Freedom First

CHAPTER 7The Dependence Trap

There are costs to not being free. When you are not free the wrong things get rewarded.

A couple of weeks after Melissa had quit her job, she landed a new one. The interview process was actually fun, she told me later. She said she felt like, with a little savings and time on her side, she was the one doing the interviewing. She finally settled on a new job in real estate and unlike the last one this job also offered her the chance to grow, and would see her take on new tasks and responsibilities too. She’d be coming on board in a general office role, but on top of that, she’d be the in-house photographer for all the agents.

Most real estate agencies either outsource photography, or the agents take their own photos. The job appealed to Melissa because, years before, she had taken a photography course and had maintained a keen interest in the art in her spare time. In her new position, Melissa would also be a lot more independent — it would be up to her to organise her days and liaise directly with the agents to organise shoots, do her editing and so on. It was almost a mini business within a job; she had a lot more freedom.

You can be free of dependence on a boss long before you are free of a boss

This is one of the great things about valuing your freedom, first. When people have a vague, unexamined desire to ‘quit work’, it’s all or nothing, whereas when you start to really value your freedom and examine the ways in which you are not free, you ...