Saturday, July 22, 2006
11 Reasons You SHOULD Get a Job!
Steve Pavlina is a wonderful blogger who can often open up reader’s minds to wonderful new ideas and tools that can shape their thinking and change the way they view the world. He even states how one individual who was feeling suicidal happened upon his site, where he then spent the next few hours reading all the articles and blog entries. Once finished, he was no longer suicidal. I have no doubt that this case is not true, and that the blog has helped thousands of others improve their own lives and situations. I myself have enjoyed reading Steve’s blog, and have the utmost respect for him and for what he does. I do however have some issues with one of his most recent blog posts 10 Reasons you should never get a job. First lets look up the definition of the word “never” (from answers.com):
“Not ever;”
So right away we can see that Steve suggests that a job is something that no one ever needs to have. This is surely a puzzling statement for roughly half of Canadians, as over 14 million of them are considered “employees”, 13.5 million work full-time, while less than 2.5 million are considered “self employed”. This means that of all working Canadians (about 16.5 million people) just over 15% of them are not employees (statistics from Statistics Canada. When Steve says you do not need a job, it appears that he means you do not need to be an employee for someone else. This suggests that by being self-employed (like about 15% of Canadians) you do not have a job.
Well Stats Canada has provided me with some information to dispute this statement once again. According to This report The average self-employed Canadian male works 49.6 hours per week (over 9 more than employed males), 51.4 weeks a year (about 5 more than employed males) and for all this added work makes about $4,000 less in earnings per year than an employed person!
Being Self-Employed isn’t sleeping in late or having the easy life, but from what this statistics show is that it is more work, more often for less money and less time off! Think of how many people own their own restaurant franchise, and are working 7 days a week for long hours behind the counter to make some sort of living. These people are working very hard, but what do they have to show for this hard work? They are still working long hours seven days a week in what seems like a never ending cycle of work work work!
I will give it to Steve and admit he never said that being self-employed or jobless means complete freedom and laziness, but for the average person who is self employed they would have more freedom and more money by becoming an employee!
Now to fully combat Steve’s stance on this issue, I present my very own “11 reasons you SHOULD get a job.” This also applies to people who are currently employed on why you should keep your current job. My position on this topic is just so compelling that I had to add an additional reason in :). I am sure Steve does not mind at all. Well without further ado…
1.Get Paid for Learning New Skills
Your chosen career can provide you with the ability to become a life-long learner in your chosen field, and get paid more as you learn more! Many companies provide free or paid training throughout your time with the company, where you can enhance your own skills and make you a more valuable employee. You often have access to both in-house workshops and seminars and may also be able to take part in these sessions outside the workplace at little or no cost to you (thanks to the employer). As you learn more, you are worth more, and your salary and job position and responsibilities will convey this. Your work will become more fulfilling and you will enjoy it more. Since your skills will continually advance, so will the challenge of your work, ensuring that you remain constantly motivated and intrigued by your job. Employers want to have the best employees possible, which means that they will pay for their employees (you) to learn new skills. As you improve your individual abilities, your employer will reward you fairly.
2. You are an Expert on Being an Employee!
We have gone to school for many years and have had part time jobs, all to give us the experience and tools necessary to be an employee. With all this time and energy put into learning how to work for others, you are now an expert on how to be an employee. Why should you throw this expertise away if you can work it to your advantage?
Being an employee is not something anyone can just start doing. You need to know how to properly interact with coworkers, with upper management and with your boss. After spending years doing this, you should have been able to figure out some things about all these people. What do co-workers want from you? What does an employer want from you? By using your experience in the past, you can behave the way that will make work the most pleasurable experience for you, while being well liked by others. If you know your boss values punctuality, you can ensure you are always 5 minutes early to work and meetings. Since everyone likes praise and to talk about themselves, you can ensure to be very complimentary to coworkers, and always ask them questions about themselves. By using your expertise to your advantage, you can become the model employee who will benefit in many ways. This may mean anything from having coworkers be happy to assist you with some mundane work (“I am more than happy to help out such a nice person”) or being able to leave one afternoon early to pick up the kids from work to getting a promotion or raise earlier. This means that by working smarter not harder you can actually get more out of your job and more out of your life.
