No 1 reason being an employee sucks
The number one reason being an employee sucks is this:
You can’t sell your job.
No matter how good you are at what you do,
- you don’t own your output
- you are building other peoples brands and empire
- you are at the risk of hierarchy
- you are not servant to customers, but wage earners (the fundamental issue)
What this means is that as an employee you are not serving those who actually pay your wages – your consumers. Instead you become servant to people who are best at ‘internal politics’. So for you to succeed in this environment, you too must excel at internal politics. Which takes you always for important real world skills entrepreneurs develop. And then the final reality is that at some point in your ‘employee career’ someone will not like you, and dispose of you. At this point you instantly lose any good will or employee equity which was built. Even if you are a stock holder, you still have no decision making authority.
The point is, if you want to build assets, being an employee makes it difficult because you lack control. If you want control, then you must have the courage to build something independently, like entrepreneurs do.
Dude…spot on as always.
The thing with being an employee is the barrier to entry is lower. It’s easier to become an employee than start a business (although, in the current climate that may no longer hold as true).
If you are eleaving behind the paycheck, you must start something that will be cash flow positive quickly, which can be tough. Do you have any hints or tips for those trying to find that quick – cash business idea?
Wow…. great post mate; a nice summary of exactly what I have been wrestling with for the last twelve months.
Preparing for my escape at the moment is a little scary and this post is now stuck in the front of my Moleskine as a sort of reassurance for myself.
Dunno what is next for me, but at least I will own it…
[...] I have discovered a very interesting take on being employed by Steve Sammartino. In the Start up blog Steve argues that the No.1 reason being an employee sucks is [...]
[...] about this a few times. And I’ll start by siting my entry on De-gearing, Quit your job and The number 1 reason being an employee sucks. But to make things contemporaneous here’s my thoughts on the topics today, off the top of my [...]
number two could be:
2. so little return for a lot of effort.
don’t forget to add that you can’t really get justice for inhospitable employers.
my career was destroyed by a sociopathic boss (i guess that falls under “someone will not like you” above), and i’m out of work and suffering PTSD from the whole experience.
i don’t know of any way to get back into earning an income. destitute. in debt. etc.
Now I understand.
I’d rather die than being an employee again. I’m not afraid. I will try to launch my own business and if all fails and I can’t eat, then I will die on my feet instead of living on my knees.