YOU, Inc.
Updated: Nov 30, 2018
In 2020, if you’re bold enough, you truly can choose to DO YOU!
It has always fascinated me that our society celebrates those that have followed their passion, but rarely do we try to emulate those same people and their actions. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Steve Jobs are self-made billionaires that all dropped out of college to pursue their passion. Many professional musicians and actors and athletes skip or delay college and forego “day jobs” to pursue their dreams. Why don’t more people do this? I’m not a psychologist, so I won’t try to tackle that answer here. What I will say, is that if you don’t pursue whatever it is that you love to do, you are limiting your future life choices. And by all means, if that dream includes earning a degree and then going to work directly in your chosen field and working in that field for the rest of your life, then you should do exactly that. As long as it is truly going to be a profession you love for the next 50 years. Just don’t settle for one path or one identity. CHOOSE your PASSION. Choose multiple professions if doing just one doesn’t satisfy your needs or interests. Don’t simply follow the same course as your parents or your friends or your siblings or your co-workers because you’re scared to fail. Or more importantly, because they were too scared to fail. Now is the time. You can choose to do what you want to do with your life and you have more options than ever before to learn what you need to know to do it.
PIVOT Opportunities
New Skills - Anything you want to learn how to do is within your grasp. The information is at your fingertips...literally! You want to be a software engineer, a photographer or a graphic designer? There are free courses available to you online. All you have to do is turn off the TV, put your phone down and get to work!
Sell Products You Love Online - If you love something...chances are a million other people do too! So whether you are an artist or a crafts person or a t-shirt designer or simply like to go find hidden treasures at the flea market, you can very easily market and sell your favorite things online. Using Wix or WordPress and Shopify, build a simple web page to inform the market of your products and services and allow them to purchase them online. Or hire someone to do it for you. The only thing stopping you...well, nothing is stopping you...get going!
Start a Business (or two) - In 2020, the opportunity to create multiple revenue streams is readily available to you. You don’t (and shouldn’t) quit your day job, but you can readily create passive revenue streams through a variety of businesses. Whether you get your personal trainer certification and help clients in the evening or create potter on the weekends to sell it online. YOU, Inc is real. You CAN do it anytime you want.
Personal Growth & Security - Creating an additional revenue stream (or streams), doing something you love is not only liberating, but it truly provides additional security. I have spoken to so many people who live in fear every day because ONE person controls their fate at work. They may have spent a lifetime developing the necessary skill-set to land their dream job, but in the end, if their boss doesn’t like them or simply has to make choices due to budgets, careers can end for no good reason at all. Creating additional revenue streams greatly reduces those singular points of risk.
We live in a time like never before for new entrepreneurs. Market data for every market in the world is available to you for free. Worldwide distribution channels can be turned on at the push of a button. Sophisticated business management and marketing tools cost only dollars per month. Businesses can be started for under $100. In other words, the only thing stopping you is you. If you want to start and run your own business, you can!
In addition to investing in yourself, there are investment opportunities in companies that provide all of these small business management tools for you to execute your dream company. Below are ten companies that make billions of dollars by helping small businesses market and sell their products (invest at your own risk):
Amazon
Facebook
Shopify
Wix
Salesforce
Square
Google
Twitter
Microsoft
Intuit