3. Allows you to accurately plan your future
If you are self-employed, your day-to-day money situation can change drastically. One day you can be racking in the dough, and start planning a vacation for your family after working so many years without one. Then all of a sudden an important piece of equipment breaks and all that money that was meant for the vacation (and the money that was also going to go to purchase a new dishwasher) has to be spent on the business, or else you are unable to stay in business. Today you’re selling the hottest diet fad, but tomorrow it is deemed illegal to sell due to chemicals in the product. Where have all your customers gone now? What are you going to do with all of this inventory that you cannot sell? Welcome to fun of self-employment.
Having a steady job can allow you to accurately plan your future. You know that if you continue to work 35 hours a week for the next month, that you will have a certain amount of money. With this money you can guarantee that during that month you can afford to purchase a certain amount of groceries, clothing, amount of entertainment, pay off bills or mortgage and save some money for emergencies and big purchases. You know you can save $100 a month, so that at the end of the year you will have enough money to purchase a new computer. If you are self-employed, that new computer may never come as you are constantly requiring money for unforeseen expenses and your salary is constantly changing. By having the salary you will make remain constant, you can now focus your time and energy on other aspects on your life. Do you really want to work a 10-14 hour day and fall into bed at the end of a tiring day thinking “I barely covered my expenses today and tomorrow looks even worst, but at least I am self-employed”? Being employed with a salary allows you to focus your energy on doing the things you want to with the freedom of more time than people who are self-employed. This does not seem like a cowardly trade-off to me, but rather a decision made by someone who values his or her leisure time.
4. You are Currently Loving What You are Doing, and are Truly Happy
Have you ever heard of someone opening up their own hospital, so that they can become a self-employed nurse? I haven’t either. A dream job can fulfil all of a persons goals and desires, and make them truly happy. Why should you quit this just so that you can say you do not have a job or are self-employed? As a nurse, you can work long hours and deal with some tough customers (patients), but it can make you feel wonderful to be helping people who are sick in the hospital and making their recovery as easy as possible. You may want to be able to become a role model for children and help encourage that the youth are better citizens of tomorrow. You can become a teacher or principal and open up your own school, but who would show up? You can make a greater impact and be more influential to more children by working in a public school, where you have resources to the proper curriculum and will always have plenty of customers (students). Besides, as a teacher you are guaranteed your weekends and summers off. Who wouldn’t be happy with that?
If you love what you are doing, continue to do it. Why try and change happiness?
5. Allows You to Work on Your Own Projects and Initiatives, While Still Making Money
A job is not signing away your freedom forever. It is merely a contract between you and an employer that states what you do and what you will be compensation for each hour worked (or salary for the year). It does not put any restrictions on what you do in your free time, and allows you to do engage in any activity your heart desires. If you choose not to have an employer, this trade-off does not occur. You may be putting a lot of time and effort into your self-employed business, but that is no guarantee that you will make any money out of it. Being employed ensures that you can have time for your own initiatives and hobbies, while ensuring a constant stream of income. Being self-employed means being dedicated to your work as much as possible. Any time not spent on your business or work means that you are losing potential income that you may desperately need. There is not down time and any time taken for personal leisure is time and money that is potentially lost. With the amount of competition that occurs today it can be very difficult to maintain any market share in an industry, and any time spent not working at maintaining this share can mean competitors will steal it from you. A week vacation away from work can mean more than a week of lost income from your self-employed venture, as you may come back to angry customers who have moved to competitors. Then you will need to work harder than before to make less money then you had. Think you will be willing to take another vacation anytime soon?
6. Employees and Large Employers are Needed to Get Things Done!
What would happen if we all were self employed, or had ways to make money without doing much work? Where would we find people to provide the goods and services that we rely on today? We may find someone willing to fly a plane to take us on vacation, but who is going to work at the airport, build the airplane (I do not know of any one person who can build a plane with their own two hands), load our luggage, and serve us our meals and drinks during the flight? We can go to an amusement park, but who will operate or maintain the rides? To have the goods and services we all demand, we need their to be corporations and large employers who employ people like us.
We need people to produce the goods and services we demand everyday like clothing, meals, newspapers, television shows, gas to run our cars, etc. Many of these goods and services cannot be provide without large upfront costs for machinery or space. Individuals cannot afford these costs upfront, but by pooling their money with others to form a corporation they can. All of these people can then provide the goods and services that people demand, as long as they have people with the right skills to produce the items. Employees are hired, and are compensated for their work with income. We then have the ability to fulfill our demand by purchasing the good or service. This is only possible though if: people are employed to create what we demand & we have our own income from producing what other people demand.
