Posts

Why Entrepreneurship is the Ultimate Empowerment

/in , , /by

We all want to feel like we are the masters of our destiny.

We want to be free.

We wish there was more time in a day.

We hate being controlled by someone else.

We want to spend our time doing things we enjoy.

But most of us are stuck spending 9 hours a day sitting in an office or cubical (or equivalent voluntary prison) plus commuting time, hating what we do and lamenting that the sun will set shortly after we are released from work for the day. We carry around a constant feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). The truth is that we are missing out.

Well, I’m not. Not anymore. I forced myself to escape the rat race nearly 20 years ago. (More on that later.)

Whether you want to have more free time to spend doing fun things with your family or traveling the world or you want to make more money so you can pay to do those fun things, if you’re an employee your hands are tied. More accurately:

Your finances and schedule are tied to your job.

You can work more hours or work hard to climb the ladder. But then you have the money to do things but you don’t have the time.

You can go back to school (or take an online course) to learn a new skill that opens up opportunities for a job you enjoy more. Doing a job you love certainly makes better use of 9 hours a day of your life, but you’re still trapped.

Not to mention that there is no such thing as “job security,” so you’re constantly at the mercy of an economic downturn, industry change, or the whims of your boss.

Your entire life is beholden to the almighty employer.

And it really sucks.

You Want to Live Life on Your Terms

You want to go to sleep and wake up when you want to, not be waking every morning in a fit of dread when the alarm goes off. (Just me?)

You want to be able to take the afternoon off to take your kid to the doctor or take advantage of a beautiful day for a hike without being afraid that if you ask for time off you’ll be told “no” or scorned. Even if they say “yes”, this time off cuts into the limited amount of time you’re allowed to take off every year. It’s like you’re some kind of slave. (You are.)

You want to be able to speak your mind and share your ideas without feeling like your boss will feel threatened by your creativity.

You want to be paid for what you actually accomplish and what you contribute to society, not how many hours your butt sits in a chair.

My Wake Up Call (Are You Going to Answer Yours?)

I know exactly how life-sucking and soul-killing it is. I submitted to a life that wasn’t mine and squandered my potential for a decade. I hated it, but I didn’t know I had a choice but to stuff myself into the corporate box. I stuffed all of my true desires so deep down they popped back up in my boy as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Until one day when I made a choice…

I sat in my cubicle (cell) at one in the afternoon and lamented the fact that even though I was done my work for the day I had to plant my bum in that chair for another four hours because, well, that’s just the stupid corporate world we live in. I was either going to cry, throw up, scream, or stab someone. I had to get out of there. I told my boss I was sick and needed to leave. I got in the car and just started driving…not home…just anywhere other than this.

I ended up 45 minutes away at a state park. I drove in, took a turn I’d never been down before, parked my car and started walking. I walked and walked until the sun glistening on a small swampy pond caught my eye. I walked toward it, sank into the grass on the bank, and I cried.

I cried because I sucked at life—I just couldn’t stuff myself into that box.

I cried because I knew the rat race was slowly killing me.

I cried because I shamed myself into accepting my life with the justification that other people would DIE to have what I had—I “should” like it, but the truth was that I didn’t. And I hated myself for that.

I knew what I had to do, but it scared the crap out of me.

That day I made a decision to be free.

I made a decision to stop living everyone else’s dream.

I made a decision to be motivated by my own laziness. I could work my butt off for MYSELF and create the freedom my heart longed for. (Read more about my entrepreneurial wake up call… )

I knew I would not survive living within the confines of a traditional job. It was truly killing me. Although I found the prospect of self-employment terrifying, I was a lot less afraid of the uncertainty and learning curve of working for myself than I was of living a life that wasn’t really mine for one… more… day.

Self-Employment is the First Step

Being self-employed gives you more control over your time, your money and your quality of life.

Being self-employed comes with its stresses and a lot of responsibility, but it also gives you back the power to determine your own schedule and how you spend your time.

Whether you create a side hustle part time on the side, become a freelancer, or start a business, self-employment puts you in charge of your income. You’re no longer limited to how much someone else feels your time is worth. The extra money can be used to enjoy life more or invest in your future.

