Jan 14, 2022
Jobs aren’t perfect and forever, hence the Great Resignation
Do you remember your career days from high school? I remember like it was yesterday. At the unripe young age of 16 years old, I was expected to know exactly what I wanted for my life while my science teacher was telling me that I would amount to nothing in life.
As we walked around the fair and had employers pitch us their jobs, we were painted a very rosy image of what jobs were like.
They were scouting out the talent, handing out internships like hot buns (what business doesn’t like free labor, am I right?) and we young girls were starry-eyed at the prospect of being respectable career women.
Two decades later, I was speaking with a very academically minded family member. She told me how it was imprudent to keep trying new projects in life and how one should pick a career and stick to it, that it was great to build on it with more certifications and degrees but ultimately one should stick to the path they chose.
All kinds of bells and whistles immediately began to ring in my mind. It seemed like this family member, along with millions of people, most people, had been repeatedly presented with the “jobs are forever” marketing campaign and money myth.
Let me explain.
“Diamonds are forever”, and jobs too? Not anymore
In 1938, De Beers hired a marketing agency to reignite their diamond monopoly. With the timeless slogan “Diamonds are forever”, they shaped our culture into believing that diamonds are synonymous with everlasting love.
Similarly, our culture has been shaped to believe that jobs are synonymous with everlasting financial stability.
All that seems to be shattering now amid The Great Resignation.
According to Monster, 95% of workers are considering a job change. Many of them are taking the plunge, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November, The Bureau of labor statistics reported. That’s an unprecedented turnover tsunami, to put it mildly.
Two years after the onset of the pandemic, we find ourselves yet again being encouraged to work from home in some countries. That change of environment, the lack of social interactions, and sometimes social distraction led many of us to reconsider what we wanted from our lives and to even explore different passions or develop new talents.
What does this mean for you?
if you feel like you need a change in your work, you’re not alone! Don’t let the money myth of “jobs are forever” cloud your judgment. It is your right and responsibility to explore your options and forge a new path for your work and finances.
The fact is that jobs take away most of the risk. You show up and give your time to a company that will take on the risk of creating a business and transforming your labor into profit. Because they take on most of the risk, they take on most of the reward.
But at the end of the day, with all due respect to employers and employees, human labor is one of the factors in the production formula.
Production: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.
It has to be replaceable, otherwise, the business is at risk. So don’t take it personally, rather see it as an opportunity to see past the myth of jobs are forever, to some people they might be, to others not so much.
If you desire something else for your life, as I and so many others did, this article may just be another drop in the bucket.
Then when you consider going solo, the alarms start ringing and you ask yourself, “what am I going to do? How will I pull this off?”
Listen up, most people start with those questions, and most people don’t have the answer when they start, that’s part of being human. The very fact that you desire this is an indication that you can achieve it, what you now need is commitment. Yes, commitment even without knowing all the steps or all the answers.
I wrote this article on my phone with my 3-month old baby sleeping in my arms. Because I am committed to sharing my knowledge and building my business, it benefits those who learn from the decade I spent accumulating financial knowledge and it benefits me, allowing me to create and live the life I desire.
Everyone deserves that chance, the caveat is that you need to create it for yourself, trust me, it’s that much sweeter when you’ve done it all yourself! Just like my 4-year-old is proud of herself when she “does it all by herself”, we are all little children at heart.
So listen to that little kid, what makes you light up? That’s what you should be focusing your energy on. And yes, you can build an income from your passion, commit wholeheartedly and you will learn along the way. Time will go on, no matter what, where do you want to be in 1 year and 10 years? The secret is to start building that future now.
Have the best day ever.