Why do people (for the most part) like hardworking people who have made a lot of money (Warren Buffet or Bill Gates) but dislike people who have made their money by doing nothing or just inherited it? It is because people believe that hard work by anyone should result in success. Is this not the American Dream? Anyone from any background can work hard and be successful. Will you feel good about yourself if you have a lot of money, but have gotten it from cheating others while playing online poker, scamming the money from honest people? This is a fun activity for many, and online poker would not seem like work for them, but does an illegal activity help society in any way? As an employee, you can become part of something bigger than yourself. As a construction worker, you can help build huge structures that would have never been possible in the short time frame if you had done this by yourself. You can help build houses for people in a fraction of the time it would take any single person to build one (if they could even do it at all). The world needs employees, and as an employee you can help change the world.
There is the ability for some people not to have to do what they consider work, but in reality they are still working at some job and adding some value to society. If not they would not receive any income. So what it appears like here is that for some people they can not be truly happy unless they are self employed or do not feel like they have a job. In truth though they are still doing something for society in some way, they just do not feel that they are. If you are truly happy though being an employee (See point #3) then you do not have a job either. You are doing what you love, and being an employee is the best way for you to do this.
7. You are Not Ready to Become Self-Employed
The decision to become self-employed cannot be made with the snap of your fingers. The idea can pop into your head that fast and motivate you that fast, but in reality it needs some planning. What will I do? How will I make income? Who will make customers be? How will I be more successful than competitors? What do I need to do to become registered as a small business? These are just some of the many questions that need to be answered before starting one’s own business or starting a life without a job. If one was going to quit from their employed position without answering any of these questions, they might find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Especially if they need to raise enough money to pay off the next mortgage payment in two weeks, and need to find the money to pay for electricity, heating, food, gas, the car, clothing, etc.
Consider the idea of not being employed. Does it work for you? How can you accomplish it? Will it make your situation better off than it is currently? These are all things you need to decide for yourself. They do not have to be answered in an instance, and can be thought of throughout ones day or for a few weeks. During this time though there is no reason why you should continue to be employed. This is just one idea, and like any idea you have it needs to be thought out fully. How many mornings have you woken up and said “I want to go back to bed”. This is an idea, but that does not make it a good one or one you should follow. You would need to think about what would happen if you went back to bed “I would be not go to work, not make any money, potentially lose my job, and have no way to pay for any of my expenses”. This does not seem like a very good idea now, so you get up and get to work.
Consider this idea, but do not act on it if you enjoy your work, do not feel comfortable with this change or have not fully thought out this possibility. You may decide that you should read some books on self employment or motivation to get yourself psyched to do it, but while doing so you may realize that some things you value would be lost by leaving your employment.
8. You Need the Money NOW and Cannot Risk Going Some Time Without Any Money/Access to Benefit Packages
We all have commitments that require us to pay a certain amount of money by a certain date. This could be anything from student loans, credit card payments, mortgages or a variety of other financial obligations. It does not matter to the people receiving the money what you need to do to get the money, they just want it by the due date. Lenders are not traditionally known to be sympathetic of people who decide that they no longer want to work and will pay back their loans when they start making money, whenever that is. To be able to pay off the financial obligations by the time they are due, many of us require an employed job with a guaranteed salary or income. There is nothing wrong with wanting to ensure that all of ones liabilities are going to be paid off in full by the date that the money is due. Since this can be guaranteed for most people only if they remain an employee at their job, remaining at one’s job is the correct and smart choice in this situation.
Do you and your family benefit from dental and medical packages offered by your employer? Has there ever been an emergency situation where you have been saved a heavy financial burden due to this benefit package? I know personally that I have benefited from the benefit packages of my parents. Within two years, I was diagnosed with a chronic disease, spent 2 months in a hospital, was on a $500-$2000 a day treatment to stop my weight loss for three weeks, and had surgery. Living in Canada, universal healthcare meant that I do not know the costs or had to pay (directly) for most of the services and care I received. However, what happens if I do not have access to universal healthcare? There was no way to realize 3 years ago when nothing seemed wrong that I would require tens of thousands of dollars over the next few years for my healthcare. If I am self employed and do not have access to any benefit packages from an employer, than this money needs to come directly from me. Is this a risk you are willing to take?
