Safety
2009-09-13
A friend tonight said, “I couldn't be an entrepreneur. I need safety. I need the certainty of a steady paycheck, without having to worry if my business is going to fail.”
I haven't had a job since 1992, so I had forgotten that mindset, and was honestly surprised. I realized we now have opposite associations for safety.
I said, “I couldn't have a job. I need safety. I need the certainty of my own company, where I'm in total control of my income, without having to worry if a boss will fire me.”
Or what if the business I am working FOR fails?? Would rather have my own business so I can do it better.
Gracious Uncertainty...
Spontaneous Love...
These are two things that are my life's passion and pleasure.
As an artist I have come to know, nothing is for sure -
As a spiritual woman, I have "fallin in love" with the unknown...I find it exciting and what makes my journey worthwhile. (should I die, I blindly and boldly gave all)
Not afraid of falling for I have fallen so much my knees are blackened...
its ok...I wear pants and long dresses...(smile)
I started off as part of the former group and have slowly started moving to the latter
A matter of perspectives - I used to be like your friend, but having run my own business for over 20 years now, my thought harmonise with yours.
When you are your own boss, the only ones who can fire you are your clients and customers. That does happen on occasion.
"You can give a man a fish,
You can teach a man to fish,
But what's he gonna do
When the fish quit bitin'?"
Read this book. ANd you will see how a steady job is not secure at all. I read it about 2 years ago and have been working on setting up different streams ever since.
"Multiple Streams of Income: How to Generate a Lifetime of Unlimited Wealth!"
One of the ways to Multiple streams of income is intellectual property. As a musician there are many unique opportunities for this with publishing and licensing. Each song we create is potential a steam of income. It is up to us to develop the stream. Hope that info helps.
Pete Weis
"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail."
The parallels between your friend and the majors and you and real artists perspectives on safety are uncanny.
Thanks! I hadn't thought of that comparison. -- Derek
I find more safety in owning your own business. In case anybody hasn't been paying attention the last 8 years and employer will fire your ass in a heartbeat with no reason and no remorse. And large corporations are above the law.
My dad told me about a friend of his who worked for Timken in Canton, OH. After 10 years they pay you some sort of retirement bonus. They fired EVERYBODY around 9 years and 8 months, give or take a day. And the employees reaction? "There's nothing you can do about it." Pathetic. But that's why we have the corporate/political problems we do, people cow down under a false sense of security. That's how the Patriot Act was passed into law.
Damn right.
Yup. Right on as usual, Derek. Lovin' it.
I've been self-employed for 35 years.
Safety and being in control are not exactly the same thing.
But that logic - that at least I am in tune with the reality that I must generate my own revenue and not rely on someone else to run their business.. that has been a strong rationalization for me to continue.
On the other hand I have to say that, as far as the current "recession" goes - I'm in the vanguard. My business has been dropping off since '02. In fact it's been steady and reliable since just before the current "crash" - so I have to say that, relative to those who rely on employers, I'm doing well
Safety in this world is never certain. Everything we do involves some type of risk
...but I get your point.
i'm trying for integrated, balanced and adventurous life....risking what is the question? and what is safe anyway? safe from?
safe from inane work environments where people's time gets chewed in petty politics.. i have hadn't had a 'real' job for longer than 6 months ever...
Recent engineer grad here hoping to not get a job! it'll be tough with student loans, but luckily the economy is tough so that offers some freedom for the time being.
I love the safety of being able to pursue whatever your mind tells you to to its fullest, it feels like existing to its fullest.
I have gone back and forth with the secure job and the windows of opportunity trying to work for myself between these jobs. Every time I go back to the "safe job" I find myself going crazy and determined to never go back. Right now I think we live in an amazing time to really try and do things your on your own. It could be a personality thing too but I am much more driven, focused and excited to be figuring out working for myself than having a steady paycheck.
Thx Derek!
I didn't have a job since 1986. There were times when money was tight, and times when I worried when things didn't go smooth. But I never thought of going back to so called security. Taking complete responsibility for one's own affairs is the only way. Our whole existence is not "safe", it is adventurous and always ends with death. What have we got to loose?
What was your mindset in 1992? I guess it takes a few years as successful entrepreneur in order to get into your current mindset?
I think even when I had a job, I knew it was just a temporary thing I was doing to pay the rent and learn, while preparing to be a full-time musician. (I kept doing paid gigs the whole time I had my day job, and quit when I was making more from the music than my day job.) -- Derek
Perception of safety is not always a rational thing. I grew up in a blue collar family. My parents always worked, but they would have never started their own business in a million years. That idea was completely foreign to my family.
