Picked a $20 an hour job over a commission gig and it cost me big

Back in March I had two offers on the table. One was a warehouse job paying $20 an hour steady, 40 hours a week, boring but safe. The other was selling timeshare packages in Myrtle Beach, pure commission, no guarantee. My gut said take the stability, so I grabbed the warehouse gig. Three months in and I'm making exactly $800 a week, no more, no less. Meanwhile my buddy took the timeshare job and cleared $3,400 his second month closing on a big family. I chose the easy path and now I'm stuck wondering if I should quit and try the commission route or just accept my comfortable slump. Has anyone else gambled on commission work and came out ahead or got burned?

2 comments

2 Comments

davidh882d ago

$3,400? That's one rich family you missed out on.

william8162d ago

Yeah, "rich family" is exactly what my buddy Mark ran into. He did a quick weekend gig for these people (sounded like a simple bookshelf assembly, you know). They lived in this gated community near the lake, and their house had a freaking indoor slide for the kids. Anyway, he showed up, and the wife handed him a cold bottle of water and said, "Please don't touch the Italian marble walls." He put up that shelf in like 45 minutes, and they handed him a check for $800. That's not even the crazy part - they tipped him another $300 in cash on top of it. So yeah, some people just live in a totally different world than we do.