For most of our past history (1945 – 1995) “regular” employment, working for someone and getting a paycheck and benefits has been the norm for most American workers. Since the 1990s this “regular” employment has been slowly fading, to the chagrin of many whose first work value is security. Dan Lacey predicted the decline of steady employment in The Paycheck Disruption, 1990 and Cliff Hakim’s book We Are All Self-Employed, 2003, stated the need for Americans to reassess their place in the marketplace. William Bridges predicted both the fading of steady employment in JobShift, 1994, and that each individual was his or her own enterprise, Creating You and Co., 1998.
So whether or not you start a business, every working person today has to regard themselves as self-employed. Working for a salary is renting your skills; we are all temporary employees. Over the past 15-20 years, more and more individuals have started small businesses as either primary or secondary forms of income.
If you are thinking about starting your own business, you are not only in sync with a number of authors but also in sync with an old tradition and with some of the past leaders of our nation.
The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be … for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens. —– John Hancock
The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages for a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account for another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This … is …the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all. —— Abraham Lincoln —- “Annual Address before the Wisconsin Agricultural Society”
Happy 4th of July!