Nathan Reimer @natedogreimer: Riskiest but most fulfilling job? I would say self-employed, do you agree?
Answer:
NO!
In some ways it’s actually the opposite. And I’m talking about your use of the word “riskiest”.
Think about a corporate job. You’re in a big structure that can easily crumble. For instance, the economy can create layoffs and you’re fired. Or your boss can get fired which will make you fired. Or a customer can complain and now you are fired. Or your boss can simply, on a bad day, fire you.
That’s not safe to me.
A few months ago I met a guy who had worked in middle management at GM for 38 years. He had been fired when they went bankrupt. The top management got golden parachutes. The union workers got bailed out. He got nothing. “Almost 40 years I was there and then they did this to me. GM had the highest revenues of any company in the 80s. Who would’ve thought?”
Yeah, who would’ve? Nobody. And yet it happened. The biggest, safest job in the world ruined his retirement.
The tide came in in 2008. The myth that the corporate job is “safe” has gone away.
The only thing that is safe is you. Choosing yourself.
Take your skills and find multiple ways to make income off of those skills. And if you don’t have the skills, then get them. And if you don’t have the connections then spend the next year making them. But get yourself paid from multiple sources. Then you are safe. Then nobody can fire you (or if they do, you can replace them. You’re theboss, not the people who hire you).
Will it be fulfilling? Of course, because when you wake up you don’t have to worry about what your boss is feeling like when he wakes up. You only have to think about the birds chirping outside, or the rain pelting against your roof. You only have to think about your own fulfillment instead of the whims of the giants who can crush you like an ant.