Why You Should Be In Business
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Once upon a time, I was an employee. My first salary was P800 a month. As the years went by, it continued to grow. From P1000 to P3000 to P8000 to P20,000… It kept growing and growing and growing. I was happy.
And where we went was romantic! Yes, we could go to the movie houses once in awhile, but more likely, we rented VCDs at P15 per movie and watched it at home we would cook popcorn for the kids. We were happy. We were very happy. We may not have been rich, but we were okay.
But for some reason, it was never enough! It was crazy. Don’t get me wrong. My salary was enough for my basic needs. We ate three meals a day (many times five!), had clothes to wear, and was able to pay for our Meralco and water bills. With my salary, I was able to bring out my wife on our weekly dates. You may not think that Jollibee is romantic, but that’s what I could afford, so that’s where we went.
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| Photo credit: https://pixabay.com |
But I still had pain inside me. What caused my pain? My inability to give as much as I wanted to. Sure, I was tithing. In fact, I was giving more than a tithe. I was giving 20 percent of my income to the ministry and to the poor. But there were so many needs in the ministry, I wanted to give more. Every day, I was confronted with so much need, it was overwhelming. I realized I needed to do something if I wanted to give more. That was when I decided to be an entrepreneur.
The Path of Entrepreneurship
My salary though growing each year was fixed by the organization I worked for. It didn’t matter if I was the Founder and created that organization. Because it was now led by a Board of Directors and they determined how much my salary would be. And because we were a non-profit organization, my salary would always be mediocre at best.
But if I had my own small businesses, I could determine how much I’d earn. I figured if I worked hard and expanded my businesses, I would earn more. That meant I could give myself a raise anytime I wanted to! That fired up my imagination.
I got really excited. So I started my first business. After a few months, it crashed. Taking my little savings with it. Everything vanished—including my excitement. But somehow I got it back. (I’m talking about the excitement, not the money.) I started a second one.
That flopped too. I started a third one. And a fourth one. And a fifth one… All in all, I failed in eight businesses. I lost a lot of money. I lost a lot of time. But I gained so much wisdom.
That’s why today, I run my small businesses, all of them very successful.
Non-Financial Benefits of Entrepreneurship.
Why do I want you to be an entrepreneur? I’m biased. I love entrepreneurship! Because of my small businesses and the income they generate, I’m able to fulfill my dreams.
Each month, I can now give huge sums for my ministry’s needs. But the non-financial benefits are much, much more than the financial benefits.
Let’s start with time with my family. Because I’m an entrepreneur and thus own my time, I can…
• Join the family five out of seven breakfasts a week.
• Join them for four lunches out of seven a week.
• Join them for four dinners out of seven a week.
I love being with the kids, especially during mealtime.
That’s when we get to talk, laugh, tell stories, and joke around.
Vacations!
And here’s the insane thing we did this year: We took eight family vacations.
We loved it. The kids loved it. We hope to do it again next year.
Employees dream of doing this when they retire—when they reach 65 years old.
My suggestion is to create passive income so that you can take mini-retirements NOW—when you’re younger and the kids are still with you.
I repeat: The key is to create passive income.
And one of the ways of creating passive income is by starting a business.
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