Briefcases & Back Problems – 3 Tips For Working Men Who Carry Their Office In A Briefcase

[0:00:00]
Hi, I’m Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men, Real Style; today I’m going to be talking about briefcases, back problems, and how to avoid lugging around a 20 pound handbag that – well, just hurts.

Okay, if you have it already please subscribe to Jennel by doing that, this videos that come right to you. In addition, if you like this video, if you find it – I would appreciate it, if you would like it down below. And I’m going to also link you our free 47 page e-book; it’s now name e-book. Highly advice you grab it and if you want an ad to this, you’ve got something to say in the comments, well say it right there in the comments.

Okay so this is the question that came in. “Antonio, my daily work back weighs seven to nine kilos.” Okay kilos for us none European – basically just double it, pounds. So close to 20 pounds here. “And I walk with it quite a lot, handheld bags with a single strap of devastating to my spine. One shoulder’s already higher than the other. Bags on wheels don’t really work with me. The only bag that seems to work is a sturdy backpack. I want to look good but it’s when it’s going to cost you my health. How can I work around this?”

Okay so he’s probably referring to an article that we wrote about and we lay to down below about why not to wear a backpack with a suit? And I see this often times on universities having just graduated in 2007 from the University of Texas. When I was a graduate school there I saw tons of guys in suits, wearing this big Macomb’s, backpacks and I looked at this and I’m just like, “Ugh!” it’s kind of ruining the suit and it just well – just doesn’t look great.

But he’s exactly right. You don’t want to sacrifice looks for your health. And you see this often times, I mean just look at – at footwear, if you’ve – well I’m not going to tell you to look at a woman’s foot that has or a women’s feet that they been trying to wear this shoes that don’t fit them for 20 or 30 years. But yes, you can deform your body if you’re trying to force a round peg into a square hole.

So let’s get back to briefcases because that’s why you guys are here. So this gentleman, it appears that he’s got the one briefcase and he’s wearing it as a shoulder strap, he’s lugging around 20, sometimes 30 pounds and he’s like “Gosh this is painful. How can I get around this?” and so he thinks “okay I will just get a bigger bag and wears a back pack.”

And I got three suggestions for the gentleman on how he can get around this. And the big one is he simply needs to carry less. So if you’re lugging around 20 to 30 pounds all the time, I mean unless you’re going off to combat, I don’t know why you need to be carrying around that much? Especially nowadays with smart phones with paper work can scanned, computers you can get – you talk to your company, you get a smaller one or even buck up and get yourself a smaller little laptop but you don’t carry the computer. Just simply of a smart phone with you because at the end of the day that is going to solve a lot of problems. Simply carry less.

And it’s something that’s going to require a bit of discipline but we used to do this in the military because if you’re going to go on a 20 mile or 30 mile forced march, you’re going to lay out everything. And you’re going to examine every single ounce and you’re going to make sure “does this need to be there? Okay I haven’t used this – the last two years and it’s been in my bag” and despite the fact that – I think needing a multi tool in my bag that one time when somebody needs it, I don’t know if it’s worth carrying around that multi tool that weighs 8 ounces, 9 ounces.

So get rid of it, again examine everything and say “do I need to be lugging around that copy of Burn Hugroats sales book gentleman?” It’s a beautiful book but that thing weighs almost 3 pounds, you don’t need to carry it everywhere. You can pick up styles, just go to – use your smart phone and go there “Real Men, Real Style” there you go.

So carry less. Number two: look at the smaller bag and this is related to carrying less but often times and studies have shown that if you get a big bag, you’re going to fill it. It’s kind of like plates, so if you go and you’ve got a big plate, you’re going to put – fill it up with food. If you got a small plate, you’re going to fill it up with food. And at the end of the day, you’re going to be full either way. So it’s the same with bags, you’re going to find a way to fill the bag so go with a smaller bag. Look for something that is – you have to force yourself to choose sometimes things to leave behind.

Worse case, it’s not going to be the end of the world, if you leave something at work or if you probably work less at home which your wife or your significant other shall probably enjoy that. After that, look for a quality bag that has wheels. You say that the wheel bag didn’t work for you but there’s differences between those with wheels that they’re just loud and they’re a pain in the butt or one’s that are quality made, Samsonite, makes them great wheel bags. Highly advice you check them out, they’re going to be a little bit pricier but it’s going to be a lot smoother. Some of the wheels – go for larger wheels…

[0:05:00]
…or something that can go across grass and you’re not going to have an issue with.

I used wheel bags all the time. In the airports and anyone that travels. And I find they were incredibly useful. This is hybrid bag, I also wanted to show you, I pick this up and this is also excuse at – I picked this up over in Hong Kong and I love this bag because it looks like a soft briefcase so I can hold it here, it’s black, it’s made from leather but the cool part is it does turn into a backpack. So if you have to violate my rule with the backpack at least have a good looking backpack. Then you can violate it with confidence – this bag actually works really well, it’s not huge as you can tell.

So whenever I usually just carry it like a briefcase but if I ever had my hands full with other things, I can wear that thing as a backpack with three kids, sometimes I got my son here, my daughter here, got the baby strapped to the front. Yes, throw that wheel, backpack, looking all professional there.

Okay hopefully that helped out. Got anymore questions or anything to add, go to the comments down below and I’ll see you in the comments. Alright. Take care sleepyhead. Antonio Sentinel out; Real Men, Real Style. Bye-bye.

[0:06:09] End of Audio