Our Favorite Comment Whore Gets A Guest Post All His Own
[This is a guest post by James Chartrand of JCME. You too can tramp yourself out on my site by contacting me. Send the whole post -- if you're the next Dan Brown, I want to know immediately without having to mess around with email for weeks.]
Would you love to never worry about losing your job?
I thought of that freedom last night while standing on my porch, taking a break to freeze my ass off and look up at the stars. (Actually, I was racking my brains for a topic for a blog post, but hey. I like the stars concept better.)
Where I live, the economy is poor. Jobs are rare, and they don’t pay well. The area depends on the tourist industry. Winters can be cold, long, hard, and cold… and they feel even harder when a summer job gets cut short by frigid snow.
Employment security is, at best, tentative. There are a few large, industrial companies that churn out tons of goods, but job stability is shaky. Layoff is a common household word. A job that pays $10 an hour, barely more than minimum wage, is considered a good one.
Mention a layoff, and people turn a little pale. They mentally tightening their own belt, grateful that layoff isn’t affecting them. They fear losing their job – and that fear and insecurity is part of their daily life.
Where else would they work?
Lesson 1: If you work for someone else, you never have absolute job security.
I thought about how lucky I am and how much I love doing what I do. I thought about how great it is to call my own shots and not have to answer to anyone.
I will never lose my job.
In my home business, I cannot be fired. I cannot be laid off. I am the deciding factor of my own workload. I am my own employer. No one can swoop down and sweep away my livelihood because of corporate games. No one will ever walk over to my desk and say, “James. Pack your stuff. You don’t have a job here anymore.”
I will always have a job, and no one can ever decide that I don’t.
Projects come and go. So do clients. My current line of work might dry up. Demands might change. I may need to adapt to continue earning money.
Lesson Two: You will always have a job. You just may not have income.
While I stood there on the porch philosophizing, I couldn’t help but think of a friend of mine. Years ago, he earned thousands of dollars a day doing photo shoots. He hasn’t worked professionally or for that kind of money in over two decades. In fact, he hasn’t done any photography work to speak of for years.
But he never lost his job. When asked what he does for a living, my neighbor always answers, “I’m a professional photographer.” No one took his job away. He consciously chose to stop pursuing work. He may not have income – but by god, he has a job.
[Hi. It's Naomi again. James seems to believe he is The Comment King Of The World. Govern yourselves accordingly.]
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Oh. Great. Now who’s the last to know who’s guest posting where? *shakes head*
You brought up an excellent point, while you might not ever lose your job, there might be…no…there will be times when you’ll lose income. This is very important for freelancers to keep that in mind and make sure they plan for it well in advance.
Good job, bro. :)
“Where I live, the economy is poor. ”
So, James, you’re from Michigan, too?
Oh. Canada. Not my home and native land.
Neither is Michigan, but it’s where I am now. When we moved here (yes, people do move _to_ Michigan), I took the opportunity to jump into freelance writing. I knew that my best bet was to make work for myself, and do something that wasn’t bounded by the local area. Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things quite differently. But being an independent freelancer would still be my end goal, and your post today neatly summarizes one of the major reasons why.
It’s funny - people in low-economy areas don’t seem to understand the potential available. They hang onto their mediocre jobs like that’s all they have (and maybe it does feel that way), just wishing life were different.
Case in point: I had to open yet another bank account. My bank manager ran my profile through her computer. “Oh! You’re eligible for XYZ.” A few minutes later… “Oh! You’re eligible for YZB.”… We talked a bit and the computer blipped again with yet another golden boy offer.
She looked at me closely and said, “My goodness… They really like you at the central. What is it you do again?”
I felt pretty damned proud sitting on that chair at that moment.
On a side note, doesn’t Kid Rock live in Michigan?
[...] exactly what happened when I wrote my latest guest post for Itty Biz. Read about a realization I had on job [...]
Ahhhh, Michigan. My mother told me to get out before I got married and tied down, lol. Oh well. Too late now.
The town where I live literally has at least one house for sale on every block. Frequently you’ll drive past 2 or 3 houses in a row that are on the market. It’s mind-boggling, really.
Excellent point about people hanging on to mediocre jobs in low-income areas James. I see that here frequently. I think it’s fear-sometimes in different forms- that keeps them there.
