If you want to be successful as a self-employed person, this is the second question you must ask yourself before you leave your current job. It is quite imperative to read the first part of this ongoing series before delving into this article: Click HERE to read it. This was supposed to be the last question I wanted to expatiate on but I got an important question in the comment box that made me realize how crucial it was to discuss this particular perspective. The question from Deji goes thus:

“I am trying to go it on my own but the challenge I face now is getting financiers who are not asking for an arm and a leg in return. Tell me, how did you handle funding for your business? I would appreciate your insight”

Let me start by telling you a secret I found out: “money is a byproduct of doing something well and marketable”. Looking for money is not that imperative when going on your own; I lost some of the money I saved up during my first year of leaving my job because of bad decisions which comes from lack of experience and bad judgment. What you need is to accumulate experiences and grow a network base; if you can successfully do this, then you would start rejecting money like I do.

I have a microfinance bank literarily begging to give me money; I have some Nigerians in Diaspora who are constantly telling me they are ready to give me money if I can forward them a business proposal; almost all the products and goods that I sell are not mine; people send me stuffs on credit and the list goes on. Finance is the least of your problem if you can prove competency; competency can only be proved through series of experiences; experiences are obtained by learning from failed projects. So you see, the cycle goes round and round.

What I am trying to tell you is that the best way to succeed on your own is to leverage on integrity not on money. Money is a means to an end. There would be no purpose in earning money, in saving it, or even stockpiling it under your bed if it had no buying power. So, what you really like when you say you like money is what money can buy. Money is a byproduct; let me repeat it again, money is a byproduct, a side-effect, a spin-off; money should not be what you are after, what you should be concerned about is integrity. Your aim should be doing all your best to build integrity in whatever field you venture in. Once the integrity is built, then money is the aftermath. You do not need the kind of money you are looking for to build integrity.

Integrity does not jump on you from the sky; you need to obtain it through some sort of sacrifice. The whole concept of branding is based on building integrity but before a product becomes a brand, it undergoes series of investment. I remember a business seminar in Ibadan I was invited to speak at; and one of the participants asked me a question concerning capital for business. So, I asked if he was more interested in capital or the profit. He said he needed the capital to make the profit. So I quizzed him further; “can you see a way you could make the profit without the capital?”

If your answer is NO like the participant’s answer, then you are not ready to leave that job. I would not advise anybody that wants to leave his job to source for capital; I would advise the person to develop a third eye for the business through a minimum of one year internship in the business. During this one year, the person would understand “ebb and the flow” period of the business; the person would witness firsthand what was done during the ebb period to survive it. The person would begin to question him/herself if he/she has the temperament to sustain such periods and what could be done to make such periods worthwhile.

Your internship also gives you the opportunity to develop networks with your target audience; you would be able to gauge your level of influence to sink the product/service you are interested in. This is one of the most crucial aspects of slugging it out on your own; the ability to gauge your level of influence. This is one of the reasons I introduced the Car Vacuum Cleaner program so you can gauge the level of influence you have with your own colleagues you laugh, gist, pray, etc with. Just because you talk to someone does not mean you can influence the person; you do not need to find that out when you have left your job; it may be too late then.

Seriously, it does not have to be the Car Vacuum Cleaner, it can be any other product/service but you must prove to yourself that you can assert some level of influence before you leave that job. When you can ascertain this influence and integrity, it gives you a sense of security that you can survive whatever comes your way; the real illusion about money is that it creates security. Security does not come from accumulating wealth. I know many people who are extremely wealthy and still very insecure. In fact, if you feel insecure right now, having more money will only increase your feelings of insecurity, since you will then have even more to lose. This is why I do not support people who want capital to start-up, I prefer they gain experience first.

If someone asked you today to state your net worth, what would your answer be? In what context would you be inclined to estimate your worth? Most people tend to equate their personal worth with whatever material assets they possess. You are NOT your net financial worth. Your real worth lies in your ability to create. All of your skills, your knowledge, attitudes, education, experience, and contacts are worth a great deal more than anything else you own. Your real bank account consists of whatever makes all the rest of it possible. People who are truly secure know that if everything were taken away from them today, they would still have the means of getting it all back. Whatever they did once, they can always do again.

This is where I stop on the second question you must ask yourself before you leave your job; “What is your net worth?” And remember, if you work smart, you can then play hard….

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