OF TREES AND FOREST

The first New Year’s resolutions were made some 4,000 years ago. Since the ancient Babylonians started pledging their allegiance to the reigning king or crowned a new king, and made promises to repay debts in the year ahead in order for the gods to bless them in the new year, people have been making — and breaking — promises every start of the year. Imagine all those promises broken! In fact, it has become a joke that we only make resolutions in order to break them.

But I think resolutions are good for people. It gives us a goal, something to strive for. I also think it shows that we are inherently a good people, or at the very least we want to be good. We want to be better. Resolutions give us a path to follow — be healthy, have less stress, do better in school, obey my parents, love more, care more, etc., — so we can become better human beings. And I think even if only 10 percent are successful in adhering to their resolutions, our world would already become a much better place to live in.

For those who still do not have a resolution for 2025, I have a suggestion for a path to take that will change your lives: Start your own business. So close your eyes, take a deep breath and tell yourselves, “This 2025, I am going to be an entrepreneur!” I am certain that a lot of Filipinos have, at one point in their lives, thought about leaving their jobs and starting their own businesses. Some proceed and become an entrepreneur, some became one out of circumstance (like the pandemic), while many did not have the will and fortitude to take the leap. That is understandable because taking that risk is not that easy. You are afraid to fail and lose your hard earned money.

But I am going to give you one reason why you should do it this year — freedom. I have written about this many times before but I will repeat it here because it is worth every tiring repetition: when you start your own business, you are your own boss. Right now, you are probably working a nine to five job that you do not even like, with a boss that, to your mind, makes all the wrong decisions about the business and its employees. Well, start a business and you will be the one making those calls. That is freedom.

Freedom also means you manage your own time. Instead of doing nine to five, you can decide to do it during a period of time you find convenient. Knowing the nature of your business you can determine what is the best period of time to do this thing. Of course, for many business people this also means doing work more than you have ever worked before. For example, I start my day very early in the morning and usually have meetings until the evening. But I love what I am doing and not stuck in an eight-hour-a-day job that sucks the spirit out of my very existence. And the important point is that this would be your call.

Finally, it may not be evident when you are just starting out but building your own business means financial freedom. Did you ever feel that no matter how much salary increase your company gives you it never always seems enough to cover your expenses? We Filipinos call it “petsa de peligro” but some employees literally survive paycheck to paycheck. When you are an employee, no matter how profitable your company is, your salary basically stays the same. Now, imagine not being a slave to the paycheck-to-paycheck existence. This will only happen when you start your own business.

Are there risks to starting your own business? Absolutely. Will you encounter difficulties and at some point, failures? Absolutely. But is the risk worth taking given the freedom you will enjoy? Absolutely. So, will you start your own business this year? You know the answer.