Jobs suck because they’re rooted in limited leverage and limited control. Sure, you can have a great job (and a fun one too!) but in the scope of wealth, they limit both leverage and control – two things desperately needed if you want wealth. – MJ DeMarco
You wake up each day between 6 and 7 am. You have breakfast, wash up and brush your teeth, get dressed, get the kids off to school, and get on your way to work. Your boss yells at you for some trivial reason, and you spend the next 8 hours doing work for someone else. After work, you come home, have dinner, spend time with your kids and spouse, and go off to bed to do it again to do it the next day.
Is this what you want? Could there be something more to life? To work? What if you started your own business? What would your days look like then? Would you be happier?
Entrepreneurship is connecting, creating, and inventing systems – be they businesses, people, ideas, or processes. The End of Jobs, by Taylor Pearson, discusses how now is the best time in the history of the world to become an entrepreneur. Pearson spent three years interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs from all over the world and working with dozens of them to grow their businesses. The End of Jobs is the culmination of Pearson’s interviews and experiences. The End of Jobs is eye-opening, thought provoking, and gives a rough outline of how you could be a successful entrepreneur.
Improved communication technology has made it easy for individuals and companies to find, hire, and manage not just industrial workers, but knowledge workers as well.
Before you read the summary, let me start off telling you while The End of Jobs makes many good points, it also has some scare tactics to hit the reader emotionally and get you excited about entrepreneurship.
Summary of The End of Jobs
In the late 20th century, many United States companies realized cheap labor existed in developing countries in Asia and started outsourcing many jobs. This trend has continued; many companies have full departments in foreign nations. Advances in communication technology has made this possible. Have you had a Skype call with someone on another continent? It’s crazy!
Advances in communication technology allows companies to communicate across continents and tap into a talent pool of 7 billion people. Why can’t we do this as individuals?
Right now, we live in an era where it has never been easier to start a business. We started this blog for less than $150! Why is it so easy to start a business in recent times? A few reasons:
- Production costs have never been lower
- Like I said above, we started this blog for less than $150 and has unlimited income potential.
- There are countless ways to distribute your product
- Everyone has a smartphone, an internet connection, and an email account
- There are new markets being created each day
- Globalization has allowed entrepreneurs the opportunity to consult, sell to, and work with businesses and individuals all over the world. This allows entrepreneurs to solve problems and provide value without being local.
As a result of three points above, Pearson concludes it has never been easier to become an entrepreneur.
Think about it, do you want to write a book or start a blog? Easy! It will take some time, but long gone are the days of working with editors to prove your book is worth publishing. Now, people write books and put them on Amazon for the world to see. eBooks cost nothing to make; leveraging the internet and technology can be very profitable.
Takeaways from The End of Jobs
The End of Jobs proved me right. I knew starting a blog was a good idea 🙂
With this project and a few other projects, I believe the time to quit my day job might be sooner than I thought. It would be awesome not to have to work a 9-5 job and be able to do my own thing each day.
“We assume jobs are safe because they’ve always been safe, not because there’s good evidence they will be in the future.”
3 Profound Passages from The End of Jobs
- Jobs not only limit the upside of intrinsic value by tying money to time – they also give up control. We have no leverage beyond trading more time, which is our most valuable and only truly limited asset. We lose control to react to market forces outside the scope of the job.
- By harnessing freedom and meaning earlier in our career and putting it into our work, we can now live freer, more meaningful lives that help others, and get rich doing it.
- It’s cheaper, easier, and safer to start a business. When you grow it using variables you control, you make more money because you have unlimited leverage. You also are building an asset which can be sold. And, you’ve acquired a skill set that protects your downside.
Our Recommendation for The End of Jobs
If you are interested in starting your own business, please read The End of Jobs. If you are tired of working for your company and have a creative spirit, then read The End of Jobs. Will you control your future or will a corporation control it? I’m going to explore starting my own business – even if I fail, it will be a great learning process! In the mean time, I plan to continue to read books, gain new experiences, and write a book! Writing a book will test me in ways I’ve never been tested. I’m very excited about the future; there is so much potential for me! 🙂
“There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley
Would you ever start your own business, a blog, or consulting service? Do you think 9-to-5’ers are at risk? What is stopping you from becoming an entrepreneur? Do you have any book suggestions for me on start-ups?
