I've written quite a bit, maybe too much, about my brief loser phase - the years working video game retail and going nowhere in life. That changed in 1996 when I decided to take things seriously and went back to college. Of course I still had to work and wasn't qualified to do much other than retail. So I took a job as a "2nd assistant manager" for a Super Crown bookstore. The job sucked but at least I had the right attitude this time.
When working at Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware I mistook the job for being something important.. the horrible paying job with bad hours that anyone on the planet could do. Now I was liberated, I knew this bookstore job was joke and I'd quit the second I had a degree. I saw it as a four-year sentence. My goal was to just do the time and not cause any trouble. I wasn't going to do a bad job, but I wasn't giving it one extra second of thought or effort either. With good behavior I got out after only 18 months.
If you enjoyed reading "loser phase" then I have some marginally bad news: there is no video game content here. From 1996-2000 I basically gave-up games. I recognized them as a distraction that could sink my academics again. There'd be plenty of time for games when I was done with school.
Alright so then who is this article for anyway?
- People who take their lousy retail job seriously, I hope I can convince you otherwise (and maybe offer some advice for getting out).
- People who used to work lousy retail jobs that want to laugh about it.
- Weirdoes who think 1997 was a really interesting year for the book publishing industry.