Why do we choose to work for ourselves?

Well said. For me, I think an important factor in working for myself, besides the points Thomas has
already mentioned, is the freedom and flexibility it brings. Not only is the potential profit range much larger, but how you go about attaining that profit is solely up to your creativity and knowledge.

There's no drudging day to day in the hours that somebody else has set for you. There's no being restricted to a set wage, and having to take a second job or beg for a promotion or payrise to increase your income. You're in charge, and your motivation to work is the potential you can achieve, not just so you can keep your job.

I don't think you feel as threatened working for yourself as you do for an employer, either. You don't have to worry so much about impressing your superiors, office politics, or strict punctuality. Without the meaningless stresses that being employed can often bring, you're left with more time and energy to focus on expanding your own profits and production. If you don't feel able to work on a given day, you can choose not to, at the expense of the profits that day's work would bring. But you don't have to worry about being fired to taking too much time off. You don't feel *obliged* to work constantly, and it's human nature that we work harder and more efficiently when we're working for something we believe in, not just working to achieve somebody else's goals.

Working for yourself means being rewarded for your success. If you put twice the effort in, be it in the form of twice the labor hours, twice the capital or twice the creative energy, you can often expect to reap twice the rewards. If you're employed by somebody else, working twice as hard might only gain you some overtime pay - if your effort is in the form of extra working hours - and often not even that, depending on your industry.

Today's working world provides very little incentive for the nine to five "drudge worker". Their only incentive to put any effort in at all is so that they can keep their job to meet their expenses. Working for yourself is vastly more rewarding, with direct benefits for the time and energy you put into your company.

When I was employed full time, I greeted every day with anger and dread. "Another damn day in that hellhole," I'd think to myself each morning I dragged myself out of bed.

Today, I don't have that pressure. I start each day thinking to myself "What can I do to improve my company and increase my profits today?" and I feel motivated and inspired to work towards that goal.

And ultimately, it's because of that - the peace of mind and freedom that comes from working for oneself - that I know that even if I'm having a bad month and money's tight, I'll *never* go back to full-time employment. I'll just work a little harder.

- Shannon L.


Fifth Dimension Computing