I think there are two questions here. The first is why people don't want to get rich. I think there are very few people who wouldn't want to to be wealthy. The challenge is actually figuring out how to do it and then executing successfully.

Getting a business off the ground and making it successful is damn hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise obviously has never tried. You have to have a magic mix, of smarts, focus, tenacity and luck, not to mention the ability to finance the venture in the first place, or be successful at raising money. That last issue alone is enough to weed out a good portion of the population who live paycheck to paycheck their entire lives.

The second question about making an impact that will change the world is more nuanced. I'll break it down into two categories:

Being Apathetic

To be brutally honest, some folks just don't care about making a difference in the world. For whatever reason, they are perfectly content to go about their day doing whatever floats their boat and trying their best to enjoy themselves. They get fulfillment from their own happiness, or at least try to, and they don't feel it necessary to have any sort of lasting impact on society or future generations.

Is this a cynical view? Sure it is. Is there a large swath of the population who live their lives like this every single day? You betcha. Maybe their reason is that the earth has been here for billions of years and man has walked on it for millions, so there's nothing they will do to have any sort of lasting impact? Maybe they feel that others are put on this earth to do good or change it and their contribution is not needed? Maybe they just never thought about it at all?

What Makes a Difference?

Who determines who/what makes a difference? One way of looking at it is that everyone makes a difference in their own way. Some have a more lasting impact (Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Dalai Lama, Edison), while others like the guy who decides to separate his garbage into recyclables and other trash makes a contribution on a different level.

Who's to say that volunteering at a soup kitchen is any more or less important to society than founding a startup that lets people rent out their unoccupied apartments or rooms to others (AirBnb)?

What about the person who decides to be the best parent possible to their children, spending quality time with them vs. a startup founder who builds a successful company but never sees his/her kids? Who decides which is the better approach?

Just walking around the city smiling at people trying to improve their day has a positive impact on society. I don't think anyone sets out to be complacent. Your own personality and circumstances play a large role in how you go about your life. We all make a contribution in our own way, and that's what makes the world go round.

At first, I didn't see the sub-question; consequently, none of the answers made much sense. Now, instead of answering the original question, I would like to reframe it: Why are so many people content with just earning a salary and working 9-6 their entire adult life INSTEAD of working only part-time, reducing their expenses to the bare minimum, and then actually living their lives with all the extra time they have?

I personally only work part-time. Why? Because I tried working full-time and found myself breaking down in tears due to having only 1-2 hours of leisure time each day. And said leisure time wasn't even quality time since I was constantly monitoring the clock. Doing the math, that ends up being 10 hours of interrupted, non-quality personal time during the week, to which is ask: what's the point in living at all if you're not living?

To a three term Senator with a Harvard law degree, you are successful if you become the President. To a child born in Somalia, you are successful if you live past tomorrow. It's safe to say we are all somewhere in between.

Everyone has their own story that defines who they are and what they are content with. Everyone has a way of uniquely being able to tell others why they are successful.

Success is not a state of being or a value amount.

Success is your story.

Success becomes a chapter in our unique secret autobiography that we're constantly writing for ourselves in our thoughts. By telling these stories to others, we validate them and they become definitive. In turn, they make our success, and us, real.

We wish to be the person we say we are.

This narrative shapes who we are in our own eyes, and is precisely the process by which we validate everything about ourselves.

When others nod, we become that person we say we are.

If you feel an urge to question the conscience of anyone happily working 9-6, that says more about you and your story, and has little to do with anything right or wrong.

Your aspirations lie beyond a 9-6 job. You have the luxury to have other options, to pursue greater meaning, and to dream -- dream beyond a 9-6 job. But for those that dream of one, they're already where they've always wanted to be. They are successful, without compromise. This all makes you extremely fortunate. Count your blessings and be on your way.

What you will see from the other answers here are examples of their stories. With every upvote and every nod, they get to feel good about themselves. And when someone agrees with you and says 9-6 is a waste, it helps you validate your aspirations and makes you feel good. These feelings are natural, and they are easy to confirm. You'll feel them.

We all live the best way we know how. We may slack on the job, at home, and with relationships, but no one slacks on life. If you do, you probably have a problem, be it mental health or addiction. And that's precisely what most homeless people and socially dysfunctional people struggle with.

If you still can't understand other people, think of it this way. Maybe one day you will appreciate the people who show up at 9 and put in their all until 6 everyday without giving you a hard time. And one day, you might appreciate the person who hires you to let you do just that.

If we knew better, we would.
If we could do better, it'd already be done.

And that's the bottom-line. If someone is content with their 9-6 job, respect that. In return, you will also earn their respect. Our stories can only unfold as we take each day as it comes. There is no telling what tomorrow will bring, and it catches most of us by surprise. We all do the best we possibly can. There are no exceptions. Case in point, if you could have phrased this question any better, you already would have.

During some of the years I worked for Nike I was the leader of the global product safety and compliance team. We were responsible for reducing product risks and hazards and ensuring that the products complied with all applicable regulations in the countries where they were sold.

During those years Nike was selling 300,000,000 pairs of shoes every year. Three hundred million. It's more now. Some of them were children's shoes (more tightly regulated than adult shoes in many countries). That doesn't take into account the apparel with reflective features so that drivers can see runners after dark, ensuring the absence of drawcords from the necks of children's apparel, the work we did educating designers and developers about how to create safer products, or many other things we did.

