Three Things I Love About a 9-5
Edition - 008
Welcome to The Obsession, glad you’re here.
On social media, the traditional 9-5 has a terrible rap. And it genuinely bothers me. I get it, there are people stuck in jobs they hate, working for leaders they don’t respect, doing work that drains them. That’s real. But the blanket take that “a 9-5 is a trap” is lazy. Because I’ve found a lot of value in mine.
Here are three things I’ve come to love about a traditional 9-5: Buying into the impact I have, tapping into growth opportunities, and building professional skills early.
Buy into your impact: This is the one thing I’d share with anyone starting a job young - you have to buy in. And I don’t mean making work your whole personality and turning into a corporate robot. I mean genuinely believing what you do matters.
If you can’t see how you impact clients or the company, you might not be in the right role. But honestly, a lot of people do have impact, they just don’t put weight on it. They minimize it. They downplay it. They treat it like it doesn’t matter. Let me give you an example.
I’m in distribution (aka sales) and my title is “consultant.” When people hear that they’ll say, “Oooooh fancy… what do you really do?” There are a million ways to spin my job in that moment. But the shift for me was simple: answer with impact.
Now I say: “I help people work on their business.”
When I started saying it that way, it actually started to set in. I’m not just “doing a job.” I’m impacting someone else’s business. And once you feel that, you start taking more ownership. And that ownership turns into pride. And pride makes your 9-5 feel a lot different. Which brings me to the second key…
Growth is provided (if you chase it): Most solid 9-5 careers have growth tracks. More responsibility. More exposure. More opportunities. More money. Not always fast, but it’s there. If you don’t have that, it’s worth considering a change.
A growth track is underrated because it gives you two things at the same time: A reason to keep leveling up, and a way to test what you’ve learned at a higher level. Think about a simple early career progression:
You start as an associate. You’re fresh out of college. You’re taking inbound calls from clients. That’s real exposure, talking to people who are most likely older, smarter, and more experienced than you. Not a bad environment to learn in.
Then you get promoted into a junior role supporting someone senior. Now you’re doing outbound work. You’re starting conversations. You’re learning how to earn attention. You’re paired with someone who can help you develop.
You see where this goes.
Eventually you become “the person.” And ideally it happens a little before you feel ready, because that’s where you grow the fastest – a trial by fire. That leads to the third key…
Professional skills get built: Consider this a double click on talking to people who are older and smarter than you. In a 9-5, you’re doing that internally and externally. And early in your career, that’s a cheat code, because professional skills compound. To be specific, a 9-5 forces you to learn things like:
Speak clearly, keep things simple, ask better questions, take notes, follow up, ask for business, negotiate, communicate under pressure.
You don’t learn that from a motivational video. You learn it by doing it over and over again, in real situations, with real stakes. That’s one of the biggest reasons I value a traditional 9-5. It’s not just “work.” It’s reps.
Taking ownership, having opportunities to grow, and building foundational professional skills are three things I think get lost in the noise of social media glorifying “escaping the 9-5.”
Now, to be fair some people are in jobs that aren’t a good fit. And that could be for a thousand reasons. But with good mentorship and patient work, I think a lot of people can find a job they wake up excited to go back to.
For me, it doesn’t feel like “a 9-5.” It’s now an integral part of my day. A necessary step to thrive vocationally. And I genuinely enjoy the opportunity to be challenged and help people with their business.
The Weekly 3
1) One Question I Asked Myself
Am I minimizing what I do, or am I owning the impact I actually have?
2) One Idea That Shifted Me
A 9-5 isn’t a life sentence. It can be a training ground, if you treat it like one.
3) One Challenge to Take Into Your Week
Write one sentence that describes your job in terms of impact (not tasks). Use it this week when someone asks what you do, and see how it changes how you show up.
