Just Start a Business
The best advice you'll find
At a job, you control nothing.
There’s an illusion of control though.
The job offer says 9-5. But if the boss says you need to complete a task, stay back or work weekends, can you say no? Nope. You think you can but you can’t.
Say no a few times and you’ll mysteriously get laid off. Or forced out. Go on, try it. I f*cking dare you. I did.
The truth is jobs are modern slavery.
The good news is the economy is changing. Instead of always-there-to-work we’re moving to just-in-time-workers.
This shift is creating the massive trend of one-person businesses – consultants, freelancers, coaches, contractors, etc. Instead of one employer you have multiple. Each employer is a customer of your business.
In my experience working as both an employee and as a one-person business, I’ve learned one thing:
You can’t count on a boss or employer anymore.
Building a business gives you real freedom
The employee life made me think I was free.
But my calendar was full of meetings that I had to attend. When you get into business you actually control your calendar. Like, for real. Appointments only exist if you let them.
This is a subtle difference but it let’s you design your life how you want.
Yes, starting a business is scary. What’s ya point? You can lean into the uncomfortable task of starting a business or hide from it and work for someone else’s. But you can’t hide forever. One day regrets will bite you on the butt.
As my friend Dan Go said:
It was worth trading my personal training job for one year of building an online empire on X to live a lifetime of freedom and make 7-figures a year.
Starting a business is hard but not being free is, too. Choose your hard. Short-term pain or forever pain that’s irreversible.
Starting a business lets you chase your f*cking obsession
Starting a business is the same as going to the gym every day, lying down on the bench press, and lifting the most weight you can. It hurts but it gets your juices flowing. And you get the post-workout feel-good endorphins.
What isn’t obvious is business is just a vehicle for obsession.
You must be obsessed to start a business and keep going long enough to get traction. That’s why businesses built solely for money, or ones that are tied to a hobby/passion/interest fail miserably and destroy people.
Business is intense. Obsession is the only path to give you the right intensity.
Everyone should chase obsession at least once in their lives. One year of business obsession can change your life forever.
Starting a business is building your own world. You create the laws. You set the mission. It becomes a movement that is all-consuming and draws people in like a tornado they can’t escape.
A pattern I've noticed in successful people:
They’re obsessed.
Answer to no one (forever)
Being told what to do is annoying.
My last boss was like a fly on my back. He kept buzzing up my nose every few seconds. The guy couldn’t relax. My work email was full of other people’s commitments and priorities. But all I wanted to do was write online.
What changed my life was when I quit bosses forever.
None of them knew what was best when it came to business, anyway. And they sure as hell didn’t know what was best for me and my young family.
Some people are so brainwashed they think their employer can tell them not to post stuff on social media. So they have their free speech right taken away.
It’s only when you talk with a lawyer and they laugh loudly that you realize a so-called “social media policy” is what we call in Australia “Trying sh*t on to see if it sticks.”
Classic example: my second-last bank employer said if I quit, I couldn’t work in banking again for 5 years. LOL. Okay Mr Bank. Sure.
Soon as I quit I got another job in banking THE NEXT DAY. They didn’t sue me. And if they did they would lose. Because, you know, we’re free to leave employers whenever.
The rules aren’t the rules.They are often guidelines that the sheep follow who never question anything. I question every freaking thing, and most of the time what I find is “policies” are bulsh*t and they’re created by controlling morons.
Stop answering to other people. Exit the corporate daycare and leave the toddlers to fight over the next product update that’ll disappoint the market like it always does.
Being told what to do is a virus. It’s better to build a business and figure out what you want to do in life, without all the political games and permission slips.
Worst thing that happens is it fails. Best thing is you make a living.
What are you so afraid of?
If everything I’ve said is wrong and I get you fired because you share a puppy photo from the weekend on your LinkedIn, what’s the worst that can happen?
People hold onto jobs like they hold onto 3 year old toddlers who want to walk up and pat a crocodile.
You can always get another job.
The world is overflowing with jobs. They’re out of fashion. They’re time has expired. The lack of freedom is making them the worst option.
If you start a business and it fails you go right back to a job. No worries, mate. But consider the other side. If it works then you make a living by yourself without the nanny police and silly HR policies.
There’s literally no downside.
Plus, starting a business will teach you more than a degree or endless online courses ever will. The wisdom is in the action. It’s in taking a calculated risk. It’s in backing yourself. It’s in running a business, not being a faceless line item in someone else’s.
Just start a business
Start a business because it’s fun. Start a business because you’ve been thinking about it for too long. Start a business because you stand for something. Start a business so you can chase your obsession and work on what you truly believe in.
I promise, it’s the best decision you’ll ever make.
I send this email weekly. If you would also like to receive it, join the 127,000+ other smart people who absolutely love it today.
👉 If you enjoy reading this post, feel free to share it with friends! Or feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏
Tim, I never knew how to start a business until I started writing online. No, until I met Ayo, then you. You guys showed me what it means to write online and think like a business owner. Thank you.
Sometimes you just gotta go for it and see what happens.