Low education levels hold people back too. I’m not saying that you need to have a certain education to succeed. Rather, many people think they can’t accomplish much because they only finished to a certain grade or degree. Our own Naomi is testimony of how far you can go and how much you can learn without having to rely on university training. :)
Rock it James! Hey how come I’m posting an interview with you this week and you’re not a comment whore on *my* blog yet? :-p
I whore indiscriminately. I await the shining moment to comment like a king on your magnificent blog as well. We’ll drink scotch, fire haiku at each other, and I’ll become a loyal whore to your royal court.
@ Amy - That’s an interesting point, because I find that the most educated people are the ones that have gotten so far in life without it. They’ve learned the hard way and the lessons stick deep.
But yeah… Fear. That’s the one that gets people, even when opportunity is right there in front of them.
Wow, I am twice-blessed - I don’t have a job or an income. Now if I can just figure out how to not have bills to pay I will be set.
All kidding aside, as a de facto pro blogger, I am my own boss for the first time in my life. And it feels good.
Consider the prostitution begun, Mr. Navarro.
LOL … that didn’t take long :-)
@ Dave - Hey, I’m fast ;) But I’m not easy.
@ Stephen - You have no idea how hard my breath caught when I read your first statement. I sat here going, “Oh shitohshitohshit,” thinking I’d just lit Naomi’s blog on fire.
But you know what? I was unexpectedly reorganized from a corporate job back in 2000. No prospects in a small town, no desire to do a huge commute, and no friggin’ jobs. And I was so relieved not to have to dance to someone else’s tune for once. I ended up getting back into horses and had a blast.
Here on the coast of Maine, in a small town, there are no jobs for me either. So, I am pushing myself to write and write and, oh yeah, do some writing. I am getting ready to launch myself into the world of productivity consulting and internet marketing. And it’s a little scary. I should have a new product available in my online shop Wednesday or Thursday, that will be the first in a series of products that should get the ball rolling.
The good news is that my wife is being very supportive while I “find my voice” and make this happen.
Thanks to the interwebz, you can live in BFE and make more money than anyone else in town.
You just can’t explain it to them.
Great post, James.
All very interesting posts. I live in Western Australia where we currently have a mining boom that is driving Australia’s economy. My state’s unemployment is currently running at 3% and many businesses can’t fill vacancies. The building industry is in disarray as demand is greater than what the industry can keep up with and trades people are even in higher demand. The hospitality industry is also in need of staff. People are leaving their “normal” work to go and work in mining, they are getting paid about $100K pa for labouring work.
Having said all this, there is now talk of an US recession and with the plunge in the stockmarket over the past week the mining stocks are taking a dive! Job security is never assured. I just hope that all those people making hay while the sun shines were storing it for the upcoming winter months!
@AmyL Same in our town, but I’d say 2-3 houses per block for sale. It wasn’t the auto industry that drove things around here, but pharmaceuticals. Well, two or three corporate acquisitions and mergers later and those great jobs for life aren’t so any more. The sad part is everyone here seems willing to be stuck and down. I just don’t sense a lot of ambition. It’s..oh… I dunno.
@James Say, did you mention haiku?
@Matt - you’re in a much bigger town than me. :) Went to school there, back in the day. The big industry here is prisons…we have 6. So you can imagine the atmosphere. People don’t even talk about new jobs or opportunities really, they just keep doing the same things over and over. It’s sad how depressed everything is getting.
This is why I push my kids to learn as much as they can and as many skills as they can. I want to equip them to face this kind of stuff and not flinch; arm them against the fear if I can.
For the past weeks or so the Finnish news have been filled with stories on how some big companies (Stora Enso and Nokia) are closing their plants in northern Finland.
It’s a big deal for many people so I guess it’s newsworthy. But one thing I don’t understand is that everyone is protesting against these changes so strongly. If a company can’t make a plant profitable, this is what they need to do…
What’s sad isn’t that these people are losing their jobs because of this change. The really sad thing is that they got so tied to the company that everything crumbles when the company decides to make a change in direction. And when it happens, they still don’t see it as an opportunity to break free but just insist on keeping the plant open.
And let’s imagine they get what they ask for. The company doesn’t close these plants. What do these workers do? They go back to work and forget all about the incident - rather than learn from it and start looking for ways to break free.
