Working for yourself v. Working for someone else

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Here is a clear bias to this post. I’ll let you, the reader, figure it out. I’ll give you a huge hint at the end, stop, don’t look at the hint right now just wait until we get there. I know this is a travel blog and you come here for the beautiful pictures and wanderlust but hear me out.  

There is a beauty to working for someone, to have the full undivided attention of making someone else’s life better while getting financial benefit from it. Example, working for a doctor’s office. You are helping the doctor succeed. You are helping him get patients and do proper paperwork and in return he is helping you pay for rent and save up for a vacation. Another example, working for someone new business. You help them get off the ground, help them accumulate business, watch how there marketing changes from pre-sales to real time clients that you get to nurture. Watch your boss’s business help contribute to the community you helped start. You get a rush when the one-year party comes around because guess what, you were some of the originals help open your boss’s business. There is true loyalty to working for someone else. A mutual respect you could say. Telling one another I am enough for you and you are enough for me. But what happens if there is not that respect. 

We all have had a “bad” job. My dad always told me his worst job ever was picking strawberries in the field. He talked about how every minute he worked those fields he told himself, I am never going to do this again. Of course, when he told me this story, I had no idea what he was talking about. But now at 24, I completely understand. We have had jobs “just to pay rent” or “just to get by” that have ended up taking much more of our time and emotions on this job than anticipated. We all have had that one job where we say, this is why I am going to college, this is why I am looking for a better job, this is why I should be a managerial position, this is why I am going to start my own business one day. 

Up to this point, all my jobs I have had were just a steppingstone to my next move in life. They were all temporary. This is my college job, this is the first job I could find in LA, this is a job to get me closer to the medical field, this is a job to help supplement my travel habit. Each job I have seen major flaws. Either amazing management, but poor business habits. I’ve seen great management, but unrealistic corporate policy. I’ve seen local success, but no motivation for growth during a tech age. I have seen lack of management and an amazing community. I’ve worked with verbally abusive owners, and gossip coworkers, but amazing pay. Yes, Miss follow your dreams, and work on your mental health, had stooped so low to stay in a terrible situation because it was great pay. 

During each of these jobs, I have had a side hustle. If you are reading this, you know of at least one of my side hustles. It started with Marykay, which you all can thank YOUR beautiful skin and MY salesman spirit from my mother who excitedly told me I was her first team member. I know my mother will read this and smile because we both have outgrown the company, but still cherish our lessons it gave. Next came patreon. After a long talk with myself about how much I hated facebook, sorry mark Zuckerberg, but its true, I decided to post my travel photos, adventures and advice on a site where people can pay to support my travel habit. And it worked. For a while. I was so excited about people wanting to read and learn how to travel with a minimum wage job! But then I got consumed with working for someone else. Starting someone else’s business, giving 8 hours a day and more. This ended in me ignoring my blog and fans. The income and excitement dwindled with my lack of attention to my devoted fans. Then I got introduced to a health company Arbonne, which is a direct sales company, and encourages people to live a healthy lifestyle. I love this company guys, but I’m going to be honest, I can’t afford the products. I had to become a consultant just to afford it. Although the value for the products were there, my income was not, so what did I do? I got excited about another endeavor and told everyone about my new health find. But, do you see the pattern? You got it, the year came by to renew my consultant license with them and I have been avoiding those emails like the plague. One day I might get it again (because I truly love the products) but right now I feel in my heart it is not the time. What do you do with an entrepreneur spirit but lack of follow through? You learn. You take your failures. You find your strengths within those failure and you move on. You find your Why. Update: I did rejoin Arbonne I just love their products I can’t help it. but I did figure out how to make it less expensive. 

What is this golden ‘Why?’ I have learned that my ‘why’ comes from my hierarchy of priorities. Like a pyramid, I put the most important on the bottom because that’s what holds it all together. It goes family, mental health, physical health, business, travel, and volunteering. Is that what you expected? My ‘why’ is what holds me together. Rachel, Why are you going to school part time while you are working full time? Because I want to learn more and eventually become a doctor to better support my family, my mental health, and volunteering. Why do you have a travel blog Rachel? Because I love sharing my mental health coping skills, my family I travel with, and my volunteering with you. You can ask me any question on why I am working myself to death now, and It will have something to do with my why and my future. 

