We all know job security is a thing of the past. Technology has replaced the work of many people and it makes sense from a business standpoint to do just that. Technology is more efficient, costs less, and doesn’t need to take any sick days or vacations.
Technology is able to do that because a lot of jobs are systemized. They have to be. There’s a routine to every job. You learn it, you get paid to do it. But for whatever reason, you can be let go at any moment and another person can come in and with some training, do the same thing.
From a business ownership standpoint, you want jobs to be “turn key”. You plug in a person with the right skills, they can do the job easily.
That being said, it’s not enough to just do your job because if you do just that, you’re easily replaceable.
This is EXACTLY why you must adopt an entrepreneurial type mindset in this day and age.
It’s the most secure thing you can do for yourself. And you don’t have to own your own business to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset. You can still do that as an employee for the company you work for.
But what is the entrepreneurial type mindset?
Is it independence? Is it breaking all the rules? Is it risk taking?
Far from it.
It’s simply this.
CREATING.
And if I might add another aspect, SELLING what you create.
But before you dive into all that, make sure you can master what you currently do RIGHT NOW.
Get a handle on your job and do it well.
Get a lay of the land. Once that foundation is built, THEN you can start looking for ways to CREATE.
Create new ways to get things done faster than ever before. Create new ways to cut costs. Create new ways to bring in clients. Create new ways to communicate effectively. Create new ways to brainstorm for ideas. CREATE CREATE CREATE.
It’s only through creation that you begin to get some semblance of that all important notion of security because once you become the type of person who can do AND create, you find yourself that much harder to replace.
Can somebody else do the same thing? Yes, but it’s rare and even if they can, it will take time for that person to get to where you are now so your advantage is right there. Less time and money spent on the company rehiring and training.
On the other end of the scale, if you own your own business, you’re doing this 24/7 already. You’re creating all the time. You HAVE to do this or you become irrelevant.
Without getting into this habit of creation, it’s so easy to fall asleep at the wheel, to just do your job.
Sooner or later, the pink slip is going to hit you out of nowhere.
And because you did not exercise this muscle of creating, you panic like crazy, whereas if you did adopt the entrepreneurial mindset before, even if you did get the pink slip for some odd reason, there’s a calm confidence in yourself that nobody can take from you. You feel you can go anywhere and do not just what the job description entails, but contribute in terms of creating as well.
That kind of swagger tends to carry over and help you land your next job or even give you the confidence to start your own business.
The key to adopting the entrepreneurial mindset is to be on the lookout for creating something beneficial that wasn’t there, and not just do it once in a while, but consistently.
And this has to be backed up by the discipline that you can get work done, which you do BEFORE you even start creating.
But as noted earlier, creating is half the equation of the entrepreneurial mindset. You must be able to sell what you create to your boss or to your clients.
That’s a whole other beast but will flow naturally if what you intend to create can really show a lot of benefits.
In this day and age, it’s not enough to just do.
Just doing your work will give you poor results.
Doing your work so that you do a great job will just give you average results and keep you on par.
If you want to take it to the next level and gain some semblance of job security or consistency with your business, you must create.
And that will definitely prove to be the new form of job/business security in the 21st century.
