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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Allen" data-source="post: 370013" data-attributes="member: 389">Hard to disagree with this.  I now work with people who mostly knew what they wanted to do ever since they were little kids to young teens.  This helped them be focused on getting the education needed for their career.  Financially, it's hard to argue against it when coworkers of the same age are making $XX,000 more than I, mostly because they have more time in service.On the other hand, I tend to have a more diverse skill set and life experiences.  This really does make it a tradeoff.  Some days I envy those who can retire younger than I, other days I remember why they can retire sooner and I just sit and smile.  Everything in life comes at the expense of something else.  I honestly don't think I would trade my time spent in other occupations, even if it meant I could retire a few years earlier.  At the same time, I vividly recall the moment I had enough of working on drilling rigs.  I was working for a company called NICOR drilling out in the Charleston area.  We were doing one of the rare directional holes (not nearly the same as todays!) back then and had a hole in the drill stem.  This usually means you throw a bunch of crap (coconut husk, shredded hemp rope, etc) down the pipe to plug the hole and the jets in the bit, and then pull the pipe out of the ground wet.  We were using inverted (diesel fuel based) mud and you would get absolutely soaked with that crap, and coming from deep underground it was bordering on hot.  Well, it was the middle of February and a solid -30 degrees with the wind blowing as I looked across the rig floor at our motor hand, when I noted that he was in his late 50s or early 60s.  At that exact moment I told myself "no effing way am I going to want to be doing this for the next 40 years".  That weekend I had a conversation with a buddy who just happened to be the Marine Recruiter up in Minot.  I headed off to boot camp about 7 weeks later.I often wonder if I made mistakes along the way to where I am, and I'm sure that I have, but at the same time I try to remember what info I had available when making some of those life altering decisions.  Inevitably I come to the conclusion that I would most likely make the same choices today if presented with the same circumstances.  Career-wise anyway, personal life choices are another story.</blockquote>

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