Being An Entrepreneur Is The Only Way To Control Your Destiny

One of the perks of being an entrepreneur is that you control your own destiny.

Well, sort of.

In reality, regardless of what you do to make a living, there will be factors beyond your control. Those factors may, of course, have an impact on your destiny.

When compared with other ways to make a living, though, it’s hard to find options that give you as much control as being an entrepreneur.

If, for example, you work for someone else, your destiny is largely in that person’s or that organization’s hands. The reality is that tomorrow, or even a minute from now, your employer could notify you that your services are no longer needed.

Your employer may tell you this because you’re not doing a good job, over which you do have a large degree of control, of course.

However, they may also tell you that your services are no longer needed due to all sorts of other factors.

For example, your job may be “offshored” or outsourced to some other place in the world. Or, due to no fault of your own, and perhaps even due to no fault of your employer, the company’s sales may be declining and the company may no longer be able to afford to have you on the payroll.

So, how is being an entrepreneur different in terms of controlling your own destiny?

Well, in some ways it’s very different, and in other ways, it’s similar to working for someone else.

Let’s look at the differences and similarities.

When you are an entrepreneur (i.e. self-employed, as a simplified definition in this article — I realize there are varying views on the definition of “entrepreneur”), you’ll see the following “control” differences and similarities, compared to working for someone else:

• You control your schedule. Your employer doesn’t control your schedule, at least, as you do not have an employer other than yourself. That said, you do have all sorts of constituencies that will have an impact on your schedule, including customers, investors, partners, employees, service providers, etc. So, in a nutshell, you’ve traded your employer for a series of other “bosses”.
• You control how much you make. In reality, how well your company does controls how much you make. So, you can’t just say I want to be paid a million dollars per year and the money shows up on your doorstep. You have to be strategic and you have to be willing to work hard, but the good news is that if you work hard enough for a million dollars to come in, you’ll likely be keeping a lot more of it (with controlled expenses) than you would have if you were on someone else’s payroll.
• You control how hard you work. Well, to be clear, you largely control how hard you work if you’re working for someone else, too. Once you become accustomed to being an entrepreneur, though, you realize that you don’t mind putting in long hours when it’s for your bottom line and not for someone else’s.
• You control your stress level. Again, regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, you are in charge of controlling your stress level. As an entrepreneur, you may have a bit more flexibility in structuring your schedule and your activities, so that you’re better able to manage your stress level. However, in many cases, since you’re the “chief cook and bottle washer” (i.e. the buck stops with your for everything), often your stress level will actually go up relative to what it was as an employee.  As with hard work, though, you’ll likely not mind more stress so much when it’s for your business, rather than for your employer’s business.
• You control whom you work with. This may be one of the biggest perks of being an entrepreneur, especially when you reach a level of success that gives you some flexibility. You have the last say on who works at your company, the customers you do business with, the service providers you use, etc. This is very liberating! It gives you the opportunity to only work with and help people that you like. This isn’t true for all businesses, of course – if you have a retail business dealing with the public, for example, you may not like every customer that walks through the door. If you own a service business, on the other hand, you typically can “fire” (or never “hire”) clients who you don’t want to help, for most any reason.
• You control what happens when you retire. This assumes, of course, that you’ve built a business that can survive without your presence. If you haven’t, then the business will close when you decide you’re done. If you have, then you’ll be able to retire knowing that your business will continue to serve others, in the hands of the subsequent owners. It’s satisfying to know that you’ve built a business that not only provided for you and your family, but also that will continue to serve customers into the future, and may even continue to support your family, depending who the subsequent owners are and how the deal is structured when you sell your business.
• You control whether you get fired. Bringing the story back to the beginning of this article, where we talked about the fact that your employer can fire you at any time, being an entrepreneur is no panacea in this regard. Subject to the terms of your agreement, clients can also “fire” you at any time. That said, for your sake, I hope that you will not have just one client or just one customer! If you build a diversified set of customer and clients, then if just one fires you, your business is not done. The same cannot be said for the situation where your (one) employer fires you – in that case, your “business” is done and you must find another job.

This list could go on, but you get the idea: As an entrepreneur, you have more control over your destiny.

That does not mean that things get easier than when you’re an employee, but it does mean that you are in charge – and you get all the good and bad things that come with being the head honcho. The sky is the limit, but the downside is yours as well. If that works for you, then being an entrepreneur is absolutely the way to go!