When you can have a part in making products safer for hundreds of millions of people all over the world, that is immensely satisfying work, especially when you are part of a team of smart, engaged, creative, diligent professionals (chemists, engineers, risk managers) who are just as committed to the task as you are.

I have changed the world. I didn't need to write an app or move to Silicon Valley to do it. People in ordinary-sounding (to you) day jobs change the world EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The fact that you don't see it says more about you than it does about them.

Here's the actual answer to the question:

There's an inverse correlation between contentedness and drive.

Here's some background:

When you make enough money to live a comfortable life, it's not worth the risk or time exchange or both for some to "change the world" in the sense that you mean.

Most people are content with the status quo. That's human nature. That's how societies work and become successful. There's a shared set of goals and values and if you've achieved those in your society, a sense of belonging and pride tend to ensue. Contentedness follows.

What about those that want to take it to another (not better or worse, just different) level? What are they faced with? Possibly risking all the time and relationships they've invested. I won't even get into the amount of thinking, planning, creating, organizing, and hustling it takes for the average person to change levels. Some people don't even know where to start and that takes the game from risky to impossible (if only in their own minds). Why wouldn't they be content to just continue in the society where they're successful enough?

That's why most people will not ever take this risk. The risk itself is scary. They're content. They can support their family quite well without much ado. AND THAT'S OKAY. We need those people. We need the stability because it allows those of us who want to take risks the luxury of being able to do so.

There will still be a grocery store, a bank, a hospital, public utilities, schools, and factories. Most innovators, game changers, and people who are impacting the world rely on these services to become successful.

So in a sense, those who are content working the 9-6 jobs do change the world. You need the basic services they provide to move forward with your own ideas even if you're going to start a juice stand and need produce from the market, who gets it from the farmer, who uses water from a well someone had to dig, not to mention the people who had to harvest the fruit and transport it.

Just imagine the amount of 9-6 people Apple needs to make the phone you're going to do most of your business on.

This is how societies work:

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

If you're not content with the status quo, then it's more likely that you'll be driven to take the financial and social risks to move to another level. That's something to celebrate, commend, and encourage.

But who's going to work for you?

First, it's great to have the attitude that you can change the world. Kudos for that, don't let anyone discourage you! Because if you're gonna do it, you're gonna have to dig deep for passion and motivation for a very long time!

One of the most inspiring books I've ever read is called "How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas". The social enterpreneurs they discuss are the real heroes of the world. They don't get rich, but they commit their lives to driving change in their communities in big and important ways. I highly recommend it if you're motivated to change the world.

Having said that, changing the world in a big way is less likely than breaking an Olympic record and winning a gold medal in the Olympics. So your question is even less reasonable than asking how people can settle for not ever breaking an Olympic record and winning an Olympic gold medal. How many gold medals are won while breaking a record every four years at the Olympics? And for each of those gold medals, how many people gave up everything and committed their lives to training for it, but failed to get the gold?

Now tell me, how many people change the world in a big way? How many have tried but failed?

How many have changed it in smaller ways that don't earn them major recognition?

The real bitch of life that constrains us is the cost of living. Food, clean water, and shelter are basic needs that many in the world struggle to attain. A 9-6 job is the most practical solution that allows those needs to be met, without the struggle and multiple failures of entrepreneurship. Very few people have the luxury of being supported by others while they chase their dreams, so most of the world has to take a 9-6 job at some point in order to pay the bills.

For many in the world, even a horrible and monotonous 9-6 job is a luxury or even a dream. In fact, terrorists recruit people who are so desperate for money that they're willing to blow themselves up to provide for their families. Think about that for a minute.

So for most people who want to change the world, they are limited to doing it in their spare time, outside of the time required for the 9-6 jobs that sustain them.

I am one of those people, and unfortunately I am "time poor". I have a great job that I enjoy and am good at, it pays very well, and I have an amazing group of coworkers. I also love doing Crossfit, which has me at the healthiest I've ever been in my life. But with those two commitments and a long commute, I get up at 4:30 am, leave at 5 am, workout from 6-7 am, shower, get ready, and start work at 8 am, finish at 5 or 6 pm, and get home around 7 pm. By the time I make dinner and sit down to eat, it's 7:30 pm, and I have to get back to chores at 8:30 pm, washing the dishes and preparing for the next day, with the goal of getting 7 hrs sleep, which means in bed asleep by 9:30. That means I have one hour of spare time per weekday to sit down and relax. Thankfully, my husband has more spare time than I do, so he does more than 50% of the work at home, which allows me a bit more spare time. We also don't have kids. I don't know how people with kids manage it.

I still have a few things I feel driven to accomplish because I have some ideas and insights I'd like to examine closely and share with the world if they turn out to be useful, but those things are relegated to spare time on the weekend. And I know that someone else might beat me to it, or my ideas might not turn out to be viable, and that's fine. So for the moment, my lack of spare time is my main frustration.

But leading or near-leading edge ideas are often not profitable, so quitting my day job to work on them and asking my husband to support me while I do so would be risky, unfair to him, and frivolous. Especially given that we lost a lot of money on our house in the crash, and neither of us is certain about our future job security, which is a potential threat to our retirement and our ability to pay off the house and get out of debt.

This is just to give you an idea of some of the constraints people face.