Your job may also provide you with additional benefits that could not be had from being self-employed or having no job. Working for an airline might provide you with free or next to no cost flights for you and your family. You may work for a large corporation and get a discount on all the products and services provided by them. You may get access to employee stock purchase plans and have your employer help pay for your retirement by adding to your 401k plan. Paid seminars to learn and paid vacations to relax… this does not happen when you do not have a job!
9. Make Great Contacts Within Your Chosen Field
If you are employed in the field of your choice, you will have access to others with your same interests in a career and who have more knowledge about the field. This can be beneficial in creating great contacts within a field, and can help you throughout your job. Networking through company events and company partners is a great benefit of working for a company. You can meet a lot of smart and interesting people through company events, who can provide you with knowledge on how to better succeed in your career. Even if you do want to eventually get out and go on your own, these people can provide you with some more guidance about how your chosen field works and provide you with some personal knowledge and experience that one can get without experiencing it for themselves. This will allow you to determine whether you can do what you love while being self-employed or “without a job”. It is still important to realize though that a job will give you the necessary experience in a field to start off on the right foot. Without the practical job experience, you will start out in a much riskier situation. You will also be without any good contacts that could help you to succeed, making it harder to get off on the right foot and realize what can work and what is doomed to fail. No matter what your future goals are, a job allows you to gain experience and contacts in the industry you prefer.
10. Allows for Close Analysis of Competitors
If you were to begin “not working” by juggling outside for money, how would you know what to do to be successful? You may be juggling three balls and be amusing the audience, but are making no money. This may because you did not realize that a fellow juggler across the road is juggling four torches that are on fire, while also singing the national anthem (to the delight of the dozen’s throwing coins into this man’s hat). If you do not understand what your competitors are doing (and more importantly, what they are doing right and wrong) how can you expect to succeed?
By being an employee in a field you are interested in, you can see first hand how the industry runs. You can gauge what your employer is doing well, and can also see how they compare with other rivals. Larger corporations do extensive research on the industry they are in and on competitors, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage. You can determine if there is room for a little guy like you to start his own business, and you can see how you can succeed. If there are no opportunities, then you are making the best choice by staying at your current job. Either way, by being able to see first hand what goes on within a specific field of work, you can determine what your career goals should be and whether it is right for you to start being self-employed “without a job”.
11. Allows for a Conscious and Objective View of How a Job Impacts Your Life
“Mommy, Mommy, I want a Widget!”
How does this 5 year old know that they want Widget? They have never seen this toy Widget in person before, never been told about it by their parents or friends, and are not old enough to read about it. They did however see a commercial on TV where a clear message was conveyed to all children “You need a Widget”. This child now has it programmed in their heads that they need this Widget, even if they do not entirely know or understand why. How is this any different from all of a sudden being told you need to stop having a job?
Before you make any radical decisions in your life about how you will make money, consider how a job really impacts your life. Consider the role of a job in your life, and how being employed effects you. The best way to do this is to consciously and objectively engage in active thinking about your job while you are doing it. Ponder some of these while you are working: Why am I doing this? Is this making me happy? Is this the job I want to do? What do I want to do? How can I accomplish my goals?
How else can you accurately answer these questions if you do not consider them while you are actually working? With these questions though, think about what life without a job would be like. Would it be easier or harder? Would you be happier? Could you accomplish more than you are now? What steps would I need to take now to allow me to do reach my goals in life?
This exercise can change the way you view your job and what you want to do. It may reconfirm what you are doing now is what is best for you, and it is what makes you the most happy. The important thing is that at the end of the day, you have a clear vision of what you want out of a job and out of life, and intertwine both of them as best as possible.
As you can see throughout these writings, I do not believe that being employed is the right answer for everyone, and I even encourage a lot of thinking about becoming self-employed or not having a job. I did not write this to be the extreme polar opposite of Steve’s train of thought, but rather to show there are two sides to every situation. The way I see it though, you can still be employed and feel like you do not have a job. I agree with Steve’s article(s) in many ways, but I feel that things never are extremes. Total happiness might come for some from being an employee, or it might come from not having a job, but there is not a single right answer for everyone, in every situation. You need to find what you want personally, and shape your job (or lack of one) around that. Who says you can not work part-time as an employee and work the remainder doing your “not a job”? If that is what is best for you and will allow you to achieve all your goals and dreams, then all the power to you to do it.
