Yes, YOU can do work you love and get paid handsomely for it
I was about twelve years old when I first dipped my fat toe into the pool of the labor market…
The water was very cold.
My first job
My first gig would’ve made Upton Sinclair, shudder. It involved sitting in the back room of a bicycle shop monotonously attaching wiry spokes to metal bike rims. It was a greasy, thankless mess. I hated it. No, I loathed it! It was a scheme concocted by my Mother to teach me about the trials and tribulations of working folk.
Lesson learned.
Work is not fun.
If this is what work was all about, I thought to myself, then I would surely starve.
Playing by a different set of rules
Fortunately, the year is not 1904, or even 1984. Today, it is easier than ever to acquire and hone knowledge and skills; to pursue your passion and life's calling; to take your wares to market without fussing with bricks and mortar; to live your life by a design all your own.
That doesn't mean it’s easy, mind you, only that it’s possible.
Being Your Own Boss isn’t for everyone. It’s only for people able to muster enough courage and audacity to bet on themselves and play the game of life and work, differently. And it pays to be brave these days. Playing it safe isn’t paying the same dividends it used to. As the safety net that was once the right of every working man and woman evaporates, there will be diminishing returns for those content to play by “the rules”.
“Diminishing returns” may be putting it charitably. A race to the bottom?
No guarantees to be found
Just consider that absolutely no one is lining up to guarantee you a job. In fact, the average tenure at a j-o-b is around 5 years, give or take. So every five years we’ll need to move on, reinvent ourselves, wait to be picked once again.
There’s a good chance you’ll be waiting a good while.
What then?
There’s also a good chance that once you get picked, you won’t be able to make the same amount of money you made before. That’s one of the dangers of being “lucky” enough to stay with a company for 10 or (gulp) 20+ years. All those pay increases, generous bonuses, healthcare benefits, vested participation in the company’s 401K and stock purchase plans— is your new employer going to match all that?
Sometimes they might.
Very frequently they won’t.
What then?
And what about our young people, who among many other challenges are entering the workforce at a time when inequality is running rampant and wreaking havoc globally.
But not just that.
We should also note that young people, because of miraculous medical breakthroughs, will have a chance to live longer lives, well into their 80s and 90s. And longer still. Bear in mind that in 1990 there were 95,000 centenarians on the planet, today there are more than half a million, and by 2050 the Pew Research center projects there will be more than three million. Longer lives, shorter cycles of career change, will they really have the option to play by the same old rules?
You have options
Despite social upheavals, market cycles, tech revolutions and disruptive innovations, this I know for sure: work isn’t going anywhere. There is always something that people will need or want and that you and I might be able to provide. There will always be opportunities for us to contribute and add value to people’s lives (while retaining some of that value for ourselves).
AND we have more resources than ever to get the job done. We can harness technology to design a life we can enjoy and be proud of. Actually, I am heartened by the fact that the days of generic, mass-produced, one-size-fits-all lifestyles are over.
A values-driven, entrepreneurial life
Have you noticed that companies now sport trillion dollar valuations and movies regularly gross a billion dollars (or two). We are enraptured, it seems, with a Gordon Gecko-like obsession with more, more and more. But how much more is enough? And what is the cost of more? The digital economy may enjoy zero marginal cost but we live in an analog world with a biosphere on the verge of collapse. How much longer can we play the game of cost externalization?
All these challenges beckon a new way of thinking and working. So whether or not you should pursue gainful employment, start your own business, or both, is not the core issue.
Living a life in pursuit of our deepest values—not merely the pursuit of riches— is.
So what really matters to you?
How do you want to live your life?
What positive change are you committed to making happen in the limited time that you have?
Today, you have more options than ever to design the life you want, but only if you avail yourself of the opportunity.
We can use entrepreneurship to make a difference in people’s lives and to live life according to our deepest values. The most beautiful thing, which warms the cockles of my heart, is that the more value we add to others, the more value we get to keep.
Zig Ziglar broke this down brilliantly, “You can have everything in life you want,” he said, “if you'll just help enough other people get what they want.”
Pithy and true.
So yes, you can do work you love and get paid handsomely for it. Believe it.
Work doesn’t have to be drudgery.
Difficult, but essential questions
I know that grappling with these weighty considerations can drive us a little batty and that the world is too eager to give us myriad opportunities for fun distraction and painless avoidance. But there’s a cost to avoiding this work and I’m arguing that it’s getting more expensive all the time.
So, as the old Yiddish adage says, “If you want to achieve your dreams, wake up already!”
What do you really want?
Who do you care about?
What do they really want?
How can you tap your strengths to bring joy or make life a little easier for them?
When will you start?
And how can I assist?