Info for Your Potential

J-O-B! Don’t you just love that word?

This post is meant to be all in good humor about my disenchantment with having a JOB. The past 20 years of my life have been a high and low of financial success all of it revolving around the pursuit of that ever elusive snipe called job security.

It was always the same. I would find a good job, enjoy my work, only to be laid off and my nativity about job security melted away like butter in a hot frying pan. The minute I was all nice and comfy, my world would be turned upside down by the corporate execs who decided that it was time to shake up the company in order to create more profits for share holders and bonuses for over paid upper management.

Let’s play Jeopardy!

Dean: “I’ll take Corporate World for $1,000, Alex.”

Alex: “The answer is “Layoff employees.”

Dean: “What’s the quickest and most effective way to improve the bottom line and increase company profits?”

Alex: “Correct!”

A Warning Sign

My worst experience was working for a very large, well-known company. It was common place for this company to have mandatory meetings, so on one particular day, they decided to have a State of the Company meeting. It was the 80s and layoffs and rumors were running rampant through the company. The meeting consisted of telling us that the company was doing very well, boasted about profits and gratitude to the employees for their hard work. An honest to goodness “rah-rah” for the company rally. Layoff rumors died that day. Not one person believed there would be a layoff. Two week later, the company laid off 3,000 employees, most in the plant in which I worked and the layoff included all of my department.

Get a Job!

It’s funny, but I don’t recall anyone saying to me when I was a teenager, “Hey, when are you going to start your own business and get a life of your own?” All I ever heard was, “When are you going to get a job!” Before I even started high school, the brainwashing started, “Make good grades in school, go to college, get a good paying job, pay taxes and work ‘till you’re too old, retire and die.”

Some life, right? My ideal life was doing something I thoroughly enjoyed, couldn’t wait to do and made me a great income – not just a “good” income. I’ve tried it all. I worked for awhile with no college degree. My income was poor, the raises were terrible (if I got a raise at all), I did all the work and the boss took the credit.

Then I went to college. I poured myself in to my college work and made excellent grades. I had aspirations of that wonderful pie-in-the-sky job programming computers in C++. My hopes were dashed as I went from one interview to the next being told I had no “on the job” experience. No one, not one person was willing to give me a chance.

The really sad day came when I realized that I was doing work that had nothing to do with my degree – Administrative Assistant. Another word for Secretary, over-worked, underpaid, expected to dress to the nines and have the patience of a Saint with people who didn’t have a clue what they were doing or why they were doing it.

What to do, what to do…

I went through some soul searching, trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do. I am one of those people who has a very strong work ethic, but can’t tolerate being told to do something that makes no sense or has no bearing on what I’m doing. I am also one of those people who does not believe in multi-tasking. If I can’t give my full attention to one project until it’s complete, I won’t do it. I thoroughly believe in putting 100% into anything I work on, so why would I work on three or four projects at one time, never giving one of them my full attention?

Next, I am not a proponent of, “The company comes first.” Sorry, but I come first so that I can take care of my family and then the company. I need rest and recreation to be at my best, to give my family what they need and then the company. I am not a robot, I am not a slave. I am a human being with free will and my free will tells me that having a JOB is a JOKE.

I don’t believe in only socializing with those I work with. I believe in socializing with family, friends and fellow employees. If I need to work over-time to complete a project, I will, but if it becomes habit, because someone higher up keeps changing his or her mind, then the answer is no.

Now, I don’t know of any employer out there who would hire some one who thinks this way, so I took it upon myself to become financially independent. I don’t believe in get rich quick, because it only results in get poor quicker. Actually, it results in have money today, be broke tomorrow. Get rich quick schemes aren’t meant to be long term. They lack planning, no financial future and are usually fraudulent.

Some very good reasons to become financially independent…

1. Make money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year even if you miss a day, a week or a month. Even the self-employed have employees who can run the company in their absence.

2. Better income security. I laugh when someone tells me they have job security. No one has job security. That’s a myth. Financial independence is much more secure.

3. No boss. Needs no explanation!

4. Freedom. When you work for someone else, you get two weeks of paid vacation that you must ask for in advance and then your boss acts like he can’t believe you’re taking a vacation. If you’re lucky, two weeks of holidays. That’s four weeks a year of time off, meaning you will work 48 weeks a year and whatever you do, don’t get sick. Five days of sick leave, again, if you’re lucky. If you do get sick, you’re still expected to go work. You’re at the mercy of your boss’ expectations and the company’s rules.

When you’re financially independent, you take time off when you want to take time off. Work in your jammies, sleep late, play with the kids and then work.

5. Doing something you really enjoy! This is what it is all about, isn’t it? Most people hate their jobs. Why? The number one reason is they do not like what they are doing. The second reason is they do not like their boss.

I know so many folks who are tired of working for someone else and you may be one of them. They want to be financially independent, but they don’t know where to start. It takes intelligence with common sense, self-confidence, self-reliance and the willingness to research and learn everything you can about what you would like to do to reach your goal of financial independence. There are several things you can do. Start a weblog, invest in the stock market, freelance copywriting, the ideas are endless. I continue to research anything that looks good and if it looks good, I learn everything I can about it.

You can do the very same thing. Start the ball rolling. Use the Law of Attraction to achieve financial independence and get what you want out of life!