So get thinking. You now have two ideas to work with: I don’t need a job and I do need a job. Figure out which one works for you :).
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“Not ever;”
So right away we can see that Steve suggests that a job is something that no one ever needs to have. This is surely a puzzling statement for roughly half of Canadians, as over 14 million of them are considered “employees”, 13.5 million work full-time, while less than 2.5 million are considered “self employed”. This means that of all working Canadians (about 16.5 million people) just over 15% of them are not employees (statistics from Statistics Canada. When Steve says you do not need a job, it appears that he means you do not need to be an employee for someone else. This suggests that by being self-employed (like about 15% of Canadians) you do not have a job.
Well Stats Canada has provided me with some information to dispute this statement once again. According to This report The average self-employed Canadian male works 49.6 hours per week (over 9 more than employed males), 51.4 weeks a year (about 5 more than employed males) and for all this added work makes about $4,000 less in earnings per year than an employed person!
Being Self-Employed isn’t sleeping in late or having the easy life, but from what this statistics show is that it is more work, more often for less money and less time off! Think of how many people own their own restaurant franchise, and are working 7 days a week for long hours behind the counter to make some sort of living. These people are working very hard, but what do they have to show for this hard work? They are still working long hours seven days a week in what seems like a never ending cycle of work work work!
I will give it to Steve and admit he never said that being self-employed or jobless means complete freedom and laziness, but for the average person who is self employed they would have more freedom and more money by becoming an employee!
Now to fully combat Steve’s stance on this issue, I present my very own “11 reasons you SHOULD get a job.” This also applies to people who are currently employed on why you should keep your current job. My position on this topic is just so compelling that I had to add an additional reason in :). I am sure Steve does not mind at all. Well without further ado…
1.Get Paid for Learning New Skills
Your chosen career can provide you with the ability to become a life-long learner in your chosen field, and get paid more as you learn more! Many companies provide free or paid training throughout your time with the company, where you can enhance your own skills and make you a more valuable employee. You often have access to both in-house workshops and seminars and may also be able to take part in these sessions outside the workplace at little or no cost to you (thanks to the employer). As you learn more, you are worth more, and your salary and job position and responsibilities will convey this. Your work will become more fulfilling and you will enjoy it more. Since your skills will continually advance, so will the challenge of your work, ensuring that you remain constantly motivated and intrigued by your job. Employers want to have the best employees possible, which means that they will pay for their employees (you) to learn new skills. As you improve your individual abilities, your employer will reward you fairly.
2. You are an Expert on Being an Employee!
We have gone to school for many years and have had part time jobs, all to give us the experience and tools necessary to be an employee. With all this time and energy put into learning how to work for others, you are now an expert on how to be an employee. Why should you throw this expertise away if you can work it to your advantage?
Being an employee is not something anyone can just start doing. You need to know how to properly interact with coworkers, with upper management and with your boss. After spending years doing this, you should have been able to figure out some things about all these people. What do co-workers want from you? What does an employer want from you? By using your experience in the past, you can behave the way that will make work the most pleasurable experience for you, while being well liked by others. If you know your boss values punctuality, you can ensure you are always 5 minutes early to work and meetings. Since everyone likes praise and to talk about themselves, you can ensure to be very complimentary to coworkers, and always ask them questions about themselves. By using your expertise to your advantage, you can become the model employee who will benefit in many ways. This may mean anything from having coworkers be happy to assist you with some mundane work (“I am more than happy to help out such a nice person”) or being able to leave one afternoon early to pick up the kids from work to getting a promotion or raise earlier. This means that by working smarter not harder you can actually get more out of your job and more out of your life.
3. Allows you to accurately plan your future
If you are self-employed, your day-to-day money situation can change drastically. One day you can be racking in the dough, and start planning a vacation for your family after working so many years without one. Then all of a sudden an important piece of equipment breaks and all that money that was meant for the vacation (and the money that was also going to go to purchase a new dishwasher) has to be spent on the business, or else you are unable to stay in business. Today you’re selling the hottest diet fad, but tomorrow it is deemed illegal to sell due to chemicals in the product. Where have all your customers gone now? What are you going to do with all of this inventory that you cannot sell? Welcome to fun of self-employment.
