Breaking Free of 9 to 5 

A cashier at Walmart chatted me up while cashing me out the other day. I learned he has two doctorates and used to be a university professor. I remember watching 150 yr old banks go under during the last big real estate bust. The “safe” route isn’t safe at all. It only works until it doesn’t. Then you’re fucked. Taking your fate into your own hands is uncomfortable, and there are enormous social pressures to discourage you, but it’s the most reliable and sustainable way to go. It forces creativity and tenacity and the freedom it provides is indescribable.

I stumbled upon this video after getting terminated from my 9-5 job. Although I was blindsided and scared about making money and sustaining my life the way it is currently with bills and things, there was this strong feeling of freedom and like a weight was lifted off of me, I got back to the things that really made me feel grounded. Now I think is the time to not be controlled by fear, simplify my life, make changes, and tap into my creativity.

Thanks so much for watching these videos, Chris White! Your comment won't allow replies, so I'm hoping you get this. I did a lot of things before this -- a lot of jobs that just weren't fulfilling. At one point my wife and I owned our own interior painting business, and it really "made sense" in that we could work where and when we wanted, we made good money, and could take vacations whenever we wanted. But . . . it just wasn't 'heart work'. It was really tough to give that up, because it worked on so many levels, but I believe that we all can be happiest if we take the plunge and choose to do things that really infuse us with passion. =) Kenton

Thank you for making this video . You are taking the words right out of my mouth .

Seems no matter what, you are trading time for money (or goods). So the question becomes do we want to trade ytour time for something you want to do, or for something you hate. I have decided to stop chasing the shekel, and am implementing a scorched earth policy on the stuff I own, burning myself down to essentials (which looks like clothes and camping gear). I've found some land where I can live off grid fairly easy, and make more than enough with a part time job to pay property taxes on. With luck, I can start putting my skills into directly making me money, and do things I love and truly live.

I don't believe in the illusion of a career, but I am using a 9 to 5 to help save my money and investing it for tools I am going to use. Not shiny objects. In the next few years I want to buy some land to build a log cabin or put a mobile home on and homestead the land as well as hunt on it . I will buy a house or two, but I am going to rent them out.... that way I have an income, but I am not wasting 8 hours each day of my life.

Great video and subject Kenton. I've spent a good part of my life in the prison of debt, and captive to a job that I disliked. Then 3 years ago I had a knee injury that has forced me to change careers. I'm now in my 50's and last fall I started my new career as a college professor, just part-time contracts for now. This is something I have always wanted to do, but was always afraid of losing the job security I thought I had. It was only an illusion, and was gone in an instant. I still have debt but I no longer worry about it like I used to. It is what it is, I make my payments, we live on less, don't buy things we don't really need and life is not great yet but I see light at the end of the tunnel. My kids are all grown now and will soon be out on their own, and when that day comes my plan is to really down size, sell everything, buy some land and put a small homestead on it, and get off the grid permanently. Life is too short to spend it as slave to debt and chained to a job you hate.

Beautiful! I broke free years ago and I will never go back...Thanks for sharing my friend!

Getting ready to head for 2 days/2 nights to a local Ozark, huge conservation area. Have a vehicle BOB. With the colder weather, gonna take minimal supplies as well. Beautiful place with several creeks and springs. Gonna think, journal, exercise outside, practice some skills, and take a try at some videos. You have motivated me, thanks. Wish me wisdom on decisions, peace of mind, enjoyment. Gonna forage for what I can. No cell service unless you walk up out of the valley. Excited! wish the best to you and family.

There you go again brother....your vid giving me a nice kick in the rear end & making me think hard about my life .............thanx! brother & peace 2 you..........

Thanks for teaching Kenton! You really inspire me. I hope to find the courage to break the addiction to perceived comfort and the vicious cycle it creates. I think it's important to educate people when they are young about the trap and how to be creative with regards to survival. As a kid I was led to believe, as many do, that it is the only way to survive - to have a 9-5 type of career. I recently quit my job but I have expensive rent in the city of chicago that I'm locked into. My wife is still a student at a university here and she doesn't seem to get why the 9-5 is a trap. She wants to climb the corporate ladder in a non-profit. I wish there was a faster way to show her that the 9-5 is a trap, other than letting her experience it on her own.

