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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Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. is an author, career coach, and speaker.
She can help you rebuild, renovate and revitalize your career.
Visit her site http://www.movinglady.com or call 505-534-4294.
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