Preside over Your Life

He wasn't even 25 yet when he took over his Dad's ailing company and was tasked to bring his brilliant ideas to live to make the company work. His first act was firing all the Directors, without having any replacement at hand. His first move to solving a problem was creating more problems for himself. Needless I say that it was a tough time for Ricardo Semler and the company for quite a period of time. This story about Ricardo Semler and his company- Semco, which he chronicled in his book Maverick, was my best read in 2019. To me what stands out, was the attitude of not following rules, but creating them. Ricardo to date is still one of the employers who has given his employees so much control over how they direct their work and by extension, they now have more control over the issues of their life. Ricardo, himself takes 2 months off work without interfering with the business at all but just spending time with himself and his family. 

Not many people are opportune to work with Semco, where you enjoy living an independent life despite being an employee, but we all desire this freedom. And before you started searching for alternatives, know that Semco is located in Brazil, so good luck with the search. However, on the flip side, is it not time you think of taking action for your life by yourself, rather than wait for an enabling environment or policy or culture change to make this happen. 

Isn't it time you contest for a position to become the President in your life and family affairs. 

You are wondering what you thought you have control over your life already, but ask yourself a simple question- what goes first into your calendar each year. Whatever goes first tells a story of what is most important to you. Do you know some men start by planning their time alone with the children and wife, then every other thing can fall in place? Anything that will compete with their family time is declined or delegated. 

But today, the majority of the 27.67 million paid employees in the UK will have to plan their life around their work. Giving priority to their job demands over family and personal needs. Thank God for the concept of flexible working is becoming more popular. On the other hand, the 4.96 million self-employed can choose when to work and when not to, although some of these ones are still tied because they can only earn when they work.

The best place to be is where you keep making money regardless of being on holiday or just taking some time out to joke around with your kids. I'm writing this because I have experienced the end of both spectra, and I can say that dictating your schedule is how life should be lived. 

We wonder sometimes that employees are needed for the economy to thrive but I think the original design was to have each family determine their own fortune and not rely on gaining income from the wealthy employers. Think back to how things were before the industrial revolution, people manage their own family business by themselves. That was the norm, having a servant or employee was the exception to the rule. These were mostly visitors who had no land to cultivate or property to conduct their business, and the goal of being an employee was to raise enough resources to start their own business. Last names are even given based on the profession- Carpenter, Hunter, Stone, etc. But what has changed and do we start echoing the need to reverse the change?

Is this a revolt against established industries? Not really, I think it is more of a wake-up call and a rallying cry that we should go back to the start and all be bosses of ourselves. 

Why should my time be paid for, regardless of my level of productivity during that time? Why should I be forced to be in the office or work remotely within a specific time period each day, regardless of having meetings or not? Is that not a double waste? Employers paying for the wrong thing, and employees wasting their time on days where productivity does not align with the allotted time.  

Isn't it time we shift the gear back to individual independence. Start paying people for their delivery and not for their time. This way even employees can live like employers who make their own choices. You can choose to work all night and sleep all morning, so long as you have met your expected deliverables and even exceeded it. You can work through the weekends and take Wednesday and Thursday off. 

It might feel like I'm debating against myself now. But not so, the main culprit here is not that entrepreneurship is better than employment for all. It is the inability of people to control their lives, make their own life decisions without fear of a financial teardown. 

If companies start engaging this way, then we'd be surprised how much it will be a massive win-win for everyone. Employees giving their best and employers not wasting their pay. 

However, if we all keep waiting for employers to make this change, where some companies are still struggling to accept the concept of remote working, then we are still sitting idle and yielding control to the same people who are not willing to release it. 

So what is the way forward? We all should find out our own life, plan it and live it. If your employment is not giving you enough room to be the best of you, why not find something that you can start, even if it means less income for you, so long as you can live on it without raking debt than go for it. Chose to live your own life. 

The strongest push back I anticipate now, is that lizard brain (the amygdala) saying to you, that you can not do this, and helping you come up with all sorts of excuses- like you don't even have any original idea. Well, the first action you require is not to take physical action, it is to make a decision. Just decide, you want to live life on your own terms, and watch the universe (and the maker of the universe) conspire to support you. 

The moment you start searching for a specific answer is the moment you will start discovering answers. Have you noticed that each time you buy (or decide to buy) a new car, you begin to notice more of that car make and model everywhere? Why is that? You sure know it's always been there, you only started noticing it because you just started paying attention to it. 

Also, during my driving lesson, the instructor kept telling me not to look at where I am not going, because what I keep looking at ends up being the direction I steer the car towards. I didn't yield to this instruction early enough, and for real, that was the factual experience. I kept driving towards whatever I focus my gaze on. It appears the sight controls the direction of our lives much more than we ever know. 

So you just have to decide that you want to make this move, and the answers will start coming to you. From different angles and locations, it's now left to you to grab the best opportunity when it appears without any complaints of being inadequate. 

About 7 years ago, when I was training a class of about 34 people on a Customer Relationship Certification course, one advises stands out in the content, always say yes first, then find out how later. This is a code many successful people live by. If the opportunity is good enough, they go for it and build the expertise as they go along. In fact, this has been quoted to also be a philosophy that Richard Branson (the founder of Virgin), live by.

Still, on the certification training I mentioned, I indicated my interest to be a trainer even before I underwent the training myself. Although I still had to complete the training first, albeit with a hurry and a stronger sense of purpose. Eventually, within the first three months I started delivering training sessions, I earned double of the average salary for a fresh graduate in the city, by just working once a week, and only 4-5 hours. That was my first franchise business, and at only 22, this was huge for me as it laid the foundation for many other successful endeavors.  

I knew I wanted to do something, and when an opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it without any thought of my inadequacy. I ended up being among the top three franchise locations in the state by the highest revenue. 

Stop sitting, jump up to action. Decide to be the president of your own life. Live this life, for you and your family, they are the only people that can never replace when you check out from planet earth. Decide to earn your own money today, and stop selling the best part of your life both age-wise and the hours in a day, for a paltry exchange. 

Decide now, and wait for the best ideas to come. And when the best ideas surface, grab it and run for you have every right to be the president over your own life.