As for getting rich for the sake of getting rich... to each his own. I can't even relate because it seems so pointless, especially for those who have no time to enjoy it beyond buying more crap, *except* if you can get rich doing something you love or at least enjoy somewhat, and can make good use of your money beyond competing with frenemies to see who can be the richest.

However, if you achieve the freedom to spend your time as you wish and/or to make a difference, I can see the value of it.

Who is to say those who work a 9-6 and earn a regularly salary aren't changing the world in one form or fashion?

Should I judge what you do for a living and assume that is has little or no value? I don't know you. You could be discovering the cure to cancer in your basement over the weekend!

I understand the origin of your question as I am an aspiring entrepreneur, but I would warn against the mentality in which it was asked. To look down upon another because you do not see the value in his or her vocation is a dangerously unempathetic route.

I'm not saying this in judgement, as I've often had to correct my own thinking in this regard, but you must come to see that each person is a unique individual with hopes and dreams of their own.

They could wake up tomorrow with a brilliant idea and become the next superstar, but if they don't, does that mean they are less valuable than another? Absolutely not.

Everyone, no matter how mundane or insignificant their vocation may seem, has value. Train yourself to see it.

Because it's fun.

The real question is why so many people are so obsessed with become rich, famous, making history, being the best, or whatever aspiration meme they adhere to.

I know a number of entrepreneurs, many are very rich and making an impact. Not an impact that matters in any objective sense. I mean, seriously, so what if you're the best at PR in the construction industry 2010-2030? You managed to get some buildings built instead of some other buildings, or indeed, instead of no buildings. Great.

I know some people with lovely kids who work 9-5. They are good carpenters in their spare time. They have funny stories to tell at dinner. They are good people who are generous and helpful. They enjoy their lives.

Fame is simply the approval of other people. To actively seek it is a weakness. People seek fame when they are not sure that what they are doing is of any worth. They need other people to 'like' it or re-tweet it, or whatever.

Money isn't anything, really, it's a way to something. By all means seek money so that you can then do something worthwhile, but as an end in itself, it's just monopoly money, a proxy for success, not actual success. Viewing life as a game where the person with the most points/money wins strikes me as immature. Viewing life as a game where the person who has the most joy wins is better, but in that case at least spend all your money on whatever gives you joy. Poverty is bad, but once you're non-poor I've never seen much correlation between joy and wealth. There are some miserable buggers in business class, that's for sure.

As for changing the world, well, certainly some change it more, and for the better, and some change it more, and for the worse. But again, it's not greatly correlated with working 9-5 or otherwise. Entrepreneurs don't do much world changing. Most of them run small companies that do the same stuff as a million other small companies. Uber is not changing the world. They are slightly altering how I book a cab. It's utterly trivial. A good teacher who makes 400 children genuinely appreciate Shakespeare over the course of their 40 year 9-5 career does more good to the world than everything Uber has ever done. And the teacher probably has better stories at the end of it.

In short, you can change the world working 9-5 without ever getting rich and famous, and you can have a great deal of joy doing it. No wonder so many people do!

Because, if they genuinely wish to, they can really follow their passion and make an impact that may perhaps change the world, in the remaining eight hours, with no fear or tension about where their next meals is going to come from. Let me explain this a bit.

For everybody, there are certain basic needs like food,clothing and shelter.Then perhaps some personal indulgences like entertainment, travel, etc. and last but not the least importantly, the family or social obligations and the security of some savings for future needs like healthcare or education, and generally for a rainy day. If one can earn a decent enough salary to provide for all the above, with the additional benefits of a reasonable security and growth for the future, I think anything more one earns actually starts giving diminishing marginal returns and generally not worth the extra efforts or the sense of insecurity that comes with slaving 24*7 for such extra income or additional riches.

Coming to the 9 to 6 part of the question, this is only just 8 hours, and for every one, a day consists of 24 hours. Assuming one spends another 8 hours for a healthy sleep, one is still left with another 8 hours of quality "me time" ( exactly equal to the time spent on the so called 9 to 6 jobs) which one can use freely and judiciously to follow one's passion or pursuing one's interests, that too without having to worry about pleasing some clients,meeting some targets or beating some deadlines.

So,to remain content with just earning a salary and working 9-6 one's entire adult life, after all does not seem to be a stupid way if one wants to really pursue one's passions or interests in his spare time. In fact it appears to be a well planned and much wiser strategy.

PS: In my life I have seen a number of people, who take up day jobs to free themselves from having to worry about finances and the need to make compromises that comes with such concerns,and then have engaged in the pursuits of their passions or interests without any inhibitions or insecurity. I have also seen people who have tried to put all their eggs in one basket in their single minded pursuit of success or riches, but ended up feeling either burnt out or disillusioned. Life is all about internal harmony and external balance.

Because accumulating money and trinkets is a poor way to define your life. As a wise man once said:

"You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet."

Ok my original answer was in response to the "why people don't want to be rich" part of the question.

As to the part of "making an impact", my thinking is that we as a society are not brought up to do this.

We're taught to behave nicely, do well at school, go to college, get married, buy a house, have kids, and save up for retirement.

In short, we are raised to become the typical middle class consumer. Not to become tech visionaries and get filthy rich.

Most people make an impact on the local level with their families, friends, and community, and they are fine with that.

They may not change the world, but they can still change "their" world.

