The full time job is dead.

The days of finding a position within a corporation, climbing the ladder, and then retiring at age 65 just don’t exist anymore.

Don’t believe me?

Ask someone graduating college this year how easy it is to find a good paying job.  Check with a 40 year old that just got laid off how easy it is to find work.

I personally think this is a great thing.

The security of a full time job can kill passions and dreams faster than almost anything else. 

There’s a reason age 65 became the retirement age. It’s because people couldn’t take another day working in a dead end job that they weren’t passionate about.

No 6 year old says their dream is to go work for “The Man.” But that’s exactly what most of us as adults strive for.

I’m not saying that there aren’t full time job’s with companies out there. I have a pretty good one myself.

I am saying that whether you recognize it or not, you’re self employed.

Don’t handle yourself professionally. Don’t perform quality work. Don’t provide value and you won’t make money very long. That sounds an awful like running your own business to me.

You may be contracting 40 hours of your week for a corporation or other business, but you aren’t employed by them. You’re employed by yourself.

Recognizing that the full time job is dead is freeing.

If we’re all self employed shouldn’t we choose to own businesses we’re passionate about. When we choose to exchange time invested for money shouldn’t it be doing something we’ve always wanted to do?

Sure you spend 40 hours of your week designing boring print layouts for your company. But since you’re self employed too you exchange 10 hours of your time doing graphic design for that non profit you’re passionate about. Now that company you contract for affords you the opportunity to do the 10 hours of work you’re truly passionate about.

Then when you’re not working on computer graphics you exchange another 10 hours of your week helping your neighbors plant a garden in their back yard for a small fee.

Working 40 hours a week for 40 years of your life in a job you’re not passionate about is dead. Exchanging your time and expertise for money is the new frontier and I think it’s awesome.

We’re all self employed. The sooner we recognize it the sooner we can start building something awesome.