Freedom

As we begin to celebrate during this next week our nation's birthday, I felt it would be interesting to take a look at one of the freedoms that we enjoy that we may not think about very often, and that is the freedom we have in our work. Now, the two don't seem to go together, work and freedom, but we enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom in this country in the work we do and for whom we do it. So what I'd like to do is I'd like to explore a little bit with you today that freedom we enjoy in our work. If you haven't had a chance to see the first video that I did on this idea of freedom and work, I want to encourage you to watch it. It's on this page. But the idea is, is that you and I, all of us, are the CEO of our own personal services corporation. We are free to choose whom we sell our services to, whether that's one company or one individual as an employee or whether it's under many as a contractor or as a small business or even big business. So come with me and enjoy this little look at freedom in a way that maybe we haven't thought about before as we dissect the word free. Before I begin to dissect this word free, I just want to encourage you to take a look at the article that I wrote that kind of led me to this whole theory about freedom. In it I talk about the idea that the greatest giveaway of freedom in America is on Monday morning. That we willingly give away our freedom and so many of us are unhappy in our work. If you're one of those people that's unhappy in your work, I really want to encourage you to, first of all, don't do anything rash, but do enjoy these videos and I think you'll find that there's an opportunity for you to find joy in your work again. And whether that would be in your current work or in new work, I think that you ought to really think about where you want to be in a short order so that you can get to the joy that you really deserve. I like to think of the F in FREE to remind me to find my passion. Each of us needs to find our passion that we have, the thing that we were put on this planet to do. You know, all of us have a purpose. There's a reason we're here, and whether you agree with that or not, the evidence is overwhelming. We're here to do something for our fellow man. We're here to make a difference in people's lives and in our own lives, and we're here to grow and to learn to love and to many, many other things. But one of the things that we are very blessed to have in this country is the freedom to find that passion we have, to find the purpose that we're here for, and to fulfill that purpose with passion. So, I want to encourage you to think of the F as finding your passion. Now, the work you're doing today, there's passion in it. You just need to find it. Whether you like the job or not, or the work that you do, or the companies you work for, maybe you started a small business a while ago and you wonder why you ever did that. The fact is, you need to find the passion that drove you to it in the first place. Passion's an interesting thing. It comes from fulfilling a purpose that we feel deep down inside that we have. You know, passion has been used in a number of different ways, but the one greatest passion that we can have is the desire to be all we were made to be. So whether that's through love, or through work, or through friendship, or through relationships, one of the things that's going to be there is doing something with others. It's hard to find passion without somebody else in the equation. So as you think about passion in your work, you also have to think about whom do you plan on serving? Who is it that you're uniquely qualified to help? What is the customer that would be your customer? And perhaps that's your employer right now. Or perhaps it's a business or entity that you need to create to serve those people. There's a big gap out there just waiting for your passion to serve it. So think of the F in FREE as finding your passion. The R in the word FREE helps me to remember that I'm free to be the CEO of my own personal services corporation. You and I have that choice. We're free to serve whom we wish. We can either choose to serve one and be an employee, or we can serve many and be a contractor, or we can even create a company of our own and serve the multitudes. The decision is up to us. We just have to remember that everything we do in our work, we need to treat as if we are the president and CEO of our own company, because we are. And sometimes you need to ask yourself when you do things, Would I hire that person? Would I keep that person on? Would I give that person a raise? The questions are important because you need to be constantly trying to improve the product and service that you're delivering, and that product and service is you. So use the R in the word FREE to remember that you are free to choose whom you'll sell your product and service to, and that product and service is you. The first E in the word FREE is to examine your current line of work. Now, I mentioned this a little bit when we were talking about the letter F, and— but now is the time to really take a look at the work you're doing and the line of work you're in. You know, chances are you ended up in the work you're doing for a reason, and that reason is often because somewhere along the line you had a passion for what you were doing. Now, Sometimes we don't know that we have that passion until much later in life, and sometimes the passion we thought we had, we no longer keep. But we have to examine the work we're doing to find out what it is that we're uniquely qualified to do now that we have the experience that we've gained. Oftentimes there's tremendous opportunity in the line of work we're currently in, and yet we spend so much time thinking about how much greener the grass is on the other side of the fence. Let me tell you, grass is greener on the other side when it's watered and fertilized. And sometimes you just need to water and fertilize your own patch of grass. And if you're in that position right now, then be grateful. Be grateful for the work that you have. Be grateful for the opportunity to get better at your work. But if you're not happy where you are, be grateful also because you have years of experience that you've gained in this field that you can then take to another field or another opportunity and benefit from. So examine that line of work you're in right now. Find out if it is your river of passion. If it's not, don't jump too soon, but find that river of passion and then use what you've learned in the new river you'll experience. It was hard to choose the final E in the word FREE and what it would stand for. I wanted to think of it as enthusiastically go after your dream, but I chose to have the E stand for exercise your freedom. And the real idea behind that is, is that if you do exercise your freedom in your work, you'll enthusiastically do it. Exercising your freedom means take and discover what it is that you want to do, identify if you can do it in your current situation, and then if not, going after it with everything you've got. Just imagine the countless hours you're gonna waste doing something you don't wanna do if you're locked in a job you don't like. I believe that the greatest path to freedom in this country is through entrepreneurship. And I wanna encourage you to think about starting a business for yourself if you're not already in business. If you're already in business, I wanna encourage you to think about why you're in business and think about the passion that you had when you started it and get back to day one if you can. Because on day one everything had opportunity. So I want to encourage you on that fourth E, to exercise that freedom that you have in work. Remember, the F is for find your passion, the R is for remember that you're the CEO of your own personal services corporation, the first E is for examine your current line of work to find out if you're in the right place or if you need to move along. And then the final E is for exercise your freedom. Go out there and make a place for yourself. I really want to encourage you to think about entrepreneurship. It is the fastest way to financial independence in our country still today, but it's without a doubt the fastest way to joy and to freedom. I'm Glen Gould, and I'm glad you got to see me today.