Millennial took a 50% pay cut to quit potato farming sales job

After graduating with a business degree in 2017, I worked in sales at a Fortune 500 company. In sales, you have to have a “grind” mentality – work hard, be consistent, and have discipline. Having played team sports all my life, I am a competitive person and initially thrived on the challenge.

But after four years, I gradually felt that I was losing my purpose. I spent my days cold calling, knocking on doors and trying to make sales week after week. I had to shave every day and went through many suits. There were a million conference calls to attend and it was all very corporate.

One day I thought I’d rather work with my hands and sweat than sit in a room and talk to a business owner. I thought I would get more joy if I lived a simpler life.

So in 2022, I resigned. My plan was to work on my family’s farm for a year while I figure out my next steps.

I grew to love the farm immediately

I had that sense of satisfaction that I felt I was missing in the sales world – the feeling of a good, hard day’s work. It’s a feeling you can’t buy.

Helping on the farm as a kid, I didn’t like it. It was a lot of physical work and the overall experience was not positive. But coming back as an adult, I was a bigger piece of the puzzle and had the responsibility of running operations and managing teams. I also enjoyed being able to work with my family.

Farming is a way of life. My work-life balance took a bit of a hit at first. But with innovation, the busy season no longer requires a six-day work week. So unlike what my parents’ generation experienced, now there is an opportunity work-life balance as a farmer.

I took a pay cut to go back to the farm

We did almost 200,000 Canadian dollars in sales, or around 150,000 dollars, in one year. As a farmer, I took a 50% pay cut. It was a hard pill to swallow.

But now, I realize it was still worth it. I learned more about farm business than working in a Fortune 500 company.

Thanks to social media, the wage gap has also narrowed a bit. In 2022, I posted videos on TikTok to raise awareness about farmland that was going to be taken over by the government for redevelopment. The posts went viral and my account continued to grow.

Now, I post on social media to encourage the next generation to get back into farming

In Canada, about 1.6% of people are farmers, according to Statistics Canada. In the next 10 years, 40% of farmers will retire, according to a report by the Royal Bank of Canada. We will need the younger generation to take their hand in order to continue to have local products.

I see farmers as a beacon of hope in every community. On our farm, we have something called Ugly Potato Days. On this day, we give our “ugly” potatoes to our community for free. So even though farmers go through a lot, they can help the communities they are in with the rising cost of food and living.

A day in my life looks different now. At 7am, I arrive at the farm to check orders. I usually have two or three meetings a day about operations, safety or farmland grants.

Then I check at harvest. I also take care of all the truck drivers because the potato fields are about an hour from our farm. So I have to make sure we have enough trucks going back and forth.

Being a farmer is a job that pulls me in a million different directions, but I love it because every day is so different and challenging.

I don’t see myself going back to the corporate world unless I start a business related to agriculture. I am now 30 years old and probably have 30 more years of farming. My goal is to set up the farm to last another hundred years. I hope that one day I will have children who decide to take over.