Comments on: 10 Raw Truths about Finding Your True Calling

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:26:24 +0000

Hi I read somewhere years ago, people who were self-emplyed didn’t like being told what to do. Or restricted! It was confining to their personality. Felt less authentic! They didn’t feel they were the master of their own destiny. I don’t think everybody can be it. Two qualities I think is a must are self-initiating and self-motivating individual. Though they are quite similar. You just got to have those.

By: Tom Volkar - Delightful Work

Tom Volkar - Delightful Work — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:26:04 +0000

Alfred, I’m going to check out that article now. I really do think that except for very few exceptions, most folks who are working for others are unhappy and have their freedom restricted in countless ways. It’s more akin to slavery than anything else.

By: Alfred Saforo

Alfred Saforo — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:10:17 +0000

This article just goes to emphasise the fact that working for someone does not pay at all. I actually wrote a similar article in September last year “6 reasons you shouldnt get a job” which became one of my best articles, people who work for others (myself included) are very unhappy people.

By: Tom Volkar

Tom Volkar — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 15:57:51 +0000

Chris, indeed there has been a considerable amount of research showing that the self-employed have higher levels of happiness than those employed by others. Most prominently by Matthias Benz and Bruno Fey at the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich. In their paper, Being Self-Employed is a Great Thing: Subjective Evaluations of Self-Employment and Hierarchy, September 2006; they concluded what you and I already experience daily. It’s not just earnings or outcomes that determine happiness but also the process leading to those outcomes.

Self-employed individuals enjoy a much higher measure of self-determination and freedom. Being able to utilize ones own initiative is a core characteristic of the state of self-determined happiness.

The joy of calling our own shots and eagerly choosing our own projects is one of life’s sweetest freedoms that we self-employed get to savor all day long. And that fear we once knew tends to evaporate while our focus is directed in joyful creation.

By: Chris Posti Tice

Chris Posti Tice — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:14:34 +0000

Tom, your thought-provoking words made me wonder what kind of research has been done demonstrating the differences in lives of people who are self-employed versus employed by others. I’ve never been inclined to dig for such information, but based on what I see with my clients, I’d guess that self-employed folks live longer, happier, healthier, more fulfilled, more satisfying lives. What has your experience been with your clients? Know of any relevant research?

I concur with all your 10 raw truths, and especially the one on “fear.” Fear of failure, fear of what others will think, fear of financial ruin, fear of loss of prestige/power, fear of ignorance, fear that it was the wrong choice, fear that one misstep will ruin everything, fear that we are not good enough, fear that we don’t have what it takes…… I have to stop typing, this is making me feel fearful!!