It comes down to the following two things:

1. People should play to their strengths/passions and if possible, try to do that which they are best at
2. Without even a single cog, the machine won't work.

What is interesting about human society is that no one human can actually go it alone, and they certainly can't get further alone than we can get if we work together.

Human society is like an orchestra. Your question is like asking why the 100 musicians don't all have more ambition, and want to be the conductor.

But if we had 100 conductors...there would be no orchestra. And what a waste of so many violin players anyway?

Meanwhile looking at a real orchestra: all those people making all the parts for the violin, and the rosin, and the lumberjacks getting the wood, and the printers printing the music, and the builders who built the concert hall, the farmers who fed all those people, by the time you've traced back everything and everyone who was needed, the whole planet is responsible for that piece of Bach that's playing.

The same principle applies to almost anything. The whole planet helped Newton and Shakespeare make the impact they did. That's why Newton said (recycling past phrases and ideas, fittingly...)

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Back in the early days of the internet - you know, before any Microsoft product had a TCP stack - there was a Unix utility called fortune(1) which returned random humor from an ASCII text file. I used it as part of my .logout script for years. One of my favorite fortunes wasn't very funny, but it popped into my head as soon as I read your question. Don't worry, I'll explain below.

"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exaulted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy … neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."

It's symbiosis. Without 9-to-5 "plumbers" there will never be any entrepreneurial "philosophers." Without the plumbing of Brian Kernighan, Ken Thompson, and Dennis Ritchie, the philosophy of Jobs, Gates, Page, and Brin is little more than ranting.

It's been my experience that the greater the philosopher, the more they acknowledge the plumbers who built the infrastructure on which their theories stand.

Because advances in health, education, mobility, access to food and water, and so on, have lowered the cost of leisure. Less harried by desperation (you might say more content), some people have no desire to "change the world" (whatever that means) as it is quite a nice world for them. 9-5 working hours is another great achievement that many in the world benefit from (who advocates for a more indentured population?).

Reasonable working conditions and greater quality of life are two great ideas and achievements, fought for almost exclusively by millions of not-rich, hard working, brave, and visionary people, that must be recognized as pretty effective world changers.

Not sure why the asker wants the world changed back to one where only the ideas of the rich are allocated value, but regardless, the people who every day care for the less fortunate, clean the streets, teach our children, protect us from violence...that every single day collaborate to turn great ideas into great achievements...well, thanks to them. The best kinds of people to meet at around 5:30 for a drink, on me.

For the same reason why people use condoms for sex.

People desire to have sex, but they can't take the risk of having children, so they use condoms. Similarly, people prefer a 9-6 job to have a steady source of income for safety.

Does a penis with condom feel the same as real one? Mostly not.
Similarly, a 9-6 regular job too isn't ecstatic.

Optimization hypothesis:
People use creative condoms (like spotted, flavored, mint etc.) to make their penis feel like real. Likewise, 9-6 job holders too look for strategies to save themselves from boredom: take vacations, party, spend money on charity, join a church or a spiritual group, etc.

To some, Life's goal is having a peaceful and satisfied state of existence.

Give this a thought:
If everyone is happy and content in their own simple ways , would it require for us as a society ,for few to earn money and impact the world so that the rest of the people can be happy?

Not everybody wants to be rich,
Not everybody wants to drive a limo,
Not everybody wants to lose sleep over money every night.

And they are absolutely right to make that choice. It is their life and their choice.There are many reasons people do this:

• There is a state of Equilibrium which keeps them going,
• More money, more impact =More responsibility, how many are ready to handle that on a daily basis?
• The concept of investing in yourself: would you rather enjoy a good book, spend time with your kid or worry why there is a bug in the software?

Why not? There is nothing inherently wrong with being content with one's gainful employment.

Challenges are important but it is not important that they be in the workplace or be career oriented.

Perhaps the challenges are in raising healthy, happy children who will be productive, self secure and happy adults.

Perhaps the challenges are in contributing to a social issue.

Perhaps the challenge is in caring for ailing or aging parents.

Perhaps the challenge is in having a great partnership with a loving spouse.

There are many, many ways of living our lives, of using our time, our skills and our talents. They don't all have to be poured into the workplace.

Mostly because people are lazy. Partly because people are scared. Partly due to a lack of imagination. And held together by a sticky substance called comfort.

I'm a serial entrepreneur. I'm currently running two successful companies, and starting up a third. I've also had multiple unsuccessful ventures. I'm not ludicrously wealthy by any stretch of the imagination (unlike another responder here, who thinks that because people in the third world live on $2/day, we should be happy to take whatever we can get). Just my background, now on to the answer.

1. People Are Lazy:
I don't mean this as a judgement call, so much as a basic observation. Most people want to do the bare minimum that they can to get buy comfortably. I do it too, I just have a much different opinion of what comfort means than most people.

Getting and keeping a job, even a career, is easy. It's the path of least resistance. You wake up one day, decide on what you want to be, and you have an easy-to-follow map of what you need to do to get from point A to point B. No thought required.

Sure, you might have a challenging job that forces you to think about things and solve problems and blah blah blah, but you never have to think about the direction of your life. You never have to consider what you're going to do next. Everything is provided for you.

