Let’s face it. Jobs suck.
I spent 13 years of my life working in various jobs, and I never felt right about it. Not once did I feel like I was doing my life’s work.
There was always a little voice in the back of my head telling me “you’ll never be happy working for someone else. When are you going to get the balls to try working for yourself?”
In 2006 I found those balls.
After 13 years of working on shit I didn’t care about, after the boredom, the depression, after all the crap I endured from bosses who expected 60 hour weeks and still gave me a hard time about taking a week off here or there, after feeling like there MUST be more to life than Corporate America™…
I decided to ditch my well-paying but mind-numbingly-boring job and find out for myself if being self-employed was the answer to all my prayers.
I always knew my life would be incomplete until I at least tried working for myself. To see if I could do it and find out what life would be like without the rules everyone else lives under. For some reason, it took me 13 years and 5 jobs to finally take the plunge.
Finally I looked myself in the eye and asked, “why the fuck should I spend close to 50% of my waking hours during the most healthy and vibrant period of my life at a job, doing something I couldn’t care less about, contributing far less than my true potential to the world?”
I decided I wanted my life to be about more than powerpoint slides and meetings, and worrying about what some boss thought of me.
Why the hell did it take me so long to ask this question and own up to what I felt was my destiny?
Mostly it was fear. Fear and comfort…
Why You Should Never Work a Job Again
Listen, if you like your job, that’s cool. I know there are some people out there who are fulfilled by their jobs. (although I suspect you might not be totally satisfied if you’re still reading this)
Most people I know pretty much hate their jobs. They complain about the work, the people, the commute, the pay, the hours, the lack of vacation time and control over their lives.
They talk about dreams and hobbies and “some day” as if it just isn’t in the cards for them. That version of life is for someone else, someone with better luck and fewer responsibilities.
99% of these people will work a job until they retire or die. Most just accept that having a job is something you simply do in life. You’re born, you grow up, you work at a job, you retire and enjoy yourself for a few years or a decade, you get old, and then you die.
Some of the poor and middle class complain about corporate control of wealth and power, and yet most of us work for those companies, buy what they sell us, watch what they create and accept their vision of the world as our reality.
But don’t get me started on that…
This isn’t about society or what other people do.
It’s about you.
It’s about asking yourself what you want your life to be all about. Do you want the next 30 years to go by, only to feel like you never tested yourself? Like you never stretched your limits and capabilities and experienced everything you possibly could in life? Like you wasted your potential because you lived under some invisible set of rules your whole life?
I’m not saying you should quit your job tomorrow (although you would probably be just fine if you did), but if you have the entrepreneurial bug like I did, you’ll never be completely satisfied until you try working for yourself.
If you feel like your job is keeping you from living the life you really want to live, here are three reasons you should never take a job again.
- Working a job gives someone else control over the majority of your life.
- Working a job is dangerously comfortable.
- Working for yourself is one of the most challenging and rewarding things you will ever do.
These aren’t feudal times. If you live in the free world, there is no reason you have to work for someone else. The freedom to pursue happiness and live the life you desire is the greatest gift of modern society, yet most of us piss that opportunity away.
When you work a job, someone else is ultimately in control of what you work on, what you’re responsible for, when you work, when you take time off and how much you earn.
If you absolutely love your job, perhaps giving up that amount of control is worth it. For most people, it seems insane to accept those conditions.
When you work for someone else, life is just comfortable enough to keep you from asking the really important questions.
Sure, you feel like your soul is being crushed every day at work, but at least you get a paycheck, right?
How much of that paycheck is spent on vices and entertainment just to make yourself feel better or to cover up the fundamental lack of fulfillment you feel?
Fear is what keeps most people from doing extraordinary things in life. Most people choose to stay in jobs they hate because they’re scared shitless of the alternative. They’re afraid they don’t have what it takes, that they’ll fail miserably and become homeless embarrassments.
The truth is, if you get past the fear and laziness, there’s no reason you can’t accomplish anything you want.
Jobs keep you just comfortable enough so you never have a strong enough reason to confront those fears and start living your life’s purpose.
As a kid growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I spent a fair amount of time fishing with my dad. I used to see this phrase on t-shirts and bumper stickers a lot:
“The Worst Day Fishin’ is Better than the Best Day at Work.”
The same is true of working for yourself.
During the worst days of working for yourself, you’ll be terrified, worried, anxious and full of self-doubt. You’ll think you made a huge mistake and you’ll convince yourself that you don’t have what it takes.
But even that day will be better than the best day of working for someone else. Maybe not on the surface, but deep-down there is still a sense of purpose and satisfaction that can only come from pursuing self-reliance in it’s highest form. Lions in the wild seem about ten times more alive than lions in the zoo.
—
There’s no better time than right now to start working for yourself.
How do I know this?
You’ll never be younger, and you’ll never be fully prepared.
The perfect day to commit to your dream will never come. There is no such thing as being fully prepared. There are things you can never learn or prepare for except by actually doing them.
Working for yourself takes a tremendous amount of courage and energy. Every day you let go by makes it less likely you’ll ever pull the trigger, and less likely you’ll persevere if you do decide to quit.
For those of you already committing to working for yourself: It’s more possible than ever to make “your thing” and earn a full time living from it, but you HAVE to start with the right mindset and process.
This means changing everything you know about business… because the wrong expectations will sink any small business idea.
So, you need something that will train you without boring you to death, something that will walk you through each step of the process without limiting you, and something you can easily afford. It didn’t exist, so we made it.
If you’re already committed to working for yourself, watch this video and learn about the 9 stage business roadmap.
Maybe you need to do some more thinking. If so, keep reading. But if you already know you’re going to step out on your own, give yourself and your business the best possible chance of success and start your roadmap today.
(P.S. in the video you’ll learn about the 3 phases of the roadmap. This idea alone can help you process and plan better.)
If you’re feeling brave enough, here’s a challenge to consider:
Make your current job the last one you ever take.
Commit to making self-employment the only alternative to the job you have right now. Don’t give yourself the option of finding another job. Ever.
If you get sick of your job and want to find another, use that drive to go freelance or build your own business. Don’t give in and take another job.
If you get laid off or fired, use that as a sign that it’s time. Take your unemployment benefits or savings and buy your freedom by jumping into self employment.
But don’t wait around until you have no job, or until you get so sick of your current job that you have no other option. Instead, commit to yourself that you’ll quit your current job by a certain date. After that date, you’ll never work a regular job again. You’ll do whatever it takes to support yourself through your own creativity and perseverance.
If you’re reading this and you don’t have a job right now, fuck looking for one. How long will you spend looking for a job that you’re going to hate in six months anyway? Use that time instead to build a life of freedom and fulfillment. Live on your parents’ couch or live off your spouse’s earnings for as long as it takes. Convince your supporters that this is the greatest gift they could ever give you, and then don’t let them down.
Don’t accept this challenge lightly.
Take a weekend by yourself to really think about this challenge. Go away for a couple of days and ask yourself life’s hard questions. Ask what you really want your life to be about. What do you want to try, to experience, to accomplish?
If you decide that working for yourself should be a big part of your future, give yourself some time to put a plan together. Then, don’t be shy about telling people your plan. Once you set a date, the world will conspire to help you make your dream happen.
And remember, the worst that can happen probably isn’t all that bad.
The journey won’t be easy, but at least you’ll be growing and pushing yourself. You’ll be testing your limits. That’s one of life’s greatest gifts.
The irony is that by at least trying self employment, you’ll learn so much and gain so many new skills that you’ll end up becoming much more employable anyway.
Whatever you decide, be honest with yourself. You don’t have to accept your current reality as how you’re “supposed” to live, or as what you really want.
Start having this conversation with yourself today, because it’s one of the most important things you can do.
You owe it to yourself to live the life you know deep down you were meant to fulfill. You know it’s there. Making it happen all starts with admitting to yourself what you want.
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
Cheers, Corbett, this one’s going straight to my heart and soul ;) (No more conventional employment for me! as you might remember)
I don’t believe anyone who says he loves his job. How can anyone love giving someone control over them for 8 or more hours a day?
I, personally, am slowly going insane in my current job that I have already quit but won’t be leaving till January. Exactly for the reasons you pointed out. I have no more to add. Thanks.
After 13 years of working on shit I didn’t care about, after the boredom, the depression, after all the crap I endured from bosses who expected 60 hour weeks and still gave me a hard time about taking a week off here or there, after feeling like there MUST be more to life than Corporate America™…
When you work for someone else, life is just comfortable enough to keep you from asking the really important questions
This one is right up my alley. As I’ve said about 56 times before on your blog, I JUST left the US Army after 8 1/2 years. I am only 27 and I don’t ever plan to work for anyone else again. That was my last job/service to someone/something other than my own desires.
I like the way you simplified everything. Really, the worst day of working for yourself is still better than the best day of being controlled by a J.O.B. That emptiness inside is so hard to deal with. The only relief is having conversations like this with other people and that’s even hard to do because most everyone else is scared to leave where they work.
I’ve taken this plunge alone, as far as my friends and family go. My girlfriend understands that I won’t be working for someone else anymore but I’m not sure how at ease about it she is. She’ll be alright, though.
Anyway, this is right on the money. Nice read.
Great post Corbett! I left my job in October, with a few months savings to live off, and now I’m working towards supporting myself as an artist and writer. It’s encouraging to read posts like this from time to time as it can get scary and the temptation to look for a steady paycheck sometimes rears its head.
You make it sound much less scary. Thanks!
“How much of that paycheck is spent on vices and entertainment just to make yourself feel better or to cover up the fundamental lack of fulfillment you feel?” This was an ah-ha for me.
Very true. It’s something that we never think about. People always say it’s good to have fun and spend a little money on yourself because you deserve it. To me, that implies that you’re spending the rest of your time dealing with shit that you don’t deserve… like a jackass boss or low wages. If you have to squeeze in a little fulfillment to make up for the crap you go through everyday, it’s time for a change of plans.
i completely agree with everything you wrote. i’ll add two observations from my experience w. the above.
1. one thing i didn’t take into consideration when i decided to quit my job/try things for myself was how much stress is associated with just having to be at a job when life goes awry. for example, should some sort of tragedy of any degree happen in your life – a loved one passes away, you break up with a partner, you’ve had surgery, anything….being self employed allows you the power to make the choices you need to heal that part of your life on your time. for me, there isn’t the associated guilt for taking too much time off, pressure, fear of losing value in the company because you took longer than your boss felt you needed, …whatever it is that lays at the back of our minds and feeds into our fears/stress/oppression – once that is gone, once you realize that you can start taking care of the things you really want to or need to and still make a living…..for me, that was surprising and life changing. i was fully aware of everything mentioned in this piece, but this angle hit me hard. of all the introspection i had done prior to making the decision, i had no idea how fear in this form, controlled my life and probably negatively affected those close to me.
2. i’ve found in my situation, that making the jump attracts others who have too. you’ll meet people who will support and mirror your growth. in my case, it’s been this incredible journey of meeting really cool people with similar goals and values. not a bunch of people lumped together in a workplace who may or may not respect one another. if someone doesn’t share the same ethics as you (ie. you think they’re a scumbag), they don’t have to be in your life, unless you choose to keep them there. easy.
It’s coming up on almost a year now that I quit my job to pursue photography. My struggle has been to not pursue a part-time job for more $. So far I haven’t done it, mainly because of many of the reasons you stated here. I so want to do this on my own, to make it work, and am searching for other income streams to supplement and grow my wealth.
Even when I was 16 it didn’t feel right to “work”, but didn’t think there was any other option, that being an entrepreneur was not something I could do. I slowly started to ask myself, why not? It came down to, you either work for someone else or for yourself, there is no other choice (unfortunately I was fresh out of millionaire uncles who would leave me their fortune).
To anyone contemplating pursuing their dreams…yes, it’s worth it, even the worst days of fear if I will survive. The freedom is priceless.
Here’s the thing I discovered working for myself. The depression and frustration and stress don’t magically disappear, but instead find another reasons to exist: fear of failure or failure itself, lack of socialization and fatigue due to long hours you spend working for yourself, lack of understanding from people around you. Not sure if you’d agree, maybe it’s different for you, but I realized it depends more on the current state of mind, rather than on who I’m working for. This picture illustrates it perfectly: http://wulffmorgenthaler.com/img/strip/-WM_strip_2010-09-15.gif
That said, I’m still wholeheartedly on the work-for-yourself side, but I just wanted to point a different side of this coin that may exist for some people.
Couldn’t agree more with this article. Especially the idea of a job being dangerously comfortable. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to ever take any kind of action.
In many ways that’s where the recession can be a positive, it can force you into difficult changes, that will make you WAY better off in the long run.
At least, that was the case for me.
I love this post! We’ve been digital nomads for nearly two years and I can’t imagine ever having a job again. Before we left I had a rewarding job organising art events with refugees, but I was still chained to an office for much of the time, working between arbitrary hours and wasting too much time in pointless meetings. Working for ourselves isn’t easy but the freedom is an incredible feeling that would be so difficult to give up now.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that people get comfortable. My hunch is a lot of people who say they like their jobs actually are referring to the fact that they don’t dislike it. There is a big difference between liking something and not disliking it. Kudos to all of the people who set out to do something they love rather than something that’s “not that bad.”