Now that I'm an adult with my own film-scoring company, the fears I have about running my own company aren't rational, but the feelings are there nonetheless. I felt way "safer" back when I had a day job, even though, rationally, I know I've got a good savings account and my business is successful. But I still struggle with feelings of terror everyday, simply because not working for someone is unknown and goes against what I learned at a very young age.
It doesn't stop me, but I have to continually be mindful of those feelings of irrational fear, or I will find myself sabotaging my success as a business owner.
I left my job on 5th June 2009.
I am slowly feeling safer and safer being self employed. Thanks for the perspective
I always thought one of the best responses to "my paycheck = security" was:
A paycheck from an employer is one stream of income. A business has many customers and therefore many sources of paychecks.
If you lose your employer, you lose all your income. If you lose a customer, no worries, a bunch of people are still paying you.
It's not the safety your friend is after, it's the illusion of safety a job provides. The steady paycheck, the benefits, not worrying about earning and keeping customers all outweigh going out on his own.
Which is great, because entrepreneurs need employees like him.
22 YEE HA! I'm getting closer!
The comparison between owning your own business and working for a job is far too vague to have a high degree of precision.
The questions are 1. How much money do you have in liquid assets? 2.What are your bills? 3.Family? 4.What Job, What company? What these entities do will skew the result in both directions. There are many further elements and without details we should not be attached to any generalization.
2 examples: Owning a Branson (OK that was just for fun, call it a baseball card business if that one doesn't work) business that will collapse if he doesn't get funding tomorrow and you are broke versus you work for Goldman Sachs and you are a multi-millionaire.
Owning a company that is recession proof because they sell consumer durables and you are rich versus you are working at Ultimate Electronics and you live paycheck to paycheck. Extreme calls but a person can have fun plugging in different variables to create extremes or close cases.
I too have not had a "Job" since 1999. So with that, I wake with the sun. I eat when I am hungry. I work till it's done. I sleep when I am tired. All this provides me with the time and the proper mindset for being creative ! Currently, it would be near impossible for me not to be autonomous.
You probably saw this post by Tim Ferriss, about how most entrepreneurs are NOT risk takers:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/09/13/bill-gates-risk-taker/
Many of the responses here are about the personality of an entrepreneur or how multiple streams of income means less risk.
But maybe even the process of becoming an entrepreneur doesn't have to be risky.
Many internet entrepreneurs start by making a dollar a day while keeping their regular job, and only quit once they are making more than their salary. Sounds like you did something similar with music gigs.
What do your employees feel about this, Derek? I ask because an employer early in my career once remarked about his own pride at having never been an employee, and that quite frankly hurt.
I've been an employee and been self-employed roughly 50% each of my working life, and I see fairly good reasons to pick either, depending on where one is in life.
i really appreciate a post like this, and the responses to it. one of the most challenging things i've had to deal with about trying to pursue music, is the lack of that "safety" feeling. i really need that feeling to function properly in life, even though working at a "real job" doesn't feel right to me, either.
that said, with the economy tanking and jobs disappearing, i feel like it's actually a special time for entrepreneurs and worker bees alike. it's time for us all to learn that there really is no such thing as safety. and as scary as that is, there's a certain freedom in knowing it.
it's been a hard thing for me (and all of america) to accept, but i really think learning that lesson will lead to a better understanding of the world in the end.
I spent 35 years working to pay my bills. All it did was pay my bills. If you want security, want again, before you waste 35 years.
the first thing that comes to mind.. risk mgmt. Do you like flying a kite with a short tail or long tail.
Derek, i know within me, that if i tag along with this my present job till retirement age, i wont be self fulfilled.
Right now, am taking the step towards my freedom. So help me God.
Yes, to put your feelings of "security" in the belief that someone or something else will just take care of you is pretty irrational. The knowledge that we are each creators of our own life and our own destiny is perhaps the most liberating realization one can have... and regardless of circumstance; employee or self-employed - one's security is always ultimately in their own hands and no one else's.
An employer is an empolyee in the sense that he serves his employes and customers. We all have to do some work or the other. Everyhing is a relative frame of reference. We are paid for our skill set in what ever role we undertake. Unless we are solitarily marooned on an island in the universe, we are ever more interdependent in our struggle for independence.