I seriously love this video I have been giving it a lot of thought before I even watch this video and a soon as I watch this video it helps me on my assurance of what I want in life and that is to break free and to actually LIVE instead of living around somebody else's schedule thank you so much and please keep the videos coming I love staying tuned and watching them!!!

I have never subscribed to anything on RU-vid , until now. Started watching to learn how to make fire. But have to thank you , think you have discovered the keys of life. Thank you for sharing. I realized 16 years ago not to take life to seriously. Our two month old needed heart surgery. After that , which went well, I felt like security was an illusion. The key to my life is doing what you love as a career. It is easy to do a good job, very fulfilling, pays enough and does not feel like a "real' job. That being said I started my own shop , doing what I used to do 9 to 5 for someone else. Also know that what you say is true, when adversity appears, you automatically rise to meet it. The more you need to give to get by, the more you are able to give. This makes you a better person in all ways. Thanks again.

Hey my friend, interesting to hear your philosophy every now and then !!! I like this topic, WORK is a 4 letter word ;-) Early this year me and my lady Christina foraged 30 kilos of wild blackberries in Australian bushland. The supermarket were selling them for $40 per kilo so that's $1200 of wild fruit!!!. But we did use up a bit of electricity by keeping them stored in the freezer for 3 months until we ate them :-D

Good tips and inspiration. I found myself in a financial hole early in my adult life. I put myself homeless for four years to get out from debt. Since then I've forced myself to live on less than I earned. By saving, living a frugal life, and avoiding debt I was able to buy a beautiful forest homestead. I don't feel I was deprived in any way during the homeless period, rather just the opposite.

attitude adjustment time. again. time to at least think about an offer i had recently that i just brushed off. 30 years ago hubby was fired from his 9 to 5. panic time with 3 young children. he was unable to get another job because he couldn't read. so he said i can pound nails and twist wrenches. he started fixing things for people and we survived. sometimes it was very hard and that tends to be what i remember. but we made it and we did have some good times on some of the jobs he got us into. i also just watched the power of gratitude and was reminded i need to appreciate him more.

That fly at 0:31 agrees

Very valuable - thank you.

Great video! Thank you.

This is really inspiring and refreshingly practical compared to many peoples musings that are way too ethereal and not grounded in reality. This video was exactly the video I needed to see today thank you!

Great inspiration Kenton! My dad has always said that "If you own too much stuff, your stuff will own you." Moving into a lifestyle of simplicity is so incredibly freeing... we find that less is definitely more. I've personally experienced what you said about adversity breeding creativity - sometimes it's the most effective way that creativity happens!

Dude, you're always in my head! lol! I hope this connects with some people who need it! On a side note, man is it green there! ETA: This also kind of taps into a though I had the other day. For many many many years I had the feeling that I didn't know what I wanted to be when a "grew up". And now I'm at a place where that really isn't an issue. But I think it was more a lack of believing that it's ok to do anything I want, that it's even possible. Letting go of the "rules" that we tend to believe are imposed on us is a big start. Great message my friend! Added....I just read about a guy that quit his high end job at Apple and started cleaning toilets at Yosemite just because he wanted to be outside. Then he started taking pictures and is now making a career at outdoor photography. Lastly the benefits...when I quit the 9-5 several years ago and started my leatherwork, I got a whole lot more home time with my kids. I couldn't buy them fancy things but the time together mattered a LOT more.

Well put.

Thanks for the video I already have a list of things I will change becauce and of the video

:) love the video Kenton , this is a lesson alot of people need these days . I'll post this tonight , thank you .

I really like this video! There are more videos like this out there, but they usually just tell what is 'wrong' about the 5 till 9 life. And how we are tricked staying in it. What i (and much more people already know). But you focus too, on how to change this with accuarte and practical ideas. Thats great!