And even if it’s a part time side-gig, doing something you enjoy or making money with your mission makes life more fulfilling and can make even a mundane job feel tolerable.

Most importantly, embracing some form of self-employment is the first step to living an empowered life.

Once you take back control over your money and your time only THEN will you have the mental space within which to answer the question, “what do I really want to do with my life?”

If you’re anything like me, you probably have no idea what you actually want in life… but you’re 100% certain that THIS is not it.

If fulfillment and freedom aren’t enough to motivate you to take the plunge, maybe a bit of fear mongering will. (Just kidding! Sort of.)

The Future of “Work” is Changing

I had just finished a weekly (virtual) meeting with my team in which we had a length discussion about ostriches. (Don’t ask, we are weird.) I was laying on the beach listening to Gary Vee (one of MY favorite entrepreneur influencers) and I noticed a person next to me had a chair with an ostrich symbol on it. So weird!

I zoomed in to take a picture of the ostrich and as I was doing this, no joke, Gary Vee said this:

“I see a lot of businesses play ostrich in life. They’ve got one client that’s driving their entire business and their strategy is to put their head in the sand and pray to God they don’t get fired.”

First of all, holy crap! What a synchronicity!

Secondly, this is a great point that I have talked about many times. This is exactly where my business was at a few years ago, with too many eggs in a single basket. I knew too well the danger of depending on a single source for all of your income. I had previously been an employee, after all.

And that’s exactly my point. Being an employee with none of your income coming from an alternative source (dependent solely on your own efforts) is a dangerous game.

The rapid evolution of technology is changing the nature of work. Exponential technologies like AI, robotics and automation are predicted to replace many jobs and new inventions will make old technology obsolete. This does not mean jobs will disappear entirely; they will be replaced by new jobs in new industries.

In addition, the structure of “work” will change. In fact, it has already started. With “gig economy” jobs, like driving for Uber or delivering for InstaCart, traditional full-time employment is becoming less of the go-to standard, both for employers and employees.

This means that regardless of the industry in which you currently work, you would be wise to pay attention to changes in the marketplace and where your industry is going. But it also means there is more and more opportunity to get into the entrepreneurship game, even if it’s just a side hustle in the gig economy. (Read more about the job revolution here…)

Take Your Financial Security into Your Own Hands

Even if you have no desire to be a full-fledged, self-employed business owner, starting a side hustle is the best way to capitalize on the opportunities of the growing gig economy and new trends in the marketplace while minimizing your risk of being in an industry that is disrupted.

In an uncertain economy, the worst position to be in is depending on a paycheck from a company that could quickly become obsolete.

  • No matter what happens in the broader economy, you have a stream of income that you have control of.
  • More importantly, you have the knowing within yourself that you are capable of creating an income yourself.

Whether you want to make an extra hundred bucks a month or plant the seeds of a business that can one day replace your job all together, your future is in your hands.

Don’t be an ostrich.

The Dream of Entrepreneurship (and Why Most Won’t Follow It)

More people than ever have raised an eyebrow of intrigue about the possibility of living life on their terms by starting their own business. It’s no wonder entrepreneurship looks sexy, with Instagram entrepreneurs flashing photos of working from the beach, tech start-ups becoming household names, and Shark Tank receiving over 4 million weekly views.

But intrigue quickly fades into overwhelm once they dig deeper into books, podcasts and courses. They become intimidated, discouraged and confused by too many options and conflicting (usually bad) advise.

For many, their eyes glaze over when they start to think about how they will market their new idea. (Yuck!)

For others, he sheer terror of uncertainty is enough to commit to living vicariously through their favorite influencers.

For those who do jump and actually try it out, they’re often burned by bad advise, get rich quick schemes, or addiction to courses, programs and coaching (which they never actually implement).

And for those who pull it off, make some money for themselves, and are on their way to living the dream, they’re often smacked in the face with disappointment when it isn’t at all what those Photoshoped Instagram photos made it look like.

I had my own wake-up-call of this nature. I once had an image of a woman working on a laptop on the beach on a vision board. I can speak from experience that the glare of the laptop while sitting by the beach makes it impossible to see anything. Sitting in a beach chair or on the sand using a laptop gives you a terrible kink in your neck. The truth is that if you can get 15 minutes of glory trying to pull this fantasy off, you’re lucky. I made it 10 minutes.

