Curious about the Difference between Sitting and Standing

"People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up." - Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash has always been one of my favorite poets - I have even written poems in his style for fun. I was drawn to him because of his cleverness and irreverent disregard for political correctness.

I was grabbed by the above quote first because it was written by Ogden Nash, then because I am so focused on different approaches to “work” and, finally, because it made me think a lot about its validity.

What do you think? Is it true? No way. For every well paid sit down work I can name, there is stand-up work that pays as much or more. Let’s play with it a bit.

Comparing huge incomes

Those sitting down include:

• CEOs of the big companies like IBM and Proctor & Gamble
• Internet marketers like Cory Rudl, Joe Vitale and Robert Imbriale
• Market investors like Warren Buffet and Michael Masterson

But, are they paid as much as these standing up:

• Major league sports figures in baseball, basketball and football
• Big film movie stars - leading men and women
• Top musical performers (name your favorite group, and think about what you paid for a ticket to see them in concert)
• Winning boxers and golfers

Comparing medium to high incomes

Those sitting down include:

• Bank presidents
• Wall Street Brokers
• Information Technology workers - programmers, network and/or security specialists, web developers, and systems analysts
• Accountants, writers, secretaries, and other desk oriented careers.

But, are they paid as much as these stand-ups:

• Speakers like Zig Ziglar, Stephen Covey and Tony Robbins
• Building Contractors
• Chefs and servers (usually waiters) in four and five star restaurants
• TV actors, game show hosts, and band/orchestra leaders
• Dentists

And then there are those whose work involves both sitting and standing. For example, lawyers, doctors, nurses, personal trainers, artists, architects, teachers, consultants and on and on. Just fill it in!

I know that I have only scratched the surface and hope you have had some fun with this - we do need to lighten up and Ogden Nash always had that kind of influence over me.

Let’s close with another of his quotes about work, “I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance, Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance.”