Love this! There was so much in here that resinated with me. : )

I do have a little shop on Etsy. It allows me to be creative and pays for itself. Not many can say their hobby pays for itself. But, it hasn't been profitable for me.

Great video !

this is a really good video! I've been working on simplifying my life. I'm not sure what I'm passionate about or what makes me feel fulfilled but I know that I love talking to people. I love helping people sort out things in thier life. I love helping people and inspiring them to make changes.. I want to sell my house and get into something smaller and cheaper so I don't have to work as much.

I just gotta say . . . life's too short to do what you don't find happy-making, full of meaning/purpose/adventure! WHO is making your decisions for you? WHO did you hire for the job of making your decisions? . . . MAYBE a whole family of people who have their own ideas . . . and family does matter . . . It does. Part of ambition is our ideas about family . . . and about job, about success, about a thousand future dreams and present confusions and dissapointments. Can we just let go of the stories in our minds . . . all of them? This moment is good. Just like this. Help me learn to enjoy it . . . that's all. the end.

I make baskets and fish traps by hand from vines maybe they will sell on etsy I value my time more and more as I get older I see exactly what you mean , and I am 25!

That bee is a paid actor :)

Hi Kenton, I'm starting to look into simplifying my life. Instead of taking the subway, I started walking to work and I save over a hundred dollars a month on subway fare. I also get my cardio in everyday for free :) I also got a job where I work less and make more. Gives me more time to work on my other projects which will hopefully allow me to stop working altogether!

Really only thing i truly enjoy is my kids

I have wanted to work part-time and start something full filling on the side. Would enjoy picking a few things: nature photo/documentaries, making/selling holistic health and cleaning products, sell foraged food, maybe a primitive skills You Tube channel, teach some classes, bigger garden and sell out of it. A lot I would like to do when I grow up(I'm 46). You are inspiring me to take a good look and then action. Thanks for the good thoughts.

Great thoughts. In this era we r just running, leading us to nowhere. We should first calm our minds and know ourselves. I m planning to quit my engineering and create an organisation where people can live healthy and get fulfilled.

Its a sign!!!

So much good advice to unpack here: I get restless wing syndrome and it's always felt like the central banks and corps keep us bound and cause us to schedule our entire lives around our source of income (esp in the US vs say the EU where they get a lot more time off). These roaring 20s have been a lesson that security is an illusion, and seems to've caused many to seek alternative incomes, limit/escape debt or just decide the lessons of public school are "doing it wrong". You have a neat arrangement; I've always thought it would be lovely to set up a nice co-owned spread of acerage where the night sky is beautiful and be around those of like mind who value the same things you do, so that you may live in the same relaxed way you would if you happened to owned all of it and share the skills/resources each other have to maintain everything without anybody being overburdened.

All you need is a little imagination. I met a guy in the Bahamas in the 80s that was making money by selling frozen banana smoothie typee concoctions. He set up in front of a store with a cooler of frozen bananas and a little machine about the size of a brief case. He bought electricity from the store he stood in front of. He fed the bananas into the machine and they came out into a little cup. He got pretty good money for a cup. He spent the day meeting people. There's a lot of things you could do starting out in your spare time and work your way out of the 9 to 5. You could do leather work and sell it online. You could make crafts and sell them to art type stores. I live in a remote area that gets a lot of tourists in the summer. There's nothing here to distract them. No stores and 1 bar. That's it. We've talked about putting in a wacky putt putt golf course! I make folk instruments. You can make the literally from junk and if you have a little skill they sound pretty good. You can get good money for some. Even people that don't play music will buy them to hang on the wall. I've seen some that sell for well over 500 dollars. Those cost a little to build though and your skills better be top notch. It can be done though. If you live in the city and can perform you can make money right on the sidewalk performing. I've done it living in more populated areas. You can trade labor for lots of things. In fact almost anything. I'm working out a deal right now to trade labor for a boat big enough to live on. A sail boat. In exchange for designing and building a cabin. Sometimes I fish in exchange for some fish. Commercial trolling. Sometimes you might have to put your ego away but I guess sometimes there's a price to pay for freedom. What's it worth to you? People build fences around themselves but they somehow miss the open gate. Or maybe they fear it. Life "in the wild" can be daunting for sure. Especially if you've never even peeked out the gate but the more you explore outside the less intimidating it becomes. I know a guy with a saw mill. I can drag big logs off the beach and trade some lumber for use of the mill. I've used it to make finish lumber I installed in a house. You could sell the lumber for good money if you cut it right. Or you could make things from the lumber and sell that. I pick berries and jar them up. They're fabulous! You can eat them or people will buy them. It's all a choice you can make. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own much but I'm no worse off than anybody that slaves away at the 9 to 5 with little time for anything else that owns several cars, houses and the bills that go with them. I'd even bet there are some that would gladly trade places with me. I ran the rat race for a long time. I just decided it wasn't for me eventually and completely changed my MO. It's a choice anyone that really wants to can make.