Love your article and the message it sends!
Right on. I could never imagine going back to a job. I had a couple really sucky jobs right out of college that pushed me to quit sooner in life. I am detailing my journey to financial freedom on my blog that I just started. It is the way to go and I would recommend it to most for sure.
I also love this post and would LOVE to be a digital nomad/location independent person …
But HOW?
As it is, I’m just scraping by. Paycheck to paycheck.
How does one do this? How does one go from a crummy job (I detest my work) to doing what you’re talking about?
I’ve no idea. I’d really like to know.
And I’m not trying to be a pessimist.
I’m sincere. I’d love this kind of life, especially regarding my current life situation, which sucks …
Buy Corbett’s e-book or course to find out how?
I’m doing my best not to take another job since I was laid off my last one in June 2010. Everyday I don’t go to work I get happier and happier. My mantra for some time has been, “I don’t need a job, I just need an income.” I live simply (can you say old clothes and scratch cooking?). When I have done job-related things, including vocational testing, I had to buy myself treats to get through the day: when I stay home I don’t buy treats, I make them for myself or let myself do things I love to do. My latest coup: someone bartered me a week at music camp in exchange for home-baked goods. Yes!
The hard part for me is developing marketing skills and other business sense, but I am working on it incrementally.
Can I add a fourth reason?
If you’re a baller, you should want to capture the value you create.
You can’t do that with a job. Your paycheck won’t double if you innovate or kick a ton of ass. (But if you’re lazy, the paycheck thing is a sweet deal, for sure.)
Awesome post, Corbett.
Great Post! I am looking forward to my freedom. I still have a little over 7 months before my declared freedom date.
Right now I am trying use the extra comfort of the income I have to take care of loose ends I want cleared away before I cut myself loose. I have stopped spending on credit cards, and will have all my consumer debt cleared away.
I’m still on the fence as to whether I want to live a completely location independent or to find a home base and focus on work I am more passionate about. These factors are a big part of the experiment as I leave my office job. I have an outline of what I would like to accomplish.
One of the hardest things I am trying to overcome is that I am a compulsive over planner. A month ago I did a loose budget for the year til my Q-Day and realized I would be alright to start out. Two weeks later I did a hard drill down of most every penny and freaked myself out over whether I could really make it happen.
I was able to cool myself down and have stepped back on the hard details. I know that I have the keys, and am in the driver’s seat for this journey. My bags won’t be packed because I’m trying to ensure I don’t have any.
I went through a spell last month where I considered getting another job. But then like you mentioned, I snapped to and realized that I was just being lazy. So I set my date and I have a monetary goal for when I quit. I have started a local mastermind group of people who have the same goal.
For me, I know that I could replace my job income doing client work so I have more time to work on my business, but it’s something I’m not a big fan of. I also realized that client work could be something that I could like doing if I structured it properly. Saying that I don’t like it was also being lazy and not creative enough.
It’s nice to get some support that I am making the right decision though…thanks for the Monday morning kick in the ass.
Amazing post Corbett,
“You’re born, you grow up, you work at a job, you retire and enjoy yourself for a few years or a decade, you get old, and then you die.”
-M
This a wonderful post, but I would love to hear the experiences of those who have small children to support, while their spouse doesn’t have “full time” employment. Thanks.
I’ve been carefully building a tech company and waiting until all parts are in order before I quit my job. Well I got laid off last Friday and decided the hell with it, no time like the present. Two kids and a wife to support, not doing the tech thing right now but going to focus on doing client work. I sold for larger companies, now I’ll just sell for myself.
Sorry to hear that Thomas! Best of luck making the most of the situation. Keep us posted.
*breathe in* the universe is aligning itself for me. Just last week I was telling myself I would register my consultancy firm. This is a push in the right direction. No more procrastination for me. I have to set a Q-Date for me in 2012. Uni-Verse, the next person I’m working for will be me, yipee!
I left the w-2 world nearly 6 years ago and I can’t imagine going back. I am, as the quote goes “a great worker, but a lousy employee.” I have never held a job I actually enjoyed. Sure, maybe for a brief period of time, but overall, no. That’s not say I wasn’t good at my various jobs and careers, but who wants to excel at things they don’t want to do?
That dangerously comfortable feeling is complacency, and I am *uncomfortable* with complacency. So many people are lulled into complacency by a false sense of security. In a system where *at-will* employment means that one can be fired, for the most part, at any time and for anything, the whole concept of *job security* smacks of absurdity. Thinking/hoping that things are one way, but in reality are quite different, keeps us in a delusional state.
As a person who makes my own way in the world, unencumbered by society’s expectations for what would be the *right work* for me, I am always awake and present to opportunities and possibilities. I do not rest when times are good–when my business is booming, I still keep my feelers out there. I take full responsibility for my now and my future–and I congratulate others who do the same.
Great post, Corbett!
If I may play devil’s advocate, as someone who has worked for others and had my own business:
1. When you are young it can be useful to work for and with others.
2. If you are starting your own business many people find it best to work into it gradually, not quit outright and THEN try to figure it all out. Many businesses don’t turn a profit for at least a year or more…some never make it. Be a responsible adult and keep your job until you are well on your way to some sort of profit.
3. I went back to college and got a second masters degree…which I have never used, and which I am still paying off 10 years later. Sure, I learned a lot, but not nearly enough to justify the cost. I would urge anyone considering a career move or business to get as much support and information as possible. I am going to be working with a highly respected job coach starting in Jan. to help me figure out what I REALLY want to do and what is reasonable. It will be a lot of information gathering, a lot of introspection and self-honesty. And I will still have my job in the mean time, paying bills.
4.. Avoid burning bridges at your old jobs. Learn to keep your mouth shut, don’t complain, do your best, be responsible, don’t gossip, show up on time…as you may later get customers out of them. If not that, at least you took the higher ground.
Best of luck to everyone! Peace.
A bad day at golf is better than a great day at work. That’s what I have heard before. Doing anything is better than a day in a cubicle.
I plan on having this current job be my last. At least the last one where I do work that’s meaningless to me.
This is a post that kicks people in the nuts to wake them up.
I’m so happy to be reading this.
These are the very same reasons why I left my job past November. So far it has been a very interesting journey finding my real place in the self-employed world, but it’s coming along.
Rant ahead: And I truly hate those powerpoint presentations and meetings that are just a waste of time!
That’s why I work in smart ways to just never go back to a corporate job.
Thanks for this one Corbett. :)
I LOVE this post. It took me four jobs, but only two and a half years, to quit. Thankfully my bouncing around was somewhat acceptable in my industry. For me I was dealing with general discontent, lack of purpose and that “clueless about life” feeling at the time and I kept trying to change jobs to find some comfort. But it got harder and harder to be employed. So I gave notice at my last job in the middle of the week with nothing lined up. It was awesome. I did have to do some contract positions after that, but making the choice to stop being an employee had such a positive effect on my life. I think it’s impossible for me to ever go back. And I’ve had hard times, but it’s so worth it to have the freedom of time and the ability to do work I LOVE.
Crazy how comfort leads to digging ourselves into a larger hole.
I find myself somewhat in that comfort zone and it is damn scary knowing how easy time/life can fly by living comfortable.
I made a note of your mention of plan. I met with Caleb, your “employee”, here in AZ and this was one thing I fail at and he has always done great at. His plans for 2012 are amazing and motivated me to have a structured plan for 2012 by the end of the month.
Anyways, this was an encouraging post. Really enjoy these Corbett!
David Damron
http://pauseandponder.com
You know, after interviewing for (and getting) a couple corporate jobs that I didn’t accept: this made me realize why.
80 hours you trade for your soul. For time you can never get back.
And thank you for that swift roundhouse kick to the face, I needed to wake up.
You sir are the man.
Thanks Corbett.
I’ve been working for myself for 15 years, then I went down the drain and I decided to get a job. Then I got a job as a graphic in a local newspaper for the last 12 years. Comfort? They just went bankrupt last week.
THANK GOD.
Now I’m going back and try to work for myself again. Yes, it’s the most horrible period since WWII, I’ll be poor, I’m bloody scared, but I’ll try it even if I’ll have to eat “pane e cipolle” (bread and onions) for as long as it it takes.
Thanks again.
What a fantastic call to arms! I stepped out of mine earlier this year and am letting the momentum carry me. Every day I’ve been a thousand times happier, more challenged and learned a heck of a lot more.
Do it even if you have nothing to go to. Let the action carry you forward.
Corbett,
So far I’m 30 years old and have had almost over 8 jobs since I’ve left full-time education. Currently I work in a call-centre which just sucks the life out of me, it’s depressing and your post got me thinking. Recently I have been hearing a call to change my life but then I think what on earth could I do? At this point I just give-up and return to the real-world as the bills aren’t going to be paid by themselves.
Yeah to be honest, I would love to find my life’s work but where do I even start? It’s may day-off today and tommorow I’m back to the shitty callcentre, it just sucks.
Mitesh,
That has been something that worries me as well. I’m all for being my own boss, but what am I going to do? I have a lot of hobbies that I love that I would really want to be able to invest more time in. Most of them are older craftsman type work.
I also want to be able to travel and explore. Not sure what the best way is going to be to accomplish both of these tasks. Until I’m on the road I’ll never know. Right now I’m trying to establish my work to see what works. Then I will see what works on the road.
Zennifer makes several good points, especially about not burning bridges. I’ve been working with the HR director in my office to find out what areas I can improve in my office perception. If I can end my office career on a high note and this experiment fails I still have options. Else, I’ve just made myself a better employee for my new boss, me.
WOW Corbett! I don’t know where to start. I just found this post through one of Adam Baker’s tweets. I owe you both a huge THANKS, because now I know I’m not alone.
I read your post on the commute to my 9 to 5 this morning and I just sat down at my desk. It sucks and I hate being here!
I love the people, the job is easy and I get paid well, but it doesn’t scratch the itch I have to make a difference in the world. Almost a year ago, I decided that I will no longer work for anyone else, every again! So I started a blog and plan on growing it into a business.
I recently wrote a post called “Life’s Short and Your Time Is Being Stolen” which really shares the same sentiment as what you’ve written here. In February, I’m outta here! Yes, it scares the shit out of me, but there’s no other option.
Sometimes, you have to volunteer yourself into a “do or die” situation in order to bring out your full potential. Thanks for writing this and thanks for checking out my site. I’m new to the blogosphere and would greatly appreciate some extra eyes on my content.
Cheers!
Tony
No job has ever fulfilled me for more than a year, and I’ve given up more of them to travel than I can count.
Eventually though, I always got another one because the money ran out and I didn’t feel like I had another option.
Last month I walked away from my last job.
*Literally* my last job.
Thanks to you, Corbett, and people like you, I’m giving this whole location independent business thing a go. Will I succeed? Who knows, but I’m certainly not going to die wondering.
Bring it on.
You brought up a very relevant point, most jobs aren’t fulfilling or become routine within a year. Then you find, you can’t be promoted because only your boss actually benefits both financially and is viewed as a successful motivator because of what you are actually achieving. The boss will never leave he is on easy street, while you are stuck in monotonous toil and are usually compensated drastically less. Often, only one choice is being independent in today’s world.
I quit my job at Amazon because it sucked AND I had to commute 3 hours a day.
Now I have a slightly less lucrative paying job closer to home BUT I only commute 30 minutes a day. And I like it better, but…
I mainly did this so that I would have MORE TIME to plan and work on creating a lifestyle business that will ultimately enable me to escape the rat race for good.
So far so good and this post just reminded me of why I made my decision and hopefully my current job will be my last…
Very inspiring comments.
But still: HOW?
How does one go about this?
Does anyone recommend a good book or website that shows you how to do this?
Besides this one, of course! :)
I’m trying not to be a cynic here. I’m trying to shift my thinking so I believe this is possible. Because I sincerely have no idea how …
One of the most common books read is 4-Hour Work Week. A lot of people like that one because it gives you several specific steps to enforce your self confidence to make that type of change in your life. You can also check out http://chrisguillebeau.com The Art of Non-Conformity.
What it really comes down to is looking at your individual situation. You can read that book, Chris’ and Corbett’s sites until your blue in the face. Not everything in their story is going to line up with your story. It took me a little while for it to click that I couldn’t just follow their path to my success.
You need to be honest with yourself about what it is you really want. Are you just tired of working for the man? Or is it that you want the ability to work near the ocean in a tropical location. I’m more passionate about the ability to travel and see America so I keep an eye on ways to make that cost effective. Once you build enough strength and momentum towards that specific goal of yours you will be able to determine a Q-Day.
I want to not work for the man, do work I’m passionate about, give back and travel. And make some money along the way. I guess no different than anyone else … which is why I’m not sure I see the way out …
I’ll check out those books and the sites.
Thanks! I appreciate it!!
