LETS TALK ABOUT .... EMPLOYMENT Vs. ENTREPRENUERSHIP PART II

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”  ― Steve Jobs

Source: Google Images

 The road to success sometimes feels like a relationship you give it your all - time, prayers, creativity, heart, love, attention till there is nothing left of you to give.

My little brother who is not so little anymore vowed right from his school days he would NEVER be employed. Simply because he would not spend his life making someone else rich.
Growing up were taught to study hard and get into the best high schools, then study hard and get into the best universities, then study harder to get employed in the best companies. We were never taught to be independent and build a company that would employ the best brains in the industry.

So, it didn't come as a surprise that my parents protested my brother's choices. They sent his C.Vs everywhere, talked to who was who to get him jobs in some of the best companies. The rest of us were never as brave as he was or maybe we just believed that life's blueprint was made up of what we were taught to believe.

An incident happened in my country recently. The Authority in charge of the local ports adverstised for two job positions. They asked candidates to drop off their applications at their offices. Well, the management expected at most 20 applicants LO! and behold 3,000 applicants showed up!! WTH! yes. THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE all competing for TWO SLOTS!! This broke my heart to pieces. The situation was wanting. I thought to myself, who do we blame? Do we blame the system that taught us to be dependent on other people for our survival or do we blame ourselves for not thinking up solutions for our own problems?? Who do we blame for this kind of tragedy?!

I mean, 3,000 people translate into 1,000 companies employing another 3,000 people? How do we solve this catastrophe? We have a country of highly educated and talented individuals sitting at home waiting to hear from the hundreds of companies they sent their resumes to, hundreds of highly educated and talented people desperate to work for free just for a little work experience because they probably rushed on to get their masters degrees with NO work experience at all. le sigh! WHY? are we slaves to this system of thought. Lets break free. Lets think up solutions onstead being part of the problem.

TO BE CONTINUED....

LETS TALK ABOUT... EMPLOYMENT Vs. ENTREPRENUERSHIP

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.”  ― Steve Jobs

Source: Google Images

Entreprenuership is not for the faint hearted!

When you think of the risks involved in trying to bring a vision to life, the time, the cost implications, the research, the personal sacrifices, finding the right people to carry that vision forward, and greatest of all is you cannot fail yourself.

Well, truth is as an employee such thoughts don't keep me up at night. WHY? Simple. It's my boss's job. I walked into a well structured organization. All the hard work had already been done for me. All i needed to do was get my job description, a computer, a desk and voila.

Being employed seems the easy way out, but is it the safest option?

The beauty is i double as an entreprenuer. I am learning first hand what it is like to set up a well structured organization. I call it the SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS! You get knocked down more times than you can count. But the true test of an entreprenuer is how many times you rise up and still get going.

Many are the times i have been tempted to quit. Many are the occassions i have packed my equipment ready to be tossed out into the trash. There are so many of those episodes.

But i find myself back at it again, sometimes with tears streaming down my face. I give myself the pep talk - it's all a labor of love.

I would NEVER quit because i absolutely love what i do. Creating ART comes naturally to me. I don't stress. It's trully a labor of love-hate.

I have so much respect for people who have set up successful businesses and greater respect for those running empires. My little business has taken well over 7 years to set up. 5 of those precious years were spent doing research. Research is KEY!! It sets the tone for the business.

Money is everything when it comes to setting up a business. Chances are if you have NO MONEY you will probably have NO STARTUP. 

Don't despise the begining of a venture no matter how small, It may not look like what you had on the blue print but keep going. Nobody sells the perfect products. Who knew an entire company could be born from someone's little kitchen sink?

TO BE CONTINUED....