You should be running your own business - and other nonsense

I am many things - linguist, mathematician, computer scientist, historian, writer, travel expert, even an occasional economist and international political analyst.

I store information, constantly resource areas of interest, try to add to the streams of knowledge that I have available.

I am probably loaded down with facts about all sorts of areas, and try to attach to the interpretation of these facts a measured, balanced approach. Try to stay unemotional, stick to the facts etc. This is after all the "information age".

I also have a commitment to working hard to get results (I learned work ethic early in life and it never goes away).

What I am not is a salesman. Or someone who is into promotion or advertising or recruitment.

Should this be important? Apparently. Despite applying for dozens of jobs that I could probably do in my proverbial sleep, I am stuck on the unemployment queue, get poorer and more desperate by the day, and then you get stuff like I read the other day.

You should not be unemployed - your problem is that you should not be looking for a job, you should be running your own business!

Really? DOING WHAT?

IF YOU HATE SELLING OR PROMOTING THINGS OR TRYING TO RECRUIT OTHER PEOPLE????

IF YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY USELESS AT PERSUADING OTHER PEOPLE TO DO THINGS, LIKE SPENDING MONEY ON THINGS THAT THEY DO NOT NEED????

IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN RUNNING UP DEBT?

Every time I get a job rejection, I get a little more suicidal. Every time I see this stupidity about running your own business, I get a little less unemotional.

And one interesting little fact of which people should be aware - 60% of all businesses fail! Probably because many of them are run by people like myself for whom selling is a nightmare!

It reminds me of the true story of Alan Sugar, the ultimate salesman turned businessman, and Clive Sinclair, the scientist who tried to set up a business marketing the PCs that he constructed.

Sinclair eventually went bankrupt. Sugar took over his business and remarked that Clive Sinclair should not have been running a business, but should rather be in charge of a research department. QUITE!!!!

Horses for courses.

The trouble these days is that we are trained not to admire scientists (or linguists or historians or writers, or travel experts), we are, rather, expected to admire glorified shopkeepers!