I fully understand. There are so many paths to take to make any or all of those things happen. I’d start with this article, http://zenhabits.net/1/. Then pick one of those things you want to work on.
One thing that got me started was participating with Team In Training. Members of my family have had blood cancers so there was a personal connection. I was able to give back to others, travel and work on my own health. Along the way I received basic lessons in marketing and fundraising.
My desire to give back opened up doors for travel. If you focus on one thing you are passionate about you will inevitably find ways to bring your other passions into the mix.
Even being self-employed is a job. Until you’re independently wealthy, the money has to come in from somewhere ti sustain yourself. You may not have a boss to report to or an office you’re required to sit in every day from 9 to 5, but you still have to answer to the people who ultimately may your “salary” – your clients.
I recently quit my job to travel for a year with a vision of working for myself afterwards. At this point, just over three months in,I’m leaning toward looking for another job instead, albeit in a different field and doing something I think will interest me more. I know at this point that I am someone who needs stability and a regular income and I think working for myself would leave me more stressed and miserable than I was in a 9 to 5 job.
I think people just need to be realistic about their strengths and weaknesses. As great as it sounds, being self-employed really isn’t the best option for everyone.
The great thing is, living in a developed country like America is easy. The country is free and we have great unemployment benefits.
Working for yourself has its own suckness to it, especially if you have to deal with clients or do your own customer service. People are assholes and you cannot quit working for yourself.
Thanks Corbett!
As someone who has been out of work since June 2011, this article really hits home. What you suggest is exactly what I want to do, not seek a job. I am writing daily and working to build content for the blog I have listed here, but I am still a ways from posting regularly and seeming further from monetizing anything.
And that is the point I would have hoped that you would address. It’s very easy to say “do’t take a job” or “quit your job” but it ignores the primary reason we have all held jobs in the past. It’s about the $!!!
Do you have any suggestions for bridging this gap, from earning a living to living the dream with no $?
I would love a post about surviving without a job and no income.
Thanks again Corbett!
A great idea is to sell a product online that sells THE DREAM of not having to work for yourself and earning money online. Whether the buyer fulfills that dream or not is a different matter. You’ve provided the instructions to do it, and you’ve made money from the sale.
The more you can sell the dream, the more money you can make! This is the beauty of internet marketing.
Sam
I quit my finance job for a lower paying job in radio that I love.
Whilst I agree that people shouldn’t do jobs they don’t like, I don’t think running your own business is the answer for everyone.
“During the worst days of working for yourself, you’ll be terrified, worried, anxious and full of self-doubt.”
This doesn’t sound that fun … I do a job I love, do it well and don’t have the pressure of the above … ever.
Happy it’s worked out for you and whilst running your own business maybe rewarding, it’s certainly not normally the answer to avoiding the long hours and not getting to take a vacation.
My two cents…
Ryan
Love your work Corbett. But what about those people who havent really been in the work force for that long, and cant really ‘freelance’ even if they wanted to. Im sort of a jack of all trades master of none kinda person in all aspects of my life, mainly because I like doing new things, I become proficient in it, then move on something else.
I feel stuck, because as much as I am disatisfied with corporate and office work, even though I havent been in it long. I dont know which direction to head to in regards to starting a business.
I feel the same way Yan. Waiting for Corbett to say something..
Yan & Anu,
I felt what you were feeling. I still have a lot of things I’m interested in doing. The great thing is that we have that variety to keep us interested.
Read this article. It will open your mind.
http://www.illuminatedmind.net/2011/10/05/one-true-calling/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IlluminatedMind+%28Illuminated+Mind%29
Glad to hear the passion of an entrepreneur coming through from the other side of the Pacific! Reading the previous comment by Yan – going out on your own means you must leave behind the notion of being a jack of all trades. You must become a master in opportunity making. Many small business owners try to be a jack of all trades, over-extend themselves and stagnate as a result. An entrepreneur is a master opportunity maker and stellar partnership deal breaker. Successful entrepreneurs get the value of partnerships as a growth multiplier. This is what lifts you out of the time for money trap.
Corbett – keep up the good work mate.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Corbett. Nobody quits a job they like, so that’s great you did quit your job.
If you like (not love) your job, do you think there is an income level that is too great to quit your job? i.e. what if you make $500,000 a year at a job you like and can only make up to $200,000 online, would you still quit?
How do you know if you’re doing great stuff online? Are we really doing “epic” stuff and writing “epic” things? Is this all in our imagination?
Thx,
Sam
Hi, Corbett. I met you last night at The Minimalists’ Meetup in SF. (I’m the one who told you about Peace Pilgrim.) This article ~ and others I plan to read ~ do inspire me. Many thanks.
Hey Marie! Thanks for stopping by here. It was great chatting with you as well. Cheers!
I am currently serving my 2 month notice period. This will be the 3rd time I left my job to work for myself. Each time the fear gets bigger the responsibilities gets heavier. I hope I will be able to come back 2, 3 years down the road and share my success.
Bob…How did your business turn out? I want to do the same thing but have cold feet about losing my salary, benefits, etc. etc. …
I think some people would be better served by making this a two-step process. First, accept that you’ve got the job you’ve got. Learn to appreciate the job you’ve got. Don’t worry about people (including Corbett :-) ) telling you you’ll never feel fulfilled until you work for yourself.
You may support a family with kids. Sleeping on your friend’s couch may not be an option for you. Having a dip in your income while you figure out how to earn a good self-employed living may not be possible right now. In short, your job might be a pretty good deal at the moment.
Meanwhile, if you spend all your time thinking about how unhappy you are with your job, then you’re making yourself unhappy on purpose, which I think is pretty dumb. Try and find the things you like about your job. Try and do more of those things. Try not to worry about promotions or office politics or which way the winds are blowing or what the Harvard Business Review tells you about managing your career or your personal brand or whatever. Just find enjoyment in what you are already are doing. Now take a deep breath.
Now, consider how you can gain entrepreneurial experience while still enjoying your current job. Start a business on the side. Don’t worry about replacing your entire salary. Just try to earn $1. Then earn $10. Then $100, and keep going from there. Join Corbett’s very own Million Dollar Blog Project. Think of it as opening an adult lemonade stand. You’re just trying things out to see what’ll work. There may even be interesting entrepreneurial opportunities you’re missing at work just because you’re all in a tizzy about hating your job.
In my experience, I’ve found this gradual approach works much better than beating yourself up over the fact that you haven’t started such-and-such business yet. I used to dislike my job. Now I like it. My job didn’t change, my mentality did. I just realized my job is actually pretty interesting, it pays well, I like the people, I get to work from home and see my wife and kids. And I can work on entrepreneurial stuff at night. And by relaxing about my future entrepreneurial plans, I gave myself the space to actually just try stuff and be willing to fail.
So far, I’ve learned how to make $40 a month. Not enough to quit my day job, obviously. But I’m starting to gain experience. I know it’s only a matter of time before I am working for myself. But the beauty is, it might take a long time, it might take a short time, but it doesn’t matter, because I am happy in the meantime.
Of course, there are people who can still go out and quit their jobs right away. Especially if you are single or can live off your spouse’s income. If so, that’s great! But I would still advise spending even a little time appreciating your current situation. After all, when you start working for yourself, you’ll still have to cede some part of your autonomy. After all, you have clients and need to help them, or go out of business, right? I think it’s worth spending time appreciating how to be happy with your current situation. If you’re always striving to reach somewhere else, there’s no guarantee working for yourself will make you happy. Even if you strike out on your own, and get a business off the ground, you may just start worrying about how you’re going to grow your business from $X per year to $2X per year, and how you’ll never feel happy until you grow your business to that level.
Now I also want to say every job situation is different. Your job truly might be terrible. You might, say, be verbally abused by your boss at work (or worse). In that case, yeah, get the hell out of there. Find another job if you have to while you work on your grand plans. Or perhaps, stand up to your boss and demand fair treatment. I’ve never had to do that, thankfully, so I don’t speak from experience there.
Ok that was a long comment. Hope it was helpful to someone. Cheers.
Thanks Pierre… that was helpful! As the bread-winning mom of two, that really lifted my spirits.
Last year, my life was pretty much focused on every single word that you have just said there. I set a date to make my job my last and started a site called “Man vs Clock” for public accountability.
Yes, there were moments of doubt, but there were NOTHING compared to my depression in my soul-sucking job. And here I am on the other side of the world and standing on my own two feet. It’s not easy but it’s a fucking mountain better than the feeling last year.
Great post!
hi Corbett Barr i seen your name brought up on pro blogger i live in a small town in NY called Perry i am trying to gain success in affiliate marketing. I would like to do this for many different reason. i think you for your information and i hope you continue to put out. thank you
I just loved reading this article. I found it so real that I kept reading to the end which I rarely do while reading blogs. Somehow you said the thing that’s so true in a simple and plain words. Three cheers for you, Corbett!
It really is making sense. I did quit my job few months ago with the same purpose of becoming an independent entrepreneur (even before I’ve read your blog). I never knew this things, not until I have joined a network marketing business and opened my mind. But I never stopped there since I understand the advantage of working for myself and to put up my own business. Getting out of the rat race as Mr. Robert Kiyosaki always saying. In fact his writings and ideas speaks a lot regarding these issues. One of the most inspiring books I’ve read about freedom is his book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Check it out too..
You made a very very good point here. Thanks for posting this!
I gave up my job 3 years ago and even though it’s not always easy I feel really good about it – so much more motivated and alive. Thoroughly recommend taking the leap. Boredom is a killer and I had some of the most boring jobs ever! Great article, thanks.
I found about your blog a couple days ago and I’ve been going through your posts all day long both days. I’ve liked all of them but so far this is one of my favorites I gotta say. As soon as I finish here I will jump into the “start a blog that matters” challenge…Great stuff Corb!
Thanks Joe! Welcome.
Here are my 2 cents:
Working a job gives someone else control over the majority of your life
When you’re in a job, someone else is ultimately in control of your well being. If you don’t like it but still stuck in the situation, I realized through my own story over the past few years that it’s your own fault of letting it happen. The reason is the lack of discipline to prevent the consequences. Taking time off w/o facing consequences when I realize I needed the time off is an attractive factor for me. Ironically, taking time off in a poor timing last year accelerated my demise that resulted in my resignation a few weeks later.
You’ll never be younger, and you’ll never be fully prepared
There’s a cognitive dissonance reversal technique that I really like from Ramit Sethi. “You’re going to a year older. How would you want to see yourself a year from now?”
Live on your parents’ couch or live off your spouse’s earnings for as long as it takes.
I have reservations about that personally. If this option isn’t available, I don’t think going overseas to teach English (provided that you saved enough money for the certification, airfare, and a year’s worth of living expenses) while figuring the products out on the rest of the time is all that bad.
Corbett, this post is great! Timely as well. I have been working for myself for a few years. I had to take a job to cover some expenses before revenue comes and I just gave my notice 1 week ago. Man, do I FEEL GREAT! My body is in pain when I am hear (triggers I guess.. or signs from the universe) – working for yourself is the most challenging and equally so, the most rewarding. I am actually reading this while at work… can’t wait for the feeling of freedom again. Thanks man and keep up the greatness !!!
So.. My wife and I have been going back and forth about working vs. working for yourself for the last few months and while I do believe in working for yourself I’ve always put more effort into getting a higher paying job with better perks 45 hours here 55 hours there.. You know.
Yesterday she shot me the link to your blog and immediately I was overwhelmed with awesome titles but I decided to give this one a read first. And I’m not sure if you and my wife have conspired against me, but a bit of self discovery has taken place while sitting here at Starbucks.. And I agree, my priorities are slightly backwards..
Thanks Corb, now I must explain to my wife I agree with her. Smh.
“”Fear is what keeps most people from doing extraordinary things in life”
-Corbett Barr
Why should I spend close to 50% of my waking hours during the most healthy and vibrant period of my life at a job?
-Corbett Bar
Corbett – this is such a fantastic thread. I was fired from my job (that I hated) last August. Had the opportunity to go do some sub-contracting work for a former business associate and just did it. I’ve since found 2 other part time clients and now get to call my own shots. I work my ass off everyday but I’m the boss, I can say what & when I do stuff and if I don’t like a client site that I’m working at then it’s my own fault! There is no comparison to slaving away for someone else. For those sitting on the fence, I’ll say that even under the worst circumstances possible (unemployed, unfunded, miserable and basically broke) there is supreme power in knowing that YOUR destiny/income/happiness is in YOUR hands.
Supreme power indeed, David :)
Hey Corbett,
Spot on article man.
I stopped being available for hire a few years ago, it hasn’t been easy but I’m still here and loving it.
When I was in college my dream was actually working at some high tech building, with a nice office and a huge paycheck.
In reality I was working in a cubicle, for peanuts and being fucking trolled all the time by everyone above me.
A few years later, I was doing solo freelance work, got hired temporarily for a huge project and this time, the paycheck was indeed, huge but then I realized what I couldn’t stand…
I wasn’t free anymore.
