Employee Mindset Disease - The Silent Killer of Creativity
by Samson Itoje
One of the biggest challenge employees face (without realising it) is what I call the Employee Mindset Disease.
What kind of disease is this?
The employee mindset disease is the condition of the mind whereby individual employees are conditioned to desire to earn money only through paid employment.
It doesn't matter how intelligent, smart, educated or naturally creative these employees are. Their focus is to earn money to pay their bills by getting a job.
They are often excited when they secure their first job.
However, they become dissatisfied soon thereafter either because the pay is too low or the working conditions are just not humane enough for their liking.
The employees really good at networking soon get another job with better pay and better working conditions. But in a couple of years they're looking for an even better offer. This time a job with probably a car and a better overall remuneration package.
Of course, they deserve something better!
So, after several years of scouting (and probably acquiring a couple of additional or higher degrees along the way) . . . and after a great deal of networking . . . they finally land a lucrative job with a lucrative pay.
WoW!
Finally, all their money problems are over!
Now they can settle down to enjoy the good life since they can now afford everything they need plus some luxury.
Looks like the employee mindset disease is not so bad after all!
The Employee Nightmare - "Sorry, My Friend, Your Time Is Up"
So, everything works great for several years . . . even several decades.
Life is good for the employee. Everything is working great.
The employee has come a long way. He started with nothing but he now has . . .
>> A 4 bedroom home with 2 living rooms and 2 kitchen he bought through a 35 year mortgage
>> He has a giant size HD TV in each room plus the two living rooms
>> Cable TV is blasting away in all of the rooms
>> He has the best music system money can buy
>> His 3 kids attend the best private Universities in a first world country
>> He has 3 cars: one for himself, one for his wife and one for the domestic staff
>> He has 3 domestic staff to keep his property in top shape
>> He has an expensive gym membership . . . a gym he visits once in a blue moon
>> He loves eating out with his family several times a month in this beloved restaurant that offer exotic delicacies
>> He takes a vacation with his family twice a year. Yes, he's a wonderful family guy.
There is just one problem.
He finds himself Just Over Broke (J.O.B.) despite his lucrative salary.You see, after he pays his mortgage, the insurance on his 3 luxury cars, his domestic staff and all of the bills that keep coming non-stop every month, he finds that there is little left in his bank account.
He has had that problem before when his salary was half what it is now.
He solved that problem by getting higher education and thereafter getting a more lucrative job. But even now that he is earning twice what he used to earn, he has eventually got back to the same point.
He is back to being Just Over Broke!
He has recently started to think about retirement planning but there is very little left after all of his monthly expenses to have anything to set aside for retirement planning.
For some reason this thought disturbed him all weekend. Even as he got to his desk that Monday morning, he had the urge to do something drastic to start
preparing for retirement.
Just before noon break he got a call from his boss. His boss wanted to have a short meeting with him.
At the meeting the boss told him with a straight face,
"I'm sorry, Bob. The recent merger and acquisition between our company and company XYZ has rendered your job redundant".He was devastated. He didn't see this coming.
The weeks and months that followed were filled with desperation.
He fired his domestic staff in a bid to cut expenses.
He sold two of his 3 luxury cars as he couldn't afford to maintain them anymore. And there was a good chance he would sell the third one because the maintenance cost was prohibitive for his out of work status.
His children's University education payments?
Well, he came to a sudden realisation that those private Universities were too damn expensive.
There is no way he could afford to pay those ridiculously expensive school fees with no job!
"How did I get myself involved with those outrageous school fees in the first place?", he asked himself rhetorically.
As if that was not bad enough, Bob started defaulting on his mortgage payment and the bank came knocking.
In fact, the bank was threatening him with foreclosure.
To make matters worse,
with no job and no money, he found himself having repeated conflicts with his wife over money!As he stared up at the ceiling he wondered, "
Where did all my money go?".
Employee Mindset Disease - Enjoy For 40years. Live Thereafter In Misery.
Did you get the point of the above illustration?
Let me break it down.
The employee mindset disease has the following impact on employees:
1. It keeps them focused on earning money through the search for a job. They do not wish to explore any other avenues to earn money. They just want a job!
2. It keeps them dissatisfied. And it keeps them seeking for a sense of satisfaction by changing jobs over and over again in the hope that a better pay and better remuneration will quench their thirst for a better life
3. It keeps them focused on acquiring things they consider to be assets, which are in fact liabilities. And that obsession with acquiring liabilities drains them of their monthly earnings and keeps them just over broke
4. It teaches them to avoid business and investment risks and instead focus on salary security
5. It leaves them broke after 35 to 40 years of active service
Yes,
being addicted with the employee mindset disease will leave you broke and miserable after retirement!The bad news is this . . . more than half of the world's population is conditioned to think this way.
More than half of the world's population is afflicted with the employee mindset disease.I'm talking over 3 billion people!
Guess what.
The more educated people are . . . the more academic qualifications people have . . . the more addicted they become to the employee mindset disease.What makes billions of people worldwide so stuck on being employees for life?
Why do billions of people worldwide believe that the only
guaranteed path to making money is through getting a job and staying stuck with is for 40 years?
The reason is because our school system teach people (starting from an early age) to go to school, get good grades and then search for jobs.
Our schools do not teach our kids to go to school, learn creative skills and create jobs.Consequently, majority of people worldwide are stuck on searching for jobs after obtaining their degrees instead of creating jobs after graduating from school.
No wonder there is high level of unemployment in many countries!
Yes,
the employee mindset disease is a silent killer of creativity in billions of intelligent and inherently creative people worldwide!What can you do about it?
It is likely that you cannot change the school curriculum worldwide (or even in your country).
But you can change yourself.
You can choose to invest your salary (no matter how small it is) in viable business and investment opportunities.You can choose to invest in cash generating assets and not liabilities.
Investing in liabilities that look like assets make employees appear rich while systematically draining them of their potential investment capital.
The truth is . . .
you can transition from being an employee into an employer of labour.You can become the founder and CEO of your own small or medium size company. And get other people working night and day to make money for you.
Bottom line.
Set yourself free from the employee mindset disease by investing in viable business and investment opportunities after calculating the risk.This is the sure path to
guaranteed retirement income and a fulfilling and financially independent retirement.