We can admit the fact that we as human beings are trapped in the never ending rat race with the jobs that we apply for.
Society is engineering us to accept the fact that we must work for someone and accept every idiotic rule and whim that goes through his or her head in order to put food on the table, as well as put up with all the unfairness and with the grossly undervalued paychecks in regards to our abilities.
And as the day comes to an end, we find ourselves sitting on the cheap couch in our half decorated living rooms, thinking about how hard we have worked today to make someone just a little bit richer and happier as he throws us half a bone every now and then.
There are people that are contempt with that lifestyle, but there are others that know there is more to life than rotting away in a cubicle while every single boss in the company rides your back worse than a mule.
We, the few brave that managed to see past this social engineering, with a lot of work and sacrifice, have managed to break free of the shackles that come with the rat race, and managed to take life into their own hands.
What does that even mean?
There are always alternatives to anything, even jobs. You can start your own small business, and with the right amount of time, effort and dedication, you could turn it into something prosperous and profitable. The downside of this is that the bigger it gets, the more it becomes a rat race for a lot of other people, and you might wind up sucked into the middle of it as well, so proceed with caution if you are going down this path.
Another way of going about smashing the rat race is by becoming a freelancer. This is not the same thing as having a job, because you are not working for someone, you are working with them. You can have as many clients as you want, you can propose your own terms with a lot of confidence, you don’t have to bow your head and accept any form of humiliation, and you have as much power over the project as the person who requested it in the first place.
Needless to say, breaking the rat race implies working from the comfort of your own home, and no matter what path you chose, you will have to watch out, because there are good things about it, and then there are bad ones.
Let’s look at the good ones first.
Yeah, I agree with you, these are some really great things, but there are some really big downsides to this as well.
They range from things that require self-discipline to things that are designed by the social systems to work against the ones that break the rat race.
Here are the downsides to working from home.
The number of people working from home has risen in the last few years, and a lot of them have reported being more satisfied than working a normal job.
A man I know got frustrated over the fact that he was not promoted although he was working for that company for the last 6 years, so he decided to quit. The problem was that he was unable to get a job because of the recession, so he made the bold move of going freelance.
He now lives a better, more relaxed and carefree life, enjoying every moment of his new found freedom, and sharing it with his wife and kids.
Working from home definitely has its advantages and its drawbacks; however you are the only one to decide if you are willing and able to work from home, and if it is a blessing or a curse for you.
Society is engineering us to accept the fact that we must work for someone and accept every idiotic rule and whim that goes through his or her head in order to put food on the table, as well as put up with all the unfairness and with the grossly undervalued paychecks in regards to our abilities.
And as the day comes to an end, we find ourselves sitting on the cheap couch in our half decorated living rooms, thinking about how hard we have worked today to make someone just a little bit richer and happier as he throws us half a bone every now and then.
There are people that are contempt with that lifestyle, but there are others that know there is more to life than rotting away in a cubicle while every single boss in the company rides your back worse than a mule.
We, the few brave that managed to see past this social engineering, with a lot of work and sacrifice, have managed to break free of the shackles that come with the rat race, and managed to take life into their own hands.
What does that even mean?
There are always alternatives to anything, even jobs. You can start your own small business, and with the right amount of time, effort and dedication, you could turn it into something prosperous and profitable. The downside of this is that the bigger it gets, the more it becomes a rat race for a lot of other people, and you might wind up sucked into the middle of it as well, so proceed with caution if you are going down this path.
Another way of going about smashing the rat race is by becoming a freelancer. This is not the same thing as having a job, because you are not working for someone, you are working with them. You can have as many clients as you want, you can propose your own terms with a lot of confidence, you don’t have to bow your head and accept any form of humiliation, and you have as much power over the project as the person who requested it in the first place.
Needless to say, breaking the rat race implies working from the comfort of your own home, and no matter what path you chose, you will have to watch out, because there are good things about it, and then there are bad ones.
Let’s look at the good ones first.
- You can set your own business hours, and decide how often and how long your breaks are.
- You have no boss.
- You don’t have to face the weather every day because you work 1 room away from your bed.
- You can make a lot of friends, in a lot of places, fast.
- You don’t have to worry about losing your job.
- You are paid as much as you work, which is at the very least fair.
- You can take care of a lot of things that you could not take care of while having a job.
- You can still have your retirement fund, nest egg, college funds, etc., you’ll just have to work a bit more.
- You don’t really need to retire.
- You can work from wherever you want (assuming you work through the internet)
- Your national currency might be less valuable that the currency you are paid in.
- Some countries don’t recognize freelancing as being an actual profession; therefore the freelancers that operate within their territories don’t have to pay income taxes.
- You can make better financial calculations based on the money that you earn on an hourly basis as well as per project.
Yeah, I agree with you, these are some really great things, but there are some really big downsides to this as well.
They range from things that require self-discipline to things that are designed by the social systems to work against the ones that break the rat race.
Here are the downsides to working from home.
- You do not have a fixed income.
- No bank will ever grant you a loan, because banks don’t lend money to people without fixed income.
- You can easily overwork and burn yourself out.
- You can easily get distracted and go through the day without doing a bit of work.
- In some countries, freelancing is illegal.
- You don’t have any kind of health, dental or legal benefits.
- Banks will not give you credit cards.
- Banks will not let you mortgage your house.
- You have to learn a lot of things regarding financial transactions and pay a lot of fees associated with that. (To be fair, the damage done by the fees is minute compared to the money you were not being paid at your job, and it takes you about 1 day to learn all about financial transactions.)
- People will tend not to take you serious when you tell them that you are a freelancer.
- You will not have that office collective, and you might miss the office interactions, the office pranks and flirting with the secretary.
- You might be compelled to listen to domestic distractions, like your neighbors fighting.
- Once you get used to it, you might not want to get a job again.
The number of people working from home has risen in the last few years, and a lot of them have reported being more satisfied than working a normal job.
A man I know got frustrated over the fact that he was not promoted although he was working for that company for the last 6 years, so he decided to quit. The problem was that he was unable to get a job because of the recession, so he made the bold move of going freelance.
He now lives a better, more relaxed and carefree life, enjoying every moment of his new found freedom, and sharing it with his wife and kids.
Working from home definitely has its advantages and its drawbacks; however you are the only one to decide if you are willing and able to work from home, and if it is a blessing or a curse for you.
