Breaking Free from the 9 to 5: Why I'm starting the Corporate Divergent Community

From a young age, I was eager to earn money so I began my first job when I was 14. I invested a lot of effort in my education and obtained four degrees. These included areas of study like Business Administration, Finance, Public Policy and Information Systems but my professional journey has primarily been in Finance (FP&A) and Process Improvement.

Despite having a successful career filled with great opportunities, I found myself feeling empty and unfulfilled. I never aspired to be just another cog in the corporate machine, counting down the days until retirement. I wanted to feel excited and have a purpose. I wanted to make a real difference in the world and be rewarded for my hard work.

Working in the corporate world, I quickly realized how many factors were out of my control. My growth was limited by several factors. These included recognition and advocacy from managers, availability of funding, and promotion opportunities. Additionally, the ever-changing landscape of organizational restructuring also interrupted my progress.

Over the years, I realized that no matter how accredited, educated or experienced an employee becomes a company will rarely pay them what they're truly worth. In fact as companies constantly focus on their "bottom line" its to their benefit to get maximum productivity from staff at the lowest possible cost. From the companies point of view this makes total sense but as the employee on the other side, this directly conflicts with my best interest.

As I started doing more research on how companies operate and informally asked friends and colleagues about their careers, I drew one definitive conclusion, no one becomes wealthy or financially free as a worker bee. Devoting all your best years to working a typical job won't guarantee the highest salary. It also won't guarantee you reach your fullest potential. So with this in mind I looked for ways to increase my income without relying on getting a raise, promotion or higher paying job. 

While maintaining full-time job, I dabbled in various side hustles to explore my entrepreneurial spirit. These side hustle ideas included:

- Flipping cars as a car wholesaler.

- Selling kitchen appliances.

- Online reselling on various platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Poshmark, Craigslist, and Facebook.

- Investing in real estate with 11 long-term rental properties, four single-family home flips, and an Airbnb property.

While I haven't reached financial freedom with my side hustles, I've learned valuable lessons. The most important is that escaping a 9 to 5 job often comes with various challenges and frustrations, like:

1. Finding the balance between managing a side business and maintaining your full-time job and personal life.
2. Feeling insecure about stepping outside of your comfort zone due to a lack of knowledge.
3. Facing challenges in finding the right connections, mentors, and funding sources to help you succeed.
4. Feeling overwhelmed by the complexities of entrepreneurship, adding another layer of challenges to an already daunting process.

Numerous online resources cover side hustles and small business, but the information overload can be overwhelming and isolating. So, I decided to create an online community to help tackle these challenges. The community members will compile and share:

1. Strategies and work-life balance techniques, helping members allocate time and energy to their side hustles without compromising their other responsibilities.
2. Access to a wealth of information, educational materials, and expert insights that can help community members build the necessary knowledge and skills needed to confidently launch and manage their side hustles.
3. Community forums that facilitate networking, learning from one another, sharing experiences, and collaborating on projects.
4. Guidance and resources on tackling the complexities of entrepreneurship, such as deciding on a business idea, legal and tax requirements, budgeting and finances, marketing strategies, business planning, etc.
5. Stories about successful entrepreneurs that started a side hustle and a managed to escape from the cubicle.

The Corporate Divergent community's main focus is to collectively overcome these obstacles, while guiding your journey from a traditional employee to a successful entrepreneur, enhancing your financial freedom and personal fulfillment.