I couldn’t take ANY kind of vacations, any days off, my time was absolutely owned by the company.
One day I decided I had enough of idiotic bosses and all their shit and planned not one, but TWO trips.
One to run on the Human Race at Los Angeles and another one visiting a new place in South Mexico.
Needless to say, I felt like fucking Tyler Durden when I was telling my boss I was leaving for that trip.
They were so confused that I don’t think they got mad at me and just accepted my decision of leaving the project temporarily.
When I finally got back, they had already gone through what actually happened and they were not happy but I didn’t care and just kept doing my work.
By the end of the project, they gave me the common good bye speech:
“we loved your work, we have more planned things in which you could easily fit with us, blah, blah”.
I just thanked them and told them I was not going to get any gigs after that one.
I kept my word.
Best decision ever.
Sergio
Well written Corbett.
For those on the defense of his advice, ya you definitely need a plan and need to be prepared to break down all of your mental barriers and self imposed limitations. You need to be ready to master yourself before you take the plunge.
If that sounds like it is too much and you are not ready to take on yourself, maybe you are not ready to live life as an entreprenuer. The comments made about not everyone being able is true if you do not want to conquer yourself. Some don’t. That is half assing life though in my opinion.
If you are married and have a family to support, does your partner work? Could you sacrifice the short term and make it while your business develops? The speed of that process is entirely up to you.
When you commit mentally and break down the excuses you can design your future and master yourself. Quite fulfilling in my opinion.
I agree, wholeheartedly, with everything you wrote. I’ve always hated jobs for the precise reasons that you’ve outlined. Yet, after graduating university a couple years ago, I was thrust into that sea of resume-toting hopefuls, going “Pick me! Pick me!” And I was never picked. No matter how many times my resume was optimized and critiqued, no matter how kickass my cover letters were, no matter how charming I was at the interview (and I’m damn charming), I was still unemployed. So degrading–or so I thought. At the end of last year, I had enough. I was sick of getting nothing all the time and thought, “If no one wants to hire me, then I’ll just hire myself.” Best decision I’ve ever made. I’m living life on my own terms, the way I was meant to live it. Sure, it’s tough sometimes, but what isn’t tough? There’s a saying that goes, “If life isn’t challenging, then you’re doing it wrong.”
Hi Corbett,
You’ve charged me up :D. I am working in public sector bank in India right now.. & I want to be like you… a small business, time for myself, my interests.
You’re right – why I waste my precious 8-10 hours of my best time in a fuc*ing cubicle? Accompanying huge targets that I myself know can never complete them…
Thanks
Guilty as charged. I’m lazy.
We were doing it…working on our own stuff and then one day the phone stopped ringing.
I freaked and got a job
This was 2 years ago.
*Grunt*
Powerful stuff Corbett!
I noticed a lot of similarities between quitting a job you don’t like and deciding to go on a long term travel escapade.
Both are all about morphing ‘the someday’, to the ‘tuesday (or whatever day.)’
Salud, -i
Very interesting blog. I related to many of your points, especially the one about spending your most healthy years doing something you don’t like. That being said, sometimes one has no choice – family to support, no savings. I am lucky enough, that my spouse is working and was
able to get a position in their field after I had lost two jobs I had for a long time. This is very fortunate for us, since we have children and my unemployment benefits would not be near enough to support us.
That said my benefits are to run out soon and am contemplating my previous work experiences and what I want to do with my life. The time off has given me perspective on my purpose and
place in this world. Rather than feeling guilt as I had previously, lately I have been as productive
at home, and helpful in general – fixing things, being a better parent etc…
My last positions were in sales and if I’m honest with myself can not see myself doing this kind
of “chasing”, “pick me” job anymore. I know this is my best an most lucrative option, based on my experience but this is so played out over parts of three decades that it’s justt tired.
In examining my motives , I realize that mostly I did this work cause it’s what I fell into – out
of default. When I think of all the repetitive calls to potential sales, the obnoxious comments
from the people I worked for I realize this is not what I want.
No, it wasn’t so bad – I worked for a large part on my own terms ( although technically working
for someone else). This was how I was able to do it for so long. So I was comfortable and made
a decent living and got to spend a good amount of time with my family. But, if I look at what I
was doing and how I really feel about it , I want something else. Also, its not feasible to think
similar autonomous opportunities where I have the best of both worlds is out there.
Anyways, my canvassing days I feel are used up and although I’m good at it I need to do
something other than it.
The question now is what?
This is great. I love that I just found this post today. I AM getting laid off. I’ve been putting a lot of time and effort into finding a replacement job. And I HAVE been asking myself questions about why in the world would I want to find another job so that I can eventually feel trapped and constrained again.
What real sense does it make to gain all this “work experience” to further restrain what you are able to do in life. What about life experience, man? Where is THAT taught and promoted in schools?
I actually just wrote a blog post about this same subject that I won’t link to here. But just wanted you to know we’re on the same chapter, even if almost a year apart in our own books.
Hey did you ever end up working for yourself? If so, what did you create? I want to work for myself but I don’t know where to start. This article resonates deeply with me and how I feel is identical to the words written but I feel trapped. So was just wondering if you pursued self employment and how that is working out for you.
The insights are those of one that has been through it before. It’s impossible to substitute the experience of going through self doubt and fear. You forgot to mention how many times you will fall, smash your face and have to get back up, wipe off the blood and keep at it. There’s no safety net, but that also makes it exciting.
No question about how good it is to work for yourself. I can attest to this after getting out of the “working for others” mode and going on my own 3 years ago. I LOVE WORKING FOR MYSELF!!!!
Here’s 10 quick reasons why I LOVE working for myself…
1. FREEDOM! Every morning I decide how my day is planned.
2. INCOME! Every dime I make gones directly to me and not the bosses big annual raises.
3. TRAFFIC! No more 47 mile daily commutes. In my pjs at home.
4. NO OFFICE POLITICS! It’s so funny how everyone conforms to each other on the job.
5. HEALTH! I go out and work out ANY TIME I WANT.
6. FAMILY TIME! Monday is the same as Friday…unbelievable that most people only get 1 or 2 weeks off a year to vacation.
7. NO UNFAIR BOSS! Amazing how many people put up with unreasonable bosses and can’t do anything about it.
8. THINK FOR MYSELF! Working for others made me have to conform to their dumb rules.
9. FREEDOM! Have to say this one again…It’s the daily freedom that is great!
10. INCOME! Have to say this one again…the sky is the limit…
I loved this article. I shared it with all my friends and family. I am 34, divorced father of 3yr old twins. I have been in the landscape industry for 16 years. I climbed up every ladder possible and now am in a respectable position with a salary of 65-70k annually. I previously started a landscape company with $3,000.00 and a lot of determination. In my first year I did 129k in sales, 2nd I did 250k in sales and in the 3rd I did 350k and all with good margins. But… I started the company with a partner and gave him 40%, while I made mistakes he did not hold up his end as all customers were always saying my partner said he would come back and never did, then my boys were born and winter hit and selling the company off and getting a job was the only solution…
Now here I am almost 4 years later and have been working a regular job and slowly rebuilding since my divorce and all is ok but living tight on cash and it literally hurts to sit at my desk m-f knowing I should be doing my own thing! So… 2 weeks ago a friend of mine reminded me of what i was meant to do and that is be my own boss.
Since I was reminded, I have built my website (www.reslandscapemd.com) and got all my online marketing completed. I have built my business plan and am ready to start selling but I still currently have my job (Had to hide my comment post as my boss walked up) as it pays my bills. The problem is that I still need to get the money to get my truck and equipment set back up. So thats my next step.
The reason I am commenting is for the people who have never tried going into business for themselves… If you ever want anything more that your regular 9-5 and the satisfaction of building something on your own this is the best route. I wish you all luck.
This is the best article I read this weekend. The momentum and motivation it gives us pushes us hard to go take action today and build our dream lifestyle.
The most amazing words are I loved are by Corbett Barr when he says “Take a weekend by yourself to really think about this challenge. Go away for a couple of days and ask yourself life’s hard questions. Ask what you really want your life to be about. What do you want to try, to experience, to accomplish?”
Btw, the amount of knowledge and connections we got from Fizzle is amazing and thanks for the trio at ThinkTraffic
How to give up a job that has given the right to complain. Life is not always about choices….
This post is just what I needed to read today! I have been feeling this miserable way for so long…like there HAS to be something more out there for me. Something more fulfilling, something I can do that I most days I can feel happy. I am a Graphic Designer who was working for a company that I didn’t really like working for for too many reasons. I’ve been flirting with the idea of being self-employed for so, so long, I feel like whatever it is that will make me happy it will have to be something where I am in control. I recently got laid off from the company I was with and am trying to find that thing that will make me happy and that I can commit to. I am scared! I’m scared I won’t succeed, I am scared that I won’t be able to stay motivated and people are already making me feel like shit for taking the steps to apply for unemployment benefits…like they think my efforts should be put into applying for a new job rather than worrying about unemployment. I just can’t stand the thought of going back to a job where I work my ass off just to be underpaid, with no raises (3 years without one) and made to feel guilty for taking vacation to go visit my family who live across the country for 1 week and whom I miss excruciatingly! The thought of it actually makes me feel like I just want to scream so loud that I break free of my skin ad just run away…don’t know how else to explain it. :) I have to do this!!! I just have to and reading posts like this, of people with like thoughts, who have taken the plunge and succeeded really helps!
Hey Maya… don’t be afraid. I guess I’m writing that to encourage you but I’m afraid too. Almost 80, 000 in debt from college, & actively searching for careers & only ending up at jobs paying less than 12 an hour I too am at a point where I’m frustrated, ready to take charge, & explore the non traditional route. My last job I sat in a 4’x4′ cubicle answering phones 10 hours a day with only a 30 min lunch & 2 15 minute breaks!!!!!! Then I thought Enough!…. I can do this myself!
Like you, I came to this article for encouragement & I say chase what yours, be free to live unchained by the mundane 9-5 the majority of the country lives for. I’m going to give this all that I have. I refuse to commit to 20-30 years of my life stuck 8 hours a day 5 days a week under someone else’s approval.
Sir, how can some article exactly speak out what i was thinking in my 2 years of working. i am jobless for past 4 months and living on my parents couch as u mentioned, i am totally terrified with the idea of even looking for a job….the problem is i have to do lot of talking to myself…..coz my family has turned against me and fear has started to creep in. The feeling of rejection is killing me everyday. This article has now given me so much confidence sir. all i need is some time but no one is supporting me as they think its my next new excuse of not working.i dont have money for even a smoke, in my pocket, i recently sold my watch for some bucks to handle atleast a months petty expenses, but still now i have decided that i will not look for a job, Thank you so much Sir.
grow up and stop feeling sorry for yourself
I found this article when I searched for: working for somebody else is depressing. I’m fortunate to have had a 15+ year career in my field, but I just can’t do it anymore. I force myself to do the work, then I’m so stressed when I get home that I just want to de-stress or sleep as opposed to being productive. It’s a vicious cycle.
I feel like I’ve sold the best years of my life for a pittance. I’d give up everything to be 18 and broke again. I just want my life back, so I can live it on my own terms. I would rather work for myself and make 80% less than continue on what I’m doing. Some days it feels like it would take a gun to my head to motivate me, other days I would say screw it, pull the trigger. I’m tired of wishing for the clock to say 5pm – I’m essentially wishing my life away. If this is all life is about then what’s the point?
That said, I think I’m going to resign within the next 3 months. Something is different this time, and my will to participate in the corporate lifestyle is completely gone. I already have a small profitable business, several great connections, and many other promising projects with varying levels of dust on them.
Great article. Please read below I need IDEAS
For me its not necessarily FEAR that’s keeping me away from living my dreams.
It’s more that I simply cannot identify with certainty a lifestyle or plan that would make me happy.
All I know is I can’t stand sitting at a desk all day just because someone is paying me a monthly wage to do so. I’m only 25, but when I studied my BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION degree, I never imagined that corporate work would be so dull.
If I could for example have more freedom like:
– Work from anywhere instead of being shackled to desk.
– Work based on actual deliverables. Instead of right now just being paid to sit 9-8 at a desk waiting for my manager to give me any assignment. I wish I could just have some kind of goal with my manager telling me “Ok you have 1 week to do it. I dont care if you’re in office or how you do it. Go”.
I am basically SICK AND TIRED of this stupid existence based on office life.
FUCK THE OFFICE. SINCE WHEN is work supposed to be being chained at a desk instead of actually producing something for the company?
I dont even mind making that profit for the company not for myself…Its just the way that I AM SHACKLED that I hate:
– The “20 days per year that you are free” (if you are lucky). What bullshit mentality that is.
– The “you have to show your face at office AND FUCKING MEETINGS is more important than actual work delivered” ideology.
= HONESTLY I WOULD RETHINK MY JOB COMPLETELY if I had more freedom to execute the day the day stuff AS I SAW FIT.
I thought about working for google or similar…
But hey what do they do different? They just have cool office and free lunches and stuff…But at end of day you are still shackled to office. Its a GOLDEN OFFICE but still same bullshit!
