Self Employed or Bust

Self Employed or Bust

July 2, 2008 – 9:34 pm

It occurs to me I’m going to die. I know, not the most prophetic statement ever made. I’m not worried about dying, mind you. I tend to invest concern in things I actually have some control over. But I have this horrific vision of laboring away at my desk, clutching my heart and slamming my face on my keyboard. My last thoughts will be, “gee, I hope I saved that document.” 

That’s not how I want to go out. I suspect that’s not how anybody wants to go out. But I’m afraid that’s precisely what’s going to happen to me if something doesn’t change in my life. 

On the other hand, dying on the job, while horribly cliché and uninspired, isn’t something to be ashamed of. Many of us, in fact, would consider such devotion to company and family to be somewhat noble. A man, or woman, toiling away until the inevitable heart attack or stroke hits just to ensure their company stays afloat or their family has food on the table is actually something to be fairly proud of. 

So it isn’t dying while working hard that’s got me worried, either. What then? As things stand, I’ve done alright. I’ve gone from impoverished to well-compensated before hitting 40. I’m not rich, by any stretch of the imagination, but my needs are met, I don’t stress over bills, I never go hungry. So what am I complaining about? 

My last time sheet reflected 71 hours in one week. That’s up from 64 and 66 the previous two weeks. I will wager that the CEO for my company didn’t invest that much of himself into the job in the same time period. I will wager that none of the board did either. I know none of my coworkers did and I don’t make much more than any of them. And at the end of it all, I would have earned the same amount had I worked only 40 hours. Nothing, not one dime extra, came from those extra 31 hours and, frankly, that pisses me off. 

As a salaried employee, one expects to put in their share of extra hours. Americans, in fact, fight hard to reach the point where they no longer have to rely on unsteady overtime pay which companies snatch away at every opportunity in an effort to save money. We give much of ourselves chasing the chance to make a nice, steady pay. Only, as I’ve discovered, when you finally arrive, the race was hardly worth tying your shoes for. 

Doing the math in my own situation, I average 1.5 weeks for every one week my coworkers put in. Logic dictates I should be earning at least 1.5 times as much as they do. But having just done the math, I assure you I very much do not. The simple truth of the matter is that I am woefully underpaid for the effort I put in and would have been better off declining my “promotion” and simply staying where I was. 

Annoying though that is, it only points to my main gripe, rather than serving as my driving complaint. My main gripe is this… while I am managing to pay my bills, while I am managing to save for a modest retirement, somebody else is getting filthy stinking rich off the sacrifice I and my fellow workers are making and I assure you they aren’t working one bit harder. Meanwhile, all that extra time I’m putting in (for which I’m not being compensated) could be better spent on family, projects or other business which might actually land some money in my pocket! 

At the end of the day, being wealthy isn’t what will make me happy. It certainly wouldn’t hurt things, but it’s the combination of hard work, just reward, financial security and a sense of accomplishment or legacy that will leave me feeling fulfilled and void of regret when my day of reckoning finally does come. I’m not getting that working for somebody else. While our CEO gets fat, I’m not even recouping the investment of my time. Hence, the birth of this blog. 

Self Employed or Bust is my vehicle to accomplishing my own American dream. It will serve as a catalyst to cutting the corporate leash and making myself the fat cat at the top of my own company (whatever that may be). But I want it to be more than that. I want it to serve as a guidepost to others, a roadmap to following your own dreams and keeping the fruit of your labor for yourself rather than contributing the lion’s share to the king’s coffers. 

I will use Self Employed or Bust to document my triumphs and failures and to help others find their own way to independence. At the end of the day, a free market economy will always consist of a relative few reaping the benefits of the effort expended by a comparative many. I’ll explain why that’s ok in a future post but for now, recognize this - I…, WE would rather be one of the few at the top than one of the many at the bottom and my hope is to make that a reality for others as well.

 

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