Conclusion - The Pursuit of Freedom Goes Beyond 9 to 5
"Most corporate workhorses I know are just that - overworked & overstressed, overweight & over-traveled. "Free from corporate America" means a strength of body & spirit. We might still work with (and for) large companies. But we know our financial security comes from our own skills and imagination."
They say that 1/4 of all Americans are already freelancers, but how many are really free? Even the definition of freedom is open to question. “Financial freedom” is one way to change our destiny, but the all-out pursuit of any goal can prove to be its undoing. I’ll never forget spending time with a dying millionaire, someone who saved a fortune but never really lived.
When I think back to my most corporate years, I can’t help but question what I was doing and what it was adding up to. Most folks who worked behind a desk for 10 years look like it. We sacrifice our bodies and souls for employers that don’t bother to return the favor. That’s why the focus of this book has been achieving financial autonomy. We can’t make our peace with the marketplace when it has its foot on our necks.
So why, then, are some of the happiest people I know mired in financial struggles? For one thing, this book is not about happiness, it’s about freedom, and the two are not the same. But the overlap is instructive: the happiest people I know have a combination of meaningful work and inspiring relationships.
The happy amongst us might be cash-strapped, but they all have one thing going: they haven’t signed over to all-consuming work. They’ve saved a little something on the side. They’ve got a wild card in their hand, which they use on their kids, their show dogs, or their garden. They’ve got some kind of sacred place in their lives, a place work can’t touch.
We’ve already noted that beyond subsistence, money has a diminishing return. Still, we need to accumulate as much as possible without losing balance. Excess cash can be powerfully applied. I’ve thought about creating funds for aspiring artists, building wildlife sanctuaries, financing independent films. We’re naïve if we don’t appreciate how money funds the realization of dreams.
The biggest payoffs from this process are not financial. Most corporate workhorses I know are just that - overworked and overstressed, overweight and over-traveled. “Free from corporate America” means a strength of body and spirit. We might still work with (and for) large companies. But we know our financial security comes from our own skills and imagination. We can create a new opportunity to replace anything we lose.
That kind of confidence doesn’t come easily. That’s why I wrote this book. Not to bolster the confidence of readers, but to bolster my own. My next steps are still daunting. I’ve solved many riddles, but I’m low on time to implement solutions. That’s why I’ll be focusing more on screenplays, with the ultimate intention of breaking into film. These are the assets I hope to create next.
Whether or not I get there, I won’t waver from the principles in this book. I have distilled this book’s lessons from the struggles of many talented people, most of whom graduated from college but have not found it easy since. My parents and grandparents were all philosophers - this book is my chance to share street-tested ideas in a way that anyone can hopefully relate to and take advantage of. Ideas are too powerful to hide in fancy and obscure academic language.
I have not arrived at my ultimate goals, but the ideas in this book have nonetheless changed my life. I’ve seen them used to great effect by plenty of people. These ideas are hardly my own. It’s been a privilege to apply them to the problem so many of us face: forging a better life in circumstances that seem to be shifting beyond our control. We keep hearing the economy is doing well, yet the common experience is one of uncertainty and displacement.
I was strongly influenced by the Enron hearings and all those folks who gave that company everything and walked away with post-it notes. The Enron experience was an extreme, but it pointed to a common problem: if companies look after their shareholders first, what are we as employees going to do about it? And can our response lead to success instead of martyrdom?
I wrote this book during the most difficult year of my adult life. I found a way to get these chapters done because I needed to believe some dreams were not yet beyond my reach. There’s no secret here, just a new kind of resolve - a desire to be defined not by my debts and disappointment, but by my effort and conviction. There is a way to be compensated for our best work. One of our biggest jobs in life is to find it.
Along the way, perhaps we can create a whole new approach to work - sometimes working for larger companies, sometimes pursuing our own ventures - but always with a tactical plan that ensures we will end up owning assets instead of being owned.
Employment is a use-use proposition. I’ve spent too many years being used by companies all too willing to lend a hand. And yet I put up with it, mostly because I had no plan as strong as my fears. But life doesn’t reward complacency; life rewards initiative. This book has given me a roadmap, a place to turn to when I lose my professional bearing. If it does the same for a few others, then the endeavor has been worth it.
