If you ever wondered what the title means, well it just that we are so accustomed on getting a job after graduation. Many thinks that if you don’t have a job, you’re despicable. But the truth is, having a job will only make us like prisoner tied to a 9-5 environment. It’s true that we need to make a living to sustain our needs but the freedom of being self-employed or an entrepreneur is incomparable. Job security to me is just an illusion. How can you be secure on a job with only two words will ruin your means of livelihood? the words “You’re Fired!“.
In my experience on my previous job, I thought being employed will make me secure even temporarily that is why I endured all the abuse of my bully manager. It’s like 10 years in hell with a monster. I became a coward just for the sake of “job security” because I have this stupid idea that being employed and harassed is alright as long as I have a job. But thanks to my boss’ bullying and to my creativity, little that he know that he was motivating me to create a business and helped me provide a residual income and became my safety net when the dreaded sickle of management came along.
Have you read Steve Pavlina’s 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job? you will see ten reasons why you should never get a job. ( Below are only quotes from his post and I’ve just added some spices from the main course )
1. Income for Dummies. Steve elaborates the reason why it is stupid to trade time for money. Quoting from what he said: “Why is getting a job so dumb? Because you only get paid when you’re working. …………….Have you never considered that it might be better to be paid even when you’re not working? Who taught you that you could only earn income while working? Some other brainwashed employee perhaps?”
2. Limited experience. we use to think that by having a job we will gain experience. But Steve have a better explanation quoting: “You might think it’s important to get a job to gain experience. But that’s like saying you should play golf to get experience playing golf. You gain experience from living, regardless of whether you have a job or not. A job only gives you experience at that job, but you gain ”experience” doing just about anything, so that’s no real benefit at all. Sit around doing nothing for a couple years, and you can call yourself an experienced meditator, philosopher, or politician.”
3. Lifelong domestication. In my earlier years of employment, just after I decided to have a job after two years of being self employed helping my mother run our business, I was a really undomesticated. I was still more courageous enough to say anything to my superior. But after twelve years of being employed, I became as tame as a sheep that you can slaughter without saying anything.
Again quoting from Steve’s blog: “getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.
Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?”
4. Too many mouths to feed. How miserable being an employee is. Once you get your salary, a big fraction goes to taxes as much as 20%. The more you earn by having overtime, the heavier the taxes. But in reality, employers should be the ones paying it for the employees.
Quoting again: “In the USA you can expect that about half your salary will go to taxes. The tax system is designed to disguise how much you’re really giving up because some of those taxes are paid by your employer, and some are deducted from your paycheck. But you can bet that from your employer’s perspective, all of those taxes are considered part of your pay, as well as any other compensation you receive such as benefits. Even the rent for the office space you consume is considered, so you must generate that much more value to cover it. You might feel supported by your corporate environment, but keep in mind that you’re the one paying for it.”
5. Way too risky. Based from my experience, yes it’s risky because you will never know when you’re head will roll to the ground. If you’ve encountered a boss with a slightly higher intelligence of a cockroach (in short, an idiot) then say goodbye to your career.
Steve says: “The idea that a job is the most secure way to generate income is just silly. You can’t have security if you don’t have control, and employees have the least control of anyone. If you’re an employee, then your real job title should be professional gambler.”
6. Having an evil bovine master. Oh this is I think the most weighty reason why I say no to employment. Living with an idiot bully manager for ten years is like imprisoned in a cage with a wild gorilla.
Quoting: “When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”
7. Begging for money. would you believe if I tell you that the management have to beg yearly for an increase in the company I work with previously? thinking that it was a multinational and a Swiss company, It never entered my mind that it can be that stingy. On year 2000 to 2003 we have no increase and the local management have to beg again and again for scooby snacks.
Quoting from Steve: ” When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then?”
8. An inbred social life. I remember when our HR manager conducted a seminar about why people need to be employment and one of the reasons include social life. A human being needs to socialize. O’ really?
Steve says: “Many people treat their jobs as their primary social outlet. They hang out with the same people working in the same field. Such incestuous relations are social dead ends. ……………….If one of your co-slaves gets sold to another master, do you lose a friend? If you work in a male-dominated field, does that mean you never get to talk to women above the rank of receptionist? Why not decide for yourself whom to socialize with instead of letting your master decide for you?”
