Work Martyrs

Being self-employed is hard work. So is being an employee. How many hours do you work a week? If you are like most of the employee readers of this book, you have probably worked fifty to seventy hours a week and travelled significantly. You work every bit as hard as a business owner. Most employees who are making upper-five- or lower-six-digit salaries usually spend most of their time and energy on their jobs. How many times have you dragged yourself home after a week on the road? How often did your exertions that week move your family’s financial needle forward? Did you get to determine where your time would be spent, or did you perform a task because the boss told you to go and do something? You did not write your job description. You probably have some kind of yearly goals that were “agreed upon” by you and your manager, and then you review them at the end of the year when you discuss your “performance.”

The self-employed, by contrast, do write their own job descriptions, and they tend to have very significant occupation goals; one of them is to become financially independent. They are independent in their actions, and their work is not graded by a supervisor. It is graded by the market. If they do well, their bank account grows. It follows that the self-employed actively seek out and spend time on activities that further their independence. If you are an employee, you are dependent upon someone else. Do not kid yourself. If you are dependent on someone else, it is likely that you have slowly, over time, become less self-reliant in planning your investments. Think about how much control you have over your 401k investments. You can choose from a menu of predetermined options. As an employee, you have the illusion of choice in many aspects of your working life. As Thomas Ward wrote, "Where to elect there is but one, / 'Tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none."

Either way, as an employee or as a business owner, you will work hard and have risk. Risk that you can control and act independently to reduce is calculated risk. Rolling up your sleeves and making it happen is the American way. As Yoda said, "Try not. Do! Or do not. There is no try."

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