Self-Employment Equals Self-Worth

What’s this about self-worth? It’s a question just beginning to be recognized as most important for people about to retire. Dr. Nathaniel Branden, a long-time companion to Ayn Rand, was a leader in a field of psychology called Objectivism which later evolved into what he calls self-esteem. We’ll talk about some of Dr. Branden’s ideas later, but first, let’s define some terms in the discussion.
The dictionary says self-worth is the sense of one's own value or worth as a person; self-esteem; self-respect. It is also the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect.
The definition of self-esteem is a realistic respect for, or favorable impression of oneself; self-respect, or an inordinately or exaggeratedly favorable impression of oneself. Also pride in oneself, self-respect, and a feeling of pride in yourself.
In the discredited “phrenology” theories of the 1840s, which said personality and mental capabilities could be determined by the shape of one’s skull, self-esteem was assigned to a bump on the skull. I couldn’t find the answer to this, but maybe the larger the bump, the greater one’s self-esteem. So the happiest people must have had lop-sided heads. Of course, none of this is relevant to our discussion; it’s just an amusing anecdote.
Comparing the definitions of self-worth and self-esteem, we note the terms are used interchangeably, and this is just how they are used in the literature about them. That being the case, this discussion will follow the same lines. We’ll use the idea that self-esteem and self-worth are one and the same.
Now, back to why self-worth is becoming so important. It has always been an issue with people facing retirement; many times, they become mentally ill or very unhappy when they retire, and these conditions are usually blamed on the lack of money after normal work is over. Finances certainly have an effect on the way a person feels; but new thinking reveals that no matter how comfortable, successful, or wealthy a person seems to be, if they don’t feel right within themselves, about themselves, they will ultimately be unhappy and miserable. It takes some effort to build and maintain high self-worth, so the process needs to be done throughout one’s entire life. Usually low self-worth does not cause serious problems among younger people; but the older one gets, especially nearing or in retirement years, it becomes necessary to have adequate self-worth to enjoy the new life fully.
The Second World War introduced a phenomenon that was to have a profound influence on the economics and psyches of millions of people in countries who fought against the enemy in that war. The people we’re talking about did not ever go to war themselves, but were the children of one or more parents who fought in the war—they are the Baby Boomers, born between 1945 and 1965. With the first baby-boomer just recently applying for Social Security, there is going to be a lot of discussion about every issue facing this large group as they enter the new retirement phase of their life.
The requirement for high self-esteem applies to other groups as well as retirees. For example, women have assumed much more importance and more powerful roles in all areas of corporate and non-profit life in recent yeas. These new positions place much more pressure on individuals and require them to use every power available in order to perform efficiently. High self-esteem must be in place for women in these new positions to do what is required of them.
Feeling good about oneself may come naturally to some, but every time a negative incident occurs in one’s life, from birth on, that person must have something within that enables a recovery of a satisfactory level of positive self-worth. So these ideas apply to people at every age, especially young workers just entering the employment force. If they have problems, there are counselors, like Dr. Branden, with various exercises to help rebuild whatever is missing. Just Google “self worth” or “self esteem” and you will find a lot of them.
In this article one counselor advises constant attention to self-esteem because:
1. Who you believe you are is the base for whatever you do or experience during your whole life.
2. You interpret everything you see through your “self-esteem glasses.”
This counselor says even with a successful career, lucky breaks, and other trappings of outer success, a lack of a satisfactory level of self-esteem may cause mental illness, including suicide, if some unexpected calamity were to occur.
And they quote Dr. Branden’s two-part definition of self-esteem:
1. Confidence in our ability to think and in our ability to cope with the basic challenges of life;
2. Confidence in our right to be successful and happy, the feelings of being worthy, deserving, entitled to assert our needs and wants, achieve our values and enjoy the fruits of our efforts.
This counselor says some ways to