Shopping Through Friends

It seems everyone has a part time something these days. A lot of my own friends have products they sell, things they make to sell, they sell real estate or offer their professional services like accounting, art, marketing and other in addition to holding down a full time job. It takes a lot of time and effort to work part time in additional to putting 40+ hours a week in at the office.

So are we just a bunch of workaholics?

My own reason for starting a small business was to find a way out of corporate work because it no longer feeds my soul the same as my small business does. I am burned out and have been burned more than once with situations that have left my family’s financial future at risk because of the fussiness and unreliability of a corporate job that could be gone tomorrow. My current dream is the day my small business earns more than my full time job. Many of my friends are pursuing that same dream and share similar stories about their frustration, lack of fulfillment and burnout from working in corporate work. It’s amazing how many of us don’t like our day jobs and see them as just an ends to a means.

Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. – Oprah Winfrey

The aspiration to create something on your own that gives you that financial security and freedom is a commendable pursuit. It can seem very few make it to that level, or so we are told, but it doesn’t stop many of us from trying.

Why Not?

When we see our friends start something outside of their day job we may fear they’re going to push their new pursuits onto us. They’re eager to make sales, see momentum and share this new adventure. They have found something that gives them hope and they’re over zealous at times in that pursuit to see it happen. I remember someone responding to me with a sarcastic “seriously?” when I told them I had signed on with a direct marketing company. My response was, “Yes, seriously, why not?”