Having a steady job can allow you to accurately plan your future. You know that if you continue to work 35 hours a week for the next month, that you will have a certain amount of money. With this money you can guarantee that during that month you can afford to purchase a certain amount of groceries, clothing, amount of entertainment, pay off bills or mortgage and save some money for emergencies and big purchases. You know you can save $100 a month, so that at the end of the year you will have enough money to purchase a new computer. If you are self-employed, that new computer may never come as you are constantly requiring money for unforeseen expenses and your salary is constantly changing. By having the salary you will make remain constant, you can now focus your time and energy on other aspects on your life. Do you really want to work a 10-14 hour day and fall into bed at the end of a tiring day thinking “I barely covered my expenses today and tomorrow looks even worst, but at least I am self-employed”? Being employed with a salary allows you to focus your energy on doing the things you want to with the freedom of more time than people who are self-employed. This does not seem like a cowardly trade-off to me, but rather a decision made by someone who values his or her leisure time.
4. You are Currently Loving What You are Doing, and are Truly Happy
Have you ever heard of someone opening up their own hospital, so that they can become a self-employed nurse? I haven’t either. A dream job can fulfil all of a persons goals and desires, and make them truly happy. Why should you quit this just so that you can say you do not have a job or are self-employed? As a nurse, you can work long hours and deal with some tough customers (patients), but it can make you feel wonderful to be helping people who are sick in the hospital and making their recovery as easy as possible. You may want to be able to become a role model for children and help encourage that the youth are better citizens of tomorrow. You can become a teacher or principal and open up your own school, but who would show up? You can make a greater impact and be more influential to more children by working in a public school, where you have resources to the proper curriculum and will always have plenty of customers (students). Besides, as a teacher you are guaranteed your weekends and summers off. Who wouldn’t be happy with that?
If you love what you are doing, continue to do it. Why try and change happiness?
5. Allows You to Work on Your Own Projects and Initiatives, While Still Making Money
A job is not signing away your freedom forever. It is merely a contract between you and an employer that states what you do and what you will be compensation for each hour worked (or salary for the year). It does not put any restrictions on what you do in your free time, and allows you to do engage in any activity your heart desires. If you choose not to have an employer, this trade-off does not occur. You may be putting a lot of time and effort into your self-employed business, but that is no guarantee that you will make any money out of it. Being employed ensures that you can have time for your own initiatives and hobbies, while ensuring a constant stream of income. Being self-employed means being dedicated to your work as much as possible. Any time not spent on your business or work means that you are losing potential income that you may desperately need. There is not down time and any time taken for personal leisure is time and money that is potentially lost. With the amount of competition that occurs today it can be very difficult to maintain any market share in an industry, and any time spent not working at maintaining this share can mean competitors will steal it from you. A week vacation away from work can mean more than a week of lost income from your self-employed venture, as you may come back to angry customers who have moved to competitors. Then you will need to work harder than before to make less money then you had. Think you will be willing to take another vacation anytime soon?
6. Employees and Large Employers are Needed to Get Things Done!
What would happen if we all were self employed, or had ways to make money without doing much work? Where would we find people to provide the goods and services that we rely on today? We may find someone willing to fly a plane to take us on vacation, but who is going to work at the airport, build the airplane (I do not know of any one person who can build a plane with their own two hands), load our luggage, and serve us our meals and drinks during the flight? We can go to an amusement park, but who will operate or maintain the rides? To have the goods and services we all demand, we need their to be corporations and large employers who employ people like us.
We need people to produce the goods and services we demand everyday like clothing, meals, newspapers, television shows, gas to run our cars, etc. Many of these goods and services cannot be provide without large upfront costs for machinery or space. Individuals cannot afford these costs upfront, but by pooling their money with others to form a corporation they can. All of these people can then provide the goods and services that people demand, as long as they have people with the right skills to produce the items. Employees are hired, and are compensated for their work with income. We then have the ability to fulfill our demand by purchasing the good or service. This is only possible though if: people are employed to create what we demand & we have our own income from producing what other people demand.
