Happiness, Health, Wisdom and Wealth ^™

So, after that, what's next? If you feel you have a good start on discovering your purpose, principles, play and passion use those to create a vision of what a life with those would look like. As you develop this vision it would be wise to do some research to find out what others with similar visions have done. Read biographies of entrepreneurs who have succeeded (or failed) in the areas you are considering. Then what? Well, the next logical step is to start a business. Start small with little at stake. If you are young and still living with your parents there are lots of possibilities. I would suggest you start with a 'practice' business. It may be a scaled down version of what you plan to develop; it may be a scaled down version of a related business or it may be a different category altogether. What's important is that it cheap to get into, easy to get out of, and provides a solid learning experience to develop the skills you'll need in your primary endeavor. I know of a couple of young men who decided to go into business. They talked a building owner into giving them a months free rent with no commitment. They spent the first week doing research and deciding what business to go into. They decided on advertising largely because they could do it with very little capital investment and it played to their creative strengths. They spent the next two weeks learning the basics of the advertising business. They spent the final week developing a clientele. Before that final week was out they had print ads running for three clients and radio ads running for two and two television commercials in production. They had made more than enough for the first months rent and start-up supplies. They went on to do very well for themselves. Unfortunately, they had not considered purpose, principles, play and passion so they ultimately sold the business to pursue things they cared more about. But this had been a really good 'starter' business. They had learned the skills necessary to develop and run a business and they had gained the confidence needed to make their next endeavor even more successful.

Creating your own business can be the easiest way to seek purpose, principles, play and passion and make lots of money, often lots more than you'd make at a 'real' job. It can also let you feel a sense of freedom and achievement that is very hard to find in conventional employment.

So what's the downside? Why doesn't everyone start a business? Well, the main drawback is that you're on your own. Success or failure is in your hands. You can't blame the 'higher ups' when things go badly. This is very scary to most people but it is a fear that like any fear can be overcome. That fear is not entirely unjustified. A high percentage of new businesses fail in their first year. (But so what, it's a learning experience and we're taking the long view, thinking in decades not months.) Also, it may take a great deal more wore work than a nine-to-five job. Those two young men I mentioned pulled frequent all-nighters, usually worked sixteen hour days and didn't have a day off for two or three years. When starting a business you should expect to work evenings and weekends most of the time. A seventy or eighty hour work week is more common than not. (Of course, if you're doing what you love it won't feel like a burden but it may strain family relationships and have other consequences.)

All in all self-employment may not be for everyone but I believe it is a much better option for a lot more people than there are taking advantage of it. I think everyone owes it to themselves to at least explore the possibility and think seriously about how self-employment would fit into their plans to live their vision and their dreams and to pursue their purpose, principles, play and passion.