The Real Reason I Went Into Business for Myself

Earlier this year, during a small business course, we were asked a simple question:
“What motivated you to go into business for yourself?”

Across the room, the same word kept coming up: freedom.

And when things get hard; when the late nights stack up; when I hit a challenge I’m not sure how to overcome; that’s the word I come back to as well.

When I was 22, fresh out of uni, I couldn’t understand why anyone would hand over the majority of their time and energy to a company… a non-human entity that didn’t care; one that could remove you the moment it no longer suited them.

If I was five minutes late, there were scowls and mutterings; yet I was expected to give hours of unpaid overtime without question.

I couldn’t understand why you’d pour your life into a beautiful home if you only ever saw it at night, exhausted; or on weekends when you were too tired to enjoy it.

I felt like I had to be a robot; when inside I was screaming.

It took me years to be ready; to build the mix of hard and soft skills I rely on now; but I always knew there would come a time when I’d break free and define my own terms, my own time, and my own life.

William Blake said it best:

“I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s.
I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”

That’s why I’m here.
Not to fit into someone else’s system; but to build a life that feels like mine.
To create the work that calls to me.
To choose how my days are shaped; and who I spend them helping.

Freedom wasn’t just the motivation.
It became the reason; the compass; and the promise I made to myself:

I am building something of my own; and I will not hand my life over to anyone else’s blueprint ever again.

What motivated you to take the leap into self-employment?

I’d love to hear your story.