I'd like to quit my 9-5, or strictly, 8-5 :( but I also want to keep my books, my computer and my high-speed Internet... and I don't have the money to buy anywhere in the UK (it takes a fortune just to buy a garage around here)... and having quit, I don't want to be working to support myself... Moving to some cheap country would still require me to support myself somehow and anyway my parents are getting on a bit so I feel I should hang around here... My imagination has failed me on this so far. I may have to wait another 6 years until I can retire via the official channels, unless inspiration strikes in the meantime.

Great video! I love your vids! I love the outdoors and would really like to just escape this society to a place of freedom in harmony with nature. My girlfriend and I love to go backpacking and spend time outside. My family has a lake cabin with a lot of woods around it. Just would like to try and live there or somewhere in isolation. I find it hard to do so in a place like Indiana. Any tips?

Hi Kenton brian here it was good to hear from you again I have been trapped in debt for a long time I am a carpenter and have been for 20 years. now in my 40s and it seems like I have been spinning my wheels and not going anywhere I made it to $60.000 a year when I got in with the carpenters union in 2004.but when the economy crashed in 2008 I lost everything. not knowing what might happen I started studying wilderness survival and still doing it to this day. I am back to work now but who knows what might happen. theirs a lot of people that wont make it if the money wheel stops turning. another great video Kenton my hats off to you. and by the way im enjoying my cold showers and got smoke off the hand drill. those where some nice sumac trees behind you when you shot that video. shoot me a email on your address I would like to come visit some time im not that far away. Brian out take care Kenton.

Wonderful and inspiring video. One point to think about on this subject is the American K-12 education system. I believe we are conditioned from a young age to believe we have to be subserviant to some authority AKA a job. This is done on purpose. After WWII the secretary of education Horrace Mann developed what is now the K-12 system by lifting it from a Prussian indoctrination system which was designed to make people only do as commanded by an authority figure. Ask yourself, in school, how many classes did you have that assumed you would be self-employed or in a leadership role, rather than working for someone?

Awesome video! live life free! Beautiful, I've wanted to do a nature journey for soblong, kind of like a naked into the woods type thing for a year or so just to rediscover myself and spirituality but I have no idea where to go without being harrased any ideas?

+Nichole Judge Hi Nichole, your comment won't allow replies, so I'm hoping you get this. Thanks so much for your comment. It means a lot! =) Kenton

Capitalism is built on DEBT.. it is to make a "your owned" society.. if it wasn't then there would be no penalty for early payoff on credit loans and etc etc.. The taste of sweetness is the item.. however its bitter bite is its long term value which degrades rapidly.. think of a car that losses value as soon as it leaves the lot but yet resells its self how many times in its life span.. a house.. laptop, tablet the list goes on and on.... A owned society also allows a "slave labor force" Its a mental attack, unfortunately however the workers are now born into the situation. It is now the goal of our youth to find a way to "legally " break free of this which is extremely difficult... I am in the labor camp.. but trying hard to merge into a fulfilled life.. thank you Kenton for a nice video.