9. Loss of freedom. I think this is the main reason why entrepreneurs want to stay as entrepreneurs. If you still are an employee, the only thing you can do is “Dream On!”
Quoting: “It takes a lot of effort to tame a human being into an employee. The first thing you have to do is break the human’s independent will. A good way to do this is to give them a weighty policy manual filled with nonsensical rules and regulations.………. Free human beings think such rules and regulations are silly of course. The only policy they need is: “Be smart. Be nice. Do what you love. Have fun.”
10. Becoming a coward. I still remember the whinings of my previous co-slave or co-worker and I use to whine with them and complain my idiot boss. But we can’t do anything because we are in the mercy of our employer and of course, those delegated authorities who milk the company. So that is what we became: spineless mollusks.
Again quoting from Steve: “Have you noticed that employed people have an almost endless capacity to whine about problems at their companies? But they don’t really want solutions – they just want to vent and make excuses why it’s all someone else’s fault…………If you can’t call your boss a jerk now and then without fear of getting fired, you’re no longer free. You’ve become your master’s property.”
With the above statement, I don’t encourage anyone to jump in to full time entrepreneurship since not all of us have the capacity and creativity of Steve Pavlina and other successful entrepreneurs who surpassed the condition from rags to riches. Steve points out frequently in his blog the capacity of being smart as the main ingredient for success. And as for my own experience, just don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you are employed now, then think of some kind of residual income and sideline business that you think will become a system that will support you in “Long Term”.
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Rise to the Top! (Simple Rules to Succeed in any Organization) (Kindle Editio...
8 Jan 2013 at 6:06am
Rise to the Top! (Simple Rules to Succeed in any Organization) (Kindle Edition)By Joerg Meier
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Normally the literature in entrepreneur focused publications and websites is about the reasons to leave your job, not reasons to have a job. However, it is important to point out to aspiring entrepreneurs that the road to being a successful business owner is littered with the failures of those who did not quite understand what entrepreneurship is about. Being your own boss, while ideal, is not for everyone. Many of us are meant to be employees, not business owners. This fact is supported by the reality that surrounds us on a daily basis. Look around you. How many people do you know who own a business versus those who simply work for someone else. Notwithstanding the many conspiracy theories about teaching people to be servants rather than leaders, the current employment paradigm is really fueled by the many benefits of being a worker. The top five reasons to have a job instead of trying to be your own boss are: Low financial risk, health and wellness benefits, bigger earnings, lower stress, and free training. Low Financial Risk Having your own business is filled with risk and uncertainty. Even small operations must have some seed money to get started, and the risk of never recovering the investment is high. If you read any number of business publications you can easily corroborate the fact that most new businesses fail. Even if a young company makes it past the first year, the chances that it will go under within 5 years are great. By contrast, employees rarely invest any money into the firms that employ them. Of course, there may be some type of educational requirement (degree, certificate, etc), but such investments are more along the lines of self-improvement than a direct financial contribution to an employer. An argument can be made about the vulnerability that workers have to being laid off. Employees certainly have a latent risk of being let go at any point in time, but the same is true for any business owner. If an entrepreneur loses a big account, the entire company can go under. Additionally, changes in market conditions, technology, and shifts in customer preferences can easily erode the viability of any business. In a sense, we are all employees. The only difference is whether the orders come form inside the organization or form the market place. In the event of a lay off, the worker can virtually go to any company where his or her skills are needed. As long as employees have transferable skills, they will always find a job. Of course, the hardship, frustration, and time that it takes to find the best possible job should not be minimized. It takes hard work and persistence to get a good job. However, it is possible to make ends meet with almost any job. The same is not true for a business. If your company goes under and you lose your money and that of your investors, it can take significantly longer and an incredible amount of effort to start again. Health And Wellness Benefits Many employees will readily take less pay in exchange for top-level benefits. It is no secret that taking care of your health and responding to an illness is very expensive. As a worker, your employer may pay a sizable portion of your benefits so you can afford to have some type of insurance coverage. