The evolution of work and power

This week let's look at the different modes of work. Conventional you looks at work as a job. You ask people you meet to spark conversation what they do for work. How's work?, you ask others. Work, work, work. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Employment. Unemployment.

Here at Own the Cow, I’m on a mission to help those mid-career rethink what work is. Now’s the time. More than ever, people are rethinking HOW they work. Often, the people have more power than the companies. Unless, of course, you're Amazon. People can be more flexible. More nimble. People are speedboats

If you’ve not considered the options, here’s a primer on the permutations of work today. I’m keen to know what resonates with you. And other models I’ve missed.

The traditional job

You work for a company, mostly 40 hours per week for a salary. Or maybe you're 40 hours per week hourly. For knowledge workers it's usually Monday through Friday and for others it can vary from Monday through Friday or weekends, etc. It used to be considered stable and safe with health insurance and bennies. We've all seen how safe is relative. But it's also one of the best ways to get affordable health insurance and paid vacation. Usually you're limited to two to four weeks of paid time off per year. A huge plus is that long as you're employed, you can expect a paycheck every two weeks. Many make more than they would on their own without the hassle. Yet your trajectory is often capped or limited. Sales is the one area where the sky's the limit on income.

Self-Employment

You can work for yourself. Build a business. Usually this involves trading time for dollars. It's myriad forms from trades like painters, plumbers and contractors to designers, psychologists, and most anything one can do on their own. Of course you can do this for someone else. Aside from the thing you do, you're also on the hook for billing and collecting, finding health insurance. The upside, is you are the master of your schedule and can theoretically work whenever you want. Your income is unlimited (more upside and more downside). And of course, when you're not working you're usually not getting paid.

Business Owner

You've got an idea for a product or service, created a brand and built a business. You're the employer hiring and managing employees. You have recurring revenue streams and assuming you've established good practices, a revenue stream without huge peaks and valleys. You don't get paid vacation per se, but you do make money while you're away. With multiple employees, it can be easier to find group health insurance although it depends on how many you have (the more the better).

Franchise owner

Basically a business in a box complete with branding, products and processes. The upside is you buy into a proven concept (mostly). The risk is location and the cost to buy in. The more lucrative the franchise the more expensive it is.

Freelancer

You're a 1099 employee working for companies on a project or contract basis. Maybe you're a contractor. It's a variation on the self-employment model.

Gig worker

This is the much-hyped model for the tech world. Think your local Uber eats or grub hub delivery driver. You get paid by the trip. Or if you're working for Upwork, by the project which you accept or reject based on the offer. You don't get to set your rates like you do as a straight freelancer.

Creator / Influencer

You create content or art you put out on social media and earn through selling your work or getting sponsors for your content. You are a one-person media property building a brand and an audience. The larger your audience, the more you earn. Total freedom. And all the trappings of self employment (you're on your own for health insurance and bennies).

There are many ways to earn:

  • Sponsors / sponsored content
  • Product placement (not unlike the Movie biz)
  • Paid subscriptions
  • Digital product sales
  • Merchandise
  • Shout-outs
  • Virtual events
  • Live events
  • Meetups
  • Communities and fan clubs

Much is written about the Creator / Passion Economy. Li Jin formerly of Andreesen Horowitz has one of the best newsletters on the subject. The challenge is both building a large enough audience to support yourself and the fickleness of the market and fans. You have to ride the wave while it's hot and few have staying power. Several are finding themselves depressed and burnt out with the level of content creation needed. But the cat's out of the bag and it's still early!

Collaboration

You have an idea, join forces with others with like and complementary skills to build a product or company. If it works you get paid based on a revenue share. If it doesn't, you part ways and find a new group to collaborate with on another idea. Or try again if you work well with this group. Unlike a formal job, you are not tied to this group and are compensated based on your output. Much upside as well as downside. The catch is how you fund your life while working on these types of projects. Given the shifting nature of work and the tools available, look for this to become more and more common. The ability to effectively work remotely has been proven with the pandemic. Traditional companies will have a hard time convincing employees that the only way to be productive is to be in an office. That ship has sailed. Technology makes this kind of collaboration not only possible, but virtually frictionless. While there's no substitute for face to face, the need to travel across the globe for a meeting is no longer there.

The Really Small Big Company

Expanding the notion of creator, individual brand, the keys to the kingdom are in your hands. Once the purview of conglomerates, you have the tools to build the type of company that 30 years ago took millions of dollars and many people. Imagine building a billion dollar brand with just yourself (and a few helpers along the way). Now you can test and iterate and create until you land on something sticky. Something that resonates with a large enough audience that you can scale. What's more, you can hire people on a project basis to do many of the tasks. And others can be automated. It takes far fewer people to scale today. While this makes it harder to find and hold traditional jobs long term - and makes them more competitive - it's the golden age for the individual with the moxie to productize themselves. Is it simple? Yes. It it easy? No. Not everyone will be able to do this. Some already have. The point is that there is a big delta between here and a billion that can deliver a very nice means to live.


Who knows exactly what the future of work looks like. It's not going to morph overnight. Successful companies will figure out new ways of working and monetizing as successful people will figure it out for themselves too. Both sides have power. You have to be willing to be wrong. To fail. To get up again. You have to iterate. You have to know when to pivot. Or stay the course. That's the hard part. Doing the work when you don't know if it will work.

What I know is that you have more options than ever as what used to be seems to be evaporating. And you have to be aware and willing to kick status quo to the curb and think about what's next for you. Because no one else is. Because of technology you can do more than your traditional job. Rarely ever should you or would you need to risk it all to try something new. Risky is assuming the job you have today will be there 5 years from now.

Here's to the possibility of you.

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