What Independence Day Could Mean To You

If you do a quick search online for the term Independence Day, you’ll get results about either the 1996 movie with Will Smith, or the upcoming holiday that celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and independence from British rule.

  

For most people Independence Day is about fireworks, parades, hot dogs, baseball, concerts, fairs, patriotism and barbeques, with red, white and blue everywhere.

  

That’s all well and good, but I’ve got a different take on Independence Day.  Sure I’m proud to be an American, but I’m prouder of the fact that much like The American Colonies who sought freedom from British rule and got it, I’ve fought for my freedom from the Corporate World, and I won my independence on a full-time basis nearly 3 years ago now.

  

So before you get too wrapped up in the fireworks this Fourth of July, why not take a moment to think about the progress you’ve taken towards securing your own independence?

  

Are you someone who’s also successfully able to celebrate Independence Day with your own job independence fully in-hand? 

  

If you’re already job independent—congratulations are in order.  But are you really as successful as you could be?

 

  

This economy has created many of what I call “involuntary entrepreneurs.”  In the media it’s often called “accidental entrepreneurism” or “second act” if you’re older.  And many of these involuntary entrepreneurs aren’t making anywhere near what they used to.  Their independence has come at a fairly large price.  In fact, many didn’t really want to be independent at all, but had no choice!  The Corporate rug was pulled out from under them, and the decision was made for them.  Many of these people are surviving out on their own, but often they’re not thriving.

  

The secret to successful self-employment, to me, is to have original ways to create the income stream that you need to meet your standard of living.  If you’re job independent, but haven’t achieved this, keep reading, I’ve got something for you to consider.

  

Now are you someone who perpetually has one foot in the Corporate World, and the other into working your Plan B to get you out of there?

  

Absolutely, especially in challenging economic times, if you’ve got a job and are not financially ready to go solo, you’re doing the right thing.  But are you working your Plan B hard enough?  Are you working your Plan B the right way?  Are you working your Plan B at all?

  

It’s tough to moonlight—I did it myself for years before I was in a position to go independent full-time.  How did I make it happen?  Well, being in banking for some of the biggest NY banks, even in good economic times, I lived through three bank mergers.  I saw good people tossed aside for no other reason than they were on the wrong side of the merger, and they cost too much.  Those experiences shook me to my core and got me thinking about doing something to get out.

  

I got duped into being the dutiful corporate employee and moved up the corporate ladder, until one day when someone pulled it out from under me.  Once I became VP of Marketing, and another merger happened a couple of years later, and I cost too much, the same thing happened to me that happened to all the good people I knew before me.

  

I wasn’t ready at that time to stay independent (although I tried for a year), because I didn’t have a Plan B.  But the lesson I learned was that I had to have a little something on the side (business-wise), for myself, at all times.  And outside of my working hours it had to be my priority.  You either want to work towards independence, or you don’t.

  

Fear not though, I’ve got the answer for your Plan B coming up!

  

Lastly, are you one of my readers who is only in the dreaming stage of independence?

  

When I was in the Corporate World, I knew very few people who didn’t have fantasies of telling their boss to “take a hike.”  They kept dreaming of starting their own business.  And dreaming of starting their own business.  And dreaming of starting their own business.

  

And they never acted upon it!

  

It’s okay to dream, but if you really value your independence, there comes a time when you have to do something about it.  Don’t tell the boss to “take a hike”—at least not until you’re sure you’ve got the finances and the solid business model in place to not just burn that bridge, but torch it.  But at least get some solid moonlighting on the side going, and then go from moonlighting to prime time with your independence front and center!

  

And once you get that independence, you’ve got to treat it like the most cherished thing on earth (besides your loved ones of course—but even then it’s got to be close second because you’re also doing this for them).

  

There are lots of ways to create your own job independence, and I looked into many myself—franchises, ready-made businesses, network marketing, independent contractor opportunities in real estate and mortgages—but it always seemed that in going that route I was never really gaining my true independence.

  

In my high school yearbook, like everyone else, I included a quote below my picture—a pretty insightful one actually.  It was a line from a song by Barry Manilow (don’t laugh, he was hot at the time), called All The Time and the key line was “to think I had it all the time.”

  

It wasn’t until years later, when I was trying to find my calling as an entrepreneur, that I really believed that I always had the answer to my own independence within myself.  That my own unique knowledge was my ticket to independence that was sustainable through original content infopreneuring.  Once I focused on what I uniquely knew, rather than chasing after someone else’s business model—my next attempt to stay independent as an infopreneur, was it.  I would be out this time for good.

  

Going back to Barry Manilow’s song, one of the full verses really rings true now—"All the time, all the wasted time.  All the years waiting for a sign, to think I had it all the time.”

  

So in this What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know - The Blog For Original Content Infopreneurs post, we learned that:

  

**If you’re already independent, but surviving, rather than thriving…

  

**If you’re moonlighting but never seem to get in a position to break out…

  

**If you’re dreaming of your independence rather than acting on it…

  

You need to consider the hot, knowledge-based field of original content infopreneuring, and then next year around this time, Independence Day just might have a different meaning for you!

  

I invite you to learn everything you need to know, step-by-step, about infopreneuring and marketing so you too can successfully gain your independence in time.  Get a FREE 3-chapter excerpt from my 5-star Amazon rated book What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ - Achieving The Life You Were Meant To Have By Making Money From What YOU Know! and access to my 60-minute author interview teleseminar CLICK HERE

Happy Infopreneuring!

  --Melanie R. Jordan, The Expert At Making Money From What You Uniquely Know,  Author of What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know™ - Achieving The Life You Were Meant To Have By Making Money From What YOU Know! and Host of infopreneur podcast What You Know Is Worth More Than You Know(TM), The Podcast Available 24/7 at: http://www.WhatYouKnowIsWorthMorePodcast.com

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The Healthy Food Review where healthy eating with favorite comfort foods is deliciously possible! at http://www.TheHealthyFoodReview.com

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