Any idea guys?
You just need to find work that’s intellectually interesting, provides a dynamic I enjoy. I learned programming, and now work in that field. Even in a soul sucking office where I may see business types hate what they’re doing, I enjoy what I am doing because everyday I am challenged to use my mind in really challenging and interesting ways.
I share your same feelings exactly, I am a female and I ENVY my boyfriend’s labor intensive job because at least he’s moving around, being outside I tell him all the time he doesn’t know how lucky he is because my desk job is killing my spirit. I constantly think at my desk this cannot be what we as human beings are meant to spend our days doing. I need to explore! Make connections, valuable relationships, do work with meaning, help others, make a difference, love….so many other things with my ONE SHOT AT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. NOT waste it away working in a corporate office so ONE person can get rich. I feel stuck, I want to be self employed or create something, but I don’t know where to start. Was just wondering if you were able to make any changes in your work field and find something you love?
Sabrina love what you said. I doubt you still read this but if you do. I think we should get married and start a business lol.
This is me too! 😩
Hey Wolf, your post describes everything I feel too.I too did not realize how much I would hate office work until I got there. Some people don’t understand how crushing working in a desk/cubical enviroment is. After four years, I am tired of it. I feel like I am in a cage trying to claw out! Some people are okay with it. I need to feel like I am doing something. See the product of my labors. Here is some food for thought.
1)Try teaching esl abroad.
2)Actually, welders make a lot of money. A lot of skilled trades( “Dirty jobs”) make a lot of money, because they are so in demand and there is a massive shortage. I have heard of some people in trades, the ones who are not settled and like adventure, pick short term contacts for a few monthes (ie. 6 monthes) and then take the rest of the year off and travel or do things they want. Downside to some trade jobs is that you have looooong shifts. My cousin has long shifts, but only has to work three days a week. He always does overtime and makes twice as much money. The other cool thing is if you do learn a trade like carpentry or electrical, peacecorp and other orgs are very willing to accept you. So in theory, you can work part of the year, make enough money to last you a year (if you are single and have no dependents) and then travel or volunteer the rest.
3)You can also become a seafarer, there are companies/unions that will train you for pretty much free, and you get to travel the world. Once you get experience under your belt you can have more freedom on where you want to work.
As I write this, I realized responding to your post has helped me see my own future path clearer. I think I am going to check out a welding apprenticeship.
Anyway, good luck on your endeavors.
Damn, this resonates so strongly, which to be honest, is scary. I’ve been out of school less than 6 months and have been continuously asking myself what the hell I am doing. My job is quite honestly “fantastic” by the traditional metrics. I’m 22, earn 6 figures, get 4 weeks vacation a year and 3 day weekends in exchange for 11-12 hour days Mon-Thurs. My family is obviously proud and thinks I made out far better than they did.
I despise every second of it.
I moved to an area with mountains for my job which I was initially ecstatic about, but I don’t even enjoy them now as I did before. I find myself on autopilot through my work week and then spending my days off asking why the hell I spent four years in school to end up doing THIS.
Shackled is the perfect term. I want to leave, to be free, to explore. Working for those 4 weeks of vacation….the singular 4 weeks of living in the year is simply ludicrous. Most people scoff and say it’s just part of life, but what LIFE is there when 92% of it is spent in misery for the brief respite of the remaining 8%? Hell, even for that 8% it’ll be in the back of your mind you have to return to the rat race in just a short time.
What baffles me the most is that my coworkers who are fresh graduates, and one who I even went through school with, seem to be entirely content. Even worse, when I hint at my dissatisfaction with this lifestyle they look at me as if I’m crazy. Their expressions seem to say, “Why wouldn’t you want to spend 70% of your waking LIFE for at least the next 30 years commuting to work then sitting at a desk working to meet corporate dictated targets in an industry you have no passion for?”.
“It’s more that I simply cannot identify with certainty a lifestyle or plan that would make me happy”.
Right there…spot on. I’m doing this because I have no idea what else to do despite being miserable on a daily basis.
Ironically, as far back as I can remember I planned to go to school to get one of these well paid office jobs to avoid going into a blue collar field as my parents did. Funnier still, I’ve even gone to give in class presentations to high school students about my “great job” as part of my company’s outreach efforts. I find myself saying generic positive things and feeling like I’ve sold out myself already just to convince the next kid to work his way down to the same Hell.
While I find myself thinking blue collar may be better, I think it may be just a case of “the grass is greener on the other side”. The heart of the issue is I can’t imagine spending a year, much less 30+, working to satisfy quarterly goals and share holder interests from either a desk or with a wrench in my hands. A traditional 9-5 type position simply brings no sense of purpose or fulfillment to my life.
In the end I’ll just need to grow a pair of balls and quit, ditch the safety net and the chains attached to it. There’s a whole world out there and I don’t want to die regretting not having strode out into it.
You are on the right path. it all starts with dissatisfaction, then change will occur.
I have to say that a six figure salary at 22 is pretty incredible. May I ask what field you/were are in? You don’t have to be specific with comany name or anything, but I’m guessing it’s a developer job of some sort.
Obviously just bullshit.
…ah, we need to talk about your TPS reports…
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I couldn’t have said that better myself, I feel like I have no control over my life. I want freedom to do what I want and how I want! my place of work feels like a prison.
Very inspiring words and thank you for writing them. I’ve felt that way about work for pretty much my entire working life and I know in my heart I can do better and create a legacy for myself by doing something else.
My problem is that I don’t know what that something else is. There’s a couple of things that I absolutely love, but as a career path, none of them are at all realistic.
Very good article and inspiring. I would like to see more people follow this, as I finally got the balls to a few months ago. Everyone has a talent, which if they can turn into a marketable skill, can start a side business (LLC only costs about $700 one-time for life) and slowly move away from bosses who just want to abuse people.
Love this! Cheers
Eh. There’s no advice that’s right for everyone. Maybe being self-employed is what does it for you, but it’s not the best option for everyone. People need to learn to think for themselves. If you want to tell people the benefits of being self-employed, fine. But I find it a little annoying when writers act as if they know what’s best for everyone else.
Excellent article. I just graduated from college, and I’ve been in the rut of sending out resumes, which has been getting me depressed. I know that money is important, but I want to do something more than your typical office job. My parents keep telling me that I should do something with my degree, but even that seems boring. It just seems that most people go to school. college, work, retire, then die, and I want to change this.
One of my hobbies is writing, and I’m currently on the last stages of my novel, but does anyone know of other ways to make money writing online? It could still take a while for my novel to get done, and I need to make a living in the mean time. I think writing online would be a lot more freedom than working in an office. If you any ideas, please let me know.
Most studies shows that entrepreneurs do worse that employees on levels of pay. While certainly the freedom can make up for this, people who become self-employed should be aware of the sacrifice they often make.
Being employed isn’t that bad if you make a lot of money and save it, and if your job is intellectually interesting.
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(1)If you want your ex back.
(2) if you always have bad dreams.
(3)You want to be promoted in your office.
(4)You want women/men to run after you.
(5)If you want a child.
(6)[You want to be rich.
(7)You want to tie your husband/wife to be yours forever.
(8)If you need financial assistance.
(9)Herbal care
10)Help bringing people out of prison
Contact him today on:
[email protected]
……..
So how much of your hard earned money did Papa Ork scam you out of for putting the voodoo hex on your vajayjay?
you must be very stupid, hoe
Hello everyone, I’m in a similar situation to a lot of you. I am tired of working at a job where my job security is wrapped around how much my superiors like me. It’s not natural. I want to be self-employed for so many reasons…
At the end of the day, no matter how many countless hours I spend trying to do the best job I possibly can, I’ll never own any part of this company. How can I keep finding motivation to strive when there will be constant increases in cost of living but no control over the increase in my wage?
I desperately want to find a way for my income to be dependent on how hard I’m willing to work. Working hard is something I’m not afraid of, but working hard for no improvement? That’s just crazy.
I want to break this cycle of being a modern day slave to a failing system. I want to work for myself and I believe we can all take part in the dream if we work together.
I have one skill that really sets me apart and my entrepreneurial success is dependent on it…I am an excellent web designer. I can create astoundingly-beautiful interactive websites. I can build them fast (3-5 days) too, and I can do it cheap. If any of you want to take a leap out of monotonous work life and need a website, email me: [email protected]
Great article, wonderful comments –
Okay, so here’s some advice from someone on the other end of the spectrum; I’m 61 years old, spent many, many years in that cubicle job and also telecommuting the same kind of work, medical transcription. Worked out good when the kids were young, I could stop long enough to pick them up at school and had a modicum of freedom, but then voice recognition technology got adopted and the pay got even worse (it’s piecework in any event) and I got laid off. I’m living now on fumes and my partner’s SS and pension money; it’s not much but we make do.
So, I here’s what I’ve learned as options:
Look into the ‘tiny homes’ movement. No mortgage, small amount of living space, parked on someone’s rented land (hopefully a win-win situation, maybe an older couple who need help with the big house or yardwork, or just the security and fun of having someone young around). If you have a small house, you’ll be far less likely to be taken into the ‘buy, buy, buy’ merry-go-round of Stuff You Don’t Need.
For god’s sakes, turn off your teevee. No one can think straight with that propaganda machine on. It’s poison and you need to wean off of it.
A reverse idea of the ‘tiny house’ movement would be to buy a bigger house with a good sized fenced in yard, build a tiny house or granny apartment in the back, then rent out the big place. You get to pick your new tenants for compatibility. Again, hopefully a win-win. Let them build your equity, if any.
If you want to start up a small business of some kind that requires an ‘office’, check out Craigslist for small office space in a large building. It’s technically not legal to live in them (supposedly a huge building with sprinklers and fire alarms isn’t safe to sleep in, who knew?, what a racket life is) but all you really need is 100 SF, a computer, a bed roll, a good chair, access to a bathroom and kitchenette, right? A lot of places now have showers available for bike commuters, and if not, find a place a short drive away from a 24 hour gym. Two problems solved for cheap; you’ll be more inclined to work out at your leisure, the showers are there,($39 a month!) and you can come and go as you want, especially in a large building with 24 hour access; no one will notice, trust me. If possible, drive a car that’s van-like, and store most of your stuff there, maybe even sleep in it part time. Use a friend’s address, the office address and a PO box for ‘proof of residency’. Alternatively, lots of people have spent their days at a tech incubator (now springing up all over, or start one yourself) and nights in their car. Dicey at times but you do what you have to do.
Just don’t do it so you can ‘get rich and buy a big house in Mountain View’. Do it so you can get freedom…, not a millstone around your neck and a demanding, spoiled, materialistic partner…
If you have some sq footage outdoors available to you, anything more than a patio, look into aquaponics (if not, look into renting a friend’s space, the area behind a church or school, or just raw land or a parking lot, for that matter; you don’t need dirt for this; a 1/8 acre size flat space, a couple $K, and you can have a business up and running that will not only provide YOU with organic food, but several neighbors at $1-2 a head of lettuce, (10,000s of heads a year, year round) or fancy greens to a local restaurant or farmer’s market, or…. even works in a food desert. Look on line for huge amounts of info on this, and YT is loaded with videos too. One guy Will Allen in Milwaukee is growing one million pounds of food/yr on 3 acres of an old greenhouse and he’s got the whole community involved, teaching kids in the inner city how to make a living for themselves. He gets brewery remains from the local breweries and coffee grounds from coffee shops, uses that for compost and to feed chickens and worms which are fed to the fish, which make the water that feeds the plants. Full circle, organic, brilliant. Then he bags up the compost and resells it, and the eggs. Obviously this will need to be adapted to your climate but with some tweaking and possibly half-burying the greenhouse into the ground for insulation, it’s doable anywhere. Uses 5% of the water of normal farming, too. It’s the newest form of farming and it will break Monsanto’s choke hold on our food.
Okay, here’s another idea: Now that the babyboomers are aging, there’s a huge call in all areas, but especially the richer parts of the country (think San Francisco and San Diego) for live-in help, home aides and companions, meaning you may be able to score a room in a beautiful house in return for helping someone with meals, shopping, driving to stores, beauty salons, doc appts, etc. All of these jobs are part time and if live-in will include room, board and a pay check. Great way to get into a very tight housing market.
Not all older people are crazy Alzheimer’s patients who are difficult to live with; many are wonderful with a wealth of experience and good humor who simply can’t drive anymore because of their eyes, or are getting frail. Again, look for a win-win situation, best for all concerned. Not all of these jobs require experience, the ‘companion’ ones especially. You can get a small amount of training if you want to do the more medically oriented ones, but we’re talking less than 50 hours of training. Look at Craigslist, they’re screaming for people. The pay is low, often $11 an hour (the service charges $20) but in return for room and board and being paid to sleep but ‘on call’ if the client needs you…?) Not bad. Once you have some experience you can self advertise and charge say $15 an hour, but pocket the whole amount yourself. Again, win-win for everybody.
