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Become Self-Employed:
Without Leaving Your Job

By Pat McChristie

My dad worked for one company most of his life. He really believed that if he was good to and for the company, the corporate fathers would recognize this and be good to him. He would have a job excellent benefits while he worked and a good retirement package when the time came.

Dad was content to be a company man, leaving all that job-switching and earning higher degrees to the man down the street. He accepted transfers and traveling as part of the job and rarely complained about long work days. All was well if the company was happy. If he had qualms about his complacency, I never saw it. He retired (a little early) in 1987, certain that he had lived the American dream. And for his time, he had.

Dad was the second oldest of a very large family composed mostly of sisters. Dad's only brother was 14 years younger than my father, and took Dad's every word as gospel. So, he, too, became a "company man," satisfied with middle-management in a large corporation, learning what was necessary to "get along well" in his job but never venturing into new fields.

When his job was eliminated in 1991, there were two totally surprised brothers. How could the company do such a thing? He had lived by the company, obeyed the company rules, and built his life around the company. I believe he thought his job was an entitlement or maybe even a subsidy. He had what he now calls "an employee mindset."

My uncle regrouped, learned computers, accounting procedures, and a few other things, then entered the 90s. He became a self-employed person who works from home.

Uncle Bob is no exception. Men and women, all over America, are taking the flattening of American companies as a wake-up call. They are leaving the employee mindset behind and joining the ranks of the self-employed, in mind if not in actuality.

What does it take to leave the employee mindset behind?

1. Realize a job is not a subsidy or entitlement. "The" company doesn't owe you a living. In fact, it doesn't owe you one thing. It is not to blame when your career falters, when you are not trained for other opportunities, or even when no further opportunities exist. We are moving toward a global economy and corporations are no longer a safety net for the American Worker.

2. Start a lifetime of learning and change. You are responsible for your development and growth. It is up to you to keep up with new developments in your field rather than waiting for "company training."

3. Plan ahead. Try to anticipate where your choice of careers is headed. Will your talents and abilities still be viable in ten years? Five years? Ten years? If you can anticipate less demand for your particular talents, education, and training, you must be ready to move in another direction. That means acquiring new skills now before your present career is out-dated.

4. Look to yourself for answers. If you have always looked to a boss or upper management for guidance, realize that you have to change. Do your own research and form your own ideas. Then learn to communicate your ideas to others.

5. Prepare yourself to contribute to others and make a difference. You have to consider how your work will affect others. Also consider how your ideas can be used for the well-being of others as well as your own well-being. Customers of a company are everyone's responsibility. Think of yourself as a partner, not an employee.

6. Learn to take risks. Self-employed people take risks. You will have to take some, too, or be left behind. Self-employed people are more comfortable taking risks than people with an employee mindset. Prepare yourself well and then you can leave fear of risks and the unknown behind.

Dad's day is forever gone. Companies are eliminating jobs, "laying off" employees, building work teams, using part-time or temporary employees, using consultants, and becoming "lean and mean."

Therefore, the American workforce must be loyal to themselves first, then question their jobs, their goals, their education. Life must become a learning process that never ends. People must find security and balance within themselves and accept change as the norm rather than the exception.

The worker of the 90s needs to become an independent problem-solver while collaborating with others to get the job done.

Every cloud has a silver lining , of course. Gone are the ladder-climbing, manipulative corporate types.

Those manipulators are replaced with business partners who must show ethics and integrity again. People who work with the organization and with the customer. People who manage their own professional and personal development. People who accept change for what it is: inevitable. People who look at change as exciting and full of opportunities for the individual and the company.

You don't have to leave your job to develop the self-employed mindset. In fact, this mindset is what it takes to stay employed in today's corporate world.

In 1989 Charles Handy wrote in The Age of Unreason, "By some estimates, one-quarter of the working population will be working from home by the end of the century. From home is different than at home. The home is a base, not a prison."

It's possible that you won't ever work from home. But if you are not prepared for that eventuality, you may find your home a prison rather a base in the next corporate lay-off.

Pat