Why I Want To Be My Own Boss
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In 2011, when I was just a freshman in high school, I formed a clique with my homeboy called IMOB, short for I’m My Own Boss.
We did it because it was trendy and everyone was part of one clique or another. Little did I know that being my own boss will become an ethos for life.
Growing up, I was rebellious but not violent. Curiosity was the air I breathed as the little me wanted to figure out everything by himself. This is how my life has been till today. I would rather suffer than ask for help. I wanted to own my life.
Ownership is one thing I believe, most if not all humans understand. It is simply the reason why we keep possessions and have possessive forms of nouns and pronouns.
It seems to me that as humans, we are so bent on possessing the fragile things money can buy, like cars, houses, the latest gadgets etc. while we forget about the most important thing that we can actually own; our lives.
The ultimate goal for me has always been freedom. Freedom to care about the things most important to me, because obviously, we all have different priorities.
Coming to understand the fragility of human life, I try to make more time for family and relationships. Of course, these things do not help you attain the so-called financial freedom quickly but when it is all said and done, all we have is our memories.
The path to financial freedom as we know it does not actually exist. Why? Because money begets luxury, and luxury begets debt, and debt begets more hard work. So in essence, we are stuck in an endless loop slaving away our lives to the highest bidder.
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The companies we work at literally own our lives. We are told when to wake up when to eat when to travel, when to rest, and when we can have a good time with our families and loved ones.
Why are business entities whose main goals are maximizing profits telling us how to live our lives? The only path to real freedom is becoming our own bosses. And it starts with a shift in mindset.
So I came up with a long term plan to achieve personal freedom and self-sufficiency. The plan is made of three main objectives which you can also incorporate and use in your grand plan to freedom.
Own Your Time
The first objective is to own your time. This can be accomplished by starting your own company or business. Put your skills to use by solving problems and creating value for others. You don’t need to formally incorporate a business, all you have to do is to create value for others.
You can start a youtube channel, a podcast or anything that provides value online. However, keep in mind that the goal is not to be rich but to be free.
**Let Money Work For You
**The ultimate goal is to free up time to focus on important things like family and relationships so we have to avoid the trap of spending more time on work to make more money. Money should be a means to the goal, not the goal itself.
Thankfully, we can let the money we have gathered from starting our own business work for us. What do I mean by this? I mean Compound interest!
Compound interest is a very powerful tool in finance, which causes your wealth to exponentially increase over time. All you need is patience, and the discipline to save small portions of your income over time to accrue interest. Compounding has been said to be the 7th wonder of the world.
**Apply The Concept of Pure Work
**“Pure Work” is a concept I came up with where one can achieve greater things in life by doing the most important things and not slaving away their lives.
Pure work is based on bibilical principles that build key values to enhance harmonious living. These values are patience, purity and selflessness.
These important values are lost when a business’ main goal is to maximize profits. Life is much more than profits.
Photo by **What’s The End Goal?
**As I have iterated throughout this article, the goal in the end is to be free. Freedom to pursue your life purpose and to attend to things that really matter like family and relationships.
There is more to life than making money and I believe taking care of family and loved ones matter the most. Life is short, why would we throw away all these beautiful experiences just to make obtain a paper?