Job vs. Business: Risk Revisited
by
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.
Many people start a business to "be my own boss" or "find meaning in my
work." Yet increasingly I talk to clients who have an even better
reason: "It makes more sense."
Let's say you join a company, degree in hand, at entry
level. You move up the ladder for fifteen, twenty, even twenty-five
years. Now you're a senior manager in your mid-forties or early
fifties. And you get laid off.
Or you've established a high profile. You may be a
politician, a senior bank official or a broadcaster. Following your
much-publicized firing, you can't just show up on a corporate doorstep
to apply for a job. If you're not invited in, you'll be left in the
cold.
Despite the siren call of business ownership, I find clients
often resist the idea. "I just want another job," some say. "With
benefits."
Risk-averse managers focus on the numbers: "Ninety percent
of businesses fail. Most don't last five years."
True. But these days, your next job may not last five years.
"Carlene," a fifty-year-old sales manager, lost her job following a
merger. A truly gifted salesperson and manager, she does not have an
entrepreneurial bone in her body. She held three jobs in the next five
years, all shaky, all a step down, all miserable. She continues to
haunt the headhunters.
Most people who fit this profile also haunt the therapists
and the pharmacists. Being knocked down repeatedly can be hazardous to
your mental health.
There are ways to reduce risk of business failure: plan
carefully, choose your market wisely, don't panic. You remain in
control. And if you fail, you've gained valuable lessons for the next
venture.
If you are lucky enough to land in a job, use the
opportunity to begin planning your own venture. But don't kid yourself.
You may find yourself earning more money, faster, than you will through
a job hunt. Even a small amount is better than zero.
Benefits are hard to lose and society has not caught up to
what Daniel Pink calls the Free Agent Nation.
We need legislation to support those who start businesses following job
loss, whether their soul is entrepreneurial or corporate. For some of
us, writing to our senators may have longer-lasting benefits than
writing to personnel managers with resumes attached.
The days of "a job to fall back on" are long gone. In the
twenty-first century, your safety net comes from what you can do on
your own.
It's a hard lesson, and many resist. Yet nearly everyone
says afterward, "I wish I had done this years ago."
You go through a tunnel, but yuu emerge stronger, firmer in
purpose, and ultimately happier. And you wish you could tell everyone
how you survived, and let them know that they can, too.
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