Escape to Freedom #7: Freedom From Conformity
I have a longtime friend who lives in a small town and works for the biggest employer in that town.
He told me how trapped he feels and how he basically has to go along with whatever is in the best interests of that company.
There are local issues with the school, other businesses, politicians and senior executives at the company.
But my friend feels stifled from expressing his personal opinions and speaking up, even on seemingly unrelated issues, because of the politics inside his company.
One of his big problems is that a difficult member of the local school board is the wife of an executive where my friend works.
So my friend has to be careful what he says. To anyone. Because words can work there way back to people that are in a position to make life difficult, or who might even find a way to have his position eliminated or make him so miserable he just quits.
On top of all that, there is a corporate culture he hates.
The company is an 800-lb gorilla in the local community and the management acts like it. They bully people. Plus, there are internal factions and petty backstabbing as a means to curry favor and move up in the hierarchy.
That stuff makes my stomach turn.
On top of everything else, it’s just a dumb, inefficient way for people to spend their finite life energy.
You can guess what my advice to him is.
And It’s Only Getting Worse
Social media has made a lot of places a ‘small town’ where what you say to one person or a small group of people can be repeated to the whole community. Stating your opinions on the weekend can get you fired on Monday.
And even if it doesn’t get you fired, it can get you branded as someone who isn’t on the right team philosophically.
The tangible impingement happens when all of the above starts to have a measurable financial impact on your future, not to mention the emotional stress of not being allowed to be yourself.
Your People Are Inside Online Niches
In the online business world – if you are inclined – you can reveal your personal values, you can not conform to what most people might think, and you can still thrive.
That can be priceless.
Speaking for myself, I have strongly held beliefs regarding the paramount value of the human individual over the collective desires of politicians. And that’s easy to establish from what I’ve written publicly. I don’t need to hide it.
I happen to be in a tiny minority of people who don’t support political efforts to control all of us by force.
I don’t admire the politicians who are Democrats or Republicans in the US, Tories or Labour in the UK, or are with the Liberal or Conservative Party in Canada, to name three countries where I’ve lived.
I’ve never wished that one of my kids would grow up to be just like Senator Pander or Congresswoman Coercion.
Those are my opinions (among many) and it’s not necessary for me to hide them or lie about them in order to stay employed or to get a promotion. I can build my own financial future without the constraints of local conformity.
Here’s a podcast from The Expat Money Show where Mikkel and I talk about safely leaving the rat race by starting an online business!
When you own your own nano-economy, you only need a relative handful of prospects and customers out of the 8 billion spread about the earth. So you don’t have to conform to the whims of a small town mentality.
Your online customers only care that you deliver value to them and do what you say you will do. You have the direct control to make those people happy customers who are eager to pay.
Odds are, not a single one of them lives in your town anyway.
Therefore, you are not beholden to any local interests, or an employer’s special interests, or the political views of the local majority, or other unwanted external pressures.
You can be as free as possible to speak your mind, resist conformity, and even deliberately build an online community of people you deem to be likeminded and hold a similar morality.
Of course, it’s not a license to be a jerk. Nobody likes a jerk under any circumstances. But it does remove the stress of having to conform to other people’s agendas and priorities.
The Takeaway
Traditional, old-economy employment often comes with a lot of strings. Sometimes those strings require oppressive conformity that can extend outside our work environment and even into our personal lives. When we leave the rat race and own and control our own source of income, we achieve freedom from that conformity.
We Help You Choose, Build and Scale Your First Online Business
Are you ready to live life on your own terms – create your own online income? Reach out to us at Safely Leave The Rat Race. We are committed to helping you get from whatever point you are right now – to the point of earning regular, predictable online income while living wherever you want.
I hope you enjoyed Escape to Freedom #7: Freedom From Conformity. In case you missed them, here are
#2 – Three Levels of Expat Online Income and
#1 – What is Your Freedom Lifestyle?
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