First off, Lets be honest here... I think we have all had a job that sucks at one time or another... From knee deep in office space style TPS report hell, to hard manual labor for low pay; theres a million and one ways that your job can be less than savory...
I for one held over 30 jobs in my younger years... (Yes I realize I am admitting to having employee commitment issues on LinkedIn, but hey I'm a Gemini! So its ok!)
Out of those 30 jobs that I held as a... Fast food worker, retail shoe salesman, waiter, food runner, sales associate, roofer, gardener, art store manager, cell phone salesman, security gate operator, car wash guy, gym salesman, lighting technician, and hotel mini bar refresher to name a few. Out of those 30 I would say that a good 60-70 percent of those jobs sucked pretty bad in my opinion. But besides just realizing that the jobs themselves sucked, I realized that well... working for other people can be a strange and dehumanizing process. For as anyone who has seen the movie fight club might realize, you are largely just being treated as a digit on a screen and making money for some man behind the curtain.
Now does this mean that people that work these jobs, or own these companies are inherently bad or wrong? Of course not. I'm sure some of them have moral ineptitudes, but definitely not all of them. These people are just going about business as usual and perpetuating the cycle of employment, and economic development the best way that they know how... And quite frankly, had it not been for these 30 industrious enterprises in employment folly, I might not be the man I am today...Learning a solid work ethic can be a difficult process when you don't see much personal influence in the positions your working in.. Back in the day when you did a job, such as building something, or raising livestock you could visibly see the efforts of your hard work, but in many modern workplaces this is just not the case. Sadly office space had it right when he said that generally speaking, many embrace the philosophy of only working hard enough not to get fired... Thats a pretty daunting realization if you own a company yourself.
It's kinda sad really, because these people have yet to make the connection between personal effort, and the unseen forces in the universe who aid those who show merit and apply themselves. Whatever the case, I am not here to bitch about bad jobs, or bad employees...
Quite the inverse... In essence I want people to understand that no matter where they stand in the employment milieu, Crowdfunding can help. First off... You need to take a moment and think to yourself about who in this world you would actually like to help. If you had your druthers, who in the world would you want to assist in this grand journey of life. This could be anything, friends, family, animals, nature, knowledge, exploration, the inanimate, the evolution of the human species, anything at all. But whatever it is, it needs to be something that you can build some kind of personal enterprise around. A task which you may need a life coach, astrologer, or career analyst (such as myself) to help you figure out...
But once you have this vision in place, you can start to build a crowdfunding campaign around your topic of interest. (A subject which I cover in other posts and in my book to some degree) Because heres the kicker... If you have a passionate idea, there are people out there willing to pay you to pursue that passionate idea. Why is this you ask? Well it's because passion inspires other people to pursue passionate activities and enterprises of their own. The human species naturally gravitates towards that which is new, because new and different activities ignite the flame of change. Change for better, or for worse, is the building block of all human life on earth. Since change is the only constant, we begin to realize that change is the only thing that we can depend on. So in essence, they are not paying you for your passion, they are paying you for a change that they want to make to their internal and external lives. Whether you know it or not, they are paying you for change.
The guy paying for the triple stacked ice cream sundae is paying for escapist pleasure and obesity. The guy buying the weight lifting video is paying for his dream abs, and the gal buying the sun dress is paying for compliments on her fun Sunday outing.
But whatever it is that you want, Crowdfunding can help you build it! As it is a centralized business tool that helps people who want to make changes out in the world to come together on a global level. It allows you to ask the public at large if the change that youre proposing, is a change they are willing to pay for. And chances are, if youre passionate about it, theres someone out there who is just as passionate about it. You just have to find them!
So start planning, start saving, listen to some podcasts. Get hungry, and make your own vocational path as you go. Most people go through life riding bikes that still have training wheels metaphorically speaking. Psychologically speaking they are scared to attempt to balance themselves out without using the corporations, the relationships, and the escapist pursuits to dull their sense of individual identity and responsibility.
Spiritually speaking everyone is where they need to be, I just want to point these things out in an effort to start a larger societal dialogue, and figure out just how much freedom and personal responsibility future vocational adepts are willing to accept...I for one feel like crowdfunding has the potential to set anyone who wants to be vocationally self sufficient, free from the chains of corporate life.
Please take a sec to share this article if you feel so inclined, and or check out my newest book... "Startup Fever, How Crowdfunding Will Rebuild the American Dream!"
Available on Amazon here... http://tinyurl.com/knua9km
Until next time,
Keep it Real, and follow the truth...
Austin