Great post, James! And thanks for giving me a chance to finally say these things out loud :)
@ Jarkko - I worked a corporate job for 12 years and while the first five years were fantastic, the second 7 were constantly shaky. Each year brought layoffs. Each year, we worried about who’d be next. People started backstabbing and stepping on heads to move up the ladder. The department I supervised went from four happy workers down to one - only the strongest (or the sneakiest) survive.
I was upset when I lost my job, yes. They moved it two cities over so that it was inaccessible to me. I found out while in union contract negotiations, running down a list of job cuts and trying to figure out how to keep 20 people working - and there was my name. And I had to continue negotiations for the people who were keeping their jobs. It was a little hard not to be upset.
But I walked away and said, “Hm, what do I want to do?” I saw so many people crumble and cry, thinking, “What will we do!”
Do whatever you want. You have all the choice in the world. You can be whatever you want to be now.
I see my old co-workers who did keep their job around town from time to time. They look worn, grey in the face and with bags under their dull-looking eyes. They’re in their 30s, as I am, and they look beat. They look like walking dead - and guess what? When I ask how it’s going, they shrug, try to smile, and talk to me about stress at the job and layoffs.
No thanks.
@ Matt: It’s a Haiku showdown.
What a post to read right now. Got a call from my husband about two hours ago that he got laid off.
I’ve been reminding him that it is an opportunity to get a better job. I’ve been telling him for years that he could do better, but the security of the job he had kept him in place. I really think we can do better for him, now that I’m getting past the shock of the layoff.
And yes, getting him into business is one of the possibilities. He has a fabulous speaking voice and has wanted to get into voiceover work. I think it’s time for him to start. I know of places where he can look for that kind of work, and with some work, it might just be the move we needed.
@ Stephanie - That makes me feel good. Thank you for sharing that, and I’m glad I could provide some inspiration.
Some thoughts:
Tap the local schools. If your husband is great at speaking and motivating, maybe he could do a presentation to teens about seizing opportunity or finding that Plan B in a hurry.
Explore radio station opportunities. They might be looking for someone new.
Use the Internet. There’s tons of potential.
If you are good enough at whatever you do that someone else is willing to pay you to do it, you are good enough to do it on your own. Of course some businesses require too much capital or too many other people, but that is still basic truth. That’s a mantra I’ve been preaching for years at my site (along with the point made here, that the only real security is working for yourself).
I actually started my current business in 1983 because my employed income was based on commissions of other people’s sales and that fell to zero.. so since I was making so little, I had nothing much to lose by going on my own..
@ Tony - I think that’s often what people fail to see - that they really have nothing to lose, sometimes, like in the case of Stephanie’s husband. Nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
Our company had to go through some changes and fortunately I was one of the lucky ones to remain onboard.
How did I keep my job? By being flexible and adaptable to all the changes that have taken palce since I started with the company. Also I have learned that being moldable is a great asset to have within a company.
Hello all. Great post James, however, I’d like to add one more point. Job security without income, well that just sucks! ;)
Seriously though, I have found that one of the worst things a person can do to hinder themselves from creating wealth is to work a normal job. But if you are working for “The Man,” I find that there are two things you can do to help insure your job security.
1. Be useful and someone who is needed. It’s even best if you’re really the only one who can do some tasks.
2. Like The Murr said, be adaptable. When the business/market changes, so must the company you’re working for. When your company changes, a wise employee will be willing to adapt to the new.
Stephanie - God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes He gives us the needed shove because we wouldn’t do it on our own, you know.
Also, my father-in-law is a talent agent. He lives here in Las Vegas, NV. If you like, I would be happy to ask him if he has any contacts or something for your husband. Just head over to my blog and use the Contact Me form if you’d like me to call him.
@James: Ha! That’s awesome.
@ MattT - Dave kicked my butt.
@ MattT
I could not help it.
Me? A sucker for haikus.
They give me power!
Well, wqf’s comment links top what could be the most authentic haiku here, if I could read kanji.
Er… “links to what could be…”
If you have a blog you no longer have to answer with a job title.
Your a small business owner, an online entrepreneur, or at the very least a writer. Even if you load boxes in the back of trucks at UPS by day, *been there*. Thats just to float the bills until your business takes off.
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