I have only one employee. My cleaning lady. My ‘lady who does’. It comes hard to let her go, to put it euphemistically, at this time of year and just after I’ve given her a Christmas box. But I won’t be taken for a ride.
What this is all about though, is not whether corners are cleaned and cobwebs removed (which they aren’t), but my need to take control again. It’s a small, perhaps trivial example of my decision to get a grip on aspects of my life that have eluded me. In 2009, I’ve decided to opt for a Do-it-yourself approach to everything possible.
Mad though it seems, DIY can free us, not chain us. Even menial house work has its merits if you adopt the right attitude to it. DIY means you don’t have to rely on someone else; you don’t have to put up with their delays, unpredictability, unprofessionalism, or un-whatever. In the process, you can learn new skills and about yourself.
There’s a SlideShare presentation I came across recently entitled ‘Employees Suck’ that makes a good case for DIY. If you drill down the deck, it turns out to be a checklist on how to foster an idea so it becomes a viable business. The presentation’s clarion call is: “Figure out how to do the [business] idea really, really cheaply. So cheaply that you don’t need to rely on anyone else’s money. Do it yourself.”
Cutting out the middlemen helps you take control; a really good feeling I find. I am starting the year with two creative projects of my own to nurture and then sell at a price I value, rather than selling my hours like an employee.
You’re never in control as an employee, as my cleaner has just found out. So with recession around, investing in some DIY skills will not only help you hedge your bets if you find yourself ‘let go’ this coming year, it will also help you realise your own social, intellectual and monetary capital.
Of course, learning and doing means you are going to have to find or make time to do things yourself, but with with recession out there, more of us are likely to have time not cash these days anyway.
