It took me 20 years of working from one place to another to realize that you can never be financially free if you remain an employee. For shock effect, let me give you an idea of what I am talking about. I started out working at a very young age of 15. All of my educational pursuits after my High School was done on part time basis. By the time I was 22, I had reached the first basic base of Higher National Diploma (HND) almost at par with a B.Sc. from a University.
As far as I was concerned, the world was at my feet. I was a senior staff at a multi-national company; Personnel Officer with many pecks. A few years later, I was poached by a bank and I ended up in the banking industry for 8 years. By the time I had logged in 20 years of hard labour working from age 15, I did an average check of my total income - all time. Guess what it came up to: N2,700,000.00 (Nigerian Currency) and in US dollars it came up to $17,647.00! That was what I was working 8 hours daily and over 40 hours weekly in 20 years! I looked myself in the mirror and felt sorry for the person I saw standing there. How was I ever going to become financially free? At that point, I knew the best thing to do was to quit the job and use my skill set (and I have them in quantum) to create multiple streams of income.
I took a look at myself and I discovered I could write professionally (I had published 3 books and edited tons of publications for other outfits), I had the capacity to train people in management and leadership, I could speak, I have organizing skills and could become an event manager; I am a whizkid on the keyboard - I type more than 100 words per minute - that is a skill set all in a class of its own. I had over the years acquired skills for professional proposal writing, feasibility studies and general consultancy on how to erect and manage a business.
These were enough to get me started and the first attempt I made at earning income was a consultancy job with a Church. I was already an ordained minister and it was easy for me to fit into the system. I had the task of starting their leadership institute and run it in its first few streams; it was done and I was on a monthly allowance for 12 months - the duration of the contract. During this period, I maintained a client base for training, freelance writing and media consultancy - having also a skill in broadcasting. By the time I was through with the Church contract, I found another stream of income to develop - eCommerce. This is a whole world waiting to exploited in our climes and millionaires are being made in their numbers in the Western world. I am at the moment positioning myself with relevant knowledge in this area.
Why for heaven's sake should I look for a job again? I didn't need a capital to do all these. The best capital I had was the skill set I had developed over the years while working with the different organizations. While I was an employee, I went beyond my call of duty because I had an inkling that one day I was going to be off the employee status and run my own show. This made me a valuable employee even though it did not attract rapid promotions. But wherever I had worked, I left a footprint and a vacuum that is difficult to fill.
Are you a graduate fresh from school? Don't dream of climbing a corporate ladder, think of building a ladder yourself! The beginning may be daunting and hard, but would you prefer the comfort zone of a salaried job than a future where you determine when you wake up and when you go on vacation? Think of the future and pay the needed price today. Are you an employee slaving it out for someone else? It is time to put an exit date on the calendar.
No nation's economy is ever built around salaried employment, but on the strength of the small and medium scale enterprises of that nation. The GDP of every nation is predicated on the amount of entrepreneurial activities in the country. Yes, we all cannot be business owners at the same time, but we must aim to own our lives eventually and employ others too. Make that move today!
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