The Number 1 Modern Myth

Apr 10, 2015
3 min read

Just recently employees of the electronic superstore Future Shop drove into work only to find their store was locked and the manager informed them that they had all been laid off.

In total, without prior warning, 1,500 people lost their jobs. Just like that. Can you imagine dropping your kids off at work, getting a coffee, fighting traffic and then finding the doors to the work were locked?

All of a sudden these people were out on the street with only a couple of weeks of severance and now they have to look for new jobs.

It was invertible, I suppose, that Future Shop was ultimately brought down by Amazon and the big bad internet. They could not compete with overnight shipping, the low prices, and the convenience of shopping in your pajamas.

Business and the marketplace are moving faster than ever and if you don’t keep up then you’ll be left out in the cold like all 1,500 ex-employees of Future Shop.

While the internet is destroying many jobs and businesses it is creating unprecedented opportunity to start your own company.

With your own company you can control your own destiny. No longer do you have to be manipulated by a boss or fired at a moment’s notice. You might not believe how many stories I have heard lately about people who have been fired without cause.

The Myth of Job Security

People may think they have job security but it’s a concept that no longer exists.

So why not become an entrepreneur?

You don’t even need to do it full-time. In fact, if you’re just starting out, I don’t even recommend it. Work part-time for a company and then start your business on the side. There is nothing to lose and by diversifying your income you won’t be held hostage by any one event.

The Two Most Important Skills

The two most important skills to have are how to market a product and how to sell it. If you have those two things, you don’t even need to create anything. Plenty of marketers make their money by selling other people’s products in what is known as joint ventures.

You need to learn new skills and never stop learning.

Even if you can’t do anything else, if you learn how to sell then you’ll never go hungry.

One doesn’t often think of action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger as being a salesperson but he says that it was one of the most important skills he learned in life and helped him accomplish a lot in his life, including being a bodybuilding champion, a movie star and the governor of California.

Become An Entrepreneur

The other great thing about starting your own company is that you get to peruse your passion.

One of my close friends makes her own jewelry with a 3D printer and is able to produce it at a fraction of the cost that it used to be. She just sold a couple thousand dollars’ worth of her jewellery to a store in White Horse.

If she can make a business out of her passion then you can too. Nowadays all artists are entrepreneurs. They have to be in order to get their work out into the world. They have to create their own fan base and learn new ways of distribution.

The Challenge of An Artist

I know some artists are resistant to these changes.

They just want to concentrate on making their art and letting someone else take care of the rest. I know there was a few times when I cursed the fact I had to sell my books and films myself.

But ultimately these shifting paradigms are good for the customers and good for the artist.

It gives both customers and artists more control.

The artist control over their work and how it’s presented; the customer on what they buy and how they buy it.

In general, people don’t like change. I’m not sure what it is about our basic nature that resists it. We are inherent creatures of comfort.

We idealize the past and resist having to do something differently. To me it seems paradoxical that life is always changing.

Things never stand still.

We are pushed by competition and economics to always improve, otherwise we will all be like Future Shop.

Joel Mark Harris is a Canadian writer, marketer and speaker (@joelmarkharris)

He is the proud founder of Writers' Labatory and Scene2Studio. You can download your FREE Content Marketing Tool Kit Here