You think we don't understand the unemployed

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Now and then I hear people say, “You don’t know what it is like to be unemployed.” And how wrong they are.

Every entrepreneur and self-employed professional understands the plight of the unemployed. The uncertainty of how they are going to pay the bills. The wondering when the next check will come in. The concerns about how to fund special events like Christmas or Thanksgiving. The fear that there will never be another customer or client.

The difference is that we chose this life.

We chose working for ourselves even though we usually don’t even have unemployment to fall back on. If we are smart, we have figured out that there will be cycles and we put money away for the low cash flow months. But we aren’t always that smart and there aren’t always as many feasts as there are famines. When recessions hit, they affect us too because often people hold back on buying our products or services just like they hold back on other spending and new purchases.

As crazy as the uncertainty is, the exhilaration of being in charge of your own destiny and the ability to keep trying and keep building drives us. Every year there are more people who opt out of the traditional job and try some form of  entrepreneurship or self employment. Some make it but for some, the stress is too much and they have no desire to keep trying for the rest of their life and they return to traditional employment.

For others, like myself, they keep at it and live through the storms and trials because they love what they do and love the challenge. There will always be people who question your self-employment choice. I will never forget the loan officer who told me she couldn’t refinance my loan for me, because after all, I was self-employed. To her, that made me unreliable and not worthy of trust. That was more than 15 years ago and I have now been self-employed for almost 30 years. How many people stay employed for 30 years?

But whenever someone who is unemployed says that they don’t think I understand what it is like, I tell them they are wrong. Even though I did choose this lifestyle, I really do understand their fears and uncertainty. Perhaps this is why I can tell them with certainty that they will come out the other side if they have persistence and use the skills of a savvy job seeker.

How do I know? I specialize in success stories for other people and their stories have become my success story.