I met 2 ladies in the park the other day, they introduced themselves as chopped vegetable vendors (such services are booming in Bangalore these days) and they explained about their business, how to reach them, etc., I was super impressed by their enthusiasm to do something own, their choice of work in which they are good at and their marketing skills without any business degree. Of course, I would be in need of their service someday as a busy boss of my own, I took their details and assured to spread the word around.
My Beauty salon lady, who is indeed very good in her work, was working for someone else under their terms, opened her own parlor.
My classmate from psychology started her own counseling center which I heard today. In fact, I have been hearing from last 1 week about these kinds of self-employment stories more and more. Wow.. is it a season or what?
Be it my mother, my doctor, my son’s playschool teacher and many more, all have inspired me to step up and be my own boss over the years. Their skill to manage everything in their plate and still find time for something else to be financially independent and to have their own journey of being someone they dreamed of, is incredible and I am proud knowing them.
My experience as a full-time Software industry employee and being self-employed is been a 2 different journey of its own indeed. As an employee, I was updated with skills, knew how to be in corporate culture, confident among others, etc., But my social life and skills were as poor as any stranger in the neighborhood.
When we work for a company, we have our today and tomorrow in the hands of someone else. Our life decisions are based on our career goals. I have to wait to make a personal life decision until I finish a project which seems to be a once in a lifetime project. Isn’t it scary?
When day to day life needs more attention, like a self-health issue, a sick parent, relationships, responsibilities followed by marriage, most importantly children and their needs, etc, etc., To be in a full-time job takes most of our energy, efforts and time because of the dependency by the company. Not to forget our own financial needs built by us and our identity as someone in the company on which we become dependent over a period of time.
A friend of mine working for an MNC manages the house and 2 children, thinks she can not do anything outside her job, this job is her identity which she is not ready to lose but she also wants to be best in every role she plays in her life. This is not only her struggle, many of us think we are nothing without this job, is it true? Did we ever think to be a responsible wife or a mother before becoming one? we made a decision to be in this role and I think all of us doing a wonderful job in it.
For many being in a job is not a self-made choice, they stick to it due to circumstances, the day they are out of that job everything starts feeling empty, and getting back to an active life takes years. Awareness about self-identity and self-worth seems lower in their own graph, becomes a comfort zone, and many deny to come out of it with the fear of challenges and changes they have to make in it. A full-time job is harmful when we start believing it is the only choice.
Self-Managed employment comes in handy for us to be ourselves, give time for both career, personal life, freedom of working in our own time, terms and most importantly helps us to understand our priorities. How much we really need, not only money but in terms of emotions, stress, rest, health and social relationships. Isn’t that a true work-life balance?
Does that mean a full-time job can not have work-life balance? No, we can have balance, but the sense of responsibility towards others business may make us feel guilty for taking time off from work many times and fear of losing job for our own reasons keeps us away from it.
How to know our strength or choosing what to do if a full-time job is not an option anymore is a million dollar question for many of us, isn’t it?
To know that people spend a lot of money and energy on doing things they don’t know or not interested in or taking someone else’s path, for example getting into Network marketing, Insurance, Tupperware, a home boutique for clothes, etc., etc., we never think what is the person’s strengths which he/she has to become successful and do i have it, if yes what are they? if No, How can i achieve it? or Do I still want to do it?
SWOT analysis comes in handy to analyze ourselves:
S — Strength — What are my strengths?
W — Weakness — What are my weakness?
O — Opportunities — What are the opportunities I have around me?
T — Threats — Do I have any threats to go with these opportunities?
The belief in self and being aware of what am I good lets us take chance on ourselves, increases our self-esteem to challenge ourselves, Plan for future. Of course, it will be hard, we make mistakes, we may fail a couple of times and learn something new every time but we answer to no one and we can never be in fear of losing our own identity.
We must never forget, “The Roles we play are just the Roles, we are more than those roles and the best gift we can give ourselves is to be our own boss.”
Feel free to comment and let me know your story.
