Originally handwritten during my lunch break
Originally handwritten during my lunch break, proving that I can't stop blogging, even in a place with no internet access.
"Unemployed is self-employed."
One problem with this quote is revealed by attaching "Because you are not supporting yourself financially" to the start of every piece of self-employment advice you get from entrepreneur blogs. For example:
"Because you are not supporting yourself financially"
"Save up six months' income."
Two separate challenges, aligned in a confusing sequence. Entrepreneurship is reputed to be a more difficult challenge than that of feeding and sheltering one's self as an independent adult. This suggests that more entrepreneurs are motivated by a desire to be rich, or a desire to accomplish something they like, than by a desire to scrape a subsistence out of the land. And yet I am at least well-conditioned for financial sacrifice, like an African villager is conditioned for running a marathon.
A news report quoted someone prominent saying Michigan's bad economy is due to low entrepreneurship, caused by a climate of low tolerance for risk, caused by the abundant well-paying factory work we used to have.
Applying this lesson to myself, I ask "what do I not want to risk?" It can't be money, since I don't have any. It can't be risking going without, because I've always lived at that level.
Perhaps what need to risk in order to solve the section of my life that's going wrong is everything that's going right. I refer to the idea of moving out of state. I resist this with all my might. It pretty much discards everything that's going right and starts them over. Leaving everything I know, and gambling that I can support myself without my support network.
What happens to someone who moves somewhere that they don't know anyone, and it doesn't work out? Worst case scenario, I guess they call their friends and family and ask for a loan for a bus ticket back. Well... that's not the worst case scenario. "Raped by hobos, and death from pneumonia in a cardboard box under a bridge" is a worse scenario. Only one of many my imagination is happy to furnish!
Comments
tlatoani on Mar. 5, 2008 12:14 AM
Well, I wouldn't just do it randomly. There's some cool stuff going on in this area. You should talk to David about it.
thatguychuck on Mar. 5, 2008 1:11 AM
"Perhaps what need to risk in order to solve the section of my life that's going wrong is everything that's going right."
That's part of risk. You're risking that your standard of life may go downhill by trying to improve that same standard. It IS risk.
Part of risk is having a chance of failure. It can be scary as hell. Sometimes you have to say "screw it, I can live with that if [failure] happens. I don't know how, but I know I will."
tlatoani on Mar. 5, 2008 1:31 AM
Yeah, but it only makes sense to put it at risk if there's a benefit to doing it. Too many people go "Hey! Risk = Reward!" and do random shit that has little chance of bringing any benefit. If he says "Wow, I don't care about anything else but I really love where I live and my friends, so the only way I can improve my life is by abandoning them," that's a complete misunderstanding of how life works.
thatguychuck on Mar. 5, 2008 1:57 AM
Excellent clarification, and I entirely agree. Thank you.
amanda_lodden on Mar. 5, 2008 1:54 AM
You may wish to consider that there are other things you are not willing to risk before you up and move out of state.
For starters, your blog is filled with comments to the effect that you don't feel you can function in a "normal" business environment. The first thing you are going to have to give up is the attitude that you "can't", because running a business (and self-employment is still running a business) involves doing a hell of a lot of things that you don't like and don't want to have to do and often feel like you're clueless about.
The second thing you're going to have to risk is your social life, because running a business takes up a lot of time. You've got the time spent doing the things that you actually do as part of your self-employment, and then you've got the time you spend doing all the things you need to do to attract new customers and handle the administrative bits, and I guarantee that it will take more time that you figured it would. Don't get me wrong: yesterday I took the day off of work and drove a friend to the airport, simply because I could. But the price for that sort of flexibility has been evenings and weekends spent catching up on things I simply couldn't get to during the "business day".
If you would like to delve deeper into the things that go into self-employment, you know where to find me, and I'm happy to offer even more advice. I'll try to keep the unsolicited advice to a minimum unless it's something where I feel you might be jumping in headfirst without checking to see if there's water in the pool first. Like, moving away without considering the other things you're going to have to risk.
However, if you do decide that moving is necessary, and it doesn't work out, I'll loan you money for a bus ticket back.
protoblues on Mar. 5, 2008 2:23 AM
Well, I've bitten the bullet on that one. I just opened up my store as of yesterday in Livonia Mall. So does that mean I'm part of the solution or part of the problem?
tlatoani on Mar. 5, 2008 2:56 AM
You weren't asking me, but in my opinion anyone who starts a business around here right now is part of the solution. What are you selling?
protoblues on Mar. 5, 2008 6:02 PM
Lots of stuff really. Everything from custom costumes and leather work to art(sketches, sculptures, foam creatures, etc...) and just about anything else that you can think of. Anime, fantasy, Sci-Fi and gaming, oh my.
rachelann1977 on Mar. 7, 2008 2:47 PM
Death would actually be a welcome ending to some of the worst case scenarios I can imagine. The problem with the real worst case scenarios is that people usually DON'T die. They live a long, and very miserable, existence, filled with illness and shame, dirt and sadness, and very little kindness to fill in the gaps. The real world is often worse than any of us can imagine.
I think, on some level, we all know that, and that is the real reason for being risk averse. I would say it is a well-guided sense of pragmatism.
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