Why Not Hire Yourself?

Our school system is configured to produce employees. The majority of graduates from Universities and Colleges are out looking for vanishing jobs. As the economies of the ‘developed’ nations contract leading to a global economic recession, unemployment numbers are going sky-high, triggering alarm bells across the globe. A growing army of unemployed youth is an accident waiting to happen.

World financial centers are being hit by ‘occupy’ protests and blame is being traded in different opinion exchanges. Expecting to get a job after school is an idea that went with the industrial age. An army of employees meant for the industrial age has found themselves stranded in the information age. To make matters worse, fear has made older employees cling to jobs longer, denying younger ones the opportunity to gain a foothold on the job ladder.

The information age is the age of the entrepreneur. We have gone back full circle to when each family owned a business. The snag is that very few are aware of this shift. Most are still chasing vanishing jobs, holding unto the illusion of job security. As bigger companies continue to merge and downsize, small and medium-sized companies are going to play bigger roles in creating jobs. The world is in dire need of entrepreneurs, not employees.

Universities are throwing an ever-increasing number of graduates into the job market. Too many people who should be creating jobs are job hunting. With more companies merging, CEO and management positions in big companies are becoming fewer. Permanent positions are becoming fewer as the drive for lower costs makes outsourcing a more attractive option. The surest way to job security, getting to the top, and achieving your dreams is to own your own business.

Back in the agrarian age, most families owned their own businesses. The idea behind large families was labor for the farms. Only the rich and royalty could afford to hire labor or ‘slaves’ to work on their land. With the onset of the industrial revolution, factories opened up and labor (or slaves) was needed in huge numbers to man the new factories. The school system was developed primarily to feed the evolving job market. Rich industrialists built universities and endowed chairs in existing ones to support this drive.

The focus was on academic education, not financial education and entrepreneurship, becoming rich and independent. The primary drive of graduates was getting a good job in a blue chip company, not following their dreams. The idea of starting a business has become a very frightful proposition for the average graduate. A typical job seeker may search endlessly for a job without giving serious thought to hiring himself. For many, starting a business is the last resort.

The challenge is primarily that of mindset. If your mind is set on looking for a job, you will become blind to business opportunities even when it is in your face. If you manage to see it, you will shove it aside with the standard excuse that you have no startup capital. The issue of startup capital has been dealt with exclusively in a previous post – How to Raise Money to Start Your Business. The reality is that beliefs we hold strongly become self-fulfilling prophecies.

We have a choice to make in choosing what we believe. You can choose to hire yourself. In hiring yourself, you have the freedom to choose what you really want to do, and what unique contribution you want to make and start making it, giving the gifts and talents you have to bless the world. Apart from taking yourself off the job market, as your business starts to pick, you get to employ others, taking them off the job market too. This creates a positive ripple effect in the economy.

If you are getting frustrated with your job, with your job satisfaction heading in the wrong direction, changing jobs may not be the answer. You are trapped between your job and your dreams. What you need is the courage to walk away, take a deep breath, spread your wings and fly. Life is too short to spend your best years in frustration, wishing things were different. If you do not like your circumstances, you can choose to create the circumstances you desire. Your limitations are self-imposed. You choose where you live and where you work.

In choosing where you work, you choose everything that goes with that job, hence there is no basis for murmuring and complaining. You can decide enough is enough and vote with your feet. If there are no options, you can create one, by hiring yourself. It takes a lot of courage to take your destiny in your hands, and only a few have the guts. It takes courage to admit you are afraid, and the moment you admit you are afraid, you are a step closer to facing your fears head-on.

It all comes down to a matter of choice at the end of the day. It is up to you, not someone else. What you believe is real becomes your reality. If you believe you have no choice, you are right. If you believe you do have a choice, you are also right. That is the beauty of life. You get to choose what you want. You can make the choice to hire yourself. No one else can make that choice for you.