JKLTip Take inventory of what work you do that you own and make sure you put at least some of your time into improving it
Sometimes the first thing sticks, so let me say first that this is not a post against employment, against having a boss, or against having a schedule. There is a culture of “don’t have a boss, live your life” these days and I think that’s a dangerous thing to teach to most people, especially youth. I am the first person to say chase your dreams, but this is not an argument about what form of work we should use to build our income. In fact, let me mark the internet with the statement that if I ever do come across that way, at any point in my life, please remind me to clarify: Chase your dreams means what works for YOU
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Now, it is a post stating that we should all own something. When we build something for ourselves, could be homemade jewelry, an online course, paintings, a blog, vlog, a podcast, consignment shop, dance studio, summer camps, kombucha brew.… I could go on and on, but it doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that we own it, and here’s a quick test to determine if we own something: “Would this product, or service be able to exist in the way it does without me?” It’s not important to own something because it allows us to make a sale. In my humble opinion that is a great bi-product but the new rich is how much we share, not how much we make. Impact is invaluable, it’s priceless and lasts in perpetuity. The impact we have can not be taken away, no matter the circumstances that we face. We can’t say the same for money
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So, it’s not one or the other, instead, it is entirely possible to do both. In mind-mapping life goals with youth, something I find myself doing every few days at this point, we dig deep to find what passion burns deep inside and choose how we can pursue it. It’s important to determine what really, intrinsically excites us and focus on improving those skills, working away on growing that which we own, recognizing maybe someday people will want it so much that we get asked to do more, or maybe that never happens and that’s fine, because we love doing it anyways
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On the flip side we lay out what is the best balance of finding steady work, employment that pays the bills, to have the things we currently need to afford, some straightforward structure and some savings toward long term goals such as retirement. I see it this way, there is very little downside to hedging our bets by doing both the “big dream stuff” and the “safe, sensible stuff”. But remember, it is all math and probability in that the more you put into your dream job the more you will likely get in return, but even if you only put a little amount of effort, it’s still possible for it to pop, for it to scale, you just never know, so at least a little bit, we should work on something we own, because it’s priceless.