Much of the conventional wisdom about self-employment actually qualifies as Urban Myths (and we know how those can circulate).
Sadly, many people who think about becoming Joyfully Jobless are stopped from doing so because of these commonly held, but unfounded, beliefs. Let’s take a look at five biggies.
Only extroverts can be entrepreneurs. A recent study found that almost all kindergartners exhibited entrepreneurial traits. By the fourth grade, however, innovative thinking was on the decline.
Being and introvert or extrovert isn’t nearly as important as wanting to solve problems. Best of all, the opportunities for creating a business that is a perfect fit for the owner means that anyone so inclined can do so.
You need the security of a job. What a Twentieth Century concept!
Even as jobs are disappearing all over the place, people still cling to that outmoded notion about security. Successful self-bossers know that you can only have as much security as you produce for yourself.
Or as Helen Keller pointed out, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do children as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.”
Starting a business is risky. So is driving, eating and sex. It’s a matter of how you do it.
In fact, self-bossers who have done their homework, visualized their business and are committed to laying a strong foundation don’t consider what they’re doing to be risky. Preparation makes a huge difference, of course, as does a willingness to ask for help, to experiment and to be flexible.
You need a lot of money to start a business. Another outmoded belief.
While it’s true that some businesses require heavy capitalization, that’s not the only option. More and more modern entrepreneurs are mastering the art of the shoestring start-up, learning to generate cashflow and build slow and strong.
Most businesses fail in the first five years. Even the Small Business Administration likes to tout failure rates, but these statistics are skewed and based on heavily capitalized, conventional undertakings.
The success rate for lean enterprises, which are often overlooked in the success/failure studies, is actually high. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, be committed to taking advice from informed sources. In starting a business, that means learning from those who have successfully done so…not the fearmongers, dreambashers and those who’ve never even tried.
I love this advice from musician and avocado farmer Jason Mraz:
Go be that starving artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic, finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel.
You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put her to be part of a vast organism to explore and create.
Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on fifteen televisions at TGIFridays.
Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
You’ll thank yourself for it.
Recent Comments