JOB SECURITY : Are you secure?
I spent my twenties building my career. I worked as a teacher around the world gaining experience. I earned my masters in London at one of the best universities in the world.
I worked so hard that my dissertation was eventually published by a full on publishing company.
At twenty-nine I scored my dream job. I was running a department with a 7-figure budget at the 17th best university in America. I was in charge of six other teachers.
I had achieved the pinnacle of success.
They told me the day they hired me that they thought the relationship would last for twenty years. When you have a job this good.
One of the main benefits they kept pushing was how they had a major hospital as part of the university so I had epic health insurance.
A decade of work finally paid off.
I had it.
JOB SECURITY.
Until one day they fired me for something I had written on an anonymous blog years earlier.
The truth is they were just looking for a way to get rid of me. I made the classic mistake. I was a young upstart and I was outperforming my entire department…and especially my boss.
She would give me a task that was supposed to take months and I would accomplish it in a matter of hours.
She told me one of my jobs was to create class trips.
So I used my chat skills to arrange some of the most awesome educational trips you could ever imagined.
Then she told me that I wasn’t allowed to touch the budget.
I had to make the entire trips free.
And I did it.
I found FREE transportation and everything.
I’m sure you’ve heard that most people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. There is nothing a boss hates more than a new guy making her look incompetent.
I don’t really have the whole “pretend to work” thing down.
And that was my downfall.
After taxes I was making $2200 a month.
When I got my first paycheck I started to realize how much this job sucked.
But still.
I had “job security.”
Until they fired me.
And my journey began.
That was the day that I decided I would never let another person have power over me again.
I decided to follow my destiny.
Your life is exactly the same.
If you work at an office then your life has a single point of failure.
When you have a single income source you are incredibly vulnerable.
Anything that hurts that income stream knocks you back to zero.
IF you look at the economy for the past decade, you will see millions of people who got the same kick in the pants. They believed that their boss cared for them. That the relationship was more than financial.
But then they got the chop.
You don’t have job security, you have job vulnerability.
Let’s see just how vulnerable you are.
How many of these would apply to you?
– You made a joke to a coworker who took it out of context and complained to HR. So they fired you even though your comment wasn’t actually bad.
– Your boss realized that they can hire someone half your age for half the price.
– Your company is shrinking because the CEO made some poor acquisitions.
– Your company loses a contract that you aren’t even working on but they have to cut costs immediately.
– There is a natural disaster and your office building is destroyed
– There is an accounting discrepancy and your entire company is shut down
For most of these, your actions are irrelevant.
You didn’t do anything and you’re still out on the street holding a cardboard box.
The main reason we don’t start our own companies is fear.
We have been conditioned from childhood that we don’t have what it takes to start our own business. That we will fail. That we need the “security” of a corporate job to sleep at night.
But it’s all lies.
The only true security is to take control of your income stream.
Are you in control of your destiny right now? Let me know in the comments below.
Great post Jonathan,
I can relate my own journey to yours in so many ways.
The fact that is actually Job Vulnerability and not Job Security should
inspire more people to take control of their own security and by that
I mean create multiple passive income streams.
Thanks again
James Hughes
Hello Jonathan,
having been fired multiple times, I can related to job insecurity.
To multiple income streams!
Regards,
Keith Headley
I am determined to take control of my future. I stay at home with my children, so I don’t exactly have an income to lose, but my husband does, and that’s about the same thing. I see an opportunity here to follow the framework that you have already laid out, and I’m grateful that you have taken the time to share your knowledge. Thank you.
I have always worked for myself, but it’s been a rollercoaster. I’m either flush with cash or struggling. I want to streamline my income so that there are no more dips in my income. I want to create a strong, passive source of income utilizing my many skills and talents. Your podcasts are helping me identify how to create the life I deserve. Thank you for this great resource and guidance!