Comments on: The joys of self-employment: 7 reasons to love being your own boss

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:33:34 +0000

Maria, I am an enormous fan of Joseph Campbell – yes absolutely that is a fabulous quote – thank you!
Irfan, good to hear from you. Follow your path as and when it’s right – Maria’s quote above is perfect.

By: Irfan Asrar

Irfan Asrar — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 17:42:23 +0000

Hi Ross,
I hope you remember me, I really enjoyed your latest post. Ironically I am now living and working in Tokyo thinking everyday that I am going to make the move back to working for myself and being self employed. Any way, I really found this post inspirational, please keep them coming.
Irfan A

By: Maria ODonovan

Maria ODonovan — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:23:50 +0000

Ross, I think you have been following your bliss.
Joseph Campbell said it this way, in Power of Myth:
“If you follow your bliss you put
yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting
for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are
living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in
your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your
bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t
know they were going to be.”

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:34:33 +0000

That’s a great point Mads – I think that’s an eighth good reason. It’s been so long since I was employed that I forgot how constrained you are when you have ideas or possibilities come up. This relates to the point about my life being free-form and open-ended – that’s what enables you to take opportunities.
I think similarly about this to you. Recently the way I have framed what I am trying to do is: create massive and diverse opportunities for myself, and take only the best. You have to leave many good opportunities to take the best ones. It is about creating choice, and then exercising that choice.

By: Mads Kristensen

Mads Kristensen — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:12:29 +0000

Great post on which I would like to add one thing that I think is missing: Acting on opportunity.
One of the things I have found since going into self-employment 9 months ago is that there’s a lot more oppportunity in being self-employed. When you go about doing whatever you do, you meet people, share ideas and suddenly you’re presented with awsome opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise have encountered in the corporate world. And even if you would, the whole corporate system would have made it difficult to act on them.
This is not to say that one should act on all exciting opportunities coming ones way. In fact it seems like one of the pitfalls is to pick the right ones and not getting overwhelmed by them. But its just so much fun.
If you’re the kind of person who usually play the role of hub in your network, being self-employed is where the real potential lies. It’s just amazing what you can get done and make happen even if you’re only yourself.

By: Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:35:08 +0000

My pleasure Elias! I’m biased here, but then again I’ve had reasonable exposure to both worlds and have a firm view on what works for me. The current trend to greater self-employment is part of increasing human emancipation.

By: Elias Bizannes

Elias Bizannes — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:23:19 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing that Ross. You’ve just given a perspective I’ve been craving to hear.