Who will you pick to do the work that matters most to you? There are problems to be solved, ideas to grow, and injustices that need to be addressed. Who have you decided will take on these tasks and this work? If you are considering the creation of a new business, volunteer effort, or any other project where YOU will be the one doing the important work, then you are considering “picking yourself”. Here is a bit more on this idea of picking yourself:
What ‘pick yourself’ means is that it’s never been easier to decide to be responsible for your own work, for your own agenda, for the change you make in the world. To have a chance to matter. Not to be finished right now, but starting now.
Pick yourself means we should stop waiting and whining and stalling.
The outcome is still in doubt, but it’s clear that waiting just doesn’t pay.
Seth Godin: “Pick yourself” and taking responsibility
Choosing that you are going to do the work yourself, undertake the project, and to accept ultimate responsibility, thereby avoiding traditional gatekeepers in an industry or area–those persons or institutions that have in the past held the exclusive power to decide who is “let in”–can be a scary proposition. It can also be exhilarating. But regardless of how you feel about the concept of owning your own project and its success or failure, this decision has undeniable and distinct advantages and disadvantages:
Working for someone else provides benefits beyond career experiences and income. It affords some level of safety: an office, maybe collegial coworkers, and a 401(k). This safety might also include leaders to guide you, equipment paid for with someone else’s money, and office Christmas parties flowing with gift cards. Safety is ping-pong tables, health care, wellness benefits, and onsite gyms. What we pay for those benefits, though, is our time, and as many have come to realize perhaps too late, the majority of our lives. And, they don’t always stay safe.
Picking yourself will likely require changes to your lifestyle and will almost certainly require some amount of financial planning and resulting stability. The commitment required in choosing yourself for the endeavor may very well turn off the spigot of a steady and predictable income. Maybe for a while. Maybe forever. The timeline to even figure these details out can be long and may require both emotional and financial resolve to see the project through to stability or to an end. The process is never easy, but it is a lot easier when you are a household of one. If you’re a household of two (or more), how will your significant other/spouse/children fit in to your new outlook of owning your own destiny when it comes to income, career, etc.? Will they support a significant lifestyle change that allows for you to make the change you want to make?
Picking yourself to do the important work requires planning, particularly in the area of your personal finances. Having a plan for your money and meeting the goals of that plan serves as a necessary precondition to successfully picking yourself to do the work.