The freedom to go wrong
Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,
Nothin’ don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free
- Janis Joplin, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’
Economic downturns turn many of us from employees into entrepreneurs. We have no choice. Those turned out of the corporate fold can make a decisive move to establish themselves in a business of their own over the option of trying to get hired into yet another ‘secure’ job, (perhaps up near Salinas, Lord) with no job security.
The current economic environment is a forcing function for start-ups created by displaced corporate staffers. It’s an opportunity to ‘Seize the Day’ writes Financial Times columnist, media chairman and private equity chief Luke Johnson.
A big employer may offer security and benefits, but what about creative satisfaction and the chance to change the world? Working for yourself is not an easy road, but few who make that choice would revert to the grey, restrictive life of a hired hand.
He sees armies of freelancers creating new industries and a bright new future. Claiming entrepreneurs are made by hard graft, not gifted by genes, Johnson says we can all achieve something if we work at it.
Better to try than return, tail between our legs, to the corporate fold and the burdens of a W-2 job.
In the words of Thomas Huxley, coincidentally a friend of Darwin: “It is better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.”
Gentlemen, he said,
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes,
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.
- Bob Dylan, ‘Changing of the Guards’
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