Today, I look back at my life and career choices that cost me dearly because I never understood the the power of Proverbs 12:11.
When I started out in my career as a software developer, I took an entry-level salary. This certainly helped pay the rent and put food on the table. I quickly progressed to a more senior role in a different company. Further promotions led to a directorship at a newly-formed company, owned by my existing employer.
I built the company up from a single employee (me) to a $1,000,000/year turnover with a team of developers and contractors managing the company’s growing client base… in return for which, I earned a $60,000/year salary. Sadly, when I resigned from that company, it was unable to continue in that vein. After I left, its income dropped, the developers I had trained and mentored moved on to other opportunities, and the company eventually closed its doors.
Some may look at the numbers above and consider my remuneration as unfair. I do not. I agreed a salary with my employers and they paid me the agreed wages every month. In the early days, they paid me what was legally owed, whether the company made any money or not, and they increased my salary as revenues grew. In other words, the business owners took the risks in the early stages and reaped their reward down the line, as annual turnover began to increase.
This is where the power of Proverbs 12:11 comes into play.
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.
Proverbs 12:11
The Power of Proverbs 12:11
Looking back, I now realize that I was not working my own land back then; I was working someone else’s land! The business owners were the ones who had abundant food. So, was I chasing fantasies instead? Well, I certainly wasn’t chasing after any get-rich-quick schemes. Nor was I wasting my money on lottery tickets or the latest Bitcoin fad.
The only ‘fantasy’ I clung to was job security. I built up and managed a $1,000,000 turnover business. However, I would never have dared try to do this for myself back then. I was far more content with my $60,000 salary and would never have dared risk losing that income for the potential profits that I was already generating for the very business in which I worked. For me, job security at $60,000/year was worth more than all the profits I was personally generating for that company.
However, the sad truth is this; if that company had failed, those same business owners would probably have made me redundant in a heartbeat and paid me a a tiny severance package that might cover three months’ salary, if I was lucky. I have seen this happen to countless peers and colleagues over the years. In that sense, job security is a fantasy that I chased, like so many of my peers.
Looking back, I now realize, I traded my financial freedom for a $60,000/year paycheck and the illusion of job security.