Early one morning I got a fare at a house at the southern edge of Chandler. It was a young family - Man, Woman, Infant. They were going to the airport... The m

Early one morning I got a fare at a house at the southern edge of Chandler. It was a young family - Man, Woman, Infant. They were going to the airport... The man said that he'd tried driving for the taxi company, but it didn't work for him. I had various other passengers who'd also tried their hand at taxi driving, and couldn't make money. The traditional model for running a taxi service involves leasing cabs out for 12 hour shifts. Drivers have to work as much of those 12 hours to maximize their income. The first couple hours pay for the lease. An hour or two pays for gas. The last few hours are when you pay yourself. This passenger had started driving for the Venture Capitalists' "not-a-taxi" business, and he thought it was great. The venture capitalists' business taps into the vast hoards of people who aren't good employee material, and those who want to supplement their income. But the money wasn't really enough for this passenger - he was working on a way to increase his income. After expenses, driving for the venture capitalists is the same as driving for the taxi company: they're both low-skill minimum-wage jobs. It was a very nice neighborhood... I imagined that this family had support from their parents to be able to live there. When I was talking to my ex-wife yesterday, she pointed out that I value freedom more than anything else. This is why I was drawn to taxi driving, and why I stuck with it for so long. The taxi company had their dress code, and standards. They didn't care what I did with their taxi, as long as I paid them at the end of the shift. I could have found a regular JOB, but I enjoyed the adventure of going new places every day, and meeting new people every day, and occasionally being sent to help someone who needed more than just a ride. JOB is a backronym that stands for "Just Over Broke". My income from taxi driving was enough to finance my entrepreneurial ambitions. The only "real job" I've had was working for Amazon [1]. I worked at a summer camp when I was 12 or 13. After I graduated from teh college with a "B.S." Computer Science degree (it is an expensive piece of paper that hangs on my father's wall), I worked at various family-owned businesses, and helped take care of my grandparents... I am not well-suited to being an employee. Now that I don't drive around in the taxi anymore, I'm thinking about applying for the IT department at the local hospital... Recently I went to visit a friend in the ER, and this fellow was swapping out a scanner, so I struck up a conversation... It'd be a temporary gig. [1] http://www.taxiwars.org/humanitys-second-best-hope/ http://www.taxiwars.org/humanitys-second-best-hope/