I’m Not Unemployed, I’m (SELF)-employed
As a young person — in your 20s — you are expected to have a job. Every time I go back home to visit my grandma she says:
Grandma: Dave… have you found a job yet.
Me: No grandma…. I already have a job. I run my own business.
Grandma: No, that’s nonsense. Get a job and make some money. That’s the only way.
Me: Grandma, I love my business. It’s more than a job, it’s a life for me.
Grandma: Nonsense!
I think that the conversation between my grandma and I underscores the general sentiment that a lot of older people share towards entrepreneurship. It’s as though they are still living in the olden days where everyone was forced to get a job from a young age and if they didn’t then they’d starve and end up on the streets.
These is this gross misconception that many of our parents and grandparents share that makes them believe that if we aren’t working a 9 to 5, then all of a sudden we are unemployed and aren’t making any money…that we are going to end up poor and depressed…and that we are wasting our time chasing dreams.
We are living in a new era, folks. The same metrics for success — go to college, get good grades, work for someone for the rest of your life, and retire “happy” — aren’t the same in this day ‘n age.
Give a creative person an Internet connection, a computer, and a few programming books, and he can create anything from $1000+ a month to a multi-million dollar empire in a matter of years. It’s happening all the time.
The truth of the matter is that all those young entrepreneurs out there who have decided not to go the 9 to 5 route and started a company while they were in college or upon graduating “are” employed.
Except their employer isn’t some boss breathing fire down their backs; their employers are customers, clients, and their dreams and aspirations to change the world.
We, young entrepreneurs, are employed by our desires to make it big and contribute to the world. We are employed by our curiosity and our burning desires to watch something we planted grow and prosper. We are employed by the problems that we see in the world as we try to create solutions for them.
17 Comments
Rory
April 11th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
I get the same treatment bout on a smaller scale, basicially just on a summer job level
David Askaripour
April 11th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Hey Rory. Thanks for commenting. Yeah, so wait until you graduate college and attempt not to get a 9 to 5 — hehe… that “smaller scale” will surely get bigger. It did with me.
Ngamita Richard
April 12th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Thank you Lord for this wonderful blog
Im down here in Africa but can assure ive never had this experience with such a wonderful site .
everything commented here attacks me in one way or another
WONDERFUL guys !keep it up
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog » Young Entrepreneur Links for 2007-04-12
April 12th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
[...] I’m Not Unemployed, I’m (SELF)-employed - We, young entrepreneurs, are employed by our desires to make it big and contribute to the world. [...]
Evan Carmichael
April 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Another great post Dave! Worthy of our Young Entrepreneur Links of the Day!
Cheers!
Evan.
David Askaripour
April 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Thanks Ngamita! So happy that you are now a part of the Mind Petals family! Stick around, it’s just the beginning
David Askaripour
April 12th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Thanks Evan, much appreciated!
Dame
April 12th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Even thought I do have a 9-5 job at the moment. It isn’t where I see myself. I want to expand my business and make my company my living. Great post.
David Askaripour
April 12th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Dame, then what you want you shall have. Just as long as you start to make moves…every single day.
Adri
April 13th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I get, “do you have a real job?” more than “do you have a job.” Not only have I started my own company, we were in these unreal places called “virtual worlds” which surely means that we don’t do any real work with real clients.
Of course, as a friend of mine said, would we really ever be happy working jobs our parents understood?
David Askaripour
April 13th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Right on, Adri! Keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s funny, because one day when all of a sudden you blow up.. people will be like.. “ahh.. okay, now I get it.”
Matt
April 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Hi Dave,
You’re lucky enough having a Grandmother, but unfortunate for your ‘job’ situation. I have the same problem with my mother in law. She sees me sitting at the computer 18 hours a day and of course, a computer is for games, not for working. She sees me sitting at home all day in my pajamas and I’m a waster, a no good dead beat who miraculously keeps a roof over the family’s head, pays bills and lives a relatively comfortable life.
