The Benefits of 'Employing Yourself'

Do you want to become a professional within your field? Have you got a problem with taking criticism, becoming better at your craft? Do you become over-attached to your position in life that you cannot grow and expand on your skills, leaving you with a taste of stale resentment in your mouth that you cannot seem to get rid of?

I've left jobs over next to nothing.

I've switched my career four times. And I am only six years into my career.

From care work, counselling, sales, recruitment and marketing.

And what do I have to show for it?

Nothing besides torn relationships and a long list of employers on my CV.

What's next?

To continue down this road of imperfection and uncertainty?

Or to work to become great and start to see myself as a professional?

There is a concept that I have recently been introduced to.

It's called 'Yourself Incorporated.'

It's the idea that professionals, whatever their trade, detach themselves when they are working, to the point they see themselves as their own business.

They are the business, and the employee.

And they employ themselves.

Contractors do this literally.

And contractors are seen as the highest form of professionals, are they not?

I've figured out this has a lot of benefits... and I wanted to explore this concept and allow you to employ yourself, by showcasing the benefits of this technique.

You are as not emotionally engaged

You should not be emotionally attached to your jobs, your colleagues, your role.

It doesn't do you any favours long-term.

There is a degree of emotion and passion you must bring to the role, definitely.

But you can't be over-identifying with all of those things.

You must recognise, this is a business relationship.

You are a business.

This is a service you are providing as a professional.

And it's your job to do the best you can do.

Receive criticism more effectively

One of the main benefits of not being emotionally engaged in your job role is that you no longer take criticism personally.

This a professional endeavour.

And you are a professional.

If someone has something to say to you that may increase your ability, you should take that and learn from it.

Don't be resentful to them because they hurt your feelings.

Your feelings are separate from work, this is a professional setting.

Receiving criticism is the only way to know that you are doing something wrong, or that you could do something better.

If your business was doing something wrong, what would you do? You'd work hard to make things better.

When you employ yourself in this situation, you can react quickly to implement new techniques and improve on your skills to stop making the same mistakes over and over again.

If you are just simply yourself and you receive criticism, it can seem like a personal attack.

It's not.

It's a direction.

Use criticism to become a better version of yourself.

You act more professionally

You are no longer Karl Cowell.

You are Karl Cowell Incorporated.

Not you, but for me.

You would 'insert name here' Incorporated.

But you get it.

You no longer need to involve your personal life in the workplace. It's a separate entity.

You are a separate entity.

You are working under yourself incorporated, you can be a professional.

There is nothing personal about work.

It is work. You are paid to do a job.

For results.

And those results are based on your level of skill, expertise and effort.

You can increase all three of those, given the time and dedication it will take.

Employ yourself.

Become a professional.

This is not a personal venture.

You start to look at yourself as a business

Your job does not define you.

To somewhat, your skills do though.

What is your core skill? What do you bring to the team?

No job is forever.

Looking at yourself as a business gives you the advantage of knowing where you stand in the world, without having to rely on a job role as a crutch for your identity.

You are a business, and your career is your responsibility.

There is no handouts.

The job does not define who you are.

It's simply a part of who you are.

You are free outside of this venture to be a great husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter.

We have many roles in life.

This is just one of them.

You can separate yourself from it efficiently if you look at yourself as a business, not as a personal entity who is trying to engage in professional work.

I am no longer 'a writer.'

Writing is just one thing that I do.

I am a better son now I have employed myself.

I am a better partner.

I am a better friend.

Because I have detached myself from this venture efficiently enough to recognise this is not the only string to my bow.

And your profession is just one aspect of who you are.

It doesn't define you.

Remove the LinkedIn title.

Stop speaking to your personal friends as the lawyer you define yourself as being.

You are a human being.

You are multi-faceted.

If all you have to offer to this world is your profession, I feel sorry for you.

Your friends don't care (or shouldn't care) about what you do for a living.

That's just your job.

You are there to be a good friend. A good human being. They don't want your advice. And if they do, recognise that you must 'employ yourself' to that situation as a professional, and treat it that way.

Don't mix your professional life with your personal life.

Look at yourself a business, who employs yourself to do a job, 30, 40, 50, 60 hours per week.

The rest of the time... be you. And offer people everything else you have to offer.

If you don't, you'll have nothing left besides a miserable job and the status you think comes with that.

But trust me, nobody cares about that.

They care about you, and who you are to them.

And that's what matters.