You heard me plenty of times before “talking shit” about jobs and how they are killing what’s best in humans, making them do meaningless stuff just for some green, overvalued, paper. I still stand by my words and I don’t have much respect for jobs for plenty of reasons that I’m not going to get into over here. But, being self-employed comes with a lot of downsides too.

I don’t want you to get me wrong, I do think that jobs are all great and vital to the economy and, of course, I don’t have anything against employees but, they are good only as long as you actually want and like the job you’re performing. And, I do think that if you don’t have any money, you should get a job, even if you don’t like the whole situation as much. But, what’s more important, at the same time you should work on something else that could substitute that job later.

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However, if you don’t like your job, and you’re complaining, on a regular basis about how much it sucks and you can’t wait for the weekend to come to get wasted and forget about the week and, at the same time, you’re not taking any action towards a better life then, for fuck sake, you deserve your shitty situation. Either quit your job for something else even if it pays less or, start something that can allow you to leave any job, forever.

With all that out of the way, I do think that being self-employed is the best option for most people but, it does come with some challenges that, if you don’t have a strong enough mentality you will have great issues overcoming. But, I do think that if you can manage to become self-employed then, your mentality is probably already stronger than most people’s.

The truth is that, if you are self-employed you are your own boss, and that is both a blessing and a curse.

Motivation

You see, if you are self-employed, there’s nobody to push you from behind with a stick because you are the guy with the stick and how much you are willing to push your boundaries is only up to you. If you’re employed, your boss will always try to get the most out of your eight hours a day, which will, of course, make you work more and harder, in most cases.

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But, as an entrepreneur, as somebody that’s self-employed, you don’t have that luxury. When the times get tough, and you lose your motivation, when all you want is to watch TV or go out drinking even if you have work to do, only you can hit yourself in the balls and keep on working instead of getting distracted. The issue is that many people decide not to metaphorically punch themselves in the balls but, instead, they choose to take the path of least resistance and have fun.

_{Photo by Tina Rataj-Berard on Unsplash}

The huge issue with that is that, if you do it once, you will most certainly do it again. So, if you decide to waste time around on stupid shit once, instead of working, you will get weaker, your mentality will get weaker. And, if you don’t stop you will end up doing it again, and again, and again until you wake up a few months from now on that you’re broke and without any idea of how you end up there.

As a self-employed person, you are the one in control, the one with the bat, and your success depends only on you. If you take the feet off the gas pedal, even for a brief moment, you will lose your traction, you will get weaker, and you will end up not accomplishing your mission. This is the dark side of self-employment that almost nobody’s talking about!

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Being self-employed never ends, you have to keep on going forever so if you have gained momentum somehow, it is highly, and I mean highly important not to lose it. Gaining daily, monthly, yearly momentum is not so hard but keeping it is very challenging because distractions are at every corner and it’s insanely easy to get lured into doing something that it’s not serving your purpose in any manner just because it’s appealing, in appearance.

You will have days when you will want to quit, days when you will want to watch cat videos on YouTube or to get a beer on a Friday night, even if you still have work to do but, the way you act is what sets or doesn’t set you apart from the sea of mediocrity.

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You either get YouTube and mediocrity, or you get the money, the freedom and the lifestyle that you desire but keep in mind, you can’t get both, and that is a choice the most powerful people on the planet had to do too, and they decided to pick the latter.

It’s no problem if you pick entertainment over work but, don’t you dare fucking complain about having a shitty life, a shitty job and not enough money next time you’re asking your boss for a raise or a couple of days off.

Self-employment comes at a price, like everything else but, it is the most rewarding bet you can make, and you are the only one that can throw the chips in the middle and go all-in on your vision instead of settling down for less. Nobody else can do it for you, pick wisely!