What would you do if you had a choice?

If you could work the rest of your life for someone else or if you could work the rest of your life for yourself, which way  would you choose?

Working for yourself, your job is never secure. No matter what your occupation, what field you're in, how in-demand you are, how high in the company you are, it doesn't matter. Your job is never secure. You can always be replaced by the next college graduate or the next big thing in your chosen profession. That paycheck that you count on can disappear overnight, literally.

When you work for yourself, you're also not guaranteed income. It's all sales and your ability to sell yourself and your product. The minute you stop selling yourself and your product or products, your income will stop.

So, which is better?

Well, to me, working for someone else is letting them determine how much I'm allowed to make (by what they are willing to pay me out of their pocket), allowing them to determine what kind of good or bad schedule I have each week, only being allowed to move up the ladder when they feel they are ready to let me do so, and it's handing my future to them in regards to my job security because they will only keep me on their payroll as long as it's beneficial to them to do so.

Make no mistake. As a business owner, a company will only keep you on their payroll as long as it's beneficial for that company to do so.

Working for myself, yes it's a sacrifice. I have to devote countless hours to building a career of my own up, on my own, when I could be playing games with the family, spending more quality time with the family, watching that movie or TV show I've been dying to see, just sitting around doing nothing but reading or listening to music, working on stereos (which I love doing), or countless other things which are fun for me. I have to sacrifice some of all of that in order to push forward with my dreams. However, I do this because the hope is that one day I can afford to hire a full-time sitter, maybe a full-time housekeeper, be able to put in 4 or 8 hours a day and spend the rest of the time spending time with my loved ones, have the money to not only take care of bills, but also car repairs, home repairs, extended family needs, etc. I have the dream that one day I can open my financial resources to people whom I don't know that truly need help. Such as wounded warriors. Or people who have lost their homes and jobs through some natural tragedy. Things like that.

Working for myself, I can actually create jobs by hiring a publicist, hiring a full-time editor (Laura Clark, eat your heart out baby :P ), hiring a full-time cover designer (Katie Jennings, beware of your time if I ever get rich :P ), hiring a personal assistant to keep track of any scheduling for me and the other authors I work with.

Working for myself, I can contribute more to my local and national economy. It's economics 101. Working for someone else, I'm extremely limited in what I can do in this area. Working for myself, the bigger the company gets (the more I can write and sell), the more people I can hire for different tasks. Working for myself, I can prosper more.

It's Free Enterprise, baby.

My choice, my dream, is to work full-time for myself. Yes, it's a HUGE sacrifice at first. But, in the end, I hope that the rewards pay off much more than the sacrifice is right now.

Which way would you choose to go?

One last note. Working for yourself doesn't just mean being an author. You can be a successful musician (I know several), successful brick and mortar store owner, successful network marketer with a company such as Amway (note: I HAVE been in Amway before and it's a great company...I DID make money with it...see Josh Luck if you're interested). You can work for yourself as an independent locksmith, personal trainer (I've worked with one, my wife currently does), mechanic (mechanics independent of a shop have their advantages...I work with a local one at times myself), trash man, attorney (see Lisa Michelle Watson if you need one), and the list goes on and on.

Disclaimer: I am making absolutely nothing for mentioning any names in the above paragraphs. These are just people I'm connected with on or off facebook. I'm just doing what I can to support other entrepreneurs. I hope you will as well.
7/7/2012 02:48:44 pm

Awesome post Tripp! Thanks for the shout out! Can't wait to be Free! I'll just keep Stacking dead presidents until the time is rite!

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