That’s the thing; the dreams we’re sold are like false idols. The money, the freedom, the lifestyle—none of it will save us from ourselves. (Read more about what it actually takes to live your dreams…)

Does any of this sound familiar?

Do you feel resistance when you think about actually implementing any of the business advise you’ve been drinking from the water hose?

Do you feel the twinge of nausea when you think about marketing?

If so, I have two pieces of good news for you.

First—technology has made starting a business easier than it’s ever been.

The good news is that making money on your own terms does not have to be hard or overwhelming. Technology has made it easy to plug into existing money-making gigs. Whether you want to create an online store or become a service provider for a gig employer, like Uber, all it takes is downloading an app or signing up for a website platform to get started.

Second—you have access to everything you need at your fingertips.

Plus, never before have the resources to start and run a business been at your fingertips. Google, YouTube and online courses make the tactical strategies and steps you need to know to get started easily accessible and either free or low-cost, so you do not have to figure it out for yourself. You can learn from a mentor who has done what you want to do.

Just don’t get distracted by the shiny object or flashy posts that make entrepreneurship look easy. It’s not. But it doesn’t have to be hard either.

Start with You

The fastest and most enjoyable way to start making money online is to sell yourself. No, not your body—your knowledge, experience or wisdom!

For example, that day as sat on the bank of the pond pondering my fate, I decided that my first step to freedom would be to quit my job (as a graphic designer) and start doing freelance work.

That’s one option: become a contractor or freelancer doing what you already do now.

If you have an expertise or skill that’s unrelated to your job, such as from a hobby or passion, you can start offering a service related to that (whether locally or online).

If it’s something you cannot do for someone, perhaps you could teach it (through an online course or other information product)! The truth is that everyone (yes, including you) has something they know how to do or have experience with that someone else would want to learn.

You could even monetize your stuff or your space through AirBNB, ThredUp, Poshmark, MyEquipment4Rent, or join the gig economy by driving for Uber or InstaCart.

And if you’re entrepreneurial dreams are full-fledged and you’ve got a business idea you want to quantum leap, you can read more about how we start our businesses in just 6 weeks.

The Ultimate Empowerment

Imagine yourself standing on the beach. No, not with your laptop… just enjoying the view. You’re looking out upon the horizon, wondering what is beyond it for you.

You breathe a sigh of relief, knowing the alarm clock won’t be jolting you awake in the wee hours of the morning and you’ll be the director of your own day.

You might feel the burden of responsibilities on your plate and you know you may be working late into the night, but you feel a new sense of empowerment knowing that it’s all on your terms.

You’re putting your time and effort into padding your own wallet, not making someone else rich. You feel the gratification of being rewarded for what you put out into the world and the safety of knowing your livelihood isn’t in someone else’s hands.

You know no one else but you puts a limit on what you can achieve.

You know that you are capable of generating income for yourself, and no one can take that from you.

And from this place of clarity you feel pieces of your heart come back online and you hear callings you have been deaf too for years.

You start to remember who you truly are and know that you will never squander your potential again.

You have finally embraced the truth you’ve always known, which is that life was meant to be more.

Now that you’ve taken the 1st step of taking your power back, you’re excited about your life and eager to see what else is possible.

And now that you have tasted freedom you will never again be able to stuff yourself back into that box.

By Natalie Rivera

Freedom or Bust! Why I Escaped the Rat Race and “Retired” at 23 to Become an Entrepreneur

/in , , /by

By Natalie Rivera

The American Dream is about the American Spirit—it’s about the dominion of choice.

I apologize in advance if this offends you. Nevermind, I hope it pisses you off and makes you want to stop squandering your potential. You deserve more than where you are right now.

I spent most of my life with one foot weighted down with the obligations of approval and conformity and the other tied to a rebellious rocket shooting for the stars. Needless to say, my heart is an epic battleground and I’m stretching the limits of my, ahem, flexibility.

I cannot help but be ME. Believe me I’ve tried otherwise.

