People will tell you that if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Well, that’s far from true actually. You’ll work really hard, but there’s real benefits. I’ve ran my own businesses in a variety of industries for decades. For me, there were five main reasons why I took the plunge, so to speak, and jumped head long into the water.

Income Potential

No matter how you dice it, when you work for someone else you’re income is capped at what they feel you are worth. Whereas, when you own a business, you get the final word on that. You really do have the opportunity to earn unlimited income based on your own efforts.

To put this in perspective, I produced 7-Figures on my own in the same period of time I was paid 6-Figures working for someone else. And, there was far less stress involved. Of course, I’ve been utterly broke too.

I’d be lying to you if I said there was no risk involved. There’s always risk when you do thing on your own. But, I’d rather be broke doing something I love, then be broke trading my time for someone else’s vision.

Follow Your Passion

I have lots of things I’m interested in. Early on I decided that I’d try to make an income off those hobbies, that way in theory, I’d get paid to learn more about it or indulge my interests. When you run your own business, you can devote more time to doing what you like, and if you take it seriously, you can get paid to do it.

For instance, I have been a martial artist for a long time. Once I became a black belt, I started teaching. Not only do I get paid for sharing those skills with others, I have generations of black belts under me who are like family.

I also like to write, so I authored books, have written for numerous magazines, blogs, and published two different print magazines at one point myself. I’ve also been blessed to ghost write for some pretty famous people. Every-time one of my books sell, I get paid. The work I did to write some of them is still making me money a decade later.

The first time I ever saw SCUBA diving on tv when I was a kid, I dreamed of doing it myself. I have for more than twenty years. But, it can be an expensive past time. So what did I do? Yep, you guessed it―I became an instructor. My private students pay me to train them , and I also volunteer my time to teach diving to disabled veterans and others through the charity Dive Mentor (divementor.org).

You could do it to; chase your passions and use them to get paid.

Control The Narrative

If you work for someone else, you’re not there to just get paid to do a job―you’re there to work for their goals. That’s your job. You work towards and for their narrative―not your own. It’s all about them, their goals, their objectives, and their outcomes.

Let’s be clear: few companies are about the world around them. And even fewer are all about doing good. For me, it’s a central theme to who I am and how I want to impact the world. When you own your own business, you can focus on whatever you want. You get to control direction and your company’s story. It’s really hard to control the narrative when you’re not even the one in charge.

New Lifestyle

The average person in full time employment is very dissatisfied with their job. It’s often a rut and seemingly unending routine. That’s if you even have a job. One of my frustrations was working all of my time away for hardly anything; I lacked joy, and since time is so valuable to me, I decided I wasn’t willing to simply trade it for a job. Instead, I decided to change my entire lifestyle. Even writing this, I’m doing it from a coffee shop. Chilling out. Other articles here, I wrote from other coffee shops―around the word! In the last 12 months I’ve been to twelve different countries. One of the articles I wrote in Croatia. Another, in Italy. I just returned from three months in the Caribbean. Unless your “9-5” actually has that kind of lifestyle built into it, I’m guessing it would be hard to do what I just did. The only reason I was able to it is because I left the daily grind of working for someone else.

Freedom. Like, Actual Freedom

This is a big one. A really, really big one to me. For me, freedom is having the time and resources to be with my family, pursue my passions, and not be dictated to by someone else every single day of my life for forty years.

If you’d like help with starting your own business, or business coaching to improve your business and your bottom line―get in touch.