Lessons When You Work For Yourself

**zhaoyun** · 04-25-2017, 03:47 AM

I have been working for myself for over a decade now.

There are many things I have learned that has made me see the world in very different ways than when I was an employee.

These are the top things I've learned.

1. No one's going to make things happen except yourself

Don't expect someone else to feed you. You have to get your ass up and hustle every day. Or you will be hungry. You will be beaten.

2. Work is to be measured in achievements, not time.

How much time you work is irrelevant. If you don't make money or you don't achieve what you need to achieve, you won't eat. You become wiser with your time and problem solving skills.

3. The Government is NOT your friend

ESPECIALLY true in a Blue Democratic state. The government is there to fuck you up, to make your life difficult, to take from you, to tax you. The government is not your friend. Typically when the government is involved, it will only slow you down or take money from you.

4. Be Wary Of Others

It is easy to become cynical because you realize just how shady people are when money is involved. This involves people you deal with, business partners, supplies, customers, anybody. You become really good at sniffing out bullshit and learning to judge characters.

What I've learned is that it's important to maintain your own personal standards of ethics, and even if it sets you back temporarily, you will win long term because you would have earned the most difficult thing from others, TRUST.

However, don't let your guard down. There will be people ready to screw you over, to fuck you over, to feed you to the fucking wolves at every corner. You need to be aware of this at all fucking times. If you don't, you'll be a victim.

5. You set your own limits

When you are working for a boss, you are a cog working to make his dreams happen. When you work for yourself, you are making your own dreams happen. You really can set your own potential, no matter how difficult it will be to get there. Whether you get there or not is a combination of your efforts, your judgment and pure luck.

6. Never Give Up

You will fail and you will fail badly. You may fail 9 times out of 10 or 99 times out of 100. But it only takes that one victory to keep you going. You learn to be tough as fucking nails. Whereas other people get frustrated when a friend cancels on dinner, you learn to take the hardest punches, adapt, and come back stronger than ever and say FUCK YOU, NOT TODAY.

Hope this was helpful.

**TenaciousTopologist** · 04-25-2017, 05:03 AM

we could use more of these kinds of threads on here.

**MsSPF** · 04-25-2017, 05:40 AM

That was interesting to read, thank you !

Would you recommand to create a business in general ?
looks like your personnality and mental strenght is important to build it, not everyone can do it

**zhaoyun** · 04-25-2017, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by MsSPF

That was interesting to read, thank you !

Would you recommand to create a business in general ?
looks like your personnality and mental strenght is important to build it, not everyone can do it

Personality and mental strength are very important. No, not everyone has what it takes, probably not even the majority. But it can be very rewarding if you succeed.

**TenaciousTopologist** · 04-25-2017, 06:00 AM

Did you have any reservations before deciding to work on your own? If so, did they decrease/increase as you started working and how did/do they effect the way you built(d)/r(a)un your company (did it allow you to proceed with more caution- lower risk in your actions and/or did it prevent you from taking up good opportunities).

**zhaoyun** · 04-25-2017, 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by TenaciousTopologist

Did you have any reservations before deciding to work on your own? If so, did they decrease/increase as you started working and how did/do they effect the way you built(d)/r(a)un your company (did it allow you to proceed with more caution- lower risk in your actions and/or did it prevent you from taking up good opportunities).

Yes, I had reservations. But I was also young and naive, so that probably made me less inhibited. I fucked up big time a few times, at least once was disaster level. But you can't learn and improve without actually DOING. You can read all the books about running a business, but it's like swimming or riding a bike, you can't learn until you are actually DOING IT. So you get better and sharper as you keep going, at least if you are bright AND resilient. Some people can't adapt, or they just can't handle failure, and they just give up.

So to answer your question, yes, in some ways, experience made me more inhibited, but in terms of being wiser. And knowing what would likely fly and what is more a pipe dream.