I was a weird kid. I didn’t know I was weird until one day in 5th grade. A boy at my bus stop told me, and I quote, “Natalie, you always act like an animal.” The truth is he was probably right. But, so began my typical childhood self-consciousness and approval seeking behaviors. Don’t get me wrong, I was still weird, but I chose to share that side of myself only with my family members, who are just as gloriously strange as I am.

Screw the American Dream

I never believed in the American Dream I was sold…You now, the cliché: go to school, get good grades, get into a good college, get a good job, loath working, and waste your free time on TV and booze…do this until you’re 65, retire, live in poverty for 5 to 10 years (consuming more TV and booze), and die. Today, this glorious misappropriation of human potential would include Facebook and YouTube, but not much else has changed.

Screw that. I would rather live in a cardboard box than accept the mediocre life society told me I “should” want. This is what I’d preach from my soapbox when I was 15. I had never met anyone who truly enjoyed what they did for a living, and I never observed a relationship I would want. Think about that. How sad. Yet, adults in society vehemently encouraged me to submit to the inevitable suffering of adult life, unfulfilling relationships and working my butt off to make someone else rich. Then, they’d package it neatly with the imminent reward of a white picket fence, a dog named Fufu, and a BMW.

But, I knew the sugar coating was BS. Like a cat turd in a candy shell. I knew there had to be a better way. The status quo made me gag.

Thank God I had parents who encouraged me to forge my own trail. Yet even with the freedom to choose, I didn’t know what else to do. I took a year off after high school and then went to college for lack of a better idea. I also went because I actually enjoy learning and expanding my mind…and also because my one year of full-time employment at Walmart was enough to make even vagrancy look appealing. Good times.

Into the proverbial box I dove with nose plugged and my finger in the air. Five years later, I had finished 2.5 years of college, I worked in a marketing and design career I never wanted, owned a house in the suburbs, and was in a marriage that was just as uninspiring as I had expected. Everything was just peachy. But it wasn’t.

I had submitted. I was doing a darn good job living everyone else’s dreams.

I might have seemed okay to the outside world, but I had become burnt out and dead inside. I felt exhausted and empty, like someone drained my blood. At work I would look at the carpet under my cubicle desk (a.k.a., voluntary prison) and dream of curling up in a ball under there and taking a nap. When I would get home from work I’d frantically prepare dinner, eat and clean, knowing that once I sat down I wouldn’t be able to get up again. By 7:30 p.m., my young bod was totally done for the day. Then one day I was stopped at a traffic light and thought to myself, “I wonder how long this light is. Maybe there’s enough time to close my eyes for a few minutes.” Then I noticed how strange that thought was. I looked at the other cars around me, all filled with people twice my age, none of whom looked like they felt as terrible as I did. For the first time, I realized something wasn’t right.

I went to the doctor and had her do every test imaginable, yet they all came back showing I was “healthy.” Right. Eventually, my doctor labeled me with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (which is really just a cover-up for “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you”).

So, I started eating a natural, balanced, healthy diet and I improved, a little. One morning my alarm went off and jolted me into a fit of dread. I hit the snooze button and observed myself thinking, “If I had to KILL someone in order to NEVER have to wake up to this damn thing again, I think I might do it.” Crap, did I just think that?

A few weeks later, I sat in my cell at one in the afternoon and lamented the fact that even though I was done my work for the day because I work like a rabid beaver, I had to plant my bum in that chair for another four hours because, well, that’s just the stupid corporate world we live in. I was either going to cry, throw up, scream, or stab someone. I had to get out of there. I told my boss I was sick and needed to leave. I got in the car and just started driving…not home…just anywhere other than this.

I ended up 45 minutes away at a state park. I drove in, took a turn I’d never been down before, parked my car and started walking. I walked and walked until the sun glistening on a small swampy pond caught my eye. I walked toward it, sank into the grass on the bank, and I cried.

I cried because I sucked at life—I just couldn’t stuff myself into that box. I cried because I knew the rat race was slowly killing me. I cried because I shamed myself into accepting my life with the justification that other people would DIE to have what I had—I “should” like it, but the truth was that I didn’t. And I hated myself for that.

I knew what I had to do, but it scared the crap out of me.

That day I made a decision to be free.

I made a decision to stop living everyone else’s dream.

I made a decision to be motivated by my own laziness. I could work my butt off for MYSELF and create the freedom my heart longed for.

