Lessons in Initiative

Sometimes, I have to learn the same lesson twice within the same year.  While I was still in Sarasota, I was unemployed for quite some time.  Thankfully, I had built up quite a bit of savings to live off of so I was fine during that time.  I would look on Craig’s List for tutoring jobs.  After emailing countless tutoring companies I just gave up.  Then I worked at Chili’s for a grand total of 4 days before realizing I simply wasn’t cut out for waiting tables anymore. 

During this time I had planned on going to Myanmar and starting my own tutoring company while there.  When I went home to Illinois for a few weeks it occurred to me that I should’ve just started my own tutoring company in Sarasota.  I had plenty of contacts, a current teaching certificate in Florida.  There was no reason for not starting tutoring on my own and yet I simply didn’t take the initiative.  There is always demand for tutoring, especially for people with a teaching certificate.

In April, I came to Myanmar to work with a non-profit named Opportunities Now which works primarily with young people who are interested in starting their own businesses.  We provided training, internships and start up loans.  I absolutely love what I do and am hoping to start a school of my own in the near future.

Anyway, I had planned on starting my own tutoring business on the side while I was here.  I placed a free ad in a local newspaper and got started with my first client in 2 weeks.  I make a decent amount at it, especially for it being just a side job.  As I told Stef, the wedding isn’t going to pay for itself.

In the meantime, Stef had learned Samaritan’s Purse was planning on opening up shop in Myanmar.  We both got really excited about the potential for her to come here.  As we both should’ve known, the process for an international NGO to enter a country can be particularly difficult and more time-consuming than one might hope for.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that Stef could come over here and just take over my side business and grow it.  I have gotten 11 hours a week of tutoring just from that free ad in the newspaper.  There is such a high demand I didn’t even really have to try and got quite a few hours on my own.  Since Stef will not be working for anyone else, she can really focus on finding tutoring jobs and making a full time job out of it.

So, the moral of the story is to not wait on someone else to provide a job for you.  Take the initiative and make your own job.  There is obviously nothing wrong with working for someone else and in fact is often times preferred.  However, if you have been having a hard time finding a job, perhaps it’s time to try and create one on your own.  You don’t have to be very skilled although it does certainly help if you can specialize in something that is in high demand.  However, most anyone can cut grass or clean houses and both of those jobs require little up-front investment and are fairly easy to grow if you read a book about marketing.

It has been a lesson I have learned this year and will be applying it in the future.  I am joining a non-profit but also plan on starting my own tutoring business on the side.  If I’m going to be training entrepreneurs how to launch and run their own business than I should probably know how to do it on my own, right?