Why do people (for the most part) like hardworking people who have made a lot of money (Warren Buffet or Bill Gates) but dislike people who have made their money by doing nothing or just inherited it? It is because people believe that hard work by anyone should result in success. Is this not the American Dream? Anyone from any background can work hard and be successful. Will you feel good about yourself if you have a lot of money, but have gotten it from cheating others while playing online poker, scamming the money from honest people? This is a fun activity for many, and online poker would not seem like work for them, but does an illegal activity help society in any way? As an employee, you can become part of something bigger than yourself. As a construction worker, you can help build huge structures that would have never been possible in the short time frame if you had done this by yourself. You can help build houses for people in a fraction of the time it would take any single person to build one (if they could even do it at all). The world needs employees, and as an employee you can help change the world.
There is the ability for some people not to have to do what they consider work, but in reality they are still working at some job and adding some value to society. If not they would not receive any income. So what it appears like here is that for some people they can not be truly happy unless they are self employed or do not feel like they have a job. In truth though they are still doing something for society in some way, they just do not feel that they are. If you are truly happy though being an employee (See point #3) then you do not have a job either. You are doing what you love, and being an employee is the best way for you to do this.
7. You are Not Ready to Become Self-Employed
The decision to become self-employed cannot be made with the snap of your fingers. The idea can pop into your head that fast and motivate you that fast, but in reality it needs some planning. What will I do? How will I make income? Who will make customers be? How will I be more successful than competitors? What do I need to do to become registered as a small business? These are just some of the many questions that need to be answered before starting one’s own business or starting a life without a job. If one was going to quit from their employed position without answering any of these questions, they might find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Especially if they need to raise enough money to pay off the next mortgage payment in two weeks, and need to find the money to pay for electricity, heating, food, gas, the car, clothing, etc.
Consider the idea of not being employed. Does it work for you? How can you accomplish it? Will it make your situation better off than it is currently? These are all things you need to decide for yourself. They do not have to be answered in an instance, and can be thought of throughout ones day or for a few weeks. During this time though there is no reason why you should continue to be employed. This is just one idea, and like any idea you have it needs to be thought out fully. How many mornings have you woken up and said “I want to go back to bed”. This is an idea, but that does not make it a good one or one you should follow. You would need to think about what would happen if you went back to bed “I would be not go to work, not make any money, potentially lose my job, and have no way to pay for any of my expenses”. This does not seem like a very good idea now, so you get up and get to work.
Consider this idea, but do not act on it if you enjoy your work, do not feel comfortable with this change or have not fully thought out this possibility. You may decide that you should read some books on self employment or motivation to get yourself psyched to do it, but while doing so you may realize that some things you value would be lost by leaving your employment.
8. You Need the Money NOW and Cannot Risk Going Some Time Without Any Money/Access to Benefit Packages
We all have commitments that require us to pay a certain amount of money by a certain date. This could be anything from student loans, credit card payments, mortgages or a variety of other financial obligations. It does not matter to the people receiving the money what you need to do to get the money, they just want it by the due date. Lenders are not traditionally known to be sympathetic of people who decide that they no longer want to work and will pay back their loans when they start making money, whenever that is. To be able to pay off the financial obligations by the time they are due, many of us require an employed job with a guaranteed salary or income. There is nothing wrong with wanting to ensure that all of ones liabilities are going to be paid off in full by the date that the money is due. Since this can be guaranteed for most people only if they remain an employee at their job, remaining at one’s job is the correct and smart choice in this situation.
Do you and your family benefit from dental and medical packages offered by your employer? Has there ever been an emergency situation where you have been saved a heavy financial burden due to this benefit package? I know personally that I have benefited from the benefit packages of my parents. Within two years, I was diagnosed with a chronic disease, spent 2 months in a hospital, was on a $500-$2000 a day treatment to stop my weight loss for three weeks, and had surgery. Living in Canada, universal healthcare meant that I do not know the costs or had to pay (directly) for most of the services and care I received. However, what happens if I do not have access to universal healthcare? There was no way to realize 3 years ago when nothing seemed wrong that I would require tens of thousands of dollars over the next few years for my healthcare. If I am self employed and do not have access to any benefit packages from an employer, than this money needs to come directly from me. Is this a risk you are willing to take?
Your job may also provide you with additional benefits that could not be had from being self-employed or having no job. Working for an airline might provide you with free or next to no cost flights for you and your family. You may work for a large corporation and get a discount on all the products and services provided by them. You may get access to employee stock purchase plans and have your employer help pay for your retirement by adding to your 401k plan. Paid seminars to learn and paid vacations to relax… this does not happen when you do not have a job!
