HEALTHY EMPLOYMENT
Here’s Why I Don’t Make Money by Selling My Time Anymore and What I Do Instead.
I earn my living by selling my skills, products, and services, protecting my intellectual capital, and gaining more value.
Purpose of the Story
Time and health are the most precious assets, especially as we get older. We can buy products and services with money but cannot buy time and health.
Most of us need to work to make our living. Only some people, as exceptions, live their life without working. Unfortunately, I am not one of those lucky ones. Therefore, I need to continue working even after retiring from the corporate world.
This story is not about bragging about my lifestyle. I know millions of others do much better than me. I don’t compare myself to others and don’t compete with anyone except my own previous versions.
The goal of this story is to give a perspective to my new readers based on my employment experience and the model I use to earn more with less effort. I enjoy creating more with minimal effort and time.
Even though the model might not work for everyone, it can give a perspective for planning purposes. For example, there might be different reasons for people to choose self-employment or work for others.
Here are my three compelling reasons not to sell my time anymore.
1 — My Age
The first reason to choose self-employment after 40 years of work in corporate organizations is my age which gave me a new perspective on life.
In my 30s and 40s, I did not realize the human lifespan was so short. Then, after the 50s, seeing my peers die from debilitating diseases like heart attacks, strokes, type II diabetes, dementia, cancers, and other health conditions, my perspective changed.
Some of those people were workaholics. They worked hard to save for retirement. But, sadly, they did not get a chance to spend the money they earned.
I did not want to be a workaholic with no value. Besides, money does not bring value after losing health.
2 — My New Mindset and Lifestyle
I used to focus on my income as an important goal. My new mindset is money is only a tool to live a better life.
However, as money is essential to survive in the modern world, I still need work to earn it.
This new mindset allowed me not to sell my precious time but to sell my skills, products, and services.
So rather than working from nine to six for a specific company, I choose my time to produce and sell my services in various forms, such as consultancy, independent research, and training.
Lifestyle determining my health and well-being is critical to me. Self-employment, as a new lifestyle, gave me numerous benefits.
The most important one is freedom. In addition, it contributed to my health and well-being.
3 — To Earn More Money
When I was working from nine to six for five days, other companies, the specific company, owned the products and services I created and only gave me around 10% of the value I made.
The amount I earned was still above the average gratefully. However, losing 90% value was not a wise choice.
In my new business model, I own 100% of the value.
Besides, now I own my intellectual capital, which brings more income to me.
For example, when I worked for other companies, they owned my patents and designs, which brought no monetary value to me.
Benefits of the New Model
Since money does not give me everything I need in life, rather than focusing on the 100% value, I spent my time on a value of 50%.
Considering I was getting only 10% value for 100% of my effort, now I get 50% value from 50% time investment. So, the new model brings me 40% more value in less than 50% time investment.
Gaining 40% value makes me richer. And gaining 50% more time gives me more happiness allowing me to create more with less effort.
However, 50% is not set in stone. I might change it based on my needs, capabilities, and changing circumstances.
I still feel young and have excellent health, so I increase my time to 80% capacity. It still gives me 20% free time for my festive activities, which I couldn’t do before.
I might reduce the percentage notch by notch as I get older based on my needs. Nevertheless, this will not put me at a disadvantage because some products and services I create will bring me passive income.
The passive income opportunity was unavailable or at a minimal rate when I was working full-time, selling my time as I did not own my intellectual capital.
One of the passive income streams that I focus on is real estate. I had more time to focus on this type of investment after being self-employed.
In addition, I can write more as a prolific writer and generate more passive income. For example, last year, just a small focus on my books brought me significant value. I had to save time to write before self-employment.
Living life with a sense of freedom is a big bonus in this new lifestyle.
Drawbacks of the New Model
So far, I haven’t experienced any drawbacks. As long as I keep my health and fitness, I don’t expect any cons.
However, as a fallback measure, I allocate some of my funds for insurance if I become unavailable to produce. Life is full of risks.
My mistake was a false sense of security. Assuming companies that I work for will create security for my future.
All they did was pay the insurance from the 10% value I earned. This insurance, around the 1% value I generate, now addresses the risk.
There is no guarantee for anything in life except for constant change. So many risks might pop up unexpectedly. So, we might face unknown issues.
However, the risks apply to both working for others and self-employment. So self-employment does not bring additional risk to me.
Work versus Hobbies for Health and Well-Being
Work is essential, but so are hobbies. So I focus on balancing them.
However, my hobbies get as important as my work nowadays as I get older.
I see hobbies as more important than my career as they contribute to my health and well-being better than my job.
I enjoy observing and modeling the lives of high achievers.
When I investigated the lives of centenarians in my circles and from the biographies, I noticed that these wise people pay significant attention to their hobbies.
In addition, healthy, wealthy, and wise people I observed also pay significant attention to their pastime activities.
Here is a sample and inspiring story titled A Single-Mum Reversed Her Obesity and Built up a Unicorn Business.
Although Social Media Brings No Tangible Value, I Still Use It for Other Reasons.
Social media is a double-edged sword.
If misused, it can waste time and adversely affect our mental health.
I discussed the issues and shared my experience highlighting mental health issues in an article titled Why Social Media Fast Was the Best Decision for My Mental Health.
However, using diligence and purpose can bring many benefits, as I articulated in an article titled How Writers and Readers Can Use Social Media Productively.
The compelling reasons to use social media for me are to meet new people in my interest areas, explore new job opportunities related to my career, meet new customers, and support them meaningfully.
These are intangible benefits inspiring me to use social media for my growth.
Takeaways
Based on my experience, I can offer seven takeaway points.
1 — Review your career as early as possible.
2 — Obtain guidance from career advisors.
3 — Leverage the experience of successful self-employed people.
4 — Start creating the infrastructure of your future business while working full-time.
5 — Create a fallback position by insuring your income and healthcare.
6 — Consider self-employment when you feel 100% confident.
7 — Work on your hobbies and enjoy life with loved ones.
Final Words
Self-employment brings many benefits. The most important ones are freedom, owning intellectual property, and allowing growth with passion.
My age, lifestyle, and passion for growing sustainably and protecting my intellectual capital are my key reasons.
There might be different reasons for people to choose self-employment. So, we must plan our careers based on our goals and lifestyle choices.
Learning from the experience of successful self-employed people can be invaluable. Planning, investing wisely, testing the waters, and finding the opportune time is critical.
I hope my article titled Secrets to a Healthy Self-Employed Life might provide valuable perspectives. I also shared my recent experience in an article titled I wish I had Gone Self-Employed 40 Years Ago for Three Reasons.
As I enjoy my lifestyle so much, I now have the opportunity to do more experiments to improve the quality of my life and contribute to others. Thinking about the future has become a hobby for me.
As our physical and mental health is critical, I desire everyone has an opportunity to taste a sense of freedom and good health with economic power.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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