Mind Your Own Business

We live in troubled times.

From executives and middle managers to administration employees and blue-collar workers, from bankers to retail clerks, all are at risk. Job security is gone, a thing of the past. Of course, you already know all this.

There is no longer such a thing as a safe and secure job. You have no control.

The number of people losing the job at 40 or 45 is rising rapidly.

It is a hard and depressing situation for those re-writing their Resume at 45.

The number of people living officially below the poverty line is rising rapidly.

The number of people who are working beyond the age of 65 is increasing.

The number of middle-class families is dropping. Savings accounts are smaller, if they exist at all, and family debt is greater.

When I was a kid, my parents taught me the same formula for success that you probably learned: Go to school, study hard, and get good grades so you can get a secure, high-paying job with benefits—and your job will take care of you.

But that’s Industrial-Age thinking, and we’re not in the Industrial Age anymore. Your job is not going to take care of you. The government will not take care of you. Nobody’s going to take care of you. It’s a new century, and the rules have changed.

My parents believed in job security, company pensions, Social Security, and Medicare. These are all worn-out, obsolete ideas left over from an age gone by. Today job security is a joke, and the very idea of lifetime employment with a single company is as anachronistic as a manual typewriter.

We’re in the Information Age now, and we need to use Information Age thinking. Fortunately, people are starting to listen and learn.

. If you’ve spent years climbing the corporate ladder, have you ever stopped to notice the view? What view, you ask? The rear end of the person in front of you. That’s what you get to look forward to. If that’s the way you want to view the rest of your life, then stop reading any further.

But if you are sick and tired of looking at someone else’s behind, then read on.

The economy is not the issue. The issue is you.

Are you angry at yourself for not taking control sooner? Life is tough. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Moaning and groaning won’t secure your future. Neither will blaming the stock market, the big bankers, or the government.

If you want a solid future, you need to create it. You can take charge of your future only when you take control of your income source.

You need your own business.

Excerpts courtesy and copyrights: The Business of the 21st Century (by Robert Kiyosaki)