9. Make Great Contacts Within Your Chosen Field
If you are employed in the field of your choice, you will have access to others with your same interests in a career and who have more knowledge about the field. This can be beneficial in creating great contacts within a field, and can help you throughout your job. Networking through company events and company partners is a great benefit of working for a company. You can meet a lot of smart and interesting people through company events, who can provide you with knowledge on how to better succeed in your career. Even if you do want to eventually get out and go on your own, these people can provide you with some more guidance about how your chosen field works and provide you with some personal knowledge and experience that one can get without experiencing it for themselves. This will allow you to determine whether you can do what you love while being self-employed or “without a job”. It is still important to realize though that a job will give you the necessary experience in a field to start off on the right foot. Without the practical job experience, you will start out in a much riskier situation. You will also be without any good contacts that could help you to succeed, making it harder to get off on the right foot and realize what can work and what is doomed to fail. No matter what your future goals are, a job allows you to gain experience and contacts in the industry you prefer.
10. Allows for Close Analysis of Competitors
If you were to begin “not working” by juggling outside for money, how would you know what to do to be successful? You may be juggling three balls and be amusing the audience, but are making no money. This may because you did not realize that a fellow juggler across the road is juggling four torches that are on fire, while also singing the national anthem (to the delight of the dozen’s throwing coins into this man’s hat). If you do not understand what your competitors are doing (and more importantly, what they are doing right and wrong) how can you expect to succeed?
By being an employee in a field you are interested in, you can see first hand how the industry runs. You can gauge what your employer is doing well, and can also see how they compare with other rivals. Larger corporations do extensive research on the industry they are in and on competitors, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage. You can determine if there is room for a little guy like you to start his own business, and you can see how you can succeed. If there are no opportunities, then you are making the best choice by staying at your current job. Either way, by being able to see first hand what goes on within a specific field of work, you can determine what your career goals should be and whether it is right for you to start being self-employed “without a job”.
11. Allows for a Conscious and Objective View of How a Job Impacts Your Life
“Mommy, Mommy, I want a Widget!”
How does this 5 year old know that they want Widget? They have never seen this toy Widget in person before, never been told about it by their parents or friends, and are not old enough to read about it. They did however see a commercial on TV where a clear message was conveyed to all children “You need a Widget”. This child now has it programmed in their heads that they need this Widget, even if they do not entirely know or understand why. How is this any different from all of a sudden being told you need to stop having a job?
Before you make any radical decisions in your life about how you will make money, consider how a job really impacts your life. Consider the role of a job in your life, and how being employed effects you. The best way to do this is to consciously and objectively engage in active thinking about your job while you are doing it. Ponder some of these while you are working: Why am I doing this? Is this making me happy? Is this the job I want to do? What do I want to do? How can I accomplish my goals?
How else can you accurately answer these questions if you do not consider them while you are actually working? With these questions though, think about what life without a job would be like. Would it be easier or harder? Would you be happier? Could you accomplish more than you are now? What steps would I need to take now to allow me to do reach my goals in life?
This exercise can change the way you view your job and what you want to do. It may reconfirm what you are doing now is what is best for you, and it is what makes you the most happy. The important thing is that at the end of the day, you have a clear vision of what you want out of a job and out of life, and intertwine both of them as best as possible.
As you can see throughout these writings, I do not believe that being employed is the right answer for everyone, and I even encourage a lot of thinking about becoming self-employed or not having a job. I did not write this to be the extreme polar opposite of Steve’s train of thought, but rather to show there are two sides to every situation. The way I see it though, you can still be employed and feel like you do not have a job. I agree with Steve’s article(s) in many ways, but I feel that things never are extremes. Total happiness might come for some from being an employee, or it might come from not having a job, but there is not a single right answer for everyone, in every situation. You need to find what you want personally, and shape your job (or lack of one) around that. Who says you can not work part-time as an employee and work the remainder doing your “not a job”? If that is what is best for you and will allow you to achieve all your goals and dreams, then all the power to you to do it.
So get thinking. You now have two ideas to work with: I don’t need a job and I do need a job. Figure out which one works for you :).
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# posted by mikeyarmo @ 11:33 AM 
