Climbing the Self-Employment Ladder
We’re all familiar with the corporate ladder but we should also keep in mind the self-employment ladder. Like the corporate ladder we can improve our position and gradually rise to better occupations. Unlike the corporate ladder we’re not dealing with a bureaucracy and don’t need to network with people within a specific organization. Climbing the corporate ladder involves establishing close ties within an organization while the self-employment ladder involves the strength of weak ties outside of your business.
Imagine two mountains, one being the self-employment ladder and the other being the corporate ladder. We may climb one or the other or we may “zig zag” to the top of one. Within the corporate ladder we may climb the ladder with just one organization or we may bounce from one company to the other while constantly seeking a better position. By keeping this picture in mind it allows use to open up our options for employment as well as possible roads to take. Becoming self-employed is an accomplishment in itself but we shouldn’t stop there. We can always imagine our business earning more profit or picture ourselves in an entirely different business altogether. Most people that start small businesses ultimately “fail” but at the very least they will learn from the experience. They may climb up the ladder but then fall off the ladder. Then they might do it all over again and succeed in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th try. Climbing the self-employment ladder has a “yo-yo” effect while the corporate ladder is more linear.
If we want to be self-employed we have to start somewhere and sometimes this involves being at the bottom. Robert Kiyosaki classifies people into four camps: employees, self-employed, business owners and investors. Lets take the latter three and lump them into the self-employment ladder. In this case the self-employed would be at the bottom, followed by the business owners and the investors at the top. Kiyosaki talks a lot about how important it is to be at the right side of the cashflow quandrant but there is still value in being in the self-employment category. Most people don’t become business owners right away and do so as a result of climbing the self-employment ladder.
