“Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.“
John Tyler
First, you will have to allow me to use 9-to-5 to mean working for a boss. Do you know how they say salary is what they pay you to fulfill another’s dream? Exactly. That one. That’s what I mean here.
There is this not-so-new wave of entrepreneurship and self-employment going around, which in truth is beautiful to behold. Interestingly, these businesses seem to be making good money and will probably make Robert Kiyosaki happy wherever he is.
Moreso, many generously glorify entrepreneurship – even Ponzis like the one I attended some time ago when I so desperately wanted a job. I knew I wasn’t in the right place when the anchor started to doodle out meanings for every letter of words like BOSS, JOB, SALARY, and what have you. Aim? To tear down “employeeism”. Ultimate goal? Ask me to pay 1k to begin building my wealth. Eyin ati… Sorry. You and who?
Back to our discourse, in the real sense of it, entrepreneurs build and invest in businesses, eventually making great profits from their effort. Beautiful, innit? But the process is not bread and butter. Unfortunately, many other people only see the result and try to build overnight a wealth that took years to gather. Take, for example, Warren Buffett, while he got to start a business in 1956, the billionaire status did not come until much later – it took some 30 or more years to reach this. The employee on the other hand gets a couple of tasks for regular pay. This may seem a lot easier since the employee knows their role and the pay is almost constant. However, it probably takes as much effort to make good wealth out of it.
Successful entrepreneurs are usually resilient and patient people. If you ask me, I’d say they better have strong leadership qualities too. In addition to this, they bear the burden of developing an organization from scratch, taking responsibility for every single thing that goes wrong. The employee probably does not need to worry so much. While they equally need resilience and patience, they cannot be so burdened by every detail of the organization. Moreso, employees are often in an organization for what good comes out of their partnership and may readily quit at the sign of a storm. This gives the flexibility to make choices, a luxury an entrepreneur cannot afford. Moreso, because employees can jump ships, they are likely to easily find opportunities for better pay or career growth.
Funnily, neither of these two is a major factor in wealth creation. Building wealth mainly consists of your ability to be frugal, to save, and in turn to invest. To be frugal will mean having a budget, spending only a percentage of your income, and doing anything legal to grow your money. You also have to consider saving to invest and not just for rainy days. Allow me to chip in that wealth creation is not necessarily that large amount in your savings because you would eventually spend that money on something perhaps intangible and be left with nothing again. As such, making good investments appears to be a better way to keep your money and multiply them (while doing this, it is wise to take time to know whatever you are pumping your money into and in what form the returns will come).
Do you know where the plus is? Your investments. Now that you have become an investor, you are an entrepreneur. Moreso, one with multiple streams of income.
I am thus strongly opinionated that except you so desire fame, nothing stops you from building wealth as an employee doing a 9-5. As a matter of fact, you have a choice and that is in itself a huge flex.
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