When you look at starting a new venture–a new business, a new move, or really anything “new” and shall we say “adventurous”? — The temptation is to be reluctant on the grounds of being responsible. And you have to sort of weed between the two. Being responsible and planning are both good things to do and to be in anything in life. But realize that while saying that you are a responsible person might make you feel less guilty about never trying that one idea you had, or while it might make you feel less self-resentful that you never even tried to reach your goals in reality, self placating is all you are doing. Don’t let responsibility be the scapegoat for your fear
If you are starting a new business and you really believe in what you’re doing, just go for it. Don’t sit on a great idea and never try it just because you don’t know how you’d be able to swing it.
I know this one guy. He is one of the smartest, most like-able guys I know. He is in his 50′s now, but right after high school he started at veterinary school. Being a vet was his dream job. About halfway through school, he got married, had a baby, and chose to pursue those things instead of his vet career. Now a granddad, he works 50+ hours a week (sometimes arriving and getting off at 3, 4, 5 in the morning) at a job he hates, so he can “pay the bills”. He and his family live on an income that barely gets them by. They are constantly counting pennies, getting into debt, and scraping by financially. He is a happy person, but it is safe to say he is not very fulfilled.
Then there is this other guy I know, who bounces around from job to job. And when I say job, he is in his thirties, holds 3/4 of a college degree (he, too, ran out of money to finish), and works pizza delivery type jobs to support his wife and kids.
For both these men the goal was paying the bills. Not happiness, not personal fulfillment, not working at a job you love instead of just one that just gets you by. They have no ambition and no drive for life.
A friend of mine commented on this situation really well when he said “The difference is the mindset. For you, it is about making a job but for them, it is about finding a job”. Both men want to change careers, but instead of making for themselves a career they love–by staying focused on what they WANT instead of what they can live with—they are choosing to put in applications at Papa Johns and Publix because those are the places who “are hiring”.
I don’t know about you but when I look out at my life and my future and I think about what my children are going to remember me as being, I don’t want pizza delivery guy to be how they think of me. Don’t get me wrong, I love pizza and I’m glad people deliver them, but to me those are the kind of jobs that “pay the bills”. If I could advise these two guys I’ve been talking about I would ask them why they aren’t using their extra time to carve out a career they WANT.
I get that babies have to eat and the lights have to be paid for, so sometimes you have to hold down the job that best supports your family and that is a noble, responsible thing to do. But while you’re doing that, be planning, be saving, be thinking, of how you can get from where you are to where you want to be. If your dream job is a pizza guy then go for it! But if you want something more from your life, then MAKE IT HAPPEN. Stay focused on what you want and don’t wait on life to hand it to you.
Dr. Dale Callahan is the IEM Program Director for the Information Engineering and Management Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a contributing writer for the IEM Blog. His thoughts here represent the types of topics covered in the Entrepreneurial courses he teaches the clients of the IEM Program at UAB.