2. People Are Scared:
Unless there's a massive recession (I mean, really massive. Worse than the last one), AND your company isn't doing great, AND there's talk of layoffs, having a regular job is safe. Meanwhile, I've spent the last two nights lying awake at night thinking "Oh god, it's all going to collapse any second now and I've been out of the job market so long now that no one will ever hire me again!"

Working for yourself is terrifying. Every second. Of every day. No matter how good things are going, until you're at the point where you're a replaceable CEO with a board to fall back on and a golden parachute, things can go from great to terrible in hours.

Most people can't deal with that. The human body isn't built to deal with that. The people that CAN do it are superhuman freaks of nature with some weird mutations somewhere that allow them to replace food and sleep with raw adrenaline and not suffer too many ill effects. If you also happen to have a family, as I do, then not only are you terrified of living on the street, you're terrified of your family living on the street.

Most people can't do it.

3. People Are Comfortable:
You only have to read some of these responses to realize that it takes very little to make people comfortable. For some people, it's the magic of having nearly-free potable water come out of their faucet. For others, it's a "nice car and a nice truck". For still others, it's just enough money to feel like they can pursue their hobbies.

Boil it all down: people are small. Not bad small, just small small. They are satisfied by fairly small, mostly mundane things. This is largely cultural - we have replaced the idea of quality with the idea of quantity, and then constantly moved the bar on the word successful to be as all-encompassing as possible. So now, you can be considered successful if you own a mid-tier sedan, a 3000 sq.ft. cookie-cutter home in the suburbs, a wardrobe from Target, and a Lay-z-boy. More now means better, and since industrialization and globalization have made "more" incredibly cheap and prolific, getting more doesn't require a whole lot of money or effort. My friends are satisfied hanging art posters on their walls, I won't stop busting my ass until I can hang an original Picasso.

There's another side to comfort, though, and it's far more insidious. Comfort is defined by our peer groups, and deviating from a peer group is very much uncomfortable for a lot of people. In fact, we make deviating from the peer group (especially to try to better yourself) one of the most uncomfortable experiences possible. People talk about you when you decide to better yourself. You become "uppity" and start to "think you're better than us." Unless you find yourself, or put yourself, in a peer group where a higher level of striving is acceptable and encouraged, it's incredibly difficult to find the courage to be different.

4. People Lack Imagination:
They do. It sucks sometimes, but it's true. Most people honestly can't imagine what being successful at a high level is like. Don't believe me? Fine, go ask anyone making a steady middle-class salary at a steady middle-class job what their life would be like if they made, say, $250,000 a year. Or better yet, go ask someone making $250,000 a year what their life would be like if they made $1,000,000 a year. I will bet you $50 that they will describe a life just like the one they have now, only with more and bigger stuff. They'll talk about mansions, and fancy cars. They might mention eating at nice restaurants and taking an extra family vacation. Maybe a private plane.

What they won't talk about is freedom. They won't tell you that they'll sell all of their stuff, move to Chile, and work from a remote mountain cabin for a year. They won't talk about spontaneous trips to Paris or Shanghai. They won't mention being able to live on a sailboat and traveling the world. They won't talk about investing their money so that no one in their family has to work ever again unless they won't to. They won't talk about building a museum in their town, or a library extension, or starting their own charity, or single-handedly bringing clean drinking water to a village in India.

Lack of imagination.

BUT!
The good news is that most of these things are not innate. They are imposed socially and culturally. That means we can change these things. We can encourage children to dream big, and then support them when they go for those dreams. We can build social safety nets strong enough to catch entrepreneurs that fall off the tightrope that is starting a company. We can redefine comfort to mean something more and push back the damage that decades of a shrinking middle class has wrought. We can make adventure and excitement core values in our society. We can teach people to imagine something besides themselves and their basic needs.

Because the real game is elsewhere.

• I might be putting the cherries on cakes as they speed past on the production line, but later running my daughter's dance troupe.
• I could be sweeping the floor in a school while planning my next novel.

Working 9-6 may give me enough physical security, belonging and esteem to raise me to the penultimate rung of @Maslow's hierarchy of needs. I can then make my mark, (achieve self-actualization), a number of ways:

• Autonomously in my chosen field,
• through others such as my children,
• as a member of a team or social organisation, or
• vicariously as a "supporter",
  
  - and none of it need be bound to the world of work where my creativity will be boxed-in by the higher cogs, and the fruits of my labour will be creamed off for the benefit of people I don't care about.

I believe that exponential and converging advances in technology is making the 9 to 6 clock in, clock out mode of earning a living more obsolete each passing day.

More and more of the white collar and blue collar 'factory' jobs from the industrial era are being taken over by computers and machines. Human production is now moving higher along the curve to more creative, artistic, emotional, highly human-based work. In this higher mode of work, we are less rewarded for just 'turning up' to work but more for the insights, creative ideas, and empathy we contribute to the enterprise we are part of. It would not really matter when, where or how long it takes us to come up with these insights or emotional work as long as they provide value by the time they are needed. I believe we will all eventually move towards results oriented work places. This higher mode of working is also more entrepreneurial in nature. Unlike the one size fits all, cog in the machine industrial era, there will not be any set formulas, rules and instructions to follow in this brave new world. Failing fast, failing often, iteration and prototyping as steps to learning and discovery would be part and parcel of this future mode of production. This is happening now in places like London and the Bay Area of the US.

