A New Perspective
I’m still (Voluntarily) Unemployed and Loving It…but that feeling is fading fast. Since quitting my job, I’ve been having a great time relaxing, traveling and having fun on this well-deserved, much-needed time off from work. I’ve loved having the time and flexibility to do things that I enjoy. For the first time in a long time, my life doesn’t revolve around work. Although, my career is still always on my mind. My time off is a hiatus, not a retirement. I’ve also used my time off to think about and plan the next stage of my career. By now, enough time has passed that the raw emotion of my past bad job experiences has worn off, and I can now think more clearly, more rationally, less emotionally, about my situation and the future. However, possibly too much time has passed since the emotion has worn off, but anxiety and boredom are setting in. It’s time to start working again.
Just to be clear, I don’t regret what I’ve done. I still believe wholeheartedly that I did the right thing in quitting my job (although the memory of my past bank account balance haunts me). In all the time I’ve spent obsessively thinking about my career, I’ve never regretted my decision. I’ve never even envisioned an option that includes returning to my old job or anything like it. I do admit though, I briefly fell off the wagon on my path to career happiness and accepted a contract job doing tax work for a large company. However, before I even started, the job fell through. If you believe, as I do, that the universe will intervene when necessary and set you on the right path, then obviously this was a not-so-subtle hint that I no longer belong in the world of tax and accounting. Once again, Thanks, Universe!
After a brief celebration and a renewed faith in destiny, the realization hit me harder than ever: I’m really unemployed now with no potential jobs and no income! I started looking into what it would take to start my own business, I brainstormed other industries I could break into without returning to school for another degree, I unenthusiastically searched through job listings for tax and accounting jobs (as a backup plan, I rationalized), I even considered jobs that I had never considered before (e.g., waitressing) just to put a little money away and buy me some more time to figure out a better plan. Then something happened to set me straight again. My friend got a job for a major corporation.
He had been applying for a job at this large, well-known, highly-desired company for years. Finally, he scored an interview and got the job! He’s happy; I’m happy for him. Then the nightmare begins. They own him. Now, they dictate his schedule, the work he does, the money he makes, and ultimately the direction of his career. He must accept those facts as conditions of his employment or, if he doesn’t, there are a hundred other job applicants who are ready and willing to take his position, a threat companies use to their advantage. Immediately, they began demanding attendance at various meetings and trainings, many unpaid and outside of normal business hours, which employees obediently attended. My friend’s willingness to turn over the reins to his life and his career to an employer confused me and reminded me of my own experience working for a large, highly sought-after company, where there was too much arrogant bureaucracy and not enough consideration and flexibility.
I felt forced into subservience, robbed of my autonomy and the freedom to make my life anything I wanted it to be. My motivation and incentive to work hard to be successful and to help the company succeed were crushed. I now see the glaring contraction in seeking a position with job requirements such as extensive experience in the industry, leadership experience, and self-motivation, only to be hired and treated as an incompetent child and stripped of most independence. It’s as if some companies use their reputation and the promise of a prompt career boost to snatch the talented, independent thinkers from the job pool, all the while intending to transform them into submissive, robotic Stepford Wives upon hire, always to do as they are told and never to question the corporate authority. Treating employees that way is demeaning and disrespectful, in my opinion, and I never want to be in that position again. That leaves one option: I have to start my own business.
I love the satisfaction of achieving the career I want through my own hard work and perseverance. I want my success to be directly related to how hard I work, and not determined by anyone else’s opinion of what I’m capable of. My time off has given me a new perspective and clarity on what I want out of life.
- I want freedom. I want the flexibility to set my own schedule and the time to do things that I enjoy.
- I want to work. I need to feel productive to feel happy. I want to do something positive for my life and make a difference in the world.
- I don’t want to work for anyone else. I believe in myself and my ability to succeed on my own.
And I now believe the best way to attain the life and career I want is to own my own business.
