Why do you need a second source of income?
I want to start this with my personal experience on what made me ventured into business. My previous experience was only engineering during a time when smartphone was not invented or maybe not popular yet as it was too expensive to own one. My first retrenchment came during the Asian financial crisis, also called the "Asian Contagion," There was a sequence of currency devaluations and other events in 1997. It spreaded throughout to many Asian markets including Singapore. After being retrenched with no benefits as the company I was working with were competing against giant harddisk maker finally had no choice but to close down and declared bankrupt. This event had left me stranded with no job. I had to sell off my car and was desperately looking for another engineering job to survive. Engineering jobs was hard to find, imagine for one position there were over 100 applicants. I finally gave up looking for a full time job and decided to just do part time jobs while still looking for an engineer position. For a period of 4 months I had worked as a pizza deliveryman and a security officer before I finally landed with a full time job as an engineer. During my employment as an engineer in a Japanese semiconductor company. I often observe how my manager was treated by the Japanese boss. It was always and often a 'yes boss' situation. I had a feeling that this working culture is not meant for me. I told myself that I need to find a secondary source of income just in case I am out of job again.
If you can relate yourself to my story don't despair. Do not let circumstances dictate how you want to lead your life. Do not think that the company will always need you for the job. Prepare yourself for a second source of income as a backup plan. There is a saying 'do not put all your eggs in one basket'.
As for me during my full time employment. I had acquired part time experience working in the evenings and weekends as a taxi driver, a property agent and also into direct selling sales. These skills are life skills which is important for your development towards sales and service industry. My communication skills got better and I feel much more confident dealing with people.
When the second wave of recession happened in year 2001 Singapore struggled through one of its worst economic slumps. It was hit hard by the dot.com bust and the decline in the electronic and computer chip industries. I was a bit more prepared my company had decided to give unpaid leave for some days in a month. So I make use of the free time to make extra income by making use of the sales skills that I've acquired. From then on I realized that if I was retrenched I had my backup plan in place. I could still be self employed and earn a decent income which is more than my monthly income from employment. So in the year 2009 I have decided to finally quit my job and was self employed doing whatever my interest was. I've set up a transport company that did not do too well. I had landed with financial issues and got over it. Climbed back up again and continued my search for a successful business. I realized that the best business model is always to have it with lowest possible overhead cost with high potential returns. When the internet starts to grow with the popularity of Facebook and YouTube. Information is always accessible for anyone to improve their knowledge if you use it in the right way for self development. There was an evolving trend and I continued to learn more on digital marketing. Learning how to create websites and doing sales on E commerce platforms. Create ebooks which was also my passion to write and explore new ideas.
So the point I want to emphasize is that new skills can be developed now very easily as we can make use of information that is readily available on the internet. I would like to encourage you to do the same and keep on learning and follow the forever changing trend to keep up with technology and find new ways to make money. It is the attitude that will bring you to grow in altitudes to a pathway of freedom of choice. You will not feel the job that you're having is everything to you if you have a second source of income that can match your employment salary. In fact open up new choices in your life. Are you just satisfied to have a regular job to survive with or you are prepared to get out of your comfort zone and be self employed doing what you've always wanted. But I must warn you that there are risk being self employed. Are you prepared financially and mentally to face the challenges? I will leave it to you. Nobody can decide for you. You have to make that change to chase the freedom of choice.
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