Ready to work part-time and do some other fullfilling work on the side. I really feel there are a few things I'm being "lead" to do. I'm reluctant though. And honestly, kinda scared to breakout. Would take only a small cash investment. Mostly just enjoyable time commitment. Could involve the family occasionally as well. Win/win. Thought I was ready. Can't take that first step over the fear. Any suggestions from someone who's done it?

um...just...Wow...i am up late as usual...past 2 a.m. and just happened to stumble across one of your videos and subscribed right away and just finished this video...brother all i can say is thank you...i have had such a struggle recently and for awhile now...this vid i just watched was amazing...it's been a long time since i have felt such a deep cleansing and relaxing breath...i would love to be able to contact you and briefly share my current situation and story...are you still willing/able to be contacted by email...thank you again for such an enlightening video...be easy brother...

This sounds like the 60s philosophy. I think the movement to simplify and go back to the land was much bigger then. It never really worked.

Hey there I love the video!! In all honesty if I had a chance to pick my life style I would love to live like our ancestors did thousand years ago, live off the land. I wanna build my own house live there till I get old and wrinkly, hunt and gather for my food. That's living to me. But sadly I can't because I have a 1 year old daughter going on to 2 July 4 and my wife won't want that for our little family. But ReWildUniversity I love how u threw out some suggestions on how to change our 9-5 job life style. Much mahalo from Oahu Hawaii.

Nice video! It echoed everything I had in mind. A few questions, how do you earn money now? What do you do for a living?

Read Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker!

I wonder how many turned away from the video when you said it wasn't how to get rich..

That Giant mosquito freaked me out everytime i heard it, I kept getting ready to karate chop it

Hello Kenton, what was your email again sir? I cannot find the notification/reply you last sent. Thank you bro.

Man what's with all the people's settings that dont allow replies? I'm about to sell my business and turn a page in my life. For once I'll have a 'nest egg'; and as a divorced empty nester this puts me in a good position. However will need to get an income stream going forward and after being self employed for the last 10 years the idea of a 9 to 5 and it's "security" is a bit unpalatable to me for more reasons than a surrender of self-determination. Seeing this comes at a good time, I've always lived a minimalist life, pushing my physical situation to the absolute margins of minimalism but the debt-servitude model of wealth accumulation that trickles down from our GNP has always dogged me. I'm several times broken but unbowed with that construct. I'm done with it. If money and the options that come with it aren't coming then I need to switch modes and understand that the future exists in an entirely different mode of living, needing to push it further. I've shot this video to the top of my "like" list. Good going.

Is it not the money but the debt that anchors us to 9-5 jobs? If we could stay out of debt we could more easily have a desired, lovable life. Above money and debt what would it be like to live in a monetary free society? I farm wild organic blueberries and build traditional timber frame buildings mostly with hand tools, both beautiful jobs I enjoy very much. Self employed, but I still work for someone else in a few ways. It is still hard to find time to work on my own home, and recreate at my own free will. Getting out from under any debt is key. One way is for the younger generation , just coming into adult life, to not take on debt, starting over once you have sipped from the debt cup is hard. How about participating in a gift economy as much as you can?

Hello, great talk. You are a little too hippie for my taste, but I understand your perspective. I had to escape the city life as well. Some ten years now, my family bought a small farm and live happy. Land cheaper the farther you move from the city, interesting... If fact, almost everything is cheaper away from the city. The city life debt cycle you mentioned, live in the city to make more money, but the cost of living in the city is higher, so how much money are you profiting. You add the stress of employers, crime, traffic, noise, and pollution, you get no fulfillment. We are naturally intelligent problem solvers. Hence, our name "Wise Man", but city life dumbs us down and tries to make us think less of our selves in such an unnatural environment. I can drive a car, but I can't fix it. I order food, but I can't cook. I like nature, but I can't keep a cactus alive. They become helpless to the city, that treats them cruel, everyone lock in separate little boxes called apartments. So many people living together and no community. I enjoy your posts. Be well.

I like how you attack the culture. Thats whats to blame, not capitalism. Capitalism is the choice of how you spend your money. At least we have the freedom to spend it another way