Motivation and Opportunity

Before the end, I worked regular hours, earned regular pay, commuted far and was a often a little bit disatisfied. In short, I was employed.

Following redundancy I’ve been busy researching, discussing and planning (my excuses for few blog posts recently) and now have concluded:- I’m not going to seek further employment, instead I will be my own boss and earn my own crust!

This is, of course, both exciting and risky and deserved my serious consideration. Some of you may have considered similar decisions for yourselves and come to various conclusions. As I’ve described before, our environment often trains us to be risk-averse, to get as well paid a job as we can find and then conform to keep it. (The misfortune of some is that the perceived need to conform blinds them to the reality of some of the costs of doing so.)

Like a rocket escaping the gravity of earth, breaking out of the employee mould requires something of a leap. This, I think, requires motivation and opportunity, and the presence or absence of these are probably the main factors why different people choose different courses.

Anyway, back to me. My basic plan is to establish a small software company, target a niche market and trade primarily over the internet – a type of business sometimes referred to as a micro ISV. I’ll write more in the future about my first product and my progress in making it ready for release, suffice for now to say that it is specifically for management accountants and that I would have saved many hours each month, when employed, had I written it before.

It remains to be seen how the new hours, pay and satisfaction stack up against what I’ve been used to. The only thing I know for certain is that I’m not going to commute far!