Of course, as Neal Stephenson remarked: 'the future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed'. Hence, the more advanced countries at present can still outsource low level work to developing countries. But these developing countries are fast catching-up, even leap-frogging and following a different path. For example, a lot of developing countries are bypassing fixed line telecommunications and going straight to mobile communications. In any case, these developing will eventually outsource the low level jobs they are doing to computers and machines.

This will be a massive change. It is likely to cause massive cultural and societal disruption, in the same manner that the move from agricultural to industrial production contributed to the Great Depression, the two World Wars, Mao's China, Stalin Russia and the Cold War.

I do hope humanity need not suffer as much this time around. We can embrace this change. We need to help others who are not as flexible as us in coping with the massive disruption. If we don't, we run the risk that those who have become complacent in the comfort of their 9 to 5 working lives will, in fear, be swayed by fundamentalist dictators to fight the technological advancement with violence. If you look at history, the first thing a conquering dictator usually does is burn books, art works, and other technological artifacts, and appeal to a return to a 'glorious' more simple past and then proceed to re-write an artificial history in their image. Human development can be set back for decades or millennia if we are not careful. I do fervently hope we can avoid this, this time around.

So in short, I think those who at present are content with their 9 to 6 working lifestyle should take stock and see how they can prepare for a more entrepreneurial and creative future before the next big wave of history come crashing through their door.

Ok. This is just copied and pasted from my answer to What are "middle-class values"? It appears to be a very similar question, and I think my answer, while having more detail than this is asking for, answers well enough. Please disregard my "attitude" as that is as a response to some of the comments on the other question. Anyone commenting here may want to go check out the other question as well, because they overlap a great deal.

Here is the answer I provided:

Wow. I am quite shocked to be honest at the condescending answers to this question. I am also somewhat surprised at how obtuse many of them are. I cannot answer for everyone of the middle class, and I have to say that quite a few answers on here hit on a number of items that are true for me, as someone quite firmly entrenched in the middle class, while having a few items on each list that are in no way whatsoever accurate for me and quite a number of middle class and even upper middle class people I know.

This is just my experience and my perspective... take from it what you will.

Values:
1. Live a life of comfort.
I don't need extravagant wealth. Would I turn down a seven figure salary? No, but I would use it in a very different way than many do. I would want to use much of that money to help others. I certainly would NOT be leveraging every penny of that money to ensure I made even more and I especially wouldn't do it in ways that would harm others, as I see being done all over the world. At some point, enough is enough.
2. Live a fulfilling and happy life.
What makes me happier? More money? More free time? Knowing I made a difference in someone else's life? Good friends? Time with family and friends? Time and money to pursue a hobby? Vacationing, and seeing other cultures and exciting locales? The answer is all of the above, of course. However, which of these things brings me the most happiness, and which of the others do I have to give up to get any one of them? If I want more money, it generally means less of most of the others, for instance. I have enough money for the most part. So many people concentrate on money, and I doubt that many of them are much happier than I, or even as happy as I. Now, the other part... what is more fulfilling? I would argue that money in and of itself, is not all that fulfilling. Building a company, especially if that company adds to the greater good, can be quite fulfilling I am sure; but then again, so would being a doctor or nurse and saving lives.

Well, that's about it. However...
I see a lot of really condescending comments about being "average" or "mediocre"... while I can certainly agree that sometimes building a business contributes in a big way to society, if your business is a lumber mill, cement factory, auto shop, etc, how does your labor contribute more than the accountant you have working at it? Yes, you took the risk, I get that, but you still would not have that business without an accountant. Your individual role, once the business is going is often simply to suck off as much wealth as possible from the whole process. Certainly society needs cement and lumber, but society also needs accountants. Your desire to take a risk is somewhat commendable, but the idea that it makes you better than anyone else is patently absurd. It is so subjective... what business are we talking about? What middle class labor are you comparing yourself to? If you run a cement factory, I would suggest you provide far less value to society than a teacher, doctor, nurse, etc. If you are following a passion and/or you are providing a service or product that saves or changes lives, then I absolutely get it, and I would join in the standing ovation you ought to receive, but if you are just trying to get wealthy... *shrug*, I'd rather spend my time with the teachers and the doctors than the likes of you. To me, your method of providing for your family is no more compelling than mine.
There is also this notion that having your name recognized for centuries should be something to strive for. I can see the appeal there, but the name recognition itself is not necessarily a thing I can understand spending all your energy on. What are you recognized for? Are you Louis Pasteur, or Adolf Hitler? Charles Manson, or Marie Curie? And to be honest, other than a slight ego boost, what does that name recognition mean? I am sure there are people who have done wondrous, lasting good for society, whose names are lost to the ages. There are probably very many examples of people whose name has been lost who have done considerably more good than people whose names we still know. I would rather be the former than the latter... so name recognition alone is not really something that interests me. Making a difference, helping people and society... now that I can get behind. I often ask myself how I could do more along those lines, and I highly respect anyone who is walking that path, whether the walking of said path makes them fabulously wealthy or destitute, or anywhere in between. Still, if walking that path alone does not make them blissfully happy or amazingly fulfilled, or both, then they are still missing something.

For me, a life well-lived is one that is of a net-benefit to those around them, while being as happy and fulfilling as possible.

