One of my father's favorite bits of wisdom he dropped on his children and grandchildren was a quote from Thomas Edison: "People frequently don't recognize opportunity when it knocks, because it usually shows up in overalls and looks like work." The Old Man had an adamantine work ethic. He passed it on.
In recent years, there has been a lot of virtual ink spilled on employment. Jobs reports, unemployment, the labor participation rate, creating jobs, saving jobs, losing jobs, jobs going to illegal immigrants, and jobs lost to technology. The list is endless. But what we don't hear or read nearly as much about is making one's own job. Carving out your own niche can be a rewarding way to make a living.
I mentioned the Old Man. In 1954, to augment his farm income, he took a job at the John Deere Tractor Works in Waterloo, Iowa. In 1964, he was doing better at Deere than he was on the farm, so he gave up farming and stayed at John Deere until he was bought out in an early-retirement deal in 1982. He was a solid believer in the "get a job with a solid company, work your way up, retire with a gold watch" school. So he often expressed bemusement that both of his sons were self-employed through much of their working lives.
Now, today, there are, as always, plenty of opportunities to chart one's own course. We live in a time when new technologies are coming on fast, like artificial intelligence, possibly (in the near future) quantum computing, and more. Many solid careers will be built on learning these technologies and taking that knowledge on the road; yes, I'm talking about consulting. That's what I did for twenty years before turning back to journalism. I spent ten years in the medical device industry, working in quality management systems, developing a particular skill in corrective & preventive actions and complaint systems, and after ten years, I opened my own consulting business, selling those skills. It was great - I ended up doing business on four continents, earned a reputation in the industry as the "go-to guy" for those needing that expertise.
My brother took a different tack. He trained himself to be a master woodworker, building cabinets in the homes of the rich and famous, in places like Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Later, he took to speaker design, filed a couple of patents, and ended up selling the high-end speakers he built with his own hands, and they sold all over the world.
Point it, in technology or in the trades, there are great opportunities for self-employment. If you have a skill, a talent, or knowledge to sell, someone out there will buy it, either consumers or companies. In changing times, those who can stay ahead of the wave in embracing and learning those technologies, whether they be steam locomotives or quantum computing, will end up with skills and knowledge that people will be willing to pay for.
A recent column by Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler presented some relevant insights:
Progress comes via surprises, not rules, with inventions no one thought possible. The telescope opened the skies. The microscope illuminated the unseeable. Both surprises. So was Edison’s Kinetograph movie camera. Quantum theory was heretical, until it wasn’t. It enables entire industries, including semiconductors. Gene editing was hard until Crispr technology simplified it. Machine learning was researched for decades with little result, until back-propagation allowed voice and facial recognition. And it’s been less than three years since ChatGPT shocked the world with what it could do. None of these were invented by following the rules, but by coloring outside the lines.
Early on, Uber was hit with a cease-and-desist order. I asked co-founder Travis Kalanick, “Did you cease?” “No.” “Did you desist?” “No.” He made his own rules.
Take risks. Risk leads to reward. Ignore those who tell you to take “calculated risks.” It’s the magnitude of risk that provides the potential reward. And we need a new name for entrepreneurs. It’s too French. Maybe “risk agents” or “productivity creators” or, hmmm, “no rulers.”
That's the appeal of self-employment. Make your own rules. Chart your own course. I'm tempted to say "be your own boss," but in many ways, your customers and clients are your bosses. I will say I work much harder for myself than I ever have for an employer, and everyone I know who is self-employed, from my buddy who is a small-town Alaska handyman to another buddy still doing QMS consulting in medical devices, says the same thing.
Read More: Trump Taps Airbnb Co-Founder to Transform Federal Websites Into 'Apple Store Experience'
Self-employment can be rewarding. There are challenges: No unemployment insurance if you fail, no sick leave, no paid vacations. If you don't work, you don't get paid. But the benefits, including (in many cases) higher incomes, not to mention more flexibility, and the satisfaction of charting one's own course, I always thought, outweighed the risks.
Find a niche. Learn something most people don't yet understand. Develop a skill, be it as an electrician or programmer, that most people don't have. Gain a skill or a body of knowledge people will pay for - and then ask them to pay for it. Then, work, work, work. My Old Man had another favorite saying that applies here: "Work comes first." One of the major keys to success in self-employment is sheer, dogged determination to get the job done, and if you can do it ahead of time and under budget, you'll soon find yourself with more opportunities than time.
To any young people who might be reading this, I'll leave you with another piece of wisdom, this one from another old man - me: Success in one's career isn't hard. You need only do three things:
- Show up a little earlier than the other guys
- Work a little harder than the other guys
- Never pass up a chance to learn something new.
This seems appropriate.
