I have a confession to make:
I’m unemployable.
I’ll gladly work away on my own thing – at all sorts of crazy hours, and deal with my share of headaches and BS – if it means avoiding having a job.
What’s that old saying? – “Entrepreneurs: The only people who work 80 hour weeks to avoid working 40 hour weeks”?
I’ve had just two “real” jobs in my life, where I was guaranteed “when” and “how much” I would be paid:
1) I pumped gas at the local Petro-Canada waaaaay back in high school.
and
2) I had a sales job with a telecommunications company to pay the bills for the first months after I launched my coaching business …
I jumped from that sales gig the minute my coaching was rolling. Although I worked from a home office, had no one breathing down my neck (my manager was 2.5 hours away and he was super to deal with), I just wasn’t bouncing out of bed excited to be doing it every day.
If I’m not excited about something, I can’t do it. I’m a horrible faker.
I just wasn’t passionate about my brief foray into the traditional workforce. I couldn’t wait until it was time to get back to doing stuff for my coaching business. The sales gig felt like a slog, but the coaching business was F-U-N!
After 38 years on this planet, I’ve come to accept that I’m just not wired to be employed by someone else.
Before I go further, I want to be clear that I’m not attacking employees. I get that some are happy that way, and if that’s the case then all the power to them. But:
– I don’t like being under someone’s thumb.
– I don’t like being “on the clock”
– I don’t like having my earnings capped in any way. If I bust my ass, I want to be rewarded for that.
I’ll deal with those headaches and the lack of a consistent pay day (how many times have I heard “but how do you know when you’ll get paid next?”?). I’ll deal with the times of isolation, the fears, and the seemingly endless list of tasks …
Because it’s all worth it to me.
If someone is happy at their job, great! Unfortunately, a lot of people aren’t happy working for someone else. And that’s what frustrates me.
If you’re completely miserable at your job – if you get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach every Sunday night, and it’s driving you to the point of insanity, then that’s not healthy.
Life is too short!
If you spend more time at a job that you hate than you do with your family, that’s messed up.
If you’d rather be making a living with your own coaching business, check this out:
