Risk Averse? Become an Entrepreneur

When I graduated from college in 1982, interest rates were in the high teens and companies were beginning to treat employees not as family, but as disposable parts. I watched friends' fathers lose longtime jobs and wonder how they were going to support their families. They felt betrayed, as if their wife had left them for another man.

Even out of college, at the tail end of the paternal corporate employer, the real risk-takers, at least from my perspective, were the people who worked for one company. It was like buying one stock and believing that stock was going to grow and support you in retirement. There's little worse, especially for a man, than losing your job, if your self-worth is tied up in your work. Your identity is based on who you work for and your position.

Being an entrepreneur means no one can fire you. For a woman who wants to have children it means not totally sacrificing your career. The 65-plus executive who is told he must retire but isn't ready doesn't have to. What prevents a disabled person from starting and running their own business? It's really mind over matter.

As an entrepreneur, you get up every day and try to secure as many different clients (sources of income) as you can. That diversity gives you and your family peace of mind. Entrepreneurs worry about designing products and services that make clients happy, but they don't worry about having a job, and they know who they are.