This is a follow up to a recent post, in which I shared my Simple Rule For Not Getting Scammed. That article got a little buzz going within my entrepreneurial community, as well as a few on and offline comments, around one particular theme–WORK.
What I had referred to in the post, was the way in which many people on alert for “scams,” (ironically) steer widely around legitimate online opportunities that openly disclose that there will be actual WORK involved–as if that is a “catch.”
Hnnh. That seems so weird to me, but perhaps I am just stuffed differently. When I set out to make a living online or offline–whether through traditional employment, self-employment, or home-based entrepreneurship, I EXPECT to work. Don’t you? (I’d love your comments on this, as I find a variety of viewpoints fascinating.)
To my way of thinking, the greatest freedom comes not from living an idle, “do-nothing” life, where (in my dreams) anyone or everyone hands me what I want on a silver platter (“Hey, peel me a grape, will ya?”), but from exercising both the right and the responsibility to CHOOSE how I use my time, my energy, my focus, and my God-given gifts. For me, the choice to work online from home–and “retire” from 30+ years of nonprofit service and leadership to do so–was a choice for greater personal freedom at a time in my life when it suited me to make the change. I still wake up joyful and appreciative that I made that life-changing decision and acted on it.
Does that mean that I am off the hook? Absolutely not! I get up and “go to work” nearly every day. I even get dressed! ( I know people who thrive on working in their “jammies” all day, though!) Granted, my commute is from my bedroom to my kitchen, and when the snow melts again I’ll return to my porch-office and patio to enjoy work-al-fresco!
My joy comes from the freedom that I have every day to make the most of my time, energy, focus and gifts. I work to maintain that freedom. Work means doing whatever it takes to generate the income I want to support my new lifestyle and achieve my financial goals. Work also satisfies the basic human urge to make a meaningful contribution; to be of value to others; useful and engaged in life. My work is a business, plain and simple. And my business is a joy because it makes possible the life I have chosen. (And, it is all mine.)
So, how do you view the idea of having to WORK in exchange for freedom, money, time (or whatever it is that motivates you)? I’d love to hear from you!
All the best to you in your own pursuit of a life worth living and work that is worth WORKING at,
Like this? Add a comment, raise a question, share it, bookmark it, ReTweet it and subscribe to Thia’s RSS Feed for you very own updates!
Still scaling the Internet-marketing learning curve, or struggling to get a new online business off the ground? Take Thia’s online Tools For Success survey and qualify for a complimentary 30-minute phone “workout and fitness evaluation” with this Personal Trainer for Internet Marketing Newbies. Learn more about Thia too.
Work Online From Home: A Brief History Of “Nothing At All”
Even though technology and the Internet have changed virtually every aspect of life as we knew it even a decade ago, the fact that an increasing number of people have “seen the future” and learned to use the Internet to make a living online from home remains a far-fetched idea–and perhaps even distasteful–to those who resist change. Disbelief still grips the minds of many small business owners, professionals, and hard-working employees, who insist that because they did not need the Internet to make a living before (thank you very much), they don’t see any reason to start using it to change the way they work, generate income, and do business today. No sirree.
I almost expect to hear the expression “new-fangled” come out of their mouths, for all that they sound like my great grandparents expressing suspicion and disdain for “fads” like automobiles, television, and even telephones.
Well, we all know where those fads led. And who, in 1970, could ever imagine owning a computer? Owning one? Are you kidding? Computers were things that filled entire rooms at places like MIT and had nothing to do with real people and our very real lives. Nothing at all.
Let’s face it, regardless of how we may feel about the changes that technology has brought about in our world, the truth of the matter is that we will NOT be going back to an earlier pre-Internet time. Rather, we are hurtling forward faster than most of us know how to adapt…or even catch our breath.
Making a living in the 20th century (when we grew up) was based on beliefs and behaviors we learned (from our parents, and they from their parents) to work and do business according to the rules of the Industrial Revolution, which spanned the turn of the previous century.
Instead of working at home on farms anymore, or in small family-owned businesses (e.g., the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker), our ancestors left those entrepreneurial trades and ways of life, in droves, to take up employment in factories and cities. They traded their home-based economies and family-centered ways of life for measly paychecks, poor working conditions, and a loss of freedom and autonomy. For the first time in human history masses of people were leaving home each day to “go to work.”
The commute was born. Work used to be at home. It was work that was imagined, carried out, and owned by proud and self-sufficient entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs from whom we descend blended work and home and created lives and livelihoods by choice. That was as little as 100 years ago.
Today, too many still behave as if the only way to make a living is to get a job, go to work everyday (for someone else), hope to advance to a better job, hold onto that job until retirement, and then…ONLY then, go home again where you can finally live by choice. When you are old…and frankly, exhausted. (And probably do not really have as much money to live as you would like for another 20 or 30 years.)
Does it have to be this way? You tell me.
We are once again at a time of massive cultural and economic transition. The Information Age has made obsolete the need for all workers to leave home to “go to work.” The same information–as well as the technology to access it, use it, and share it–is just as available to the average person on a home computer, as it is to an employee or employer in a traditional workplace. No more, is information only for a powerful elite (who get masses of employees to do their bidding). It is for everyone and it is available all the time. All we have to do is learn how to use it.
The Internet opens up worlds of possibility unlike anything we have ever before had at our fingertips.
The largest transfer of wealth and prosperity–larger even that that which followed the Great Depression (when more millionaires were created than in any other era in human history), is taking place now among those who are realizing the importance of mastering the Internet, jumping ahead of the curve, and joining together with other forward-thinking entrepreneurs to leverage each others skills, knowledge, and expertise.
Today, new millionaires are being minted at a breathtaking rate, out of ordinary people who have seen the “writing on the Facebook wall” and understand what it means. They are learning everything they can–right now–about how to use and harness the power of the Internet to do business and generate wealth in the Information Age.
In a few years, others will catch on. That is the way massive change happens; its starts with a few who dare to look ahead and act now on what they see coming. What is a trickle today, will become a mass migration in another five to ten years. Those entrepreneurs who jump online today will be way ahead of the game, while others scramble to compete and catch up. It is not a matter of “if;” it is a matter of “when.”
So, how long are you going to wait? Is your plan to keep up or catch up?
This is the time in history to reclaim our entrepreneurial roots–to take back our lives, come home, and learn how to work and make a living online from home. Unless, that is, you still believe that “this Internet thing” is Nothing At All.
Be amazed and amazing today,
Thia Hamilton, Ph.D., today, owns her own successful online company providing entrepreneurs who are new to the Internet with the tools, resources, skill-development, and support to start building wealth with their own thriving Internet-based enterprises. Prior to retiring to the Internet, Thia’s nonprofit career gained her national recognition and respect for her expertise and leadership in the field of employment, entrepreneurship, and economic empowerment.
Still scaling the Internet-marketing learning curve, or struggling to get a new online business off the ground? Take Thia’s online Tools For Success survey and qualify for a complimentary 30-minute phone “workout and fitness evaluation” with this Personal Trainer for Internet Marketing Newbies. Learn more about Thia too.
Like this? Leave a comment or ask a question below. Then share it, bookmark it, ReTweet it, and subscribe to Thia’s RSS Feed.