God, I remember when I was a little kid I once said something like, “When I grow up, I’m gonna be a boss, so that way I won’t have to work for anybody” — and the grown-up with me said, “Well, you can’t just become a boss. You need to work hard and get promotions and then you’ll be a boss. So you’ll still need to work a whole awful lot to reach that level. Do you think you have it in you?”

…I was very disappointed to learn that I couldn’t escape working by just wishing really hard.

With time I’d eventually come to learn that it was not only impossible to wish oneself out of working, but that the grown-up’s line about “working really hard” was bogus, too.

I always thought it went more like this:
“If you don’t like being exploited, then become a good employeer to set good standards”
but I guess not…