was a string of bad decisions. Good decisions take you where you want to go and bad decisions take you away from where you want to go.

Radio is a contract based industry where you are contracted for a certain amount of time to do your job and at the end of that contact, you renegotiate with your company for a different (hopefully better) salary and benefits package, etc.

When I first started, I was happy with the offer they made me and I accepted. Every couple years for the next nearly 10 years, it was time to renegotiate. I became increasingly frustrated with the offers I was receiving. This was simultaneously the beginning of the end of my radio career and the beginning of me finding some degree of inner strength.

After every failed negotiation, I would ask myself, how did I get here? My skills have improved, my work load has increased, and I have become increasingly valuable to the company based on experience and know-how of their operation, how do I keep making less money for more work? I was unhappy with the deal but I was more unhappy that I had placed myself in a financial position where I couldn't turn down the deal.

That's right. I PUT MYSELF THERE.

We all have inherent assets that we can choose to do as we please with. The two most important are time and money. Time being the most important and the easiest one to waste although money does come in a close second to that.

In January of 2016, when I chose to walk the path toward being an airline pilot, I had to maximize both of above said assets. No more binge watching Netflix, I needed to use that time for studying or flying. Also,I had to find a way to make my money go as far as it could knowing that most of paychecks were going straight to the flight school. After all, I was married with 3 kids, and 2 dogs. Luckily my wife works very hard and was able to ease burden of flight school.

The last straw that drove me to walking away from radio was a renegotiation in October 2015. I got DESTROYED in my deal. More work. Less pay. I was done. I vowed to never be in that position with the company ever again where I had to accept their dismal offers.

Fast forward to March of 2018. Just like clock work, the company came to me and asked me to produce two shows and spend even more of my time working and guess what, they again, offered me less money.

I was FINALLY in a position to say NO. Not me. You won't do that to me again. I had just finished my Certified Flight Instructor rating and if I chose, I could leave and start flight instructing which would have given me both a paycheck and hours toward my airline career but also a scary drop in income level.

...and the fear set in...I FREAKED out! My mind was telling me, "What they are offering isn't that bad. You've been doing radio your whole life, you can keep going. The pay in the beginning of airline life is gonna be 1/3 of what you make now, what are you going to do?" I don't think I have ever been that scared. One word would change all of that and throw my whole world in to chaos. NO.

Hands shaking, palms sweating, I walked in to my bosses office and simply said just that, "No, thank you. I don't want the offer." I felt that tingly tight feeling in my chest and walked out of his office.

The funniest thing happened after that. They came back with counteroffers. A few of them. Every time, my answer was, "No, thank you."

I walked out the door on my last day of radio on May 13th 2018. May 15th, I started teaching at Rainier Flight Service as a flight instructor.

Takeaways:

• No matter how tough it is, prioritize yourself, and don't let yourself be backed in to a corner. I had to work sometimes 18 hours a day for weeks at a time to get here but no matter how difficult it was, it wasn't more difficult than being stuck and having to take an offer I didn't want.

• Don't waste your time and money. Both are finite resources.

• Fear is actually AMAZING if you are able to use it properly.