Okay, that’s all I can think of but good luck everybody. Sorry us old people left you with such a mess; if you can think of a way of overthrowing the govt, getting rid of D.C., Langley, that area under the Denver Airport (COG HQ) and that spy place in Utah, feel free. Oh, and watch the YT videos wherein G Edward Griffin tells about the Federal Reserve (The Creature From Jekyll Island, and yeah, it’s a horror movie alright) and also the one about ‘The Cure for Cancer’. Both those will be more of an education than anything you ever learned in school…. to whatever extent you can, DO NOT PAY TAXES, it only encourages the real terrorists, and they’ll spend it on bombs and goons to come after you. (9-11 was a nuclear event, it’s been proven now. How’s that upset your paradigms?)
Last but not least, check out this guy: If this isn’t the second coming (once removed :) and a grand lesson in how freeing ‘unschooling’ is, I don’t know what is: http://intothegardenofeden.com/
I quit my job and only 6 months later, made more than I used to at my old job. A year later I’ve doubled my old corporate salary. No programs, gimmicks, paying for anything else. Get off your ass and get it done, don’t buy into any BS where you need motivation or pay for anything.
Really? Doing what?
Old saying about a “job” – it’ll keep you :
J-ust
O-ver
B-roke
“Unplug-shrug”
;)
Did you accomplish it? Your post is 2 months old by now that’s why I’m asking.
This article moved me too. I have been in the work force for over 25 years. The current job is full time and I have been in over a decade. I have been working with my sister on ideas for our own business. Just the other day, I texted her and asked her to start drawing up an outline for a business plan we could work out. I ended up in counseling cause of my current job, but, it was a blessing in disguise, along with this article. Thanks a million for sharing and sharing your own experience. Jealousy in the workplace is only too real.
Hi Melissa, I went through a very similar scenario a few months ago. Getting fired was probably the best thing that could have happened to you. Adversity seems to bring out the best in successful people. Keep the faith!
I’d agree with all of this except for one thing. IF you do move out of that corporate job then any chance you want to move to another leading country (not third world) goes out the window with it. I hate living in britain, the country is like a soggy newspaper, once held it all, now, not fit for wiping your ass with. Thats how I feel. So after a long time thinking about it, I decided Maybe just moving will give me the get up and go I dont feel here. Why? well because its a new land, new people, different cultures and to me, britain is just drab, plain old bread a butter…its boring and its just tiresome. BUT GUESS WHAT!!?? Without that sucky, stupid corporate crap you will not get that chance to leave this country….so much for freedom. So where would I choose to go? I’d go to canada, usa, australia…asia etc is not my cup of tea to live in though. Even still….no chance. So as much as this article wakes up that passion for my own business it dies when I realise I have to stay here my whole life….a country I cannot stand and I have NO choice but to stay.
Most job’s today are dependent on who you know to get hired and who you blow or know to get promoted. The American workplace is ridiculous and only management is viewed as having all the intelligence or is the only one’s deserving reasonable compensation.
Agreed. I worked at a call center about 10 years ago, and they started doing some iffy things, like moving all the calls to a certain part of the sales floor.
Some of the managers also refused to help a lady on the floor, and one lady (who showed up to work late because of a car accident) was told that she would be fired if that ever happened again.
Also, a guy I know quit about a year later after I was fired from this company. A co-worker jumped on his lap at a bar over the weekend, and when they came back on Monday, he was accused of sexual harassment.
This is my testimony about the good work of a man who helped me….My name is maria cooker … My life is back!!! After 8 years of marriage, my husband left me and left me with our three kids. I felt like my life was about to end, and was falling apart. Thanks to a spell caster called papa ork who i met online. On one faithful day, as I was browsing through the internet, I was searching for a good spell caster that can solve my problems. I came across series of testimonies about this particular spell caster. Some people testified that he brought their Ex lover back, some testified that he restores womb, some testified that he can cast a spell to stop divorce and so on. There was one particular testimony I saw, it was about a woman called grace,she testified about how papa ork brought back her Ex lover in less than 72 hours and at the end of her testimony she drop papa ork e-mail address. After reading all these,I decided to give papa a try. I contacted him via email and explained my problem to him. In just 3 days, my husband came back to me. We solved our issues, and we are even happier than before. papa ork is really a talented and gifted man and i will not to stop publishing him because he is a wonderful man…If you have a problem and you are looking for a real and genuine spell caster to solve that problem for you. Try the great papa ork today, he might be the answer to your problem. Here’s his contact: [email protected] Thank you great ork. Contact him for the following:
(1)If you want your ex back.
(2) if you always have bad dreams.
(3)You want to be promoted in your office.
(4)You want women/men to run after you.
(5)If you want a child.
(6)[You want to be rich.
(7)You want to tie your husband/wife to be yours forever.
(8)If you need financial assistance.
(9)Herbal care
10)Help bringing people out of prison
Contact him today on:
[email protected]
Good luck to you Reem. Hope it all works out for you. Take your time, but don’t let the dream of freedom die.
You are in trouble. Not because your future is threatened by the idea and pressures of resuming work, but because you have tasted a life of freedom! No slave ever wants to go back to slavery once they get a taste of freedom. The main thing you must do, among a few, is to psychologically cling to your freedom, Refuse to settle back into a comfy corporate slavery. This is a very important thing. you cannot fully actualise your self employment potential while you are still gazing over your shoulder. Your self employment is a complete and full road of life. it is not a little distraction, or a minor diversion. Embrace it, then take tiny small steps forward. All business begins when we can give something of value to a person who wants it enough that they will pay for it. Your music may be what someone else wants to hear and pay for.
Or your gifts of writing. Good luck.
Temporarily inspiring, but the missing ingredients are true ambition and a workable concept vs. vague ideas. Not everyone is cut out to be self-employed, and that’s not a cop-out. You need a viable product that isn’t already saturated, and your customers end up being your boss with nobody but you (or an employee) to buffer the difficult ones. You can end up working much longer hours to fill gaps that others used to take care of in a company. It takes a certain type of workaholic to pull that off, though I’m not denying that there’s more satisfaction for those who can.
There’s b.s. on both sides. You might as well be on the side where you can take a day off without having to beg for it a month in advance.
agreeeeeee!!!
Thanks for the punch in the face Corbett. I needed that. Onward!!
Oh how I dread going to work, as soon as i walk though that door I’m filled with rage. I finally found people who see the bleak existence of working their life away. I tried explaining this to friends, every time i get the same reaction..as if I’m insane. Was i put on this earth to waste my life at a pointless job? This is 60-70yrs of your life working. There’s got to be more to live for then paying bills. What i really want to discuss is how can one travel? How to experience the world and its cultures, explore magnificent places?! Our society is obsessed with money and being a slave to the man. I wish there was a way to live with out it. I have considered opening a business. It wouldn’t give me the freedom to leave any time to travel, its a much more dedicated process, and could take decades to establish a business that you can live off comfortably. However, My passion is still there and i will try one day.
i am going into dentistry largely for the above reasons
So glad I found this post, and the great comments. After 40 years in a job I only ever did for the pay cheque I finally bit the bullet and now I’m trying to make a life of my own without a boss! I’m starting a new career as a travel writer, I’ve had two pieces accepted so far, and I have plenty more ideas. (You can see what I write on http://www.jenniereid.com.au) Some days are hard, some days I think I should just go home and get a “proper” job – but then I found your article. I’m going to bookmark it so I can come back to it. Many, many thanks!
Although it is good old article, i would like to share my thoughts. Sure, working for yourself is great but let me tell you something that everybody in here weren’t aware of. Thinking about starting your own business is going to defeat the concept of bossing is WRONG. Of course you are going to be your own boss. But let us don’t forget that your customers are your new bosses. You will try to sell your services to them when they have the good mood to buy or when they have the budget.
When customers finally bought your stuff, they will have controls over you in the same manner as corporate bosses have on you. Managing projects deadlines, Bill of materials, Presentation slides, Training sessions,…etc. Same all, Same all. If you failed in delivery of these things, they will change their minds to somebody else and don’t get your money. If you succeeded, payment is delayed and they will come up with pretty insane excuses regarding your payment delay. Phoning them just to ask for your money is not working in the country where i live. I have to drive my car and reach them physically if i want to get payed.
Same concept but in different form.
Now, let’s talk about your employees that you hired.
You are going to encounter and deal with pretty lazy employees who don’t get to work in time. You will also deal with aggressive employees who may shout at your face and end up firing them. Easy, right? No that easy. You have to find new aggressive employees to fire them, and the cycle goes on until your business is affected. Another sort of employees who may (intentionally or unintentionally) ruin your company’s image in front of your customers. Also, there are employees who have a strong appetite for revenge after your fire them, even though they were lazy and trolls. But don’t worry, these employees can’t do anything as long as you didn’t give them access to sensitive stuff such as passwords, office keys, or any other valuable asset.
In short, it’s all the same with different formats.
You can choose the customers you work with and you can choose the employees you hire :) Working for your own business gives you a lot of opportunities to make your choices. Working for your boss is similar to a slavery…. You work/rest/eat/etc. when your boss chooses not when you choose….
I had good and bad experience hiring and firing people, as well as dealing with problematic customers. But i prefer that than being someone’s slave.
So great article! I’m reading it and it sounds exactly like my thoughts and understanding. I worked for myself, but then i got an attractive job offer with very good benefits, the one that helped me to get a work visa in the foreign country of my dreams, and this is how I have started working for someone else…. That was a bad decision, a mistake! I regret that I did it; and I plan to get back to working for myself, even without all those benefits…. Moreover, I plan to employ others to work for me. I just can’t live like this, knowing that I am not using my full potential, I hate Mondays and Sundays, I feel like wasting my time…..No benefits worth your potential!! Thanks for the inspiring article again!
this is awesome. i am interested in “music therapy” especially for those in mental healthcare. i find it amazing that listening to music can actually help people with depression and dementia or those that are physically ill.
i wish i could get into it somehow..i am 53 and hav no college education. ( can not find any jibs pertaining to this. its like a dream) i hav worked for just about min wage and hav also volunteered caring for some of our elderly generation but still…no hands on music therapy kind of jobs and at this age..i am absolutely discusted with the unavailability nd prejudices regarding a fancy education ( which is another buisness in itself)
too bad cuz i feel i would hav alot to offer
i will keep up hope tho
Some people need to feel that “stability”. It’s like my father who is working as a teacher in a public high-school (you can’t find a more secure job). He liked to travel and do adventurous things but ended up with a stable job and a family. At least he’s living on a tropical island (french overseas department) and can travel 2 months in a year. Well not bad !
Me I’m working in Tokyo, Japan. ~40 hours a week (considered very short here), only 12 days off (no sick days) a year. It’s killing me really ! I have a heart disease, I’m young and deeply feel that I’m wasting my time here. Japan is great but working here can be hellish. Hope to quit the corporate/salary-man world as fast as I can.
Great article. I really like it, but what troubles me is the finance. I work in a job I really hate, and as a side note I sell t-shirts for my small personalised business. (I’ve just finished planning it). Problem is the money to start that. That’s the only thing stopping me from leaving my job. Do you have any advice on that, please?
Thank you :)
“because I don’t feel ready, or the prospect is too difficult and id
rather relax. I don’t know! It’s all very difficult and confusing.”
“I don’t know” is the problem. “The prospect is too difficult” all at once, but little by little you make way for yourself.
It’s difficult, but it shouldn’t be confusing.
If you were completely on your own and alone you would be forced to assess what you have to work with: what tools and what resources are around you and how long that might last (supplies for your business like paper and ink for your printer, how quickly your phone will get cut off, how reliable is your car and can you trust it to get you beyond a 3 mile radius or 50 mile radius, etc., etc.).
What you’ve got to work with, in the immediate sense, can determine what you have to sell (be it a product or service).
If you were on your own, completely alone in this world, with nothing or no one to fall back on, you might have experienced having to sell “something” to eat. You might have taken your personal possessions to a pawn shop, and wished what you were pawning was a gold chain instead of a pair of 50lb studio monitor speakers. You might have gotten to the point where you look around and wished you had something to sell because everything else is gone.
You would get to the point where YOU ARE FOCUSING ON WHAT TO SELL and wishing you had the means to do it and the things to do it with, and when you do that you will recognize the values in things you encounter and you will scoop them up. It can get down to seeing copier paper being thrown away, as order forms you would print, and so you take it. You will see and judge EVERYTHING as a potential tool or resource, and you will begin to acquire the start-up ‘equity’ you need EVEN BEFORE you determine what business or self-employment you land up in. By doing that you are already knocking out some part of the confusion, one of the barriers to self-employment, because every operation needs those kinds of things. Pack rat about 3 months worth of whatever you gather (at least).
Instead of trying to think of what you would want to do for self-employment first, let WHAT YOU ACQUIRE take some shape or form until finally you see an ability to sell something… The old movie ‘Apollo 13’ where ‘Houston (Ground Control)’ is around the clock for days trying to figure out how to get the capsule back to Earth. .. They put together all the odds and ends they know are on-board the capsule and they KNOW that’s all they have to work with and (movie spoiler) they DO because they use the tools and the FORCES AROUND THEM to get the astronauts back to Earth.
