Your job is not a route to wealth. Jobs are created by entrepreneurs who understand that wealth is created by adding value to raw materials or services; and then selling finished products or services at a profit. Who adds the value to raw materials and services? You do. And, you are only valuable to an employer when you can effectively and efficiently add value to the organization’s product or service.
A job was never meant to make people wealthy. In a free market environment you sell your labor and skills to an employer for the highest pay possible, while your employer tries to pay you the lowest wage you will accept. Usually the boss wins, because he is in control of the purse strings. As long as you look to your job for wealth, you will be disappointed.
It’s been said that 80% of Americans are two missed paychecks away from financial disaster. Do you fit this mold? What would happen if you were laid off without pay tomorrow? Can you look forward to a secure retirement under Social Security, or the company pension plan?
Most Americans think a job is security, but they are wrong. As long as you depend upon somebody else for your livelihood, you are a slave to that person and/or organization. And like a slave, you can be dispensed with as soon as they deem your services uneconomical. It’s a negative image, and I apologize for hitting you with it, but you can’t sit back and relax in the pseudo security of a job or retirement plan and expect others to secure a financial future for you and your family. Dependence is not security; independence is security.
The expression, “if you want to catch fish, you have to risk the bait,” is so common it has become cliche. But how many of us actually incorporate that basic philosophy into our lives? Are you willing to risk the “security” of the traditional nine to five, Monday through Friday routine, to enjoy financial freedom? Vince Lombardi once stated “the will to excel, the will to win: these are the things that endure.”
A business built with your own hands, energy, and ingenuity can endure where a job cannot, but if you expect to become a successful entrepreneur, you will have to take risks.
These risks do not mean senseless gambling of your savings in the stock or bond markets, or betting everything on a horse race. Taking a risk means putting your self-confidence and self-image on the line. It means taking the chance of being embarrassed in the marketplace. And, it can also mean going against popular opinion and peer pressure to follow a dream. As Teddy Roosevelt was fond of saying, “seek opportunity, not security.”
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