I decided to stop “shoulding” on myself.

I banished the word “should” from my vocabulary. From that day forward any time I was told or thought that I should do something I’ve seen it as a signal for me to immediately and forcibly do the OPPOSITE.

I was no longer taking advice from people on a treadmill going nowhere. I finally embraced that the American Dream wasn’t MY dream. And so I started to let it go.

I said goodbye to my very last employer at the age of 24, started my own graphic design and marketing company. Soon after, I decided to go back to school full-time. I slowly began taking control of my life. I also embarked on a psychological revolution of ravenously consuming self-help and spiritual books.

During my soul searching, I discovered that my purpose was to help others live their potential and fulfill their purpose. When I graduated, I opened a non-profit teen life coaching center. I was feeling a bit more like myself, and my fatigue had improved, but I still had this deep ache inside—like a hungry beast devouring me from within—that I quickly stuffed down and repressed, just like all of my deepest desires.

Through my new business venture working with teenagers and families, my own mind expanded. Observing them forced me to see that there WERE other ways to live. Looking deeply into the intimate lives of others was a mirror in which I could see my own reflection—showing me how much of my life wasn’t really mine. One day, as I facilitated an exercise called “if you really knew me,” designed to help families express their individual truths, I saw a young teenage girl open up to her family. She had been assigned to my program due to property crimes and self-injuring behaviors. Her mother and little brother embraced her with deep reverence and tears of understanding, as she bared her soul and told the truth of the torment of her inner world. What an honor to witness such love, such vulnerability, such power in revealing her truth.

I had an epiphany that day, and there was no turning back. I HAD to be me! After so long with my true self hiding in she shadows, I wasn’t even sure who I was, but I was 100 percent certain who I wasn’t. Within a three-month period I totally wiped out EVERYTHING in my life. I stepped down from my non-profit, I left my empty marriage, I sold my house, and I even got rid of my dog.

Again, I made a decision to be free. To finally follow through on the promise I’d made to myself—to stop living everyone else’s dreams.

I made the decision to stop trading in my magnificent life for comfort and certainty.

I made a decision to stop settling for less than all that I am.

Although there were moments in which I was temped to retreat back into the darkness of repression and denial, I clung firmly to my deep-seated desire to live authentically. As soon as I released all of which no longer served me and let go of the identity I had created around everyone else, the most amazing and perfectly aligned people and circumstances magically appeared in my life. I found my true calling as an entrepreneur—as an empowerment life coach, speaker, and educator. As if by magic, my fatigue had lifted. (Turns out my CFS was depression manifesting itself in my body. Go figure.)

Today, I am authentically, totally and emphatically ME. I own it. I don’t apologize.

I am living the American Dream!

You may be thinking, “wait, what?” Didn’t you say you hated the American Dream? Let me explain. I’ve come to understand that somewhere along the line, society’s idea of what the American Dream is got wildly off track.

The Real American Dream

The American Dream isn’t about the cliché of the picket fences (or the reality of voluntary slavery). It never was. It’s always been about the American Spirit—it’s about the dominion of choice.

The American Spirit was demonstrated in the courage of the immigrants who came to America with a few dollars in their pocket and the hunger that pushed them to become America’s best small businessmen and businesswomen.

The American Spirit was carried in the hearts of the pioneers who picked up everything they owned and left behind everything they knew to head west in search of a better life.

Today, the American Spirit is seen in the young mother who puts herself through college, in the woman executive who never took “no” for an answer. It’s seen in the impoverished youth busting his butt, staying after class to get help from his teachers, and working a job to save money so he can go to college. In the teens who voluntarily turn off the TV, video games, and/or social media because they know that the dreams that ache in their heart can’t be found behind a screen; they know that their life is worth so much more than that. It’s about having the freedom to choose to turn determination, risk, courage, blood, sweat, and tears into a bold life with limitless possibilities.

The American Spirit is about freedom or bust—live your potential or die trying!

Yup, that’s me! That’s my life’s mission. Maybe I’m not so weird after all—I just heard the call of Spirit.

By Natalie Rivera

______________________________________

Do you hear the call of the Entrepreneurial Spirit?

Find out how to start a side hustle or grow your business (check out our entrepreneurship courses here).