Here’s my immediate thought on this: I think starting with the idea of ‘creating a job’ is OK. I tried that, it sucked for me – others will undoubtedly be better at it. What did work for me though was applying everything I had to solve a problem (lack of nice vegan pizza cheese) for myself and realising other people have the same problem. Slightly different perspective.
I totally agree with you and your entrepreneurial, go-get-em, self-reliant spirit is really shining through here. I can’t stand the way people think about jobs, espeically when they think when they get a job it’s theirs for life as long as they still want it. Here, a company may have absolutely no use for you but they may legally have to keep you on for a very long time, in many circumstances. Anyway, people’s general perception of ‘business’ being a provider, themselves passive recipients, having to a job as if it’s charity. Of course as economic security crumbles, we’ll move into more creative, dynamic and abundant understanding of work – less grounded in the ‘job’ paradigm.
Thanks for adding your thoughts here, Ali. I love how you worked towards solving a problem for yourself and then discovered that others were looking for a solution to the same problem. All you had to do then was share it in exchange for another type of value and boom, you’ve got a business. (Granted, it’s a bit more complex than that, but I think that’s the gist.)
However, it still all started with you being willing to do something about the problem you had. If you saw your problem and then waited for someone else to create a solution for you, there would be no Notzarella (cheese, or business). So I think it’s really important that we believe in ourselves. That was the motivation behind this thought. I hear so much talk about what politicians are or are not doing to help create jobs, but if more people took it upon themselves to create their own jobs, even just side-jobs that had the potential to grow into something bigger, I think there would be far fewer people without jobs.
Here’s my immediate thought on this: I think starting with the idea of ‘creating a job’ is OK. I tried that, it sucked for me – others will undoubtedly be better at it. What did work for me though was applying everything I had to solve a problem (lack of nice vegan pizza cheese) for myself and realising other people have the same problem. Slightly different perspective.
I totally agree with you and your entrepreneurial, go-get-em, self-reliant spirit is really shining through here. I can’t stand the way people think about jobs, espeically when they think when they get a job it’s theirs for life as long as they still want it. Here, a company may have absolutely no use for you but they may legally have to keep you on for a very long time, in many circumstances. Anyway, people’s general perception of ‘business’ being a provider, themselves passive recipients, having to a job as if it’s charity. Of course as economic security crumbles, we’ll move into more creative, dynamic and abundant understanding of work – less grounded in the ‘job’ paradigm.
Thanks again Raam for your thoughts.
Thanks for adding your thoughts here, Ali. I love how you worked towards solving a problem for yourself and then discovered that others were looking for a solution to the same problem. All you had to do then was share it in exchange for another type of value and boom, you’ve got a business. (Granted, it’s a bit more complex than that, but I think that’s the gist.)
However, it still all started with you being willing to do something about the problem you had. If you saw your problem and then waited for someone else to create a solution for you, there would be no Notzarella (cheese, or business). So I think it’s really important that we believe in ourselves. That was the motivation behind this thought. I hear so much talk about what politicians are or are not doing to help create jobs, but if more people took it upon themselves to create their own jobs, even just side-jobs that had the potential to grow into something bigger, I think there would be far fewer people without jobs.
So true Raam~
There are the makers and the takers. Better to make more than you take … for everyone and everything.
Indeed, Chris. There needs to be a healthy balance of both!