Am I serious? You bet ya! There are many others out there quitting their jobs, downsizing, starting new businesses, living the dream, so why can’t you? Do you realise that one of the dumbest things is only getting paid for the time you work? So here are five reasons to escape the rat race.
1. Freedom, or loss of it
The office of the 21st century is no different to the factories of the 19th century. We are beckoned in with promises and are then systematically broken by the organisation by a number of methods including dress codes, behaviour training and the dreaded company manual full of ridiculous rules and regulations.
The employee is further stripped of their freedom by being told where to be and when, what to say and when and what to do and when.
After the individual’s spirit has been totally crushed the company can then rule by fear which keeps the workers in line and allows for unfair expectations such as working long hours unpaid, taking on other people’s workloads when downsizing departments and having salaries frozen because the business only made £400 million that year.
2. A social life that’s inbred at best
It would be unfair of me to say that I have not made good friends from work colleagues, but when I line up everyone that I ever worked with and then pick out the ones that were good friend, I am basically looking at a handful. Is that because of me or the places I worked at?
The problem with this is that many peoples’s social life revolves around their work mates and this seemed particularly the case when I worked in London. Would I really choose to spend an evening in the pub with a moron who’s weekend involved building network servers at home (that was our day job!) and who kicked his girlfriend out only so he could spend more time fiddling with his computers!
No I wouldn’t!
Have a got a better social life than the average person who works in an office?
Perhaps because working on your own forces you out there.
3. Commuting
I think it is no conicidence that I rarely suffer from colds these days compared to when I use to be crammed into the creaking public transport of London.
The aroma of some sweaty stressed out executive next to me smelling of stale beer, curry and berrocca is something I do not miss. Neither the lack of seating, personal space or being held hostage by striking tube drivers or above inflation fare rises.
4. Working for someone else is way too risky
So you are working for one company like many people do. That equates to one income stream that you are wholly dependent on. That income stream can be turned off in the time it takes your HR dept to say, ‘you’re sacked’.
By working for yourself you have far more ways of diversifying your income streams which will offer you more security than a regular job.
Committing yourself to one income stream is a taking huge risk, however good you are at your job or however healthy your company is.
5. Time
Your time is the most precious thing on this planet. You might not realise that when you are starting out as a fresh faced graduate on a corporate career path but as you become older and wiser you learn to put a greater value on time.
It has been said that working for someone else in a regular job is pretty dumb as you only get paid for the time you work, worse still, sometimes you don’t get paid for your time! Why do you think so many successful people work few hours and get paid more?
Its because they put systems in place to ensure they receive income when they are not actually working. Running websites, investing, property management, there are lots of ways to move to a more passive income.
So as long as your system continues delivering value to others, you will still be paid whether you’re working or not.
I will blog more about these systems soon.
So there we have it, five reasons to quit your job. I can already hear people saying thats easy for you to say, you don’t have a mortgage, family to support etc etc excuses etc more excuses etc.
Well that might be true but I decided to take that first step away from what society expects and I believe many people could do the same if they really wanted to. I still have bills and taxes to pay, car to run, pension to save for, food to put on the table like everyone else so I am no different.
If I have inspired just one person that there is another way then the time writing this will be time well spent.