Why do I keep working for other people? Why do you keep working for other people? Because it helps you achieve your why. Working the job you have now, helps you find a sense of community and provide for your family. The job you work now, has the time off so you can volunteer on the weekend or travel on the weekend. Your why is yours, no one can define it but you. But that why, is why you keep the stability of your job. You don’t want to let your why down. 

Now that we have covered working for others, let’s talk about working for yourself. We see social media screaming at us everyday of the freedom of working from home and working with a team you love and working on your time. When speaking to someone who has a job, the concept of “your time” is not the same as someone who is starting a business or owning their own business. “Your time” can look like 8am to 6 pm everyday in the summer in retail because you are a seasonal retailer. I worked for a family owned retailer, and “your time” for the owner meant being their first every day and leaving their last on some days. It meant moving the schedule with the seasons. This boss was by far the most inspirational owner I have ever met, and I met him in his business towards the end of its time. It had been in the community for 30 years, that means he was in the community for longer, creating friendships and business deals far before opening a store front. He was the first person I met who truly worked for himself, on his time. 

You can not open a store front, or create 30 years of business on social media, so stop believing it. Working for yourself on “your time” means limiting your social media consumption. It means 30 minutes on Mondays to plan out your posts for the week. Who did I scare off? Come back. I’m being serious, you gain N O T H I N G from scrolling through posts of puppies. You want to work for yourself? On your time? Then start manipulating your time. Working for yourself means Less social media. Working for yourself means working on a business plan. It means writing out your thought processes, and your dream team. Working for your self means creating a community and gaining consumers who you serve on a daily basis. Working for yourself is still work. Those jobs you worked in the past or the one you are working at right now; does it work for you? Great. Does it not? Great. Write down why, why are the employees hardworking and motivated to come to work? Why is there disfunction? Why are they not making a profit? Why are they making a profit? Who is the hardest worker in the room? Why? Are they the most experienced? Or are they the most driven? What’s the turn around rate look like? 1 person left in a year? Or four people left in a week. WHY? Do you see the theme here? You only see the whole picture when you are in the trenches and asking why. 

Why don’t you want to work for yourself? Because your scared? Because its hard work? Because you need financial stability? All of these are valid. Take a moment and think, if you treated your business idea, or direct sales company the same way you treat your bosses job, you’d be making the same, or more then you are making now. If you spend 20-30 hours a week on yourself, you would be the best version of yourself, if you work 20-30 hours a week for your boss you would get a paycheck, is the theme still there? If you work 20-30 hours on your business or your direct sales, you will make a paycheck and be the best self you possibly can be. 

I realize this isn’t my usual “5 reason why” post so let’s break this down for everyone. Working for others vs working for yourself.

1) You have the experience. Whether you want to work for someone else or work for yourself you have the experience. You’ve been through the good, the bad, and the ugly, you have seen what works and what doesn’t. Use this to your advantage to see things though. 

2) Your why is the reason why you are where you are. Use it to your advantage, whether it’s to help you show up your best self at work or to wake up and work on your business another day. 

3) Working for yourself is still work. What is better for you, working 20-40 hours for someone else, or working 20-40 hours for yourself. 

4) Working for yourself means less social media, no more scrolling through Facebook and Instagram at work, that is, if you work for yourself. 

5)  You will never do this alone. Whether you work with someone else, or you work for yourself you will always have to work with other people, work with consumers, work with a team, work with the librarian to help you find helpful books. You will never be alone in this endeavor. 

You’ve read the whole article, congrats, do you see my clear bias? Work for yourself, even though it is still work and you can take away from mindless Instagram puppy scrolling. Well here is the embarrassing part of the motivation for this whole post, I got let go last week because “the company wanted to go in a different direction.” And I was upset, to say the least because I have never been let go. But after 5 strong hours of self-loathing and crying and trying to get home in traffic and getting all the calls and texts of shock from my coworkers; I took this as the biggest push to work on my community. My “side hustle” will now be my full time Job. I am putting my faith in my community and taking this sign as a positive way to move forward. Thank you in advance for your undying support. I am here for you when you take that leap to work for yourself.