Stop Being a Useful Drone

When we scold the rich and the bosses and see ourselves as exploited victims, we think too short. We even think entirely wrong, because if we distinguish between those up there and ourselves, we make ourselves unnecessarily small.

Can you also not imagine to belong to "those up there"? For me, as a teenager and young adult, entrepreneurs and politicians were always the enemies. They had to be dishonest and unscrupulous because otherwise, they would never have made it to the top. That's how I thought as a young man.

Sports stars and famous musicians or actors, on the other hand, were blessed with extraterrestrial talent. I never saw a chance to match them.

In both cases, as I know today, I was wrong.

The media loves to report about unethical entrepreneurs and politicians who don't know their business. The vast, honest majority go unmentioned because they're not even newsworthy.

Media coverage of the big stars of the music and film world still prefers to feed the myth of success from nothing, rather than show the hard work behind those successes.

It makes us believe that only dirty tricks or genetic luck can give us more than what life as an employee can provide us.

The logic behind this is understandable. If everyone took their happiness into their own hands and put themselves first, nobody would want to do the lousy jobs that are so important for the existence of our society.

Yes, a supermarket cashier and a bus driver are essential. Without them, our lives would not function at all. But are they adequately paid? Does society recognize their importance? Of course not. Everyone can see the injustice.

The people who care for our elderly, teach our children, and clean up our mess are interchangeable, and they are treated as such.

Perhaps there is nothing you can do at the moment to remedy this injustice, but at least you can make sure that you do not suffer.

Escaping the trap is more important than anything else

If you want to escape a trap, you must not swallow its bait.

The bait that lures us into jobs with no prospects is called security. We're told it might not be much to pay you, but the monthly check is safe.

You know what you're getting, and you can plan your life on that basis. At first sight, this seems fair, but at the latest, when we realize that we are stuck in this job because we can't afford to leave, this fairness is over.

So do not fall into this trap! And while you're in there, try to break free.

We're only trapped as long as we depend on someone else to pay us to work on his dream. An entrepreneur wants something. Usually, he wants to make money - a lot of money.

At some point, he needs employees to help him with this dream. But once he has achieved his goal, he will not, of course, divide the money earned among all those who have made it for him. He founded the company for his dream and not for the goals of his workers.

So we have to have our own dreams. We have to make plans out of these dreams, and then we have to work on these goals day by day and step by step until we have achieved them.

Whatever exactly your goals are, one of them should be to become financially independent.

This means that your monthly income, or significant parts of it, does not depend on an employer, but solely on you.

If you are building up a secondary income through independent work in addition to your primary job, this is something you are only doing for yourself. No one else will ever do anything just for you, apart from your parents and your partner.

All other people are not really interested in you. Even your boss does not care about you, and most of your friends have different priorities than you.

Read, learn, think, and act.

At the very beginning of your self-liberation is to acquire new knowledge. You cannot free yourself with what you have learned at school.

So you have to read and learn again, but differently than at school, this time not for the teachers or abstract grades, but you.

Reading and learning of your own accord only become powerful when you combine it with constant thinking. Thinking can have many faces, and all are valuable. You need self-reflection, to make plans and understand the laws of life and success.

But many people stick to thinking. Thinking turns into fanciful daydreams and leads to nothing. The essential ingredient for your self-liberation is action.

Plans are worthless if they are in a drawer. They only gain power and meaning when you work on them.

Anyone can write a training plan, but only the one who executes this plan will become fitter.

It is the same with your self-liberation. You can spend years making plans to escape from your 9-to-5 job, but it is only the day you start to put your plan into action that things begin to move.

Don't work for someone else's dream. Work for your vision. No one else will do it, and you only have this one life to fulfill your dreams.