It All Started About 5 Years Ago

After 14+ years of a successful corporate sales career, I decided to make a big move with my career and transition out of corporate sales into entrepreneurship.

My journey and transition into entrepreneurship from my past corporate sales career has definitely been filled with ups and downs, but most of all it has expanded my mind, vision and purpose, way be on what I could have ever expected.

Fast forward, 5+ years later, I am the founder of the Option 2 Lifestyle and the FOCUS-5 Method and I have learned a lot along the way.

In this article, I will share with you the pros and cons of both the corporate sales career/lifestyle/world and the career and life of an entrepreneur, (more specifically an online entrepreneur) through my eyes and my personal experience with both careers.

Before I get into the nuts & bolts of this article, I will first make this disclaimer.

As you read more into this article, you will find that you will be able to relate to a lot of what I say regarding my past corporate sales career. You may even be able to add to this list based on your own sales career experiences of which I encourage you to comment below as, I would love to hear your take too.

The purpose of this article is to shed some light on what it actually means to be an online entrepreneur and business owner versus the corporate sales career and lifestyle.

Everything that I express and share with you in this article is my honest opinion and is based entirely on my own past experiences with both of these career options.

Not only will I provide the pros and cons of each career option, but I'll tell you my story that lead me to where I am today.

And at the end of this article, I will summarize this entire article in 3-4 sentences of which will provide you with everything you need to know to make your career the best its ever been!

Okay, let's dive in and have some fun.

The Corporate Sales Career/Lifestyle

My past successful 14 year corporate sales career was without a doubt an excellent learning experience, both professionally and personally. Not only did I meet some amazing people and (some not so amazing people), but it created and developed the man I am today.

Although it was filled with ups and downs, my past 14 year corporate sales career was an amazing career and life journey that I would never trade in for anything.

Sales is a unique profession and the skills you learn and develop over time, can blaze an amazing career path for anyone, but it is a grind.

To be successful in sales (just like anything substantial in life) will require practice, determination, know-how, experience, grit, commitment and good old fashion hard work.

Here are the pros and cons of my past 14 year corporate sales career and I'm sure you'll be able to relate to some of them?

The Pros:

Job security - Although sales professionals have a higher turnover rate (because of the nature of the daily work involved) than most any other normal job , you can always count on your salary + car allowance, expense account, etc. every 2 weeks.

This forms the foundation of every corporate sales position and is certainly one of the strengths of having a 9 to 5 sales career.

Commission - In addition to your salary, you have the ability to earn a commission. This can take all different kinds of form, but this allows you to make more money than just having your salary alone.

The ability to make more money is really what attracted me to corporate sales at the beginning.

And if you are with a good company, with excellent management and compensation structure, you can propel yourself into the upper 1-3% of professionals who make over $100K+ per year.

Benefits - This varies between companies, but depending on the company, you should receive some sort of benefits package (dental, medical etc.). Benefits are always helpful in everyone's day to day lives and depending how good your benefits package is, it can drastically reduce your living costs.

All the large companies, I worked for always had a decent benefits package.

Sales conditions you to be a better person and professional - Over my past 14 years in sales, probably the single biggest benefit I learned, was how to listen, help and provide solutions to customers problems.

Not only was this my biggest takeaway from my sales career, but it was the thing I loved most about sales.

Listening, building relationships, solving problems and providing solutions, changes the way you view relationships and business. There is not better feeling, than to sit across the table from a CEO, CFO or some other high level professional(s)/decision maker(s) and ask questions about their business and the problems they are encountering.

Setting up next steps and providing solutions to their problems is like an "emotional high" that never gets old.

Sales makes you mentally tough and prepares you for life and entrepreneurship - One of the best and most appreciated take-away from my sales career, was that it made me tough.

Over the years, all the daily cold calling, pressure, stress, quotas, dealing with decision makers and putting together complex solutions, provides you with life lessons. Doing the things (ie. cold calling) that nobody likes to do, but you have to do, creates and builds toughness.

It forces you to look at the bigger issue of why you love sales - to help people and businesses with their problems. It makes you strong and creates emotional fortitude, that creates and builds a strong character.

The Cons:

Bad management/boss - I think everyone has experienced a bad boss at least once in their career. If this happens and depending on how bad they are, you will soon find yourself looking for something else.

Most all of my sales managers were good to awesome which I am thankful for.

I personally was in one situation where it got to the point, I had to go to corporate human resources to state my case, just so it was on the record to protect myself. Although I could handle myself and the situation, it still made things difficult and soon found myself moving on.

The #1 reason why people quit, they quit their bosses not the company. We've all had them and it can make your life a living hell.

You're capped on what you can earn - Yes, you have the ability to make more money with the added commission, but at the end of the day, there is only so much money you can make working for someone else.

I remember I made less in my 3rd year working for the same company than I did in the 1st year, because they decided to change the commission structure. Even though I increased my monthly and yearly quotas, I made less and that sucked.

You're stuck with living the status quo, 9 to 5 lifestyle your entire life - Out of 52 weeks in a year, you will get anywhere between 2-5 weeks off per year for holidays and doing the things you love to do.

