Making the Switch From Employee to Entrepreneur – The Mind Journey
Of late, there are many individual who intends to leave the employment world and venture out on their own as an entrepreneur. It is indeed not an easy decision to make, especially when the two worlds of employment and self-employed are surely as different as night and day. Let’s look at the rhyme and reason why someone have these thoughts and urges to go into self employment, yet at the same are afraid to make that switch.An individual starts to have thoughts about leaving the employment world after working for at least 10 year; this could be the same or different jobs. At this juncture, he would have climbed up the corporate ladder, met some nasty competitors, violated his own values and accumulated mountains of work related stress. Back home, he would have gotten married and had a children or two. However, he starts to feel that he had neglected his family as his job commitments becoming more demanding; he felt that he had not spent enough time with his kids and missed a big chunk of their childhood.He looks around him and realized that his peers are happier and spends more time with their family; at the same time, they do not carry big titles to their name. There is no Senior Manager or even General Manager. What seems to be the difference? And he realized that they are on their own!So our individual then starts role-playing in his mind about him being self-employed; being his own boss. He starts to enjoy the possibility of him being at home for his kids while they are doing their homework. The fact that he can sleep in late or wakes up earlier, not to report to work, but to send his kids to school. He now has a more flexibility in managing his own time. He does not need to apply for leave to attend to his family’s needs unlike before.But wait; there will be time when his days will be open with no fixed appointments. There suddenly exist uncertainties in this new life. His savings can only last that long. Who will pay the bills after that? Surely he could not rely on his wife as the sole breadwinner. He starts to feel “useless”, that he is a burden to his wife. Perhaps, making the decision to be on his own is not such a good idea after all?
