Imagine working at a company for quite some time. You gain applicable skills, acquire specific knowledge, and make meaningful connections within your wider team and across the company. After a while, you begin to seek out higher-level roles internally.

Application after application, interview after interview, promising results fall flat and it’s back to the drawing board.

You are ensconced by boilerplate statements and promises of opportunity arising as the organization grows. The key word here is “opportunity”. An opportunity for a new role is merely a chance, but as we all know, in a game of chance, the house always wins.

“Job security” is a fallacy. A steady paycheck has its advantages, but it’s not a sure thing. The corporate ladder exists, though others are given the corporate elevator.

If you don’t like the house you’re in, build your own house. Bet on yourself!

There has never been a better time in history than now to set out on your own path; leaving certain aspects of life up to chance is definitely a risk. In fact, it is absolutely necessary to be selfish in this manner because the only person who is going to care about your livelihood and putting food on the table is yourself.

Following internet good guy Dan Koe is a good start!

For the past couple of weeks, I applied to multiple positions within the company I work in with varying degrees of rejection. I even tried my hand at some outside opportunities, though without much avail. One rejection (though I never officially heard back) was particularly confusing as it was a photography and marketing role for an automotive firm. It was confusing because I am a business owner specializing in photography and marketing in the automotive industry, and my automotive background was exactly what that company specialized in. Is it really harder to get a “real” job than it is to get clients? Alas, it certainly has seemed that way lately.

This is to say that it is time I fully bet on myself and my company, Sharplite Media. I will no longer come up with plenty of excuses about why some new initiative or project for my company won’t work out. Clearly, everything I have been doing up to this point in my “career” working for someone else hasn’t produced the results I want.

I’m choosing to continue building up my own house. The tools will be better, and the building process will get faster. While I may have plenty of years in this lifetime left to spend, it’s time to spend it even wiser.