We were sold this type of lifestyle when we were young. Graduate from high school, go to College or study a trade, get a job and do this for 2/3 of our lives at which point hopefully we had enough money to retire comfortably.

This is also how 97% of the population in the developed world lives.

Today, living this way is only by choice. Please read on, this is where things get interesting...

Lack of freedom and flexibility - Although, corporate sales professionals are out on calls most of the time and there is a certain amount of freedom to that, you are still bound by the rules, management style and overall working environment of the company.

I loved the freedom and opportunity to go meet with customers, building relationships and solving problems.

Freedom and flexibility varied from company to company, but I however got to a point, where it was no longer sufficient and wanted more and no longer wanted to answer to bosses and corporate environment rules and regulations.

Lack of creativity, vision & purpose - When you sign off on your employment contract, you are also signing and agreeing to the company culture, politics and environment.

You are bound by their rules, which can drastically inhibit your ability to create personal and career purpose and vision for yourself and your future.

I wanted more than the status quo and I had my own ideas and purpose, that the corporate career and life no longer provided to me.

As I got older and matured in my career, using, creating, building and developing my own vision of how things were and should be, became more and more of a priority - this was a huge personal revelation for me!

Pressure and stressful monthly and yearly sales quotas - Let's face it, corporate sales is a grind.

Depending on your sales manager and his/her management style and the company you, the pressure from meeting your monthly and yearly sales quotas can be very stressful and make work miserable.

This affects your personal quality of life and at the end of the day, if you're NOT happy, despite making excellent six figure money, it will eventually grind you down.

I cannot emphasize this enough, if you do not love the day to day tasks of cold calling for new business and dealing with the stress of the monthly and yearly sales quotas, it will make your life a living hell.

You must love the daily corporate sales grind, including all the tasks involved in sales and not just the fun stuff of meeting customers, solving problems and providing solutions.

So this concludes the pros and cons of the corporate sales professionals career and lifestyle.

Introducing The "New Breed" of Sales Professional and Entrepreneur

Toward the end (probably the last 2 years or so) of my 14 year corporate sales career, things began to change for me and I grew bored of my sales career.

If you asked me back then, if I would quit my sales career if money were not an issue, I would of gladly taken you up on that in a heartbeat.

I needed to make a change with both my career and my life, so I started the process of crafting my "exit strategy" out of the 9 to 5, corporate sales world.

At the time, I had no idea what I was doing and where to start.

But, I was clear on one thing and that was, I did not want to spend the rest of my 25+ years of my working life doing something I no longer loved anymore.

Along my journey, here is what I discovered as I made my transition out of the 9 to 5, status quo career and lifestyle to where I am today... entrepreneurship and online career coaching and business consulting.

The Pros:

You have complete control how much money you make with your online business - There is no better place (in my mind) to create an extra ordinary career and lifestyle (that most people could only imagine in their wildest dreams) than entrepreneurship/online business ownership, more specifically in the online multi-billion $ coaching and consulting industry/space.

Your income potential is unlimited and only limited to your thinking, determination, personal commitment and work ethic.

You can start your online business, part-time, while working a your current corporate sales position with limited investment cost. Yes, you can start your online business with limited $ investment, part-time, while working at your current sales career - this is how I got started online.

Investing into your own online business is also substantially less expensive ($5K-$10K+) and risky in terms of $ than your typical bricks & mortar business ($50K-$250K+).

If you want to invest in stocks or real estate, you require money to invest.

If you want to invest in a franchise, you require money to invest.

If you want to go back to College to upgrade your education, you require money to invest.

If you want to buy a house, you require a mortgage from a bank.

If you want to make any sort of extra income and/or do anything for that matter of any significance, you will require money to invest.

Starting an online business is no different, you will require money to invest and never let anyone tell you different.

If you want to "step out" and "get ahead" in your career and life, you will require money to invest - it's a fact of life and just that simple!

You have complete control creativity, vision and purpose with your own online business - In my opinion, there is no better business than the multi-billion $ online coaching and business space, for a number of different reasons.

Unlike a lot of (not all) bricks & mortar business, you can literally build a business around your passion, purpose and expertise. A lot of local business owners love the benefits and opportunities of owning their own local business.

But if you asked them are they passionate about what they do, you would probably find that most of them would say that making pizza or fried chicken or whatever local services they provide, they would not be jumping up and joy for it.

This goes the same with having a sales career and being a number at a corporation. At the end of the day, the corporation could replace you with some other person anytime and unfortunately it happens all the time.

Finding your purpose and passion in life and running an online business around it will change your life in a way, that is what I believe to be the most important thing anyone can do for their career, period!

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. - Steve Jobs

Building a career around our passions and expertise will soon become the new way professionals create and shape their professional life.

You have complete control over your work schedule and flexibility with your own online business - I can tell you from personal experience, that this was huge for me. No more bosses and no more being a corporate number, bound by company policies, politics and guidelines.

The freedom of creating and doing my own thing based around my passions and expertise was a career and life game changer.

The below quote says it for me...