Working for yourself insures that you can practice the ultimate artist process; you develop the image of who you are, not the image of who you work for; as an entrepreneur, you create the opportunity to maximize your energy efficency regarding your development of consciousness which is purposely oppressed in U.S. society. So, do the entrepreneurial; it's a good thing. Peace.
Sincerely,
David A. Boyington
I think there is a point to both sides. Once you are profitable working for yourself, you're likely more secure. Making the leap, however, especially with dependents, seems fraught with risk. It's easy to say you can always get another job, but the reality may not always be so simple.
I think a lot of people are seduced by the idea of being an entrepreneur without understanding that it's a complete lifestyle change. It's like going from renting a house to owning one: sounds great, but you're the one fixing the toilet.
My wife ran her own small business for over three years. It was quite successful, but she closed it down last year. Why? She simply got bored of the work and the obligations. Being self-employed wasn't worth the headaches of continuing -- and like I said, she was *successful.* She had happy repeat customers, a unique high-end product she created herself, lots of free word-of-mouth advertising, and was always in the black. That wasn't good enough for her, because in the end she was bored and unhappy.
Not to mention the piles of legal documents and tax forms and health insurance headaches, etc. etc.
I probably wouldn't be doing music at all if I didn't have a day job. It's the day job that allows me to purchase equipment, learn how to record, run my own websites, etc. Since I don't have a profit motive I can basically release anything I want, whenever I want. I don't have to tour (unless I want to), I don't have to sell t-shirts (unless I want to), I don't have to beg my fans for donations to sponsor the next album...
That said, I'm aware that if the day job goes away, it gets harder to do the music thing. But you know, I could also lose my fret hand to a great white shark, so...
Basically, when it comes down to it...there is no safety...in anything. A job. A "career". A relationship. Nothing.
Everything lives, and everything dies.
When we can accept that, and learn to let go instead of hang on tightly for "safety"...freedom will set in.
Dayne
TheHappySelf.com
I've had the same conversation with a very close friend who works mid-level at a very large regional company. He LOVES the security of just doing his task with a net around him. I have such a hard time getting REALLY motivated for someone else's end. I love your blogs Derek, thanks!
Derek, you are always opening my eyes and making me realize things that I never thought of, or allowed me to think of things in ways I never thought I could. I'm eternally grateful for randomly stumbling upon your site about 3 months ago... AWESOME
Derek... I did the same as you on this one. Once I started working for myself I never looked back. I've been self-employed for a decade and now have people asking me to train them to do what I did.
Fear is a hell of a thing.. I don't know if that's what keeps some people back and others forward or if it's just a personality thing...
Eh, Derek, now that you succeeded in your own job is easy to see safe this way...
(quoting the book "made to stick": this is the curse of knowledge...)
The problem arises when you are at the point of choosing what to do in your life, don't have anything in your hands, and need money to pay the rent of your flat!
At that point, I am sure the most of the people perceives as a safer option to receive a secure monthly income, than start an activity from scratch, whose future is completely unknown, risking to go bankrupt after a couple of years.
I think that to decide to be an entrepreneur one needs a lot of courage.
Said that, I would choose again thousand times to be an entrepreneur, risking every month the bankrupt, but feeling that I am free!
So, maybe, at the beginning, you chose to be an entrepreneur not really because it was safer, but because you perceived that it would have made you happier!
I wish you a great day.
Gabriele
Filling in holiday requests at my last job frankly used to scare the lights out of me.
My time was guarded like it was gold so any time taken off could spell potential disaster to civilisation as we know it..and frankly that sort of pressure on my precious time scared me.
So I quit that job and became self employed, yippppeeeeeeeeee!
I can dig that!
I wish I had a dime for every time someone has said that first paragraph to me. Then I wouldn't even need to be an entrepreneur! (entrepreneuse?!) It's happened so often I start to feel a bit freakish, like what I'm doing is so outlandish and risky that I'm bound to spontaneously combust at any moment. Huh. I don't feel unsafe!
Safety is one of the feelings I try to focus on. When I feel safe, I feel wealthy and happy. Just focusing on the feeling of being safe makes me feel good.
i agree with statement but the thing is to pick your exact point u need to clear what exactly ur mindset in year 1992. elaborate it so, that i can understand this point well.
Man, I'm sorry for blasting through every time with a comment, but this is exactly what I am needing to hear.
My safety has always come from others, but I truly only believe in myself. So why have I been letting others determine my future?
A change is gonna come.
That's really interesting. I'm moving away from the former point of view and into the latter (yours). After all, the folks at Enron thought they were safe, and they really weren't.