How Bad Does It Have to Get?

With record layoffs, banks going out of business, corporations as well as state governments asking for bailouts, pensions and retirements drying up faster than the Sahara; my only question is, how bad does it have to get before you realize that the only way to be financially independent is to own your own business?

It never ceases to amaze me when I hear someone talking about how much they are struggling financially due to the economy, yet they refuse to look at business opportunities that could change their lives. For some reason the mentality that comes from this type of individual is one of dis-belief. They were raised with the mindset that in order to make money you have to work long and hard and invest a lot of money to make it. They think that making money from anything other than this philosophy is just to good to be true!

To good to be true? What's to good to be true about starting with nothing and building wealth? Isn't that the American Dream? Isn't being able to go from poverty to wealth merely by choice what the founding fathers envisioned? Isn't that what a free society is all about?

I'll tell you what's to good to be true; Working for someone else for 30 or 40 years and being able to save enough money to live well into retirement! Think I'm wrong? Go talk to any of the thousands of formerly retired individuals that are now working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart just to make ends meet! Go talk to the hundreds of thousands of people that lost their jobs in the past few months. Ask the people who lost their life savings in the stock market how their 401k or Roth IRA is doing.

If your not in control of your own income with your own business then you may have just forgotten what the American Dream is all about! You may think it's risky to start your own business, but how risky is it to let the Wall Street fat cats that are pleading for billions in bailout money control your income?

I hope you do yourself and your future a favor and start a business of your own as a new year resolution. If you don't do something different to control your livelyhood you're likely to have a rough few years ahead and chances are they may look worse than the last few.