Since the age of 18, I already knew that getting a job was just not my cup of tea. I’ve always regarded the notion of a job as the sure way to make a living as ridiculous.
To be more precise, I think it is ridiculous to make a living out of making someone else rich, while you remain Just Over Broke.
The only job that I held for years (2 years to be exact) in my entire life was when I worked in my family business after I returned from my studies in Australia.
Getting a job is the worst way to generate an income for yourself because you’re in essence trading time for money.
Just because all your peers are doing so does not justify that it is the right thing to do. As the saying goes, “ What is popular may not be right, and what is right may not be popular.”
For anyone smart enough, you should be trading value, not time, for money. And you need not be confined by time if you trade value for money. All you need to do is to build a system to let it work on autopilot so that it’s generating income for you 24/7.
Internet marketing is one very good way to generate such passive income. However, I’m not going to touch on that since it’s beyond the scope of this blog post.
There are also other better ways to make a living than selling your time. This includes starting your own business, earn royalties by writing book/s or from other creative works, trading, earning dividends from investments.
By far, starting your own business is the best way to generate not only an income, but also wealth. It is also the best insurance and retirement plan you can build for yourself and your family.
Just think about it. What is the primary purpose of insurance? What is the main objective of a retirement plan?
Insurance primarily serves to provide financial support to you and/or your family in the event that you met with a mishap.
A well-thought and implemented retirement plan serves to allow you to enjoy your retirement without having to worry about your finances.
All these have got to do with whether you have the adequate amount of money to support you and/or your family in the respective events.
A successful business will take care of both because 1) It continues to generate income for you whether you work or not or; 2) You can sell away your business for a substantial profit. Either way, it will provide you the financial freedom and lifelong security to live a truly fulfilling life.
“But it’s so risky!”
If you think a job is safe, let me ask you:
Who is more likely to fire you? You or your boss?
Is one income stream more secure or 10?
How can you ensure safety when you’re not in the driver’s seat?
Most people believe that getting a job is the safest way to make a living. Poor bastards…
In the short-term, that may seem to be the case because you’re assured of a paycheque at the end of the month to pull you through the following month.
But in the long run, that’s absolute nonsense.
Let’s look at it this way.
We have all been told that we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket, right?
Putting all your eggs in one basket is exactly what you’re doing when you have a job. You have only ONE INCOME SOURCE and you have only ONE BOSS paying you. And your boss knows that toooooooo well. In other words, you’re being held hostage by your boss.
Don’t you think it’s terrifying to be held hostage by that one person who has the power to cut off your life supply (income) just by telling you, “You’re fired”? Don’t you think you’re being a sucker handing such power to that person?
But if you were in business, you can have a diversified portfolio of “bosses”, a.k.a. customers. Now imagine you having 100 “bosses” (customers). If any one of these “bosses” decides to fire you, you’d still have 99 other “bosses” paying you!
The best part is, you could have 1000 “bosses”, 10 000 “bosses” or even 100 000 “bosses”! It’s entirely up to you! The sky’s the limit!
Don’t be short sighted. Anyone with a short-term view will never achieve great things or wealth. Just ask any great entrepreneur, CEO and/or value investor.
I know some of you may argue that serving and pleasing one boss is tough enough, let alone 100s or 1000s of bosses.
Well, that’s because you don’t have a solid business system in place. And within that larger system, there is a sub-system called customer relations system. If you have this system in place, there’s really not much difference in serving one boss or 1000s of bosses. You’d do just as well.
Learn more about building a solid business system in The E-Myth Revisited
Now if you still think not getting a job is risky, heed this:
“Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.” – Warren Buffett
Although the legendary investor was referring to investment, this theory applies to all things in life.
Just as you would pay to go to school to acquire the specific skills you need to get yourself a JOB, you’d have to invest in educating yourself first on how to build those systems because knowledge eliminates risks, and puts you in a position to make informed decisions.
Attend workshops/seminars, read a lot of books, talk to successful “jobless” people, listen to audios, get yourself some home-study courses, etc.
Sure it takes a lot of time and effort in the beginning to devise and develop a system. But once you have it up and running, you’re free to move on to build the next system, and then the next, and the next and the next.
Suddenly, you’ll find yourself having so many income sources yet so much free time to do whatever you want; only then you’ll realise you’re indeed living a life.
Don’t live your life just to make a living, but make a living to live your life!
Cheers~
P.S. If you are sick of your job and want to be in control of your own time and future for a change, download this free report Get Out of the Rat Race Now and Start Enjoying Your Life! You’ll discover strategies you never knew existed to turn you from a money misfit to a money magnet.
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on Feb 6th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Your site displays incorrectly in Firefox, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words:)
on Feb 8th, 2009 at 2:48 am
@AculaRumGam: Thank you for your feedback.
Cheers~
Mark
on Mar 9th, 2009 at 11:45 am
[...] one of my earlier posts ‘If You Want To Be Rich And Happy, Don’t Get A Job?’, I advocate starting a business over getting a job for various [...]