Resumo de Bye-bye Corporate America

In a July 21, 2005 article from www.Forbes.com, Scott Reeves reviews Kiss Off Corporate America: a Young Professional's Guide to Independence by Lisa Kivirist. Kivirist is among the growing number of Americans who made the decision to ?Kiss Off Corporate America.? She attended a prestigious university to study communications and then started a promising career in a large, Chicago advertising firm. Soon thereafter, after suffering one final indignity, she left corporate life for good. In a performance review, her boss criticized the way she walked!

Kivirist and her husband, John Ivanko, scaled back financially. Inspired by their weekend activities in the country, they sought to make a living in rural Wisconsin while reclaiming their lives. They established a bed and breakfast inn in southwest Wisconsin. http://www.innserendipity.com/owners/owners.html With a misguided notion of financial security, friends and family resisted this decision instead urging them to stay on the corporate track.

Kivirist and Ivanko credit their success to establishing multiple streams of income. They draw revenue from their inns, free-lance writing projects, and the sale of homegrown fruits and vegetables among other sources of income. The idea is to have many projects to ensure income when one entrepreneurial experiment does not pan out. A good internet connection, along with other technologies, allows them to transmit their writing projects. In a sense, they have become ?techno peasants.?

Before Kivirist and her husband started to draw steady streams of income, they downshifted from their corporate jobs by working in a coffee shop and a catering business to make ends meet. They gladly gave up Starbucks and expensive restaurants to realize their dreams. Reeves mentions a mantra of Kivirist?s, ?Use it up, wear it out; make do or do without.? Breaking free requires a series of tradeoffs. Ironically, the desire for a better life decreases the once-strong desire for the long-gone meals on credit cards and a house full of expensive and forgotten clutter.

Kivirist encourages others to consider the constant threat of white-collar layoffs against the uncertainty of the entrepreneurial life. Uncertainty will exist either way; however, taking control of one?s future first depends on kissing off corporate America.

Resumos Relacionados