We all know, A 9-5 gives you structure and a sense of security, but Entrepreneurship gives you freedom.
How much of this freedom is earned?
To entrepreneurs, freedom is acquired through intentionality and hardwork. Basically, it comes down to values and how you want to design your life.
The keyword is intentionality because it’s easy to be successful in a career and yet feel trapped. No one expects you to chase freedom when you got bills to pay.
Career, family, work ethic always come before your chase for freedom. Kids don’t care exactly what their parents do whether white collar or blue colar jobs but want to be fed and taken care of.
Your adult family and friends may care as regards it’s legitimacy and sustainability, but the least they care about is your “freedom.”
To the entrepreneur that cares about freedom, its more of a trajectory we set ourselves up for.
It’s not fun sharing this trajectory with others Entrepreneurs are left to take responsibility for themselves. And if your partner is not a fellow entrepreneur, there’s little or no chance they’re going to associate with your early stage struggle.
Entrepreneurship requires:
More work up front.
But that work buys you freedom later.
You’re building assets, not just a job.
— Adrienne Lain (@adrienne_lain) September 14, 2024
The early stages can be draining to them mentally, as they never signed up for this, unlike you, who is driven by hope. You can’t blame them, as they may not share the same vision.
They have fears such as time spent in life is never given back. So their thought process is as simple as, ” if you can’t pull this up, why don’t you get a job?” To the 90%, a job is the ultimate security.
How long and well you keep your job is a reflection of your market worth and character as a person.
But this way of thinking is contrary to why people start up businesses. Most entrepreneurs start off because they want to BET on themselves and also be free.
Free from a boss, free from annoying meetings, free from mandatory time schedules like working 9-5 set by societal pressures and other forces outside their control.
But there’s one truth most entrepreneurs shy away from: Not every entrepreneur would be successful with their ideas.
Then under what condition should one go ALL IN and never consider getting a job? The average mind wants to know: if or when shit hits the fan and your business is collapsing, how do you keep your family or loved ones together?
Unless you’re building together, they’re not emotionally invested in the business or even obsessed with freedom as you are.
To make it worse with time, the average full-time entrepreneur becomes unemployable.
They don’t want a 9-5, and the 9-5 employers don’t trust them .
What you can do as an entrepreneur to earn your freedom
- Build a personal brand, it pays for itself long term.
- You want to be free financially overall, so build more in your spare time until you can afford to chase your goals full-time (don’t quit your job prematurely).
- Associate more with people you can build together. The more you hang around people who don’t have freedom as a value, the more you feel like an outlier, which may sound heroic but may draw you back.
- Create structure in Entrepreneurship and within that structure you’ve created, you have freedom. It may include having a physical workspace e.g. office with time.
- Build systems and take advantage of automations. James Clear said:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
It includes content creation system, Marketing, networking and managing your time.
The internet is unfair.
It doesn’t reward hard & long work.
It rewards leverage.Keep your end goal in mind and leverage systems and strategies to help you stay on track.
The riches are in the niches. And the freedom is in the systems.
— Emmy Steve (@Winroadsteve) November 1, 2024
- Focus on service – the chase for freedom is an important value for entrepreneurs but does not supersede serving others, which is why we’re entrepreneurs.
For me, freedom is:
• No set alarms.
• No obligatory meetings.
• Doing what you want.
• Being able to afford what you want
• Earning while you sleep.
• Working when you want.
• Traveling where you want.
Entrepreneurship helps me achieve it. How would you define your freedom?
I got attracted to tech from an early age getting close to my Father. Coupled with learning some high end skills i was able to build a 6 figure Ecommerce store a few years ago after graduating from Pharmacy.
The only way I have found to express myself as an introvert is through writing.
I’m convinced 100% that to build a 6-7-figure business and beyond you need to invest in yourself and your personal development.
The more you grow, the more your business will grow.
PS: I wrote a short book on why you don’t need more motivation and how to push through in such moments – get it here: