Microbusiness Entrepreneuring as Personal Development
According to this infographic, 51% of educators view online education as equivalent to campus based education. Given that online education can cost significantly less than campus based education, this may be a viable option for those who need to further their education at an investment that works both for their lifestyle and pocketbooks.
Via: Get a Real Degree
There has been a new breed of “self-help” / personal development “experts” and self-proclaimed gurus who are trying to convince us that if everyone isn’t quitting his or her jobs and “being their own bosses” (self-employment) then they must be stupid.
What these people don’t tell you that most of their “rags to riches” successes happen to have “first to market/niche” advantage.
So they become successful, partly because they do have an interesting product/service (maybe it’s long self-help articles “for free”, maybe it’s blogging as a “profession/for money”, maybe it’s internet marketing or affiliate marketing) — but what they won’t always say upfront is that they also got lucky.
Why? Because you can’t sell luck as a 30-day money back guarantee “system” to lots of people.
You can’t create autoresponders with 10 emails “for free” that will use a pitch to buy a webinar or a course or whatever affiliate item the person may also be selling. You can’t upsell your mailing list into consulting sessions or more expensive coaching fees or 2-day workshops at a resort where for an increased price you can also purchase tickets to an “exclusive” networking lunch.
Notice how often get rich quick schemes and even bona fide “get rich” schemes use the word SYSTEM. They use this because they want you to believe that if you just follow “the system” you too, will be as successful as them, but every one of them will also use a disclaimer at the bottom of their sites to say they’re not making claims of earnings. In other words, “I want you to believe me and take me at my word, but I also don’t want you to sue me in case I was wrong/didn’t tell you the whole story.”
As an entrepreneur and someone who hasn’t held the kind of “job” that these self-help “experts” admonishes against, I think the statement is ludicrous, based on misleading logic, and harmful to many people who are best served holding jobs.
Let me go through some common arguments against holding jobs as an insider — like I said, I’ve “not held a job” since 2004 and I even achieved a certain level of “success” on my own terms, so I have a bit of credibility even though I have no desire to sell you my “secret system” –
Trading Time for Money as Inferior Income
If you hold a job (some say job should stand for “just over broke” but I’ve had jobs that’s made me relatively wealthy so this acronym does not hold true for all jobs) where you get paid in a predictable, contractually binding manner and federally mandated paid holidays, then you must be a dummy. Because you aren’t being self employed as an entrepreneur where you get no benefits, no guarantees, where you may find yourself doing a lot of “free consulting” to build up credibility in the beginning, and no days off, which, according to the anti-job mafia, is the hallmark of enlightened money-making.
There are some occupations where yes, you DO have to trade time for money, and guess what, IT IS A FAIR TRADE. Teachers, nurses, physicians, scientists, engineers, construction workers, police officers. I would not want any of these people trying to dream up ways of quitting their jobs because they think they’re being “dummies”.
You Work Long, Mind-Numbing Hours for an Evil Boss
Ask any entrepreneur and start-up founder how many hours they work. They’ll all tell you that they work longer hours than they’d ever worked “at a job”. Those people who talk about working 4 hour weeks? They’ve already put in the hours ahead of time where they can outsource the rest, so if you have capital to outsource and the luck to be first to market in a catchy niche with a great marketing title, you too can be enjoying hours on the beach (or asleep) while your “system” makes money for you.
If you’re working long and mind-numbing hours, you’ll find that you may either be in the wrong job (you seek more intellectual stimulation, but you signed up for a job that is mostly routine and predictable) or you’ve hit upon a plateau that is common in most employment and even self-employment: employment ennui happens, even to entrepreneurs. Don’t think for a minute ennui is always bad. If your job is constantly like a can of Red Bull (or whatever energy drinks people are shooting up their veins these days), you’re gonna age very, very quickly from the over-exertion of your nervous system. Embrace the ennui — sometimes it’s a part of life and it may have an evolutionary purpose!
As for the evil boss… Have you tried working for yourself? I have, and I’m the worst biggest baddest slave-driver I’ve ever met. I will keep myself working even when I get sick. What these anti-job people don’t tell you is that at least at a job, you get sick days. The only time when I took a sick day was when I was literally unable to get off the floor, I was so sick. Same goes for vacations.
You become Socially Inept and You’re Not Free as an Employee
My husband, who has a traditional “job” has an incredibly vibrant social life because he happens to have hobbies. Hobbies — now that is something I don’t understand, because I don’t have time for hobbies, I’m too busy figuring out how else I can make passive income so I can earn a ton of money while I sleep, or sit and relax on the beach.
