Fire Your Boss Before He Fires You
These days, people tell me I'm a lucky man and that they envy
me. My wife and I run a home catering business and I have a
couple of websites that are making money. I get to work at home,
have lunch and horse around with my kids every day and generally
do what I please, when I please - I'm my own boss and in many
ways already successful. It wasn't that way two years ago
though. If you had known me then, you would have thought I was a
ship headed for the rocks - a nervous wreck on the brick of a
mental breakdown!
Many of us can remember when our Dads worked all their life for
one company but I learnt the hard way that employment for life
is a thing of the past. Organizations today are constantly
evolving to keep up with changes. If they can't keep up, they
either get left behind or close shop. It all boils down to the
survival of the fittest, and surviving means having to take
drastic measures which very often means cost-cutting or
down-sizing. It's a painful fact of life. Statistics today show
that up to eighty percent of the working population will
experience down-sizing either directly or indirectly during
their working life. Being affected directly obviously means
being laid-off and indirectly means having to perform the
functions of two or more staff that have been laid-off.
A couple of years ago, the company I worked for was in a
financial crisis. Cost cutting and down-sizing was taking its
toll on everyone - myself included. When things started getting
really bad, my wife and I decided we had to take control of our
own destiny. We started a home catering business. I continued to
work for my company while we ran our home catering business in
the evenings. When we had built a steady base of customers, I
felt it was time to leave my company. It felt like a heavy
burden was lifted off my chest when I handed in my resignation
letter. It felt so good to fire my boss!
Over the course of time (after I left), investigations by the
authorities uncovered an accounting scandal in my previous
company. This news resulted in it's stock falling from 1.58 to 8
cents! At the time of writing this article, the company has
almost reached the end of the road as it continues to struggle
with depleting resources, dwindling staff-force and public scorn.
I recently received news that six of my ex-colleagues were given
24 hours notice to leave the company. Despite the hopeless
situation of the company, none of them expected to be laid off
in that manner, probably because they were very senior staff.
What happened to them could easily have happened to me (or to
anyone) if I continued to put my hope in a sinking ship.
What saved us was our decision to start our own home based
business. That do-or-die situation forced us not only to
survive, but to triumph! I'd like to encourage you to take that
same step of faith! No matter how insignificant your business
may seem to be or how little money you make at first, the most
important thing is the realization that you CAN take control of
your life. You DO NOT need to rely on a job that you hate! Don't
continue to be a victim of today's volatile job market or
continue to put yourself at the mercy of someone else's greed.
What's worse, DON'T work yourself to death making someone else
rich!
You may not think you need a home based business right now but
remember this - if there ever comes a day when you ARE in danger
of losing your job, YOUR home based business WILL give you the
option of firing your boss before he fires you! So here's to
never having to lose sleep over your job...cheers!