Why Our Whole Idea of a Career is Wrong

From childhood, we are made to believe that getting a job is the ultimate aim of our life. We work hard on this goal through school and college and we finally achieve this goal and only then do we realize that it was the wrong goal. Working for someone else can never give us the satisfaction and motivation that working for ourselves gives us. All through school and college, we work for ourselves - our grades, our marks, our rank, etc. But in a job, you are working for someone else, someone else's brand, someone else's dream. Of course you are not motivated. Of course you are exhausted. And yes, you are underpaid. All this is a natural response. We need to change the way we look at making a livelihood. We need to promote entrepreneurship at all levels. More than 75% of people who earn in India are self-employed, but these are mostly people who are not educated like tea shop owners, food stall owners, farmers, rickshaw drivers, etc. Even educated people need to do some kind of business, something in which the skills that they learnt at college are utilized. Many people don't think about starting a business because they think it needs investment, money, business knowledge etc. But nowadays, with the help of online tools, platforms and resources, anyone can become a small business owner. When you work for yourself, you experience high autonomy, freedom to make important decisions, freedom to choose the type of work, time of work and place of work. All this boosts motivation and joy. It gives us a sense of achievement. But starting a business is also a hard endeavor, getting your first few clients will be hard, building a stable income will be hard. But I believe it does become easy along the way. And one of the best advantages that small business owners have is that people like to buy from people and not companies, so as a solopreneur, you are your own brand and people are more likely to buy from you than a large corporation if you market your product/services in the right way. For people who seriously want to pursue the career of becoming an entrepreneur, there are several options available, such as:

• Freelancing on online marketplaces
• Starting a startup
• Selling products on sites like Etsy
• Creating your own website and selling your products/services through it
• Content creation on social media like YouTube, Instagram and brand deals
• Affiliate marketing
• Online tutoring
• Writing and self-publishing your book through Kindle Direct Publishing 

Entrepreneurship can be hard but it is worth it in the end. And those who win at it are the ones who are not scared to fail and the ones who are not deterred by failure.