Job (Lack of) Market

I was just checking the local job market. There is NOTHING unless you want to get paid minimum wage. Even the stuff I've done for years at $10/hr is now paying only minimum wage. For somebody with over 30 years experience, that's really sad.

The only real solution is to make your own job - become entrepreneurial and make a business of your own. Maybe you will make it, and maybe you won't, but you have to try. That's the only way to make it anymore.

You can't count on an employer, that's for sure! They only want to pay the stockholders and line their own pockets with enormous salaries at the top. The "little guy" who is actually doing the work only gets a penny for their effort.

Now, I've been entrepreneurial for years, so I already have the mindset. But folks who are expecting to get an education, and then get a job, are really going to have a hard time of it. College doesn't teach you how to be the boss and make your own business decisions. It doesn't teach you how to take a risk, and what risks are OK to take, or how to evaluate a risk in the first place.

Some risks are just not worth it, while others are almost a sure bet. Each situation is different, and each person brings a different set of tools and skills to bear on each situation, so there is no rule about it.

You have to really know yourself, your abilities, your strengths and weaknesses. You have to know what you can tolerate, and how well you budget. You have to know if you can live on ramen or if you need meat every day. If you have kids, the stakes go up.

If you have a partner who is willing to make the same sacrifices as you, who is as dedicated to the business as you, then you have a leg-up on the competition.

And you have to know your abilities with technology, too! So much is done on the internet that you need to know and apply that to your business plan.

Well, good luck, is all I can say. Get out there and try it. You won't know if you are the next Edison or Ford unless you get out there and try it.

And don't take failure personally. Each failure is just a way that didn't work. Keep trying, change stuff around, try different things. Just don't give up. You have the perfect set of tools for something. It's just finding that something.