Employee vs Business Mentality

The answer is - both are good. BUT one of them limits your potential. People generally hold jobs because of fear. As young people they dream and as they get older they realize that, "hey maybe I don't have the life I really wanted but this is ok I'm doing a little better than my friends." this is an employee mentality. Stuffing as much as they can into their rrsp's, mutual funds, and stocks thinking that they are getting tax breaks or some special retirement plan. Nothing wrong with that but there are better ways.

A business owner or self-employed person(not all) knows that he has to create his own tax breaks and plan his own retirement it's up to the individual. Most business people diversify there incomes out of fear of losing everything they've built.

The key factor is fear. Some people become afraid of losing their house, cars, and lavish lifestyle so they keep their jobs and accept where they are. In fact most people hang around people who are worse off than them financially because of the fear of being pushed out of their comfort zone. it makes them feel good that they are doing better. These are generally employee mentality people who need to justify how good their job is and how high a position they have. Shame.

The business owner will take fear and run with it. He thrives on it, creates positive energy from it. He doesn't look at what his neighbour is driving or what his friends are doing. He doesn't have time!!!! It's all up to him!

I remember when I was working at BMW and I had a customer who was a corporate executive. To make a long story short he was playing the bigshot cuz he was there buying a BMW in the end it was placed on his company account and he had to settle for half the options available on the car. Now does this matter? It wouldn't if he had a different attitude. It was as if he had something to prove to us. Next comes a charming fellow who was very tanned, dressed casual in flip flops and he said I'd like the 540Bmw model all dressed please. The salesman sold him the car and he came to ask me for accessories. We started talking. I asked if he had gone on vacation cuz he was so dark. He said no and that it was because of his job. I asked what he does and he came close to me and said, "I'm a landscaper." I thought wow that's great!

We became friends and he told me how he paid for that car cash and that in his business you have to plan your life yourself. He owned 16 apartement buildings, 3 other businesses, and a small home on the beach in Venezuela. (He never works in the winter). So I said good for you you're very smart!

He said this," I didn't know any better. The only thing I knew was that I could not grow old doing what I do, physically it would be impossible. It's very demanding physically to lug around earth, gravel, rocks, and unistone. So I decided to to buy a couple of properties to secure my future and then one property led to the other and ofcourse I helped finance a few business which made me partner."

For me nothing beats being in your own business, presently I do both and I am actually making more at my part time business than I do at my full time job. Funny huh? Although I can leave my job anytime - I have my focus set on bigger things. Why? Fear.

In my opinion I'll always have more respect for small business owner that someone who is a corporate executive. Why? Because the business owner always keeps the dream in front of him and in driven by fear.