When I scroll through my feed, I usually see stuff about online businesses, marketing, awesome and interesting people, fun events, and more. Positivity pours in like buckets of rain.
On the other hand, when I turn on the TV (which I rarely do), it’s all murders, disasters, poverty, corruption, and idiots on prime time. Generally, negativity dominates, and there’s hardly anything positive.
I start to wonder, what’s the reality? Which world is real—mine or the one ‘out there’?
The answer, of course, comes quite easily to me—I believe we all live in our own worlds, surrounded by what we love and what interests us. We don’t notice or consciously ignore things that worry us or simply don’t resonate with us.
Sometimes our world intersects with the worlds of others, and then we either get a heavy shock or love at first sight. And both events are beautiful—watching two worlds collide and seeing them start to pulse with the same rhythm.
That’s why—I’ve always considered discussing subjective topics, like the ones on the show ‘Clash’ or in any debate studio, completely meaningless. How can we argue about what’s true when it’s different for different people and perspectives?
One such topic is the question ‘should we start our own business or work for someone else?’ Vast amounts of information pour out of printers and computer screens, advocating for one side or the other.
I’ve also contributed and continue to contribute to this, publishing materials about entrepreneurship—I can’t hide my fondness for it.
But is there one truth, one definite answer to this question:
‘TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR OR TO WORK FOR ANOTHER?’
We try to downplay the latter and extol the former. But are things really just black and white, as they seem when you read enough articles on the topic?
I, personally, don’t believe in black and white. Anyone who’s dealt with design knows that black and white imagery is the poorest in information. It only has two levels—black and white. A bit richer is the so-called greyscale image. It has 255 levels of gray, 255 shades. But I’m a fan of color, of variety. There we can have from 256 colors to tens of millions of colors. I believe that’s the world and that’s us, people.
In the case of entrepreneurship, I think everyone should try it, but it’s not necessary for everyone to stick with it permanently.
How Do We Figure Out What Is Suitable for Us?
As I said, there’s plenty of information—both in Bulgarian and other languages—on the topic. Hundreds of books advocating both entrepreneurship and successful careers. Here, I’d like to share my personal opinion, which doesn’t bind anyone, but I suspect I might touch a chord in your soul.
The Argument “Entrepreneurship vs Working for a Salary”
Neither of the two alternatives is good or bad. It all depends on our preferences and views on life and how we want to spend our lives.
Entrepreneurship isn’t just a type of activity; it’s also a way of thinking, a perspective, and an approach to the world. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset, you can even use it in your personal life and in salary work, and with great success. It’s not mandatory to have your own business.
Along with freedom and control, entrepreneurship puts in your hands the responsibility for your own life and success. Business doesn’t thrive if you don’t actively work on it. Here, your salary doesn’t ‘flow’ to you.
Working for a salary offers relative security but requires you to adhere to certain rules and limitations. You decide whether these limitations are acceptable or too much for you.
There’s a fundamental difference between small and big business, low-paid and high-paid jobs. Low-paid work is a waste of time. Small business requires a lot of work and significantly limits your free time. High-paying jobs offer many benefits and financial stability, but—usually—they are more responsible and come with immense stress. Big business gives you unlimited (potentially) financial power but also proportionate levels of stress and responsibilities. So, I don’t think it’s fair to just put two poles—’working for a salary’ and ‘own business.’ As I said, in real life, there are nuances.
Transitioning from a salary job to owning your own business is often a very big step and even a leap into the unknown. Sometimes, it’s more appropriate to make a smooth transition—to develop your own, side business while working for a salary.
Often, we want to keep the ‘stability’ of a salary but increase our income. Then it may be much better to have a side business (a widely used practice) while working for someone else.
In conclusion, I can say the following:
Whether to work for someone else or for ourselves is a personal decision and a matter of inclination and preference. What is certainly our obligation and responsibility is to develop ourselves, to take care of our personal prosperity and the well-being of us and our family. How we’ll do it, we decide ourselves.
