Why we can’t all be jobless
I’ve just read Steve Pavlina’s Ten Reasons You Should Never Get A Job. Here’s my thoughts:-
1. Income for Dummies
Smart people build systems that generate income 24/7, especially passive income. This can include starting a business, building a web site, becoming an investor, or generating royalty income from creative work.
Easy, if the job you are in involves passive income, like writing about personal development. The problem is that for many people in the world, like the guys who design skyscrapers, or airline pilots or paramedics, there is no passive income.
2. Limited Experience
The problem with getting experience from a job is that you usually just repeat the same limited experience over and over. You learn a lot in the beginning and then stagnate. This forces you to miss other experiences that would be much more valuable. And if your limited skill set ever becomes obsolete, then your experience won’t be worth squat. In fact, ask yourself what the experience you’re gaining right now will be worth in 20-30 years. Will your job even exist then?
So instead of being a specialist, you become a generalist. Both have their advantages. A specialist can sometimes make fantastic incomes, a generalist will make a constant and good income.
3. Lifelong domestication.
Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.
Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?
Some of my ex-clients tried to push me around far worse than any employer did. And most offices of employers looked nicer than mine.
4. Too many mouths to feed
You only get paid a fraction of the real value you generate. Your real salary may be more than triple what you’re paid, but most of that money you’ll never see. It goes straight into other people’s pockets. What a generous person you are! As a software developer, I am always putting the money into other people’s pockets, whether I work for someone, or for myself. If I work for myself and need my laptop repairing, I take it to a local company and they fix it. If I work for someone, someone in the company fixes it. Either way, that’s money going out. I could do it myself and make sure no money goes out, but bang goes my opportunity cost.
The question is whether you can do things better than an employer can, whether you can manage such outgoings better than them. If you think you can, maybe you should consider running a business.
5. Way too risky.
Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (”You’re fired”) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?
This is just fine if you’re in a position to start a business with no risk outlay. People who write about personal development can do this. If it all goes wrong after a month, they’ve lost a month’s income and can find a job.
Try and start a car repair shop. What happens if no-one comes in? You’ve lost a month’s income, AND those premises are costing you money. That’s a risk.
6. Having an evil bovine master.
When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”
Or alternatively, say "I quit" and get a better job. Not all bosses are idiots. Most aren’t.
I’ve worked in enough companies to know that entrepreneurs can’t just "turn around and head the other way when they run into an idiot". Because sometimes, you need their money.
7. Begging for money.
When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then? Or are you free to decide how much you get paid without needing anyone’s permission but your own?
Because suppliers never get pushed around by their customers, do they? Never pressured to keep reducing prices year on year.
Any employee or supplier is a free agent. You can leave one job at any time and go to another one. In fact, a supplier is even more bound into their customers than an employee is. Switching jobs is much easier than finding new customers.
8. An inbred social life.
Many people treat their jobs as their primary social outlet. They hang out with the same people working in the same field. Such incestuous relations are social dead ends. An exciting day includes deep conversations about the company’s switch from Sparkletts to Arrowhead, the delay of Microsoft’s latest operating system, and the unexpected delivery of more Bic pens. Consider what it would be like to go outside and talk to strangers. Ooooh… scary! Better stay inside where it’s safe.
Many do. But you don’t have to. When I was last an employee, I had little social interaction with my co-workers, except a night out once a month. Most of my friends were people I met as neighbours and ex-co workers that I happened to get on with as people. Mostly we caught movies, drank beer and talked crap.
9. Loss of freedom.
It takes a lot of effort to tame a human being into an employee. The first thing you have to do is break the human’s independent will. A good way to do this is to give them a weighty policy manual filled with nonsensical rules and regulations. This leads the new employee to become more obedient, fearing that s/he could be disciplined at any minute for something incomprehensible.
Again, talk to people involved in some businesses. Businesses who have to deliver goods in a 15 minute window. Businesses who are told that they won’t be traded with unless they keep their ISO9002 certification.
The stereotypes he talks about are rare in employment now. Most companies allow people lots of leeway over dress code, work times and environment.
10. Becoming a coward.
Have you noticed that employed people have an almost endless capacity to whine about problems at their companies? But they don’t really want solutions – they just want to vent and make excuses why it’s all someone else’s fault.
That’s a broad stereotype. Some people in companies do, sure. But not all. Lots are just getting on with their jobs that they take a pride in.
My own thoughts
First, running your own business can be a rewarding thing to do. Is it better than employment as a decision? I don’t know. Personally, I think it’s a "blue pill/red pill" decision. You’re freer, but playing a riskier game.
Yes, it can be a great financial decision, or you could lose a lot of money doing it.
And it’s not necessarily the case that you are more in control. A client can make a demand for a product alteration. You can, of course, refuse, but don’t be surprised if they go elsewhere next time.
It’s not necessarily the right thing for you.
RSS
Excellent analysis, very much ‘hands on’. I agree with most of what you say.
It very much depends on the person and what they make out of their job(s). The main reason for me to try to get out of the corporate rat race would be the opportunity to escape the office politics. But then I guess you just get an equivalent when running your own business.