What you WANT to do begins to form around you in the things you acquire (the fireplace in front of you has opportunities in what’s good or bad about it) and before long you will see your thoughts and several useful interests piling up (think ‘Venn’ diagrams), and before long you will see some overlap, and yet again before long you will want to get rid of what is ‘too far out there’ to have any point.
People that start small businesses are inclined toward self-sufficiency…they usually have figured out for themselves what they value to make their business a go, by getting rid of what’s too far out there to have any point. The forces around them either help or hinder their business . You can start a business on the basis of either of those two things,
Once you’ve really tacked down what you can sell, then you have to look hard at your competition’s pricing and market penetration and market reach. You HAVE to calculate it, NOT TELL YOURSELF THINGS YOU WANT TO HEAR. Learn to crunch numbers in Excel or the free Calc program from OpenOffice. Install one of these programs on your computer. Then search for Excel spreadsheets online and look at other’s examples of crunching numbers by going into Google and typing:
filetype:xls projected sales
or
filetype:xls sales tracking
You can use any keyword search and most any file type.
Do this to learn and use.
You can compete, actually, because you have little overhead expense, no mortgage, and hopefully no car payments. You start by taking a nibble out of your competitor’s complete set of services or products until you can finally take bigger bites (by adding more products or services to serve your area, and/or repeating your operation in a nearby town or city). THAT IS A BUSINESS PLAN.
What you’ve got to work with…Is it a car? A computer? A laserjet printer? Is it paper? 3-hole punch, stapler, folders. etc.? Is it a dry erase board for mindmapping? Get a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plain white bathroom ’tileboard’ (masonite board with a glossy white finish on one side) and a few dry erase markers. Nail that up, somewhere.
Call it mindmapping, or do an internet Images search for ‘white board’ to see its uses. Learn how to mindmap (search it on Google Images). Now organize your thoughts… what lifestyle do you want? Do you like to travel, a lot? Do you like to work where every day is different? Start drawing ‘bubbles’ of what you want your workday to be like. One bubble for travel. One for every day different. Do as many of your preferences as possible. Off of each bubble draw a line to a new bubble for every occupation that involves the preference. How many kinds of jobs involve travel, etc.? Look at their products and services… out of the tools and resources you have can you get yourself started to compete even at a nibble locally? If not, scratch that out. If so then how do you approach your prospects? Who are your prospects? Try to start where prospects are clustered together, like on a road that is the business route or small business area for your city. If your city or town has a business district of new businesses (like urban renewal of old business districts) then these businesses are usually pro-small-business. They value and encourage small business, and are equally more receptive to you and your small business.
Soon, you will not be confused though it may be difficult. Difficult only in the attention it requires. Difficult, in that you are pressed for solutions to enable you to proceed…because waiting until you are 100% ready assumes you have no pressing need to push you faster than you might otherwise. While staying at your parent’s place, treat it as you rescuing them. Take advantage of the lower overhead cost, but treat it like your business attempts are the #1 answer to their concerns… so that you feel some pressure to think on your feet.
Once you have eliminated the confusion the difficulty becomes less and less, until finally there are few obstacles to having what you want in your dream life.
I can’t help but reply…because I started my business while “[my] only choice…[was] a miserable part time…minimum wage
job, … a hole pretty much no one can dig themselves out of.” If “temp” is out of the statement then you can dig yourself out, but with a small shovel. If permanent and not temp you can plan ahead. It’s up to you to make the bigger shovel to use. How about starting homeless, without a car, and no job at all at over 50 years of age? When you get hungry you are going to latch on to that part-time miserable minimum wage job, and be ever so thankful for it, and rent a room. Provided both job and room are close to a bus stop you can dig yourself out with that bigger shovel. Oh yes you will still be hungry, because you’re saving for a car to increase your options. Oh yes you will still be hungry every day at work because your check can’t cover a basic diet either way. In this economy you will realize that your car is better used for self-employment than the interviews you get, if any. You are going to look and act like a scavenger, building your business, because you don’t have the money, but if you want to eat and eat better and live the way you see fit you will do your homework because nobody can think out your business for you to match your capacities, goals and lifestyle…not even the author of the article. Now. You can try as you might to fit into what someone else has built, posturing for and in various interviews for jobs, or you can build something yourself…like others have built something for themselves (the businesses the rest submit job applications to). If where you start resembles ‘peddling’ then be a peddler, but with a plan to get off the ‘ankle express,’ next off the bicycle, out of the clunker car, and ahead to something finance-able (for the purpose of your business of course, via your business plan and your banker) and do so to have what you thought you could never do before ‘all the homework.’ The first thing I did was increase my capacities in general ways, then I looked for business pursuits that relied on the capital investments of others, then I increased my capacities through my own investments. You will find that whatever the need, there is a B2B option for it that you can start with while striving for the better option. You can see my reply to “Jacob” above for the way I started mine. That’s the only way I knew how…to gather resources I would otherwise have to pay top dollar for as the means to start-up equity. I did my homework that included piecing together desktops and laptops, and networking them, and learning to code websites…learning formulas and macros in Excel, learning, learning, learning, learning, learning, my outside environment, and… finally I could function completely to not hit the ground running but to hit the ground confidently on two feet. No one could do that for me. You do what you think you should do to function reasonably well, day to day in your business, and have the presentable confidence and trust building position to meet the needs of your customers. It means you wear a lot of different hats in your business at first…that takes an awful lot of learning… or, more money otherwise.
What kind of business did you start for yourself? Did I miss the part where you said it?
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This is the worst advice piece I have EVER seen…oh so quit my job…ok…and exactly what am I supposed to do then for income? What a moron this author is…telling people to not work a regular job and offering no advice on how to then get income…what am I supposed to do, go on welfare or something? Interests, hobbies are what comes to my mind…well ok, one problem there buddy…I’m not good enough at anything I enjoy to make a living doing it so what now? My skills from previous jobs aren’t actually marketable…oooo…how much can I make on my OWN at home as a secretary or file clerk…nothing, that’s what. What a ridiculous and useless opinion!
I started a blog about one of my passions on July 1. On July 2, the owner of my company announced it had been sold and was being shut down. Here I am a month later, trying to give it all I’ve got. Unemployment in my state will actually pay me to start my business (for 6 months) and I don’t have to look for a job that I don’t want. I realize this will be a long haul, but it’s what I want . . . no doubt . . . well maybe a little doubt . . .
What an awesome article.
The reason jobs suck nowadays is there is no respect for knowledge, dynamism, leadership etc. The person who has these traits is looked down upon with jealousy, subject to office politics and his ousting is assured. I built an organization for someone when i was 25 and went through for nearly 15 years till 40. One thing was clear that offices reek of disgusting politics, whoredom, partiality etc. The classical imagge of an hardworking dedicated employee stands no ground in the current offices. He will be the oddman out. When i kept pointing out the obvious project management and man management mistakes i was ousted. By then i had my plans to retire in the beautiful divine himalayas and i did so. I took up a job there in a american school there and found it worse, full of casting couches and money laundering. There was no respect for star performers. If you are a girl you are expected to be a whore and if a male to be a pimp. I took up a third as a head of a HR consultancy. Little did i know i was being made use of for three months. Though i have been practicing HR for 20 years, an illiterate asshole of a boss thinks he has learnt everything in 2 months. I had three subordinates working for me all girls and were more than willing to prostate for the illiterate boss. That did the trick, it was the last straw on the camel’s back and i have decided to set on my own. The conventional scenario was to get a proffesional qualification, get to a reputed company and work for long years and the company treats like you a family and takes care of you till you die. Today the longevity of an employee is from a few months to a year. In the current scenario of internet, it is best to freelance or if you have the capital to run your own business. Much stress i have seen at offices was never work related, that can be handled. Much of the stress is because projects are mismanaged by the asshole bosses, without a vision, without a sense of project management or man management, mediocrity, proffesional jealousy. If you are a dynamic alpha like me, you will be seen as a threat to a male employee or your male boss in terms of attracting females i.e sexual jealousy. My female boss was extremely jealous was my pretty wife and every year i used to get the least hikes. You are expected to polish the boss’ shoes. Again though i was objective in my treatment of female staff, i ended up facing fatal attraction kind of situation when i rebuffed the advances of my whore subordinates. My conclusion is that current day offices are narcissistic, hypersexualised, perverted cesspools of human consciousness. If you wanna be free and pure psychologically, emotionally and otherwise, plan to quit office.
Very inspiring article, but what’s up with the profanity
Passionate rallying cry, oh my, but here is the other side of the story: I’ve been self-employed as a writer for nonprofits for the last 15 years and I feel trapped. I don’t earn enough money to get past renting, pay for Obamacare, or put aside anything for the future, and I’m 47. I never worked a classic job because I graduated college in 1991 into a recession feeling all the same things echoed here about the corporate shackles. I’ve lived in near poverty ever since. Poverty isn’t exactly liberating. And those novels I was going to have written and published by now? Still in my “noodle” while I am stuck at my home office computer trying to focus on writing words for somebody else as the neighbor’s children throw screaming tantrums and the psychotic tenant upstairs stalks my every burp for a reason to complain to the landlords.
I’ve been doing the same kind of work for years now, so even though I do it under my own terms, more or less, it has become so tedious to me as to cause episodes of depression. I’m damned if I take the work, and damned if I don’t. I’ve worked hard to come up with alternative business ideas, but launching requires resources I just don’t have after doing the work that pays the rent, and only the rent.
The line about living on your parents’ couch or off your spouse’s salary is painfully flippant for anyone who has struggled with the reality of those options. What if your spouse wants to be free of her shackles, too? What if your parents are in nursing homes, or mean, or dead? Or what if they decided when you were born that they would live free of the corporate shackles instead of working jobs they didn’t love for the money to raise you in a safe neighborhood with good schools in a house with room enough for you to return?
I’m not judging or disagreeing with the rallying cry for a better way of life. I’m not ready to give up the fight myself. I am pointing out, especially to the younger folks, that there is a more complex reality to consider and yes, be prepared for. Just because you’ll never be fully prepared doesn’t mean don’t get prepared as much as you possibly can, particularly about tracking your income and expenses and learning to stick to a very limited budget. It’s good to think out-of-the-box about living arrangements, but be aware that the less cash you fork over to call a place home, the less control you have over its conditions to suit your needs. And starting a business of any kind generates a lot of needs – needs for the things that keep you healthy and energetic, needs for emotional support, needs for work space and equipment, needs for loose contacts and networks of sharing and resource exchange. If you can identify ways to meet these needs now, then go for it; sign up for Fizzle and take off.
But if you can’t, then it’s ok to pause, even though you hate your job. Keep searching and swinging from rope to rope until you got some meat in your belly to run this race. Look for the value in what you’re doing right now, especially the stuff that stinks. Try to be patient with the frustration you feel. A viable small business is not an escape hatch from misery. The other side is full of frustrations and tediousness, too.
Jen,
Thank you for the honesty in your post. When you run in entrepreneurial circles (especially here on the Internet) you see a lot of people advocating ditching your job and jumping into the startup world.
Because of what I do now (teach people how to become business owners buying existing businesses) people sometimes accuse me of having ulterior motives when I talk about the dark side of startups. As if I hate startups. But I’ve been there, I lived through three of them and the challenges are very real. I’ve lost a marriage because my wife couldn’t take the endless amount of work with no pay – she thought I was out of my mind. While it turned out OK for me, statistics show that the odds are against that being the case. So it is important for those of us who have been in the trenches to encourage others, but also be realistic with them.
And your story exemplifies the realities many find themselves in.
Starting a new business is easy. The hard part is trying to build a business that will financially support you and your family. Hang in there, and don’t be afraid to walk away and join the job world if need be. It’s not the end of the world to do that! Good luck!
Jen, you are an excellent writer.
Hey Jen, I hear you loud and clear. Here’s a piece I wrote as a counter-point to this one:
Starting a Business Isn’t All Unicorns and Rainbows (the Other Side of the Story)
Thanks for this perspective. I’m having a look on Fizzle these days, and it’s always good to get some perspectives from the other side of the fence where everything isn’t rainbows and unicorns. As a guy who’s been thinking of starting on my own for some time, these are all valuable thoughts.
I think this is a great article in general, but I fully agree with your comment that options like living with your parents or living off your spouse aren’t always viable, unless your spouse is making more than enough for both of you and is willing to let you off the hook for some time until your business has been established (and that’s not guaranteed).
As for relying on parents they’d have to be willing too and personally I think I’d put too much strain on them. Parents have already spent their better years raising you, they’re inevitably getting older and they deserve to be free and experience all their remaining good years to do their travels and activities to the fullest extent possible before declining health eventually catches up with them. Having me living on their couch for a while just because I’ll be chasing my own dreams would most certainly have them worry too much and I’ve no intention to risk that. Living with a group of friends or like minded people seems more viable.
