Man, I remember this one gig I had a few years back. Felt totally stuck. You know the feeling? Like you’re just spinning your wheels, putting in the hours, but getting nowhere. Bosses were always talking down, expectations were nuts, and the pay? Forget about it. Just felt like another cog in their machine, easily replaceable.
I was pretty down about it, spending evenings just zoning out. One night, I stumbled onto some old wrestling clips online. Stone Cold Steve Austin stuff. Watching him march down, flip off the boss, stun whoever got in his way… it wasn’t about the violence, you know? It was the attitude. The absolute refusal to just take crap. He just did what he wanted, consequences be damned. That whole “Arrive. Raise Hell. Leave.” thing really hit different that night.
So, I thought, what the hell? Maybe I needed a bit of that Stone Cold energy. Not literally stunning anyone, obviously. But maybe stop being so agreeable, stop letting things slide. I started small. Pushed back a little in meetings when things didn’t make sense. Stopped volunteering for every crappy extra task nobody wanted. It felt weird at first, kinda scary even. Like waiting for the hammer to drop.
Then I started looking around, seriously this time. Polished up my resume, reached out to old contacts. It wasn’t easy. Took a few weeks of searching, sending stuff out, getting rejections. But that Austin mindset kinda kept me going. Like, okay, that one didn’t work? Stomp a mudhole in that application and walk it dry. On to the next one. Don’t trust anyone to do it for you, gotta do it yourself.
What happened next
Eventually, I landed something new. Better place, better pay, more respect. The weirdest part? Leaving the old place wasn’t some big dramatic explosion. I just… left. Gave my notice, worked my last two weeks professionally, and walked out. No big speech, no middle fingers (tempting as it was). Just closed that chapter.
Looking back, it wasn’t about becoming some beer-swilling rebel overnight. It was about realizing I had some control. That Stone Cold persona, it was like a permission slip to finally:
- Value my own time and effort.
- Stop waiting for someone else to fix things.
- Take action, even if it’s uncomfortable.
- Know when to just walk away from a bad deal.
It sounds kinda silly maybe, getting life advice from a wrestler. But sometimes, you just need that spark, that little push to stop taking punches and start throwing a few of your own, metaphorically speaking. And that’s the bottom line.
