Back to the Future – The New Era of Cottage Industries

When I was forced out of my job in March 2009, I told friends I was going to fully concentrate on building my business. Some of them said in light of the economic turmoil, “You’ve picked an interesting time to start a business!”

Is starting a business a brave thing to do, especially in this economy? Absolutely. Stepping into any unknown situation is a brave thing to do. But, to put things into perspective, it’s never a matter of life and death.

Having crossed that bridge though, and looking back at the other side of the river, it’s pretty clear to me, in this economy that you have to be very brave to be an employee.

The fact that your livelihood is dependent on one job is pretty insane!

You know what’s so stupid about getting University a degree? For most people, the only purpose of getting through 3, 4, or 5 years of higher education, and racking up a huge debt doing it, is to get a white collar job.

I learned a lot of higher order calculus and physics in my time at University. I used absolutely none of it when I got into the workforce. I knew it was a huge waste of time.

I got my first professional career in a consulting engineering firm. They had to train me from scratch will the skills their clients paid good money for. It cost a lot. I hope they got their money back on the work I did before they had to let me go because their clients couldn’t get money from the banks!

It’s a pretty neat system, isn’t it? The prime of your life you are brought up by institutions to work for corporations. It just reeks of fostering dependency.

You’re dependent on corporations for your wages. You’re dependent on institutions to manage your retirement. You’re dependent on the Government to look after you.

The system worked well in the industrial age. Now, it seems the system is failing for many people.

Not only are people loosing their “safe and secure” jobs because of the state of the economy, but also because developing countries can supply the same skills for far less.

It seems the era of mass employment is diminishing in Western countries, yet it will be a long time before the industrial age institutions adapt to be able to teach people how to think independently.

There was a time when people didn’t depend on getting a good formal education to provide for themselves. Families worked from their homes part time and sold goods and services to each other, and handed their skills down to the next generation. This was the age of Cottage Industries that preceded the Industrial Age.

Today, some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world never completed their formal education.

The wheel has turned as millions of people will set themselves free with their home based businesses in the coming decades. Will you be one of them?

Starting a business is brave and risky for first timers, but business itself is not risky at all. It just makes sense.

As an employee, you’re at the mercy of your one and only client – your boss. If he doesn’t like you, then you’ve lost your one and only source of income. How risky is that?

As an entrepreneur, you can always expand and generate more business, your income is not dictated by just one client and you’re fully in control of your own destiny.

I’ve said this before. Network marketing is the best business school. It’s far superior to any University business school. It will test your mettle. You will experience REAL triumphs, and you will experience REAL disappointments.

It will teach you the most important business skills of all: people skills, the ability to sell, and the ability to manage your emotions.

And best all you can learn these skills with very little financial risk.

To your MLM success,

Wayne Wu

 

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Tagged as: Corporations, Dependency, Employee, Entrepreneur, Institutions, Network Marketing