Why The Traditional Career Route is Actually Extremely Risky

These days entrepreneurship is hot.

Everyone wants to start their own business and they’re very vocal about it.

You’ll ask a guy who has no real life skills “what do you want to do with your life” and they’ll reply back “I want to start my own business.”

Then you proceed by ignoring everything this clown says after that.

But don’t let a tool ruin what is actually a good idea.

How many times have you heard the “stat” that 9/10 businesses fail within the first year?

In reality, the stats for the last 20 years is that there is a 51% of chance of surviving 5 years, and that 10% chance is the chance of you hitting it BIG.

Now looking at these numbers and the potential rewards, it’s not bad at all.

Now my guess is that most businesses that do fail are because people startup companies they are “passionate” about and want to do what they like regardless of what the market is asking for.

They fail to validate their ideas or fulfill an actual need in the marketplace.

These people are the tools I was talking about earlier.

Having said that though, at the end of the day when your business fails, it’s not the end of the world.

You start again and this time you’ll be starting from a position of way more experience and knowledge therefore increasing your odds of being successful in the long run.

On the other hand let’s take a look at the “traditional route”.

The route that your well-intentioned parents and not so well-intentioned corporations have been forcing feeding down your throat since the industrial revolution.

On this route you go to school, get a degree and work for a big corporation as a replaceable cog.

If you’re the ambitious type, then you sacrifice your life, your family, and your health working long hours while playing the political game for the chance to move up a company.

Nevermind the fact that the chances of you moving up high enough that you matter in a corporation is as slim as you succeeding in starting your own business!

Consider the following scenario; you moved up the ladder and are making $450,000 a year as a Vice President.

You got job you always wanted and are working 60–80 hour weeks like a good executive.

You also have the life to match the salary aka you aren’t really saving much.

Now after years of grueling long hours at the office — your company merges with a larger multinational and you lose your job in the layoffs that ensue.

You go from from making $450,000 a year to $0 a year!

That’s a HUGE risk you’re taking!

If you had created a business in the meantime and sold it for whatever amount, put that money in municipal bonds then the chances of you going from $450,000 a year to $0 are almost zero!

Yes you could potentially get another job, but now if what if the economy sucks?

There aren’t many positions open for high-level executives that will pay what you got before. This isn’t like working at McDonalds.

Now let’s take the “safest” bet into account now: you didn’t work your ass off trying to be CEO but instead lived below your means working an average 9–5 job with a RRSP matching plan.

Now you’re doing everything right by the book and investing your hard earning money in the stock market hoping to get the promised “7%” return.

Notice how I said hope, because that’s what you’re doing now.

You’re betting your entire future on something that’s completely out of your control!

You hope the market doesn’t crash when you need to cash out.

You hope that you didn’t get swindled by a slick talking stock broker.

You hope that an emergency won’t come before that’ll take your money out before it can compound itself.

You hope that you bought in a bear market and not a bull market.

You hope that this will be the decade for equities.

You hope that you don’t lose your job and have to dip into your savings?

Taking all of this into account; is it really the safer route?

Doesn’t it make so much more sense to start your own business and make it that way versus going the traditional, “safe” route?

Is trading 5 days for 2 days of your own a smart move?

That’s a rhetorical question — obviously it’s not worth it!

Then why do so many people take this crappy deal?

Years and years of hard wiring in your brain — and “conventional wisdom” — aka what worked well 80 years ago but doesn’t work anymore.

Now the next question is HOW?

How do you rewire years and decades of being told exactly what to do?

Start by understanding you have to be responsible for own success in this world and not play by “their” rules.

Obviously starting your business isn’t for everyone. There’s a lot more involved than just starting and it’s not all that glamorous.

No what path you do take — be aware that there is no “safe” way to play it.

Originally published at uzairstheoryofeverything.com on October 15, 2014.