It is EXACTLY because we ARE NOT willing to be cogs in someone else's machine, that middle class people often chose their path. Yes, at work, I may be described as cog... so effing what??? I am not defined by my profession, my job, or my income. If you are, then I feel profoundly sorry for you. I do not live to work, I work to live. I am defined by the family I love, the friendships I keep, and the affect I have on those around me; also, by the enjoyment and wonder I derive from living my life the way I chose.

If you wish to judge me as a cog for that, then very well, but that simply makes you a "tool". So, go screw something...

A number of studies have show that the personal utility of money declines after a surprisingly low number (80K). As a formerly young an ambitious person, I found this to be completely true. Eventually, I came to a limit to where more money wasn't going to give me more satisfaction, and in fact, the things I was doing to make money were actually interfering with my satisfaction by soaking up another limited resource--time.

Several of my peers have achieved significant wealth, but notably they did it by pursuing their passions. That is a critical distinction because now your time is being used to maximum utility, while also contributing to your material satisfaction (money).

Put another way, making money isn't as important as HOW you make money. For most people, their personal interests don't coincide with their compensated interests. so they are quite happy doing a 8-5 job and devoting their free hours to the things they find more satisfying (i.e. family, artistic endeavor, hunting and fishing, etc...)

Impact is not something you can measure or predict.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

(Percy Bysshe Shelley)

I was struck with the passing of Lauren Bacall that as famous as she was, few people under the age of 50 have any idea of who she was. On the other hand, we are still talking about Aristotle, Jesus, Buddah and Isaac Newton centuries and millenia after their deaths --none were wealthy and it's doubtful anyone of them could truly appreciate the magnitude of their contributions during their lives. Aristotle and Jesus died in disgrace, abandoned by their friends, failures by every measure except the judgment of history.

You may be walking with giants, and not even know it ;-)

I believe this comic is very relevant here.

I couldn't say really why, but I have never wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I never wanted to be extravagantly rich. I enjoy being frugal, I enjoy being a frugal person. But I know wouldn't do it if I didn't have to, and that indulgence would sit with me like a rock on my soul. I enjoy working hard every day at an unglamorous job that quietly helps others. I wake up excited to do it. I love learning from my peers and from books in my spare time and from life experiences. I like to look around at all the wonderful people working alongside me and build their spirits up. I like coming home every day after a long day of work and playing with my kids, and not having to worry about my business staying afloat or pitching an idea tomorrow or working late while they beg to play with me. I love that I can come give them my full attention, and then I turn around in the morning and give my work my full attention. I love having friends and hobbies outside of work. I would much rather be rich in kindness and connections made than in money. It is hard work to have a good marriage. I am glad I am home to try, and if I had kept up the long hours I was so prone to before I had children, I would not be married today.

I am also glad there are so many people willing to sacrifice these things to move the world. Hooray for these people! The world needs all kinds.

Although for the people just trying to get rich, and not doing much good or useful in the world, I don't get you. But then, you won't get me, either. That's ok, too.

This is a very cool info-graphic of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Clayton's ERG Theory combined into one.

This works bottom to top, the bottom-most rung are the most important needs of any individual and we can't get to the next rung without having a solid rung before it.

While everyone eventually wants to reach the top rung, a lot of people have to struggle to get past the second or third one over the entire course of their working lives.

A lot many people out there need to be content with having a regular 9-5 job that pays enough to satisfy their basic physiological and safety needs, leaving some room for their social needs on the side too because they can't afford to look above that. The rung they're on is too shaky and the consequences of it collapsing are catastrophic, in their lives. Meaning no offense, but if you're above any of those second or third level needs, you're already part of a privileged lot.

That's what I think, anyway.

Image source: http://www.gargasz.info/maslow_hierarchy/

There are a couple of possible answers, it's very dependent on the person. Let's take on the "getting rich" part first. I think it's fair to say that lots of people would love to get rich. But there are problems with that. For one, "rich" is a localized phenomena... if the average income were a million dollars, you'd find that being a millionaire would be pretty much like being a "thousandaire" today. So in simple economics, everyone can't all be rich. As well, for the very rich, the value of things transitions from being based on the cost of manufacture to being based on the scarcity of the item. If suddenly, every rich person's personal wealth doubled, you'd find exotic cars and homes in the Hollywood Hills doubling as well.

Then there's the simple fact that not everyone can become rich. If you're in the arts, you may get lucky enough to make it as an A-List actor or a rock star, but most do not. And in fact, no one entering that business makes it to the top by planning to make it to the top. Most musicians, actors, writers, artists, etc. are happy enough to be able to do what they love for a living, rather than something else to pay the bills.

And that goes to how you measure success, too. There was a good story Kurt Vonnegut told about Joseph Heller:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22′ has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

You may write your entire life and never make as much money as Joesph Heller, much less a guy like Stephen King. Doesn't mean you're after more. Some writers measure their success by acclaim rather than money.

Sometimes you try and, for some reason, fail. I've had five startup companies. Two of them are still around, but I'm working at a more established company these days, a small one (50 people) but one with a budget and an income. My most successful startup grew to 260 people and my founder's shares were at one time worth about $5.6 million... but the management got a little crazy with money when times were good, and didn't make decisions that kept the company viable when the times got bad. Being one of the lead tech people, I was happy about what we did in the technology, sad that the business didn't last long enough to get that product complete. And sure, the money would have been a great thing. But it wasn't the point of the effort. And these days, lately, I've still been working 80-100 hour weeks on the current project, even without the carrot of a million+ payoff. And that's because the reward is making some cool new thing. The money is what lets you keep doing that for a living. Same as the musician.