When my husband comes home from work, he’s home, body and mind. He’s not obsessing about stuff at work, he’s able to enjoy his hobbies because they don’t mix with his work (something I don’t understand, either) and because of this, I see him as quite free. I on the other hand, may be in the most exotic place in the world, but I’m still obsessing over my business, because unlike a regular job, if I don’t “get business”, I don’t get paid.
And don’t even get me started about “job insecurity”. Look up statistics of entrepreneurship failures and tell me how you can say that jobs that are defined with contractual exchange in value is less secure than a venture that is often ill defined with no contractual exchange in value and where you deal with more tire-kickers than true clients (even when you have bought “a system”)?
I too, once thought that most of the stuff on that list must be true. Yea, I’ve bought the tapes/CDs, I’ve read the books, I’ve checked out “the system” and I’ve read the autoresponders and the newsletters and I’ve had a taste of the upsell and cross-sell.
Then I found out for myself, and I have listened to and observed many others like me, how untrue and misleading that type of advice is. I sometimes look at my husband’s work life balance with envy, and I’m only still doing this because it’s in my nature and it’s what I truly love to do. If this weren’t the case I’d be applying to a job in a jiffy.
There’s a bit of a start-up scandal: when a startup accelerator, FounderFuel launched, they forgot to invite the girls. This caused Shannon Smith to ask, “How do we fix the gender imbalance in Start-ups?”
One of my favorite answer to this question comes from Jens Wuerfel, who said “Women – start startups!”
This is the clearest-cut, most direct way to even out the imbalance.
Keep in mind there’s a reason why women aren’t tripping over themselves starting start-ups. It is not for our lack of will or desire or even sheer ambition.
We’ve seen what happens to our gender counterparts in these start-ups.
We looked at ourselves and asked, “Do we really want to live that kind of a life? Keep in mind we may possibly become multi millionaires and even billionaires.”
For most, our answer is, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
We realize that we can potentially have a profound impact on the world with our start-ups. Don’t think for a second that we are not attracted to the ideal of leaving a long-lasting imprint in society and even in popular culture or human consciousness with our ventures.
We see it. We know what’s at stake. We become intoxicated by the same desires that our gender counterparts get drunk on.
But we women don’t need to “get knee deep into it” to see what goes on at these start-ups.
Want proof? How about this from Quora:
Is it possible to build a successful startup from the ground up and have a successful marriage?
or this: Is it possible to reach the top of your field and have a successful family life? [note that I voted up the only answer that I believe tells the truth - NO. And I take absolutely no satisfaction or happiness for this truth, but the truth doesn't care how I feel about it.]
or this: Is it wrong to fire an (unvested) co-founder who becomes pregnant at a startup?
However, where our blind spots have been, is that we assumed that the way current start-ups are founded and run (meaning: kiss your family farewell for the next few months/years and laugh hysterically at the notion of the “work-life balance”) — is the only way that start-ups can be founded and run.
Hence, once women start starting up companies and run these differently, perhaps they can then set a new tone and culture for these ventures. But only when we:
Keep in mind also that women are heading up plenty of start-ups, only most of them create the kind I’ve been creating – microbusinesses that often only have 1 or 2 persons at the helm (including the female founder).
We do this not because we can’t, or don’t want to found start-ups of the popular VC-vying kind.
We do this because we are operating on a different definition of success, and for most of us, “having solid, quality relationships FIRST-HAND with our spouses and children” are #1 on that list. Let’s face it, there is only so much texting and sexting we can do… we still need to physically show up to make quality stick.
Recently we’ve been maintaining close contact with a relative overseas who is in the end stages of pancreatic cancer. This loving aunt had a steady stream of siblings, relatives, friends, children, and family members keeping vigil close to her as she slips in and out of life. The way she’s lived her life and conducted herself is shown in this steady stream of people who love her and who are there for her because they want to.
There are many ways to start a start-up and screw up your life and your relationships and even your morality or personal values. Maybe it’s time to look at a way of starting up businesses that will allow both men and women to live their lives in such a way that at the winding down of their lives, they’ll remain admired and remembered not only by the fans of their start-ups, but also by the people they are closest to in their personal lives.
Because I’ll tell you — in the past when I had to choose between world-dominating ambition and my “inner circle” — my “inner circle” has won every single time, and the odds aren’t going to ever change. (I won’t let it.)