The mentality of some people, especially one who cleans toilets for living is one of utter astonishment to me, as they see my life as something they aspire to, but they can’t get up off their posterior and do something about it, they have to moan at me because I don’t have a 9-5!
In my late teens, I learned a phrase that has stayed with me throughout my life. ‘Don’t let anybody steal your dreams.’ I’ve never heard of anything so true in all my life. Nobody is going to steal my dreams, ever.
I know where I want to be in life and I’m going to work to get there. Just like yourself.
Congratulations for sticking to what you believe, with no disrespect to your Grandmother, let the doubting Thomases in your life doubt you.. and let their doubts metamorphasise into extra motivation.
All the best,
Matt
David Askaripour
April 14th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Right on, Matt! Yes, like I always say: “people fear what they don’t understand.” Your mother in law is equating success with getting up early every morning, going off to a 9to5 job to make someone else richer, coming home, going to sleep, and waking up to do it all over again. When she sees you on the computer — as you stated — she thinks your wasting time. Indeed, that’s so typical and so sad. Things are changing, though. In time, people will start to appreciate and recognize the entrepreneurs who turn right when everyone else is turning left. Those of us who would rather be poor than stay a part of the herd. But, of course, we’re not going to wait on anyone, we’re going to keep on pushing forward, pushing harder, and making things happen. We’re changing the world. Period
Matt
April 14th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Exactly right! Your quote is so true. The 9-5ers are a breed apart from us, they will always do what they are doing and never be open to change. It’s sad, but that is thier life and that is what they call ‘their lot’. I’ve never subscribed to that point of view, because, to usethe age old cliche… ‘Life’s what you make it’.
So, why not make it what you want? Like you said, we’re changing the World, but you can’t make the World change their outlook on what we’re doing until the World has changed.
Girish
April 14th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Right Matt. One of the differences between entrepreneurs and 9-… breed is - For entrepreneurs, believing is seeing and for others seeing is believing.
Our beliefs will give us our free, successful life. Others living in their fears today will get inspired tomorrow with our examples.
Matt
April 24th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Girish, I think you hit the nail on the head when you say “Others living in their fears…”.
That is the difference between ‘us and them’ - we get off our butts and feel the fear and do it anyway where others will always fall at the first hurdle. The first hurdle being to get up and do something about it.
Personally, I don’t care if they don’t get off the 9-5 treadmill, that is a choice, just like our choice to be free. The difference is that we do something about it.
I’ve now had 4 businesses that didn’t work out, been down so many times and here I am, still alive and doing it all again. Why didn’t I give up? I can give a few reasons.
1. I don’t have a pension - I have to look after myself in my later years.
2. I want to succeed.
3. I want to control my own life.
4. I hate bosses.
5. I want to control my own destiny.
…and the most important reason:
6. I love life, therefore I want to live it MY way.
I guess I was born to do it, not to get to 50 and wish I’d done it. Yes, I’ve failed, but I have got up, dusted myself off and started again. That was a need, just like the need in me to succeed. I wanted to retire at 30 and here I am at 32 still trying. By the time I’m 35 I’ll be on my way to retiring at 40. This time, with the experience I have gained by losing everything, I know what to do and what not to do. Failure is not an option.
Cheers, Matt
Bonitto Daley Jr.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Hey this is quite interesting because it actually applies to me in a sense. Im 19 and Im good with money and Im intersted in being my own boss, however I dont exactly have a plan to go about doing that yet. It’s like everyday I think what can I do as a start of a successful business. I’ve been reading up on some books by Jim Cramer and Robert Kiosaki. I’ve attended many seminars but I just cant figure out how to make a plan yet. Im pretty good with computers (installing hardware and software) and saving money, however the computer market is already way too competitve and Im not quite sure what other service can I offer to people. Right now Im just a shiny bulb waiting to be turned on.
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