Dear self-employment preacher, yes, I want to be a slave to Shell please!
The last decade has witnessed a surge in motivational talk in Nigeria. Hundreds of seminars and thousands of articles have been churned out by the motivational speakers and the frenzy continues to gain momentum. This is good, as everyone surely needs motivation.
One of the most common subjects of such talks is entrepreneurship/self-employment. Good subject. I believe it is good to be self-employed and I seriously crave to be one. The benefits of owning one’s business are pretty obvious: you are in full control of your resources (time, finance, etc) and you own all the rewards.
Owning one’s business is clearly one of the best goals a person should desire to achieve. It even makes you exercise your brain more. Most of the richest people in the world own their businesses. They include Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
These people are moneybags. They have done themselves some good by coming up with some ideas and making money from them. The entrepreneurship advocates therefore have in them fantastic examples to draw from in their self-employment sermonising. But that is where it ends.
The self-employment preachers in Nigeria, good as their intention is, are however beginning to go off the mark. And this is where my problem lies with them. There is a dangerous trend of demonising paid employment in the thriving business of self-employment advocacy. Every Ade, Ada and Adamu that can string two words together has turned into self-employment preacher and the fad is to demonise paid employment. Being in salaried job, to them, is slavery.
First, our self-employment advocates oversimplify things and sometimes when you listen to them or read what they write, you begin to wonder why they are not Dangote themselves. To be sure, I don’t have a problem with self-employment preachers. Indeed, it is my ultimate goal to own companies and businesses. I also hold that being self-employed, if one gets it right, is better than being under someone else’s control. But is everyone cut out for being self-employed? Capital NO.
This is why I think in the process of advancing their advocacy, salaried jobs should not be demonised. I don’t believe salaried job is necessarily slavery. I also don’t hold that you cannot be rich with paid job. You may not be as rich as Dangote or Adenuga, but if you work hard to become CEO of Shell Nigeria (a salaried job), for instance, I doubt your next generation can ever be poor. Not everyone will be as rich as Dangote, but with a dint of hardwork, becoming a manager in a decent company can earn you decent saving, and with sensible investment (preparing for retirement), you can live a satisfactory post-salary life.
I have seen some young graduates and prospective graduates vowing they can never work for anyone and they will go straight into entrepreneurship. Good one, if you have the idea. But managing businesses most times goes beyond the theories we read in those materials and the smooth talk of the self-employment advocates. Apart from the constraint of raising capital to fund the idea, there is an even more critical factor in management. Most times, if you have never worked for any other person, you may find it difficult in running your own businesses.
So, oh you self-employment preacher, before you tell me I am a slave for choosing the path of salaried employment (for now), know you that the CEO of Shell is a ‘slave’ to Shell. I want to be one.
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Very nice write up
this is what i have been telling people but they won’t understand. It is not all about self-employment only.
This is my fourth year in self-employment. i have work in a bank for 3 years before resigning for private business which i have passion for, the reason for my resignation is to structure my career life and i am using the opportunity to run business aside.. To be candid, it is not easy, you have to face business cycle (Peak-declining) and if you dont quickly rebrand and restructure you are out. my competitors are out of the market because they are the type that attend seminar and belief 100% in self-employment (they cannot differentiate between Revenue and Profit)
The only self-employment i believe in is when you have (20 Million naira) has capital base and with that you should have 700K as Net profit every month (after discounting and inflation) meanwhile, at the end of the year, there are still some lump-sum expenses to pay and then you will feel like crying.
i just thank God for self-discovering, In my first year in self-employment, i used the opportunity to enrol for another first degree in Unilag and started ICAN from ATS stage. come November 2014 i will be a graduate of Accounting and preparing to write my ICAN Final stage in May 2014. Even if i dont have Cash at Hand because it is very difficult to save (people in self-employment can testify to this), i am using 30% of the profit to invest in knowledge, 30% investment in shares, 20% as retain profit and the remaining 20% for the family (got married last year @ age 27 because that is my dream age of getting married and getting married have save me a lot in all ramification)
once i graduate from UNILAG, i am looking for a Salary Job because i have created a system for my business to the extend that even if i am not around, the business is a going-concern.
in self-employment, there is income relevant range that you can never go beyond except you open another branch, but believe me, it is very very difficult to manage people (staff)
but Salary Job is a ladder if you can think think think of way out.
i know i will get a salary job after graduating (100% certainty), from the pay job with my business profit (combining this two income for 4 years which i believe my investment in shares will also have appreciated) BIG BOY IN MAKING.
I thank God for Jarus (i have been following your post and comment for many years on Nairaland and any where your name is, i go go)
if you are a young graduate, please seek for pay job and try if you can run business aside. you are employable when you are still fresh and young in great companies in Nigeria.
Jarus i love you
United Kwara
Balanced write up, experiences are needed before you set up something. . You have to be a slave before you become a master.
ok……………..JARUS THE SHELL SLAVE
You nailed it. I like this part – Most times, if you have never worked for any other person, you may find it difficult in running your own businesses.
Great post.