Many inspirational speakers make it the cornerstone of their speeches, but you’ll find plenty of people on the internet who extol the values of working for yourself.
This can take one of two forms: starting a business and doing freelance work. Both types of work offer the kind of independence that you’ll never receive working for another person.
You can set your own rules, manage your own team, and make any decisions you want regarding anything concerning your enterprise. Completely eliminating the office politics and need to please others has spurned so many people to simply be their own boss.
I don’t want to suggest that quitting your job and starting your own enterprise isn’t fraught with any kind of peril. Your source of income becomes markedly less stable for a while, and you’ll have to put in a tremendous amount of hard work to get things going.
While this path is not for anybody, those who manage to make it work find a level of reward and personal satisfaction that exceeds anything you’d ever find working for somebody else. If you’re willing to take the risk and put your nose to the grindstone, you’ll find that there are quite a few advantages that being your own boss offers over have somebody else fill that role.
Being your own boss allows you to:
Free yourself from the constraints of others
I’m not just saying this in the context of taking orders. Any person who has worked for somebody else knows that the decision to hire and promote is not just based on who the best person for the job is. Office politics frequently get in the way.
Maybe the nephew of the boss’ friend wants a job. Maybe the boss just decided that they didn’t like you. Working for somebody else means that you will be dependent upon them for your ability to get ahead in the company. You’ll forever be at their mercy, and some of the more unscrupulous people in management positions will take advantage of that fact.
Being your own boss isn’t an easier route, but you will never be forced to beg somebody else for what you want from your job.
Have unlimited earning potential (if you start a business)
No matter who you work for or what job you do, you’ll always be limited by how much a person wants to pay you. Sure, you can always negotiate a better salary, but you’ll still be constrained by what a business ultimately wants to pay for a position. Even wealthy bankers on Wall Street still abide by a salary.
As the business owner, your net wealth is only truly limited by how much you decide to grow your business. Nearly all of the world’s richest people got to where they were by owning – nobody made it there by working for somebody else. The creation of wealth is the only process that has no cap on what you can earn. And as the boss of your own business, you won’t have to ask anybody to give you a raise.
Have total freedom over the use of your time (if you freelance)
Business owners typically don’t get the luxury of taking a week off just because they feel like it (unless you managed to sell it for a nice sum, but then you wouldn’t be a business owner anymore). Freelancers are truly independent workers; they find a need for somebody and fill it.
Employees are given tasks to complete when they are on the clock, but freelancers find work to do. What this means is that instead of having other people dictate what you have to get done, you can take on as much or as little work as you wish.
The most driven freelancers can make well north of six figures a year, and those who have secured well-paying clients who offer consistent work can make a good wage while working fewer hours.
Oh yeah, and if you feel like taking a vacation? You can take one whenever you feel like it. If you’re feeling sick, you’ll never have to call out of work. If you decide to switch jobs, you don’t have to get anybody’s approval to do so. Being a freelancer offers more freedom than any traditional job you could ever hope to secure.