It's a tough racket!
Commissioned sales: The lowest paying easy job and the highest paying hard job. :)
Basically true but with ample exceptions. My job was such that not that many other men could operate at my level of expertise in my field so I decided to go the extra mile with continuing education and training and make myself worthy of being hired. I actually had prospective employers seek me out as my reputation preceded me usually. It's not that hard if one has the desire and drive but it does matter what profession I suppose one chooses.
I just chose to be the best I could be at what I did like daddy always taught me when I was growing up and I succeeded at it I suppose. My dad also worked on commission in am entirely different field and he too was usually highly sought after for his level of expertise right up until he too retired. I guess I had a good role model in him. I had a good work ethic too and that helped.
spot on analogy. it’s funny that my colleagues and peers in my industry live in an entirely different world than most people and forget it a lot. You get what you put in and most people would be absolutely shocked at the amount of money we make—until they consider the stress, alcoholism and suicide rates, broken families, etc that come with it. Making it to 50 with succumbing to at least one of those is quite rare.
It's a tough racket!