My husband is 60 and has been fired from just about every job he’s ever had for trying to improve things like you did. They always fire the star when the star is someone below them who makes them look as incompetent as they are. He’s finally made the decision to work for himself, but it sure would have helped us out a lot if he had savings from his last job while he gets up and running. Now that you’ve made this decision, strategize how to stretch your savings as long as possible. Starting your own gig stream always takes longer than you think it will.
Corbett, why did you have to write this… to remind some of us of the truth we are trying to forget!
Honestly @corbettbarr:disqus , I love these posts in FIzzle. You guys do SO MUCH tactical and strategic stuff that people want and NEED, but some of these older articles are SO POWERFUL and definitely worth sharing again. :)
You just broke rules 1 and 2.
I love this article! Looking at the older comments and the challenges many readers have, the one thing that I would add is this; there is more than one path to business ownership.
If you’re the type of person that has been wanting to own your own business but don’t have an idea or enough passion to endure the lean startup years, you should consider learning how to buy an existing business. Buying an existing business is probably much easier and affordable that you think (plus there are lots of creative ways to make it happen) and the best part is that you can replace that job income very quickly.
I’ve bought and sold dozens of small businesses (sort of like flipping real estate) and I’ve taught dozens of others how to do it, so I’ve seen the life-changing impact that it can have on others when they are able to quit their job and take over a business.
So if you’re one of the many people who love the idea of being an entrepreneur but you lack the idea or ability to get it to the point where it can replace your job income, you should start considering buying existing business! Good luck!
Here here. This profound proclamation reminds me of an article from Steve Pavlina!
I really enjoyed reading this. Conventional jobs were never my thing. They bring home a salary. But where is the enjoyment? It’s simply not there. Having a job with prospects in a field such as logistics UK however means a real future in an industry that is advancing and is not stagnant.
I love this post. I think I need to print it out and post it on my wall next to my other plans and activities. This could not be more relevant to my current situation in life. Actually, maybe I need to create a “Why” board. Its like a mood board but it is specifically for things that help me to remember why I am doing “the thing”… Yep, this is happening. Thanks Corbett!
Thanks for the article!
This is really great.
Ok, br0. Fuck you. Fuckin” homestayinglivingoffyourmom’sasslookin’ass. Dimwit. Ass.
ya br0 agreed
hao2support without job, br0 will you pick up pennies off the street to pay your rent?
Oh, right. You live with yo m0mz.
ha br0 did they fire you LUL
We did.
I see your point about how the worst that can happen isn’t as bad as you fear, but for most of us, not having a job means not having an income or health insurance. When you have a family, life really isn’t all about you. That’s why so many of us are easing into entrepreneurship gradually. I will not quit my job unless I’m totally sure that my family and I will still have stability without it.
I quit my well paying job, I freelanced as a journalist, struggling to get the money sent over, then I started my own business, importing and selling jewelry and again, same thing: struggle to get your money…If you are a small player it looks like many people try taking advantage of you by not paying you.
After 4 years, I returned to the corporate world, I worked for Apple and did not give a damn and now I work for another company, doing some tech stuff and it’s the same thing: I just go in, do the minimum required amount of work and leave. It’s sad in a way, but I don’t seem to be able to make it work…good luck to you, guys!
damn…maybe you need to freelance your tech work…
Platitudes, platitudes, platitudes… boring
Bingo. It’s like motivational videos on youtube. I mean it’s nice for a moment while your watching it but once the video ends, the real world comes back to smash you in the face. Most of us aren’t going to have the money to just quit our jobs and just start up some business, not saying it can’t be done but for the majority it’s just not possible.
Overall, great article on motivating people to pursue their dreams, agree on most things. It would also be great to include (or make a separate post) with some actual specific tips on how to make the transition from employee to entrepreneur. I am currently bootstrapping my business full time (after doing it part time for a while), and it is not simple to build everything up and the cash keeps burning every week… yes, it gives you much more freedom and independence and it is much more fullfilling, but it is much more stressful too and is not as glamorous as most people who have not started anything yet think.. it is easy to say “just quit”, but it would be pretty dumb to “just quit” before you have a plan on what you will do and how you will hopefully make money going forward (unless you have a ton of cash that can afford you a very long runway of 1.5-2+ years). Cash burns fast, and you will not have that stable paycheck coming in to cover the expenses so it is way better to prepare first and then jump (at least do all the research and analysis on the idea first / decide what you will be doing exactly and how you generate cash). There is a risk that a few months+ later you will find yourself in a similar shitty unfulfilling job, but with poor credit, no savings and a ton of debt (even if you plan things out and prepare) so you want to minimize the risk of this situation happening by doing as much as possible while you still have the cashflow from day job..
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I love this post. I want to get out on my own. Every time I get impatient trying to make a change, I think “maybe if I get another job, then I will be moving forward.” Then I spend some time looking for another job and hate every minute of it.
This sounds great and so glad it work out for u. At this time my spouse is out if work so it all falls on me. Even tho I have a talent I need stability. Not everyone can go explore when they have 5 mouths to feed
This is exactly how I feel. I graduated college two and a half years ago and have gone through 5 entry level jobs, 3 perm and 2 temp! All of the jobs were in somewhat different fields. I quit all of them, because what is 42k/yr when you don’t want to move up in the company? The jobs were boring as sh*t and the duties were undermining to my intelligence. I had to take a step back and reevaluate my life. So I moved back to my parents house. Now I’m here looking for businesses to start with 5k in cash and about 40k in available credit. What should I do? I was thinking about a buying a Chik-fil-a franchise…it’s only 10k. Then there’s real estate which for the first 2 years in little to no money, but after that is a great career. I can’t have a boss. I was an Airbnb host for a year and I saw how much money I could make by doing NOTHING all day, by just renting out bunk beds in my apartment. There has to be an easier way to get rich than a cubicle job.
So What did happened after 3 years where is your life now?
I’m felling & experiencing every single word you mention but I’m trying to set my life on my own. Thanks for sharing and making me what I’m right now.. what I have to be… what makes me satisfied in life.
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Great stuff!
Love this! Cheers
Hi Everyone, Matt here. Good on you Corbett for writing this article. I am going soon to start up my own window cleaning business, just send adverts locally around my neighbourhood and church friends. I was like you working for many years on jobs that didn’t work for me. I was doing different jobs such as cleaning dishes, mopping floors in 1 particular place in Ranui in Henderson here in NZ. I was also doing other jobs such as working at mcdonalds, doing call centre work, then the last 5 years my last job I did was working at Spotlight.
I really enjoyed the Spotlight job at first because the managers at the time were nice and friendly, easy to talk to but you know what happens when they leave. The next manager takes over the store for a while then a replacement manager from one store comes to your store and swaps with your current manager and goes to another retail store somewhere else. Anyways to make this short as I possibly can.
The last 2 years we had a recent female store manager. She was a shorty as well. I liked her at first because she had different ideas for the store. Well later on this year and towards the end of last year I had noticed changes in her behaviour when she spoke to not just myself but staff as well. She was been rude, ignorant to our staff members over different things. She was half Maori-half pakeha by the way. Not being racist by any means.
When I spoke to the HR manager about, I explained to her about what the store manager had said to me and how her tone was voice was really rude to me. This was when my store manager was being rude to me about putting signs down from the store on a Friday afternoon. The HR person gave me her business card and said that if she says anything rude to you like that ring me and we’ll chat about that. I kept that card but things didn’t get better at all I thought. My store manager seemed to keep her voice settled for a while.
The bottom line is that I had to leave Spotlight because I had too much work load given to me, I did like the staff but keeping info from one person to another didn’t work because someone in the store would tell either an assisting manager or the store manager what the employee said to the other person. Or if you spoke to an employee about your store manager’s attitude to someone, guess what? The store manager would know because someone in the store would tell on you about it. So you couldn’t keep info from workmate to workmate, you would get treated like dirt from your store manager and the work load would get too much for you. This is why I resigned in February this year.
This is why I am starting my own business up. Yes I understand that I have to pay tax from my own business but I can handle that. Such it won’t be that bigger deal.
I’ll love you and leave with this everyone. I hope and pray that whatever we do in life I pray that we all should be treated with the up most respect in life, doesn’t matter what work we do.
Matthew Scott
Good sound analysis of the hell of modern work – have shared this with several people who also are wasting our lives and our talents.
im still working at my present job for 10years already…honestly, im just working for money.to support my parents and my own family (with one child).and im not happy anymore..i have already a position in the company (branch manager).but having a higher position will give you more stress, more problems.most especially my work now is very far from my son..need ship or airplane to go home.salary is still d same when i was assigned in branch nearer from home…very very hard.that’s why i already made a decision.i need to go home..i need to work for my self and at d same time i can take care of my family..i realized, life is not all about money..my son needs me.he is only 3 years old..i already set date until when ill b working here…i know this is d best decision i ever make…i have fears, but with God’s help and guidance everything will come into place.God will always provide as long as you believe in Him and just work hard .and you are happy with what you are doing..im planning to open an offline business..just a small capital to start up.that’s why im saving my last few months salary to start my business at home.i know this a challenge for me and im ready to face it, and to face the REAL MEANING OF LIFE..
JUST CALL ME MIMZY
Well, this is all inspiring information, but is something I should have done 25 years ago. Use me as an example of maybe what not path to take. I’m 54 and have been in well-paying but crappy, dead end life-sucking sales jobs since the late 80s. I have 2 degrees which are now meaningless, and have no additional marketable skills that would benefit me in a job search at my age, at least to earn near what I do now.
Through the 30+ year sales span, I did own and run 2 small businesses that I immensely enjoyed – they were really the only thing that kept me sane (I usually had very flexible schedules, and I made certain my employers didn’t know about the businesses). That all ended about 3 years ago when I shut one business down and liquidated the other (they were in declining industries) – now I have nothing left except my day job. I have no new business ideas, and I am just tired. My anxiety level has spiked, I had a heart attack a year ago requiring 3 stents, and am generally depressed most of the time. I am not able to even consider quitting due to my medical condition and also my wife’s health issues, a mortgage and other unnamed circumstances. The only thing I am really considering is transitioning to another industry and a brand new career path.
So if you’re going to take the leap of faith, do it while you’re young, probably single, and healthy. Believe me, once you get a taste of working for yourself and see the benefits of being the boss, learning from your mistakes, answering to only yourself, etc you’ll be hooked and any time spent working for “the man” will suck, unless you’re one of the very few people that don’t live their lives in quiet desperation…
dont click on the business toolkit, the retard is just going to take your information and sell it to advertisers, my dead beat cousin does this shit for a living. he prays on the weak minded and despite
I had a fairly good career in electronics even moved from the UK to Canada in 2001 much to the real delight of my employer. I hired & trained my replacement in the UK then came to Canada. Right at the end of the move process the Canadian firm was bought out by an American firm. When 9/11 happened, I was laid off along with a bunch of others…my fellow employees were shocked & some managers were in tears with frustration because I was valuable due to my skills but I was also expensive. Because the big ticket projects (I love big ticket technology projects) simply dried up thanks to the terrorist attacks, there was a lot of short term thinking on the employers’ no doubt with the help of accountants & HR “professionals”. From then, I meandered kind of aimlessly, largely with no real passion for what I was doing through a bunch of meaningless jobs, run by *!## accounts & salesmen who have a REAL knack of making a mess of what should on the face of things be good, innovative, creative companies. I even had a bash at being self employed with a computer retail business for a few years before but the world of computers was changing into a “disposable” world & I was bored stiff so I closed up shop when the 2008 crash hit & headed back to the corporate world & my favorite big value instrumentation projects (Airborne LIDAR). After a big $7m project completed, I moved to a company as production manager chasing the mighty dollar only to find it run by idiots, accountants & salesmen again so I quit out of frustration after 4 months & walked out. This 30 year old firm lasted another 8 months before going bankrupt…. Feeling defeated, I resorted to taking a silly little switched off job as a service manager (just a fancy name – I never really had any input of autonomy) in colour measurement instrumentation for a tiny 2 man firm. At the end of 2016 my (salesman) boss & company owner changed the US company we represented & the job became a total nightmare. I was unable to do the work I had been doing well enough since 2011 because the new US firm simply did not help, train or support me & eventually my boss resorted to blaming me for the shortfalls which were not of my making nor were they in my power to solve & I simply lost interest. Again defeated & frustrated I “engineered” my own without cause departure with a small package (6 months full pay). Now I am feeling rested, have healed the bruises of 9 months having the s*** kicked out of me by another **!*## salesman, backed up by his accountant wife & I hate the prospect of heading back into the world of “work” to be controlled, corralled, kept in the dark & fed crumbs. All I want now is to sail my own boat, be truly creative designing & building amazing things yet free from interfering incompetents (HR “professionals”, accountants & salesmen). I want to work but I want free of the corporate b*!!s**t.
29, finished my undergraduate B.Sc. HIM. that’s great but I picked the health admin field because it’s recession proof. I’d really like to start my own business, but now I have school bills, and no money to start my business (which can take up to 30,000+ to start). WTF should I do !! any angle investors out there?