I don't disagree with what you're saying in principle but starting a business is horrendously exhausting and difficult and most entrepreneurs fail. It is the most gratifying path to wealth yes, and you have the most control over your own destiny absolutely. But it is by no means the easiest way.
And you can frame the argument either way. Ultimately I have more confidence in the brass of a high powered company like Netflix or Facebook to give me a better return on my dollar than if I went into business for myself, for right now at least. You can start a company from the ground up and pay all of the expenses out of your own pocket or put money into one that already has billions of dollars in revenue and millions of customers.
From Dan Freeman of Rise N' Grind podcast fame being interviewed on Dave Anderson's Business Bully podcast.
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For my lifetime, it's always been very similar to what you've said and the only thing I would add to it is that there is so much peer pressure from other slaves. When you're young and you come from the streets, people say that it's dangerous. What they say:
- "Watch out."
- "Do this."
- "Don't be over here."
You learn to see/read people. Then, as you get educated, you make it to college only to forget all of that and hear stuff like:
- "I was reading this person that they said that 4 out of 5 people don't make it."
- "3 out of 4 minority business don't make it."
- "SBA loans require this plan in order for you to get it."
As an intelligent person, who has been taught risk, probability and averages, ascertains out of that information that:
- "It's stupid to go into business."
- "It's stupid to do this for myself."
- "It's stupid because I can get a job because 5 out of 5 people are employed at the chicken plant. 4 out of 5 don't make it. 1 out of 5 make it this way."
So your intelligence, that has been taught to you, tells you not to bet on yourself. Don't do it. You've have all the papers and all the things that are required to get a job at the chicken plant. You hear:
- "We have trained you into chicken biology for the last four years."
- "You went to a magnet chicken high school."
They keep feeding you and you're proud of this.
The new buzzword now is STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) and Web Development (HTML/CSS/JS). That's what's going on right now. A couple of generations ago, probably yours and my generation, it was computer science. We should all learn to program. There's C++, Basic, COBOL & FORTRAN. It was the same buzz then like now. But, no one said to take this and make your own company. They are all saying the same thing:
- "The jobs of the future are this."
- "We need more engineers to help Ford to make more money."
But, no one sees the game that way. So, instead they say, "Oh, you know what? I work at this good company."
I think it's a brother that designed the new Cadillac CTS or something or helped design it. I hope he's getting a point on the package. But, I don't know if he's that smart. He's probably not. He's sitting there and made the new Cadillac, 300, Chargers or Challengers and they're everywhere. His pride is to walk around with his son and say, "I made that car, they sold 10 billion and I only got $40,000 for the whole year for giving them the thing that made their stock move up $20. The car I designed was the thing that added another billion to their bottom line. And this is the stupidity and ignorance of educated people that you will actually think you can create something, that's generates a billion dollars, and they give you a vanity parking space.
I don't want to attack educated people. But, the idea that you can trade all this knowledge just to sit there under people who don't like you. People who want you to be like them. People who make you live in certain places and eat certain things. You give up your whole self for recognition and $40,000. That's the whole game.
If you're salesman, the idea that you can't sell things for yourself is an abomination. Someone has taught you how to sell and you go out with pride to sell their products. But, if I tell you to turn around to sell your own stuff, you hesitate. You wake up every morning at 5 or 6 AM, brush your teeth, take a shower, get the kids to school/daycare, arrive at work at 8 AM, and from 8 to 5, you're productive. But, if I tell to start your own business and run those same hours and do the exact level of work you do for them? The hesitation. It doesn't mean that you're doing maximum work. It means that you're focused and are going to be there for eight hours. You get up to take a piss, eat something for lunch and come back. No one is saying that you have to be 100%. 10% of work over that long period of time and you'll have a business. But, people can't do that. Won't do that.
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The full podcast is located
here. This segments starts at the 8 minute mark.
i need to do this myself