So many people in this world get up every day and go to their nine-to-five job they hate for 12 months a year for 30 years. I kind of do a self-check and evaluation to realize I'm very blessed and grateful to be where I am. - Jay DeMarcus

Times are changing and people now have more control of their career and the type of lifestyle they want to live for the rest of their lives, like never before in history.

You have the ability to work from home or where ever you want with the potential and possibility of financial freedom - When I eventually broke free of the corporate 9 to 5 daily grind, the first thing that I noticed was the fact that I was free.

I had broke free of the chains of the 9 to 5 world and it felt surreal at first. It felt weird and I kinda of could not believe it.

As soon as this sense of bewilderment faded away and really sunk in, it felt amazing. Today, I work mainly out of my home office and get to talk and help other professionals with their career and lives every single day.

Although I am not financially free today, there will come a time when that will be the case.

When you combine your passion and purpose in life with online business know how and expertise, it becomes a potent, powerful and unstoppable financial income potential.

Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it. - Robert Kiyosaki

Never before in history has there been a better time to create the career you always wanted.

And with a lot of determination, know how, commitment and good old fashioned hard work manifesting financial freedom from the comfort of your home is now a realistic and legitimate opportunity.

You have the ability to build your own online business based around your interests, passions and expertise - This was key for me.

The beautiful thing about starting an online business is that you can leverage what your good at and what you are interested in, to build and create something special that excites you.

When you have this ability, it will CHANGE YOUR CAREER and LIFE. I can't wait to wake up every morning to work on my life's passion of helping people sort out their careers and their lives.

You have complete control over creating your ideal lifestyle, whatever that looks like to you - The beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur and owning your own online business, is that you are in complete control over how you live your life.

No more answering to a boss. No more chaotic commute to and from work everyday. No more living by other people's rules and regulations. No more status quo 9 to 5 career and lifestyle. No more living for the weekends. And no more any other constraints that goes along with a 9 to 5 lifestyle.

Since you have the ability to create unlimited income, you can also position yourself to be more financially free and spend more time doing the things you love to do.

Your career and the lifestyle you create is really limited to you and your thinking.

Just like anything in life, there is pros and cons of everything. Let's take a look in more detail at the cons of online business ownership/career

The Cons:

Starting an online business is more risky in $ than the status quo, 9 to 5 corporate sales career and lifestyle - There is no question about it, entrepreneurship and starting any kind of business carries more risk than the status quo, 9 to 5 corporate career because you don't invest any of your own money into your career.

Especially, if you do not know what you're doing, investing money into your online business is can be next to impossible because you don't where or how to invest it.

You will have to invest time, energy and money into your online business. Yes, you will have learn the skills to position you for long-term success and you most likely, you will have to do this part-time while working at your current sales position.

It is also difficult to succeed and/or create anything substantial/long-term income and you will have to invest time, energy and money into your online business and this requires careful planning and strategy.

Trust me, I know of this because what took me 4-5+ years to figure out, I could show someone, give them the skill sets and position them for increased success in as little as 8-12+ weeks.

There is a big learning curve to online entrepreneurship, implementation and overall achieving long-term success, if you don't know what your doing - Yes, if you do not know what your doing when it comes to building your online business, it will be difficult.

I know this personally because when I started my journey of building my online business, I wasted massive amounts of time, energy and money because I did not know where to start and what to do.

Okay, you remember what I said at the beginning of the article, that I will summarize this entire article in 3-4 sentences of which will provide you with everything you need to know to make your career the best its ever been!

Well this time is now.

And is staying on your current career path of being a Corporate Sales Professional the best option for you or...

....should you pursue investing time, energy and money into your own online business.

And The Winner IS...

Everyone is different with different values, goals and ideals the way they want to live their life and there is no right or wrong way - it's your way that only matters.

It's the way that makes you most fulfilled both in career and in life. And it's the way that you decide to create and live you ideal career and ideal lifestyle.

Ask yourself this question, "Would you quit your corporate sales career to do something else with your life, if money were not an issue?"

When asked, 86% of people said that they would quit their job/career if money were NOT an issue.

Having said that and knowing how scary it is that 86% of people would quit their careers, it however is not quite that easy.

To be brutally honest, most people think that the 9 to 5 status quo career is the ONLY way to live their lives.

They are content (or scared, fear of failure, don't like risk, etc) and NOT willing to put in the work to live an extra ordinary career and life, outside of the status quo, 9 to 5 career and lifestyle.

And this is perfectly fine. Online entrepreneurship is definitely NOT for everyone.

If you answer NO that you would NOT quit your career if money were not an issue, then keep doing what you've been doing.

If you answer YES, that you WOULD quit your career to do something else, then you really better start looking at other career options with your life.

The longer you wait, the worse it will get for you. If you're not fulfilled and happy with your career and your life, then you really might want to seriously start looking at your options.

A year from now you will wish you had started today - Karen Lamb

And if you answered YES, then you can discover how you can start learning more about your career options for you moving forward.

Whatever you decide, decide now and take action now!

I hope this was helpful and I wish you all the best with you, your career and your life.

Kevin