Ok. Don’t judge me by the heading of the Article I am not an insurance guy and surely not the person who is asking you to buy mutual funds. So why do I start with the headline “Plan your Future now?” The reason is, that if you don’t plan and take control of your future you may get into big trouble.
My feeling is that no matter how much you love your job. Along with working it, you should also grow your brand and business either alone or with a partner. Because I believe that as long as you are working for someone else you never can be entirely true to yourself and your passions.
That said, I’ll never tell anyone to quit their job, especially if they have people to support. Like most of us, I’ll always put family first. I will, however, urge you to start planning to quit your job if you can’t answer “Yes” to the following questions:
1. Are you happy with your present job?
Like happy? Like you don’t bitch and moan every Monday morning about how much you wish it was Friday night? You have been heard, supported, understood, involved, and trusted in all aspects of your job.
2. Do you work with a company that allows you to have a public persona?
I am talking either about your field or true passion. In other words, are you allowed to have a blog, Twitter account, or otherwise brand yourself in the public eye with an identity that is separate from the corporation?
3. If you are not allowed to develop a public persona, you may never be able to build your dream.
If you answered “No” to question 2 then I don’t care how happy you are in your job. You should do everything in your power to either find another place to work or start the groundwork to launch your own business, your brand. I am currently working in I.T. and most of my coworkers are better than me but they spend 0% of their time building their brand and 100% of their time on their daily work. It kills me.
Let me tell you the truth. Eventually, you are going to suffocate. Without the freedom to develop a personal brand, you will find yourself at a strong disadvantage over the people that have been out there making names for themselves.
How does doing all of this help? Out of the blue, some unforeseen circumstances hit you ( I don’t believe in luck anyway) and you got kicked out of your job. Let’s say you’ve got 1000 followers on social media with whom you are interacting daily. Chances are few good people in the industry are keeping a close tab on you. Wouldn’t it be easy just to write a single post on these social media sites letting them know that you are open for a new position instead of preparing your resume and forwarding it to friends, colleagues, and the HR person?
if you’re not happy in your job but you can still build brand equity at work or home by blogging and creating podcasts about what you love, all the better. I still want you to plan to leave and launch your own business because life is too short to spend it working a job you don’t adore. Remember that as long as you are creating content and building your brand, you are building future opportunities for yourself.
So promise me that you will spend time building your brand alongside your daily job. You never know when it will be handy to be able to branch out on your own.
