Indespensable

I’ve joked the only business advice worth an damn I could give a young person is DON’T click the “send” button on an email until you are CERTAIN who’s about to receive it. The Founding Fathers of my selfdom have drafted an amendment.

Don’t be COMPLETELY financially dependent on an employer.

They’re not completely dependent on you- nor should they be.

Unless you can live without most of what you have accumulated, get used to the idea that your income could be wildly reduced on short notice. There are tens of millions of people who have never experienced the aforementioned. They are very good at what they do. Many are SO good they think they are indispensable. Just remember these two corporate maxims. 1.) Increase productivity 2.) Reduce cost.

Can someone out there do 70% of your output at 50% of your pay? Those percentages are not your friend if you earn a decent living and find yourself searching for things to do.

If you’re hoping that the people above you don’t think about these things, hope is a terrible strategy.

Where your talents meet the world’s need lies your occupation. Preferably on your own but tied into a network of mutual reciprocity and equal exchange of value is ideal. The modern corporation as we know it has only been around a fraction of the time of large-scale trade in the world. It made a ton of business sense for a long time because markets required what it could provide. This is not an opinion.

Companies are currently sitting on unprecedented piles of cash with 70% of their previous workforce. Where do you think that 70% number is headed?

How many people in the last 20 years have walked by a co-workers desk and saw non-work related activity showing on the screen? Let’s be honest. Most people have spent massive amounts of their work hours not working, frequently because they needed work to do. Markets would pay that wage because when the market wanted something, it wanted it now. Only fully staffed companies could provide that.

Makers of products or providers of services can now get much of that output on demand.

We all need to re-tool, there’s nothing to be frightened of. What’s frightening is not being needed.