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, may not carry any insurance in order to keep costs down. A sole proprietor, even if covered by insurance, can also run into difficulties if stricken by an illness. With no one to tend to the company, the business will suffer loses that may be hard to recover. In other words, small companies depend greatly on the well being of their owners. This is not the case with employees. For most workers, a health matter is covered not only by insurance, but also paid time off. In many instances, the employee’s job is even guaranteed for a certain period of time. Aside from health care, many companies also offer a host of free benefits designed to keep employees happy. Examples are daycare, tuition reimbursement, transportation subsidies, discounts on goods and services, and many others. Bigger Earnings Unlike Bill Gates, and many other super wealthy entrepreneurs, most business owners make as much money as an employee. Let’s take for example, an employee making $60,000/year. How hard does an entrepreneur need to work to make $60,000? More often than not, business owners have to work very hard to make the equivalent to a $60,000 salary and don’t get the ancillary benefits that employees do. Most workers also make the same salary whether they work all day, or hardly contribute to the organization. It’s important to point out that mediocrity and laziness should not be tolerated in the workplace, but let’s not fool ourselves. Low caliber employees are everywhere and they get paid the same as top performers. Only in careers where individual accomplishment is tied to one’s earnings is it possible to weed out bad employees. An entrepreneur may be best served by being a top-performing employee in an arena that rewards results (i.e. sales), rather than take on all the risk of owning a company. Lower Stress A reality for entrepreneurs is the close relationship that their business and their personal lives share. Ownership of a business is a 24/7 endeavor that requires unwavering focus on the success of the company. While some people may thrive on the ambiguous and demanding nature of business ownership, not everyone can handle that level of intensity. Most employees have the luxury of leaving their job at their place of work, and can easily separate off duty activities from their job. Even for employees who hate their jobs and wish their day ended 30 seconds after clocking in, the prospect of going through the day on “autopilot” is very attractive. Entrepreneurs, on the contrary, must always be alert to the needs of the company. Would you rather have to worry about your business while on vacation (Assuming the business allowed you to go anywhere), or would completely forgetting what you do for a living seem more appealing? Most employees care about their work and will do their best while on duty, but they are not defined by their job. For workers, an occupation simply represents a source of income and an activity to fill the time between weekends and vacations, nothing more. Free Training Even after having read the above reasons to get a job instead of starting a company, some folks may decide that entrepreneurship is still the way to go. This section is for you. Jobs are great places to get free training. By working at an established company and getting involved in as many projects as possible, a future entrepreneur can easily get a lot of real world experience. While it can be argued that experience is not necessary to start a business, it makes more sense to learn how things work on someone else’s time and money than your own. Schools unfortunately teach students about commerce in a very general, academic fashion. Even with many institutions using business cases to illustrate important lessons, the overall question of how to make money in the real world is answered esoterically. Therefore, the best step for prospective entrepreneurs is to get the details form their employers. We are of course not talking about copying trade secrets or any other unethical behavior, but rather the fact that it is easier to learn by being directly involved in business transactions than by reading about them. http://www.entrepreneurideaguide.com
Hello Bob, That’s a wonderful comment! it’s like a posting already and very detailed. I agree on most of the things you said comparing entrepreneurship with employment. I agree that employment is the easiest way to earn money and using your employers time to gain experience in a “real world” environment which will take longer if you do it yourself and very costly. I guess that helped me too although the job experience I gain to what I’ doing right now is different. I learned many things not to do to avoid mistakes and many bad examples not to follow (specially incompetent managers). I guess Steve Pavlina over emphasized that fact that we don’t need experience to be an entrepreneur. But I think he is still right because what if the business you wanted to have does not have any relation to the experience you have gained? Maybe it will help a bit on your decisions but you will still experience it in your business. He also said that entrepreneurship are for smart people that is why many don’t attain an above average income compared to being an employee and many failed. But that’s what businesses is all about, you fail and learn and will succeed someday. That is why we should have a “Long Term View”. Employment is a ‘Now” situation and after you reach 60 years old you retire, but entrepreneurs never retire. But all in all there is only one thing that entrepreneurs really love why they stay as entrepreneurs even without those benefits you mentioned. And that is “FREEDOM“. Maybe you will say that entrepreneurs are not free because they have to look an eye to their business 24/7. Yes it’s true they are not free from obligations but you know the saying “Once you found the work you love, you will never work again”. “The biggest mistake people make in life is not making a living at doing what they most enjoy.” – Malcolm S. Forbes (1919-1990)
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