Now, as far as a normal 9-5 job, I haven't really had one of those since I was in college, and that was just for the summer, and it was boring to the point of soul sucking -- factory work. But in defense of those doing that kind of job... that may be all they want. It puts food on the table, and with a regular set of hours, certainly leaves them time for other pursuits... whether that's just the allure of Fantasy Football league, writing and performing one's own music (something I do occasionally), creating that first novel, or cooking up electronics in the home workshop.

Another thing about a "regular" job, which I know very well -- stability. When I last changed jobs, I was leaving a startup company that had taken a couple of odd turns and basically worked away from where my talents were (I spent the last year writing patents, writing software, making photos, video, and animations for their web site, composing original music for the web site, and a bunch of other things... not making electronics). This was a company that, like many startups, lead a very rocky existence, including paying only a fractional salary for over a year (with promises to make good on that later.. but you know can imagine how those things usually go).

So I had a really interesting offer. It was in green technology, a thing I really support and would have loved to be a part of. It was a tech startup, very early one, with three employees, looking to make me basically a third pillar of the company... a thing I've done before, and usually very rewarding. But it was on the wrong side of the company, being a startup they couldn't pay but modestly for the area, my wife was still teaching locally (and still does, second grade), and I had kids in college. So for once, I made a mode stable decision: I went with a local established company. They don't miss a paycheck, and they actually have enough money for me to get the job done correctly -- another issues with startups. I'm still working like I'm in a startup these days, but having to not undergo financial stress so soon -- and finally, financially getting out from under 20 years of debt built up largely by the whole startup thing, that's not a bad improvement to one's life. And as it turns out, this local job was a much better match to my creative side and my skills in computer design. While no decent tech job is 9-5, it's still that sort of thing: established company, regular paycheck, etc.

And sure, there are those who have no other choices. That can be simple reality: they have no better job options. Or social conditioning... not every society, even here in the USA, makes it easy to take that risk or even just do something very different than what your ancestors did.

Again, there's a slightly different answer for each person. I might look at one of those million-a-month financial people and wonder how they can be satisfied, making all that money but not actually doing anything but siphoning off a small personal fortune... just helping rich folks gamble with their larger fortunes. And why keep doing that, which you could quit and actually live your life. But that guy can't live someone else's life, and if money is the only reward one's after, that's not my place to argue. But I actually have written a song that touches on it: Going Down Hard (live)

As one who is, ostensibly, on the side of people who are not "just earning a salary and working 9-6" (that is, I'm working in a start up, with a pay cut and a lot of extra responsibility, hoping to make something of it), I can say what I miss from a "boring" 9-6 job: the mental freedom to think about things outside my job.

There's a very different state of mind in being an employee versus being intimately tied to your job. You think and care about your job a LOT MORE. That's why there is a huge difference in the performance of people who have some skin in the game and people that are "just collecting a paycheck."

I know it's unhealthy to think about your job 24/7, so I make a point not to do it. When I'm home with my family, that's it. I don't work. I do my best not to think about work. I am, to the best of my ability, 100% present.

Turns out that's not enough. Do you know why companies block access to Facebook? Why they monitor web site usage of non-work-related sites? It's because people that aren't wedded to their job spend a lot of time thinking about other things. Planning trips. Looking at that guitar they've been lusting for. Seeing what movies are playing. Finding out what's exciting in town this week. I used to care about that kind of thing. Now I don't, and I miss it - and so does my family. I may be 100% there at night and on the weekends, but it turns out that by the time I get there, it's already too late. Too late to to get excited about what we're going to do, too late to make plans, too late to make the most of that time.

It doesn't have to be extreme, and I conscientiously try to tip the balance, but that's the point. It's a trade off. If your work is your hobby, too, then you can do incredible things. But you only have so much mental space.

Well, I am 28. I have topped almost every exam existing in my country, every school/ college I have attended, quizzes, debates, elocution and every extra-curricular activity you can think. I landed up with a dream job at the age of 24 and since day 1, THIS question, THIS exact question and the internal conflict of not wanting to do a 9 to 6 job has given me sleepless nights, anxiety, depression and all mental conditions possible which started to have physical ramifications. The stress increased so much that after working for 4 years in 2 great companies with really good salaries, good bosses and good career path ahead, I resigned. When I did resign, I had no money (all spent on family and sibling's education) and I still do not have any. My wife earns while I am trying to figure out things - myself, this world which understands only money and how to fit 'creativity' in this equation. This 'model' of my wife earning won't sustain for long, even if it does, it is unfair and just-not-right, I may come across very difficult times ahead, but this feeling of waking-up and NOT- REPORTING to someone or not begging for a leave - a day-off in your life which belongs to you - is more than enough to keep me struggling. The aim is not to be rich - but to value life and the things this world has to offer a little more than you do now. A JOB may be for LIFE, but LIFE is not for JOB. So getting rid of that feeling you have on a Sunday nights or Monday mornings, or the anxiety resulting from seeing your boss's name flash on your cell phone, is much more valuable than the salary you get for selling yourself and your life. LIVE FREE or DIE HARD. (I may be irrational but I am definitely not a hypocrite) Apologies to everyone offended.