Over the years, I have keenly observed the lives of successful people like Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Mike Agyekum Addo among others and nothing resonates more like their desire to follow their dreams and see it through.
Recently I came across a quote from an unknown source that states that your salary is the bribe given you to forget about your dreams. I couldn’t help but wonder the path I was treading especially as a salaried worker.
I realised that everything lay with a choice; a choice to invest and enrich myself, or a choice to earn a paltry salary and build someone else’s dreams.
I realised that I had to leave my comfort zone and the security that comes with a salary and dare to try something new, following my dreams through and through.
Whether I was going to be an employee with an unsustainable salary till retirement, or an entrepreneur for a lifetime with stable pension was up to me.
Being an entrepreneur required perseverance and I needed that to start my journey.
There are numerous rewards involved in starting a new venture.
First, being an entrepreneur means you are fully compensated for your work. You earn more, make more profits, and can decide whenever you want to compensate yourself. Whereas working for someone entitles you to a fixed income, establishing your own gives you the zeal to work hard and earn more.
Secondly, becoming an entrepreneur gives you the independence to decide what to do with your life at any point in time. There is a lot of flexibility in terms of deciding what time to report to, and leave work. Working for someone limits the efforts you can put into developing yourself.
Moreover, entrepreneurship is an ideal way of impacting society positively. Not only do you make use of the opportunities available to you, but by responding to these opportunities you create jobs for people.
One of the biggest frustrations about working for someone is not getting appreciated for your work. There is a general culture in most work places of relegating employees’ efforts to the background. Most staff leave the workplace due to some of these injustices; imagine the relief you will get from starting your own business. Being an entrepreneur means you can reap the full benefits of your hardwork. The mere sense of accomplishing your dreams is enough to keep you going.
As an entrepreneur, you also get to choose the people you work with. Teamwork plays a crucial role in getting the necessary results, and being an entrepreneur affords you that opportunity.
Being an entrepreneur also gives you enough money to take care of your family, your health, maintain a good home and enjoy a stable retirement. Most salaried workers are not able to live the lives they want to live as they live on a tight budget, what I call hand to mouth.
Having said this, entrepreneurship can be quite the stress.
Entrepreneurs usually have to put in long hours, ignoring family commitments and isolating themselves from their social lives. Long hours can also create health problems and lead to divorce.
There are some who say that working for a company or someone gives you the necessary experience to start your own business. Well, there is some truth to that.
But the real truth is that the number of years you live on this earth is not guaranteed, so why the wait?
Ultimately, the success or failure of a business rests with the entrepreneur.
Start now, follow your dreams and be the solution to your generation!
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