Next week I have an eBook coming out titled “How To Program Your Mind For Entrepreneurialism,” so here’s an except from the eBook chapter titled: The 9 To 5 Mindset.
Many successful entrepreneurs have had to overcome the challenge of breaking free from the 9 to 5 mindset and embrace the mindset of a successful entrepreneur. The 9 to 5 mindset is what keeps many aspiring entrepreneurs from becoming successful and many people overall from becoming rich. Let’s breakdown this mindset and why it it can literally cripple you from reaching your financial goals.
So, what is the 9 to 5 mindset? The 9 to 5 mindset is believing that you can work 40 hours a week for 40 years and retire on 40 percent of your salary. Now, while this may have been true for the Gen X and the Baby Boomer generation this is no longer true for Millennials. According to the statistics, over the past forty years wages have declined, if we account for inflation, while the cost of living is increasing. If you want to become wealthy in the new economy you have to break free from this mindset.
The 40 Hour Work Week
For example, let’s break down the issues with the 40 hour work week. How many employees, who are paid by salary, actually work 40 hours per week? When I was in Corporate America I got paid for 40 hours per week but seldom did I work those many hours. Most weeks I worked between 45 to 60 hours not including the times were I checked my email outside of work. Since I was paid salary and not hourly I always got paid for the 40 hours even though I worked more than that.
If someone is working hourly, they may think that since they are eligible for overtime they will make money. While this is technically true, after you account for taxes, the amount of take home income is never worth the amount of overtime an individual had to work. Working hourly for any company oftentimes leads to a schedule that’s unpredictable and with less flexibility than a salaried worker. On top of that, when an hourly employee is not at work, they don’t get paid just like a salaried worker.
There Is No Freedom
The reason why many people choose to pursue entrepreneurship is because they want more freedom and have the benefit of not having a boss. People who have the 9 to 5 mindset have little to no freedom and are almost completely reliant on their jobs for income. In other words, if they stop working, they will stop making money. As an entrepreneur you can not only choose how many hours per week you want to work, you can also choose exactly where you want to work at any point in time. You never have to ask for permission to work from home, you just do it. You never have to ask for permission to go on vacation, you just do it.
With the 9 to 5 mindset, an individual is working the required 40 hours, maybe more, and is paid in relation to their time and not their value. As an entrepreneur and an employer, giving someone money in exchange for their time is a winning trade because they understand that time is more valuable than money. As an employee, trading your time for money is always a losing trade because you can never get your time back, once its spent its gone forever but you can always get more money.
Thanks for reading The 9 To 5 Mindset.
