167- Entrepreneur perspective for being self-employed

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In this episode of The Struggling Biz podcast show, we discuss the content of a recent interview from Todd Henry’s podcast series called The Accidental Creative.

The recent episode had Todd interview an author named Jeffrey Shaw who wrote a book titled The Self-Employed Life: Business and Personal Development.

What I found to be interesting is that this episode strikes at the heart of those who want to be on their own and become self-employed — and naturally, the entrepreneur is a key target who would want to strike out on his own and be his own boss and be really “self-employed.”

For myself, I had this curiosity that swelled into a drive just before I launched my own business back in 1980. Since then, I have had several businesses, and I have been both a part-time entrepreneur (when it was NOT fashionable to do so), as well as later a full-time entrepreneur. And I have seen both success and failure in my time — but have always been able to rise above the negative and attempt once again the life of being self-employed and having my own business.

Now, in this interview, Todd Henry wants to deliver the ideas and the drive for starting your own business, as well as the tools and the success strategy that Mr. Shaw had described in his book. And during these 24 minutes when Todd questions this author about his own experiences, the memories of my own feelings and ambitions of being self-employed (or partially self-employed) had returned to give me a burst of enthusiasm and energy — but mostly, for those who are now achieving to leave the corporate or other crazy world of being employed and seeking self-employment.

So, during this interview, what I found to be of value were the following:

the perspective of what would be a real and true expert that can become a non-compartmentalized individual with a great drive that can stand alone and try to be successful — this is a mindset called “self-employed”;
the autonomy of the worker that can expand into releasing the drive into one of success, even though you may be working for others;
the ability to have a self-employed “lifestyle” while you still work for others — and the difference between that and being an entrepreneur (as stated by Todd);
a “lifestyle business” is something that you can create while you are working for others, as well as branching out as an entrepreneur;

For this entrepreneur, a key idea was Mr. Shaw’s avoidance of the term “solo-preneur” — as this difference showed that necessary terms during the virus crisis were used in describing some of the people who were not able to work for others during a lock-down. This was a key idea that allows one to make a transition from the “slave” in corporate or business America to the vision that one can control the type of autonomy that would lead to either entrepreneurship or making a self-employed lifestyle that would not necessarily mean leaving everything behind and creating your business as a small business owner.

For myself, I have had both lifestyle business employment, as well as becoming a total entrepreneur. And the changes in the work place since 1980 to the present were tremendous. Not only has the veil of “self-employed” or entrepreneurship terms gained validity and become popular, but the value-shift toward the primary goal of “lifestyle first” as opposed to being seen as a solo-preneur.

For this entrepreneur, the flexibility is something that may give others who are working for others a new perspective on defining their lifestyles and become really “self-employed” in terms of their own lifestyle.

Thus, I would suggest that you consume this 24-minute podcast episode to see if a different perspective could be an insight that would help you and your future to plan for what is really important in making any transitions in your life.

In the final part of the podcast episode, there are questions that are asked by Todd to Mr. Shaw. These questions are probably some of them which you, yourself, could have been creating in your own mind as you listen to this content.

We hope that this interview can help you to build the confidence you need to make the lifestyle that makes the best sense for you in your plans for business autonomy for yourself.

Thank you for your attention.