Unless you own a business you likely aren't going to get ahead

Work smarter not harder. I noticed this as I grew up because I started working part time by the time I was 10. I mostly felt like a slave to people who were making money off of me. So, by age 21 I knew I wanted to own one or more of my own businesses because I saw that this would be the only way that I wouldn't just be a slave like most people I knew that were adults in the 1950s and 1960s. I finally could wear enough hats by age 28 to become successful at this (and my father, Grandfather, uncle and cousin owned their own businesses) and so they had set an example of how to get ahead. My cousin is the only one still alive but he has traveled all over the world to every single place he ever wanted to go now with his wife and sometimes his children.

As I grew up I saw people working themselves literally to death often by the ages of 35 or 40. (This was especially true of almost everyone before about the 1970s or 1980s). In fact, most people died before they could collect social Security until the 1950s and 1960s and onward which means they died before age 65.

So, understanding the advantages to owning your own business is helpful in all of this. Though it is true times are somewhat different now let me give you a model of a successful business. First, having a store where you have to be there all the time or pay someone to be there all the time isn't necessarily a successful model for all people because of overhead. (overhead is how much it costs to pay someone to be there all the time and how much it costs to rent or buy a store front and pay utilities and other expenses ongoing.

In other words you CANNOT make any profit at all until you pay all these expenses as an owner.



So, if you want more free time and more profit often starting in your garage or a rented garage or space (like Stephen Jobs and Steve Wozniak did of Apple Computers) is the way to go.

OF course this depends upon what you are trying to do as a service or what you are trying to sell. However, this worked for me because I didn't want to wait in a storefront waiting for customers to come to me.

Also, my father and Grandfather and Uncle were Electrical Contractors who generally worked out of their garages or warehouses and didn't have storefronts either. So, this example was set for me.

Another way to get ahead is to build your own home. My father set this example for me by buying 2 1/2 acres on Yucca Mesa above Yucca Valley in California and built a home to retire to along with me my mother and friends on weekends between 1968 and 1980 when he retired.

So, I had examples of how to get ahead by both owning my own business or businesses and how to get ahead by building my own home thereby never needing a mortgage that I would have to pay off ever.

So, my first business was as a Landscaping Contractor working with Landscape Architects in La Jolla, and Rancho Santa Fe in the late 1970s. I realized from owning this business that I really liked owning a business but also realized contracting is a really hard business sort of like Las Vegas in that each contract is a gamble and any mistakes (yours or other people's) and you are going to lose. If times are good you might make a 35% profit but if times are bad you might just barely break even and not lose your shirt. But, if you  or the weather changes or an employee or subcontractor makes a mistake you can easily go out of business.

However, learning about owning a business was very very helpful for the rest of my life and taught me to start other businesses out of my garage selling services or things. Over time I became more and more successful and had more and more free time.

Even with my Landscaping business I found all I needed was a truck and tools. And then I bought a cabover camper so I could work anywhere and have a place to stay while working. I got side jacks for my cabover camper so I could take the camper off and park it and use the truck for hauling stuff and working too. I even welded up a device to tow my motorcycle to places by bolting the front wheel to something I put through where the ball goes for towing things and leaving the motorcycle in neutral.

So, not only did I have a place to stay I also had my motorcycle (a dualsport) to ride dirt roads wherever I was for fun. (This was in between marriages). However, I also had to have a babysitter for my son who was about 4 then or then I put him in Kindergarten so it was less expensive after that.

So, where there's a will there's a way to get ahead. But, owning your own business you are more likely to get ahead than working for someone else generally speaking. But, as in anything there are always exceptions. For example, my God Daughter is a master Sommelier and now makes $100,000 a year at a great Restaurant in Los Angeles. And she hasn't even finished college. She probably made it to a junior level at a State university.

So, at 30 she is making $100,000 a year and likely her husband is doing the same. So, this is another way to get ahead.

However, you have to be a person who understands that "Nothing ventured nothing gained" (especially here in the U.S.) is how people actually get ahead.

1. Sommelier - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SommelierCached

   Description. A sommelier may also be responsible for the development of wine lists, and books [2] and for the delivery of wine service and training for the other ...
   
   Note:
   Another reason to own your own business or businesses is that likely you might live (if you are young now) to 140 to 200 years of age because of ongoing medical technology and better diets worldwide. So, if you live that long you need enough money to enjoy the last 100 to 160 years of your life especially as you travel around the world during your 100 to 140 years of retirement.