Getting out of your 9-5 comfort zone can be a tad scary sometimes. But the long-term satisfaction is way better than anything that requires you working on someone else’s dream.
Why not be an entrepreneur and work towards your own dream? Here are seven reasons why becoming an entrepreneur might be the best decision you’ll ever make. After reading LifeHack.org, of course.
1. Flexible hours
When you work for yourself, you are your own boss. You can decide when to start working, when to go to lunch and when to go to the bathroom. I mean, don’t you just hate it when you have to ask your boss for ten minutes longer at lunch because you’re stuck in traffic? Then your pay is cut because you missed ten minutes at the punch-in. That’s why being an entrepreneur is so wonderful; you are independent to choose when you want to work. You are the only one who truly knows when your brain is most functional, so if that time is from midnight to 6 a.m., it’s perfectly okay!
2. Money goes directly into your pocket
Regardless of whether your boss pays you by the hour or on commission, he or she will always make more money than you. Period. I’m not saying that in a hateful way towards your boss, mainly because that’s why he or she is the boss! But, you can change the money process by becoming your own captain, so to speak. For example, if you work on commission at a jewelry store, selling a pair of earrings will only make you 10% of the price you sell it for, while your boss makes the rest. If you have your own store and sell your own jewelry, then guess what? You just bumped your paycheck up by at least 50%, and can now afford that new toy you never really had the freedom to buy. It doesn’t matter what your business is, everything you sell will directly go into your pocket when you become an entrepreneur.
3. You develop self-discipline
Ah, discipline! There are two types of discipline: the one you get from your parents and the one you get at school or in the military. When you have a business though, the discipline you build is a combination of both what your parents gave you when you were younger and the discipline the military gives to its soldiers. It’s a discipline that will follow you for the rest of your life! You will learn to manage your time wisely and say “no” to distractions like the TV or the newest Vine that came out. It’s a discipline that you inflict on yourself because you want to, so it’s easier for to stick to it. This type of discipline isn’t punished physically, which is why it’s so powerful; it’s punished financially and mentally. If you are not disciplined when you work for yourself, it’s very easy to slide into the comfort zone and forget about responsibilities. In turn, this will decrease your motivation level and money supply as you stop completing your to-do list. That’s the worst punishment of all. When you are punished once though, you learn the real value of discipline and do everything you can to not be punished again.
4. You feel accomplished
You have your own business, make enough money to support your family (or are working towards that goal) and have time to enjoy yourself. You go to bed knowing that you did everything you could do that day to get you closer to your dream, and that’s what accomplishment looks like! You give 110% for every project you create for your clients, because you know that their satisfaction is what’s going to keep your business alive. You can look back at the progress you’ve made over the last few weeks, months, or years and smile. How can you not be proud of all the projects you’ve finished, all the money you made, all the days you woke up at 4 a.m., and all the times you failed and started again?
5. You work on your own dream
Enough said.
6. Free to make your own rules
Ever walked into a new office only to find an empty desk and a paper containing all the office rules you have to follow in order to keep your job? Ever sighed and rolled your eyes at some of those rules? Well, good news! There will be no more eye rolling when you work for yourself, because you make your own rules. You get to decide whether or not you’re allowed to drink coffee after noon or if you can wear jeans on days that do not begin with F. You are your own boss, you decide how much time you have to eat lunch or if you can leave your office to go for a quick run or not. Your rules can be funky, like making a client laugh at least once a day. The power is in your hands. Use it wisely.
7. You’re taught lessons that school or work can’t teach you
I don’t have anything against school or jobs, but it’s not okay that they don’t teach us how to be independent in the real world. From day one in Kindergarten, we are taught to depend on someone else in order to make decisions. You are taught to ask permission for everything you do and when the time comes to face the real world, you are paralyzed because you don’t know what to do! You don’t know how to deal with mean customers or how to speak the client’s lingo. When you’re an entrepreneur, you learn all those things through trial and error. You learn to be intuitive and to think fast for solutions without dwelling on the problem. You learn to manage your finances, your personality and your clients in a way that school or work can never teach you. Anthony Robbins once lost a big client because his nails were eaten to the skin, and the woman didn’t want to deal with someone who can’t keep themselves from eating their nails. He lost big money there, which is how he learned to calm himself down and always have clean nails. It’s a small thing, but fingers are the first thing that someone looks at when you put them on the table. It’s a small lesson, but he was most definitely not taught that in school!
So, tell me, how excited are you to become your own boss?
Featured photo credit: z0pmcwrN.jpg/Seemann via mrg.bz
