The Illusion of Job Security

Security is an important factor that a lot of people subscribe to.

My entire life I heard others speak of job security. How important it is. How great it is.
At the same time, I also heard these same people complain about how unfulfilling their job is. How unjustly they are treated. How they cut corners.

Assuming we have one life, as there’s no evidence to the contrary, as of now, why would I want to live like this?

Dream come true

My want for carving my own path came from my experience working at a well known international banking institution.

It was a decent place to work. Great salary. Some lovely people.
Dream come true, according to some.

I knew, however, that if I dropped dead on Friday, they would have me replaced by Monday without as much as a hiccup.
The fact it was a massive machine with lots of people wanting to work for them was not the issue.
The issue was that the work I was doing was a commodity.
Anyone with a brain, a keyboard, and the ability to speak would be able to do it.

This is not offering the world the unique gift of creation that each of us has to offer.
It’s nothing more than being a breathing automaton.

And sure enough, a decade after I left, the company got sold. A lot of the staff were let go.
So much for job security.

My own path

So when I announced to my family that I wasn’t going to continue working and would instead set up my own company, everyone thought I was crazy.
What about the prestige? What about the pension contributions?

It’s been seven years since I started working for myself, and I can feel I’m heading in the right direction.

I don’t like saying that I work for myself.
I really work for my customers.

And I can’t say I’m fully free. I swapped a single boss for many bosses.
But this redundancy is important.

In a one to one employer and employee relationship, you can’t fully be yourself.
The need for a paycheck affects the balance of a healthy relationship.
If you do not rely on a single source of income, you can be free to express yourself more honestly, which benefits everyone involved.

Working on my own company has helped me become a better person.
It’s the noble path, which requires us to ask ourselves the question: "is this worth doing?".

When you’re an employee, you’re told what to do.
I see the employee and employer relationship as the same as teacher and pupil.
Some people never really get out of this mode. There’s always someone to look up to. Someone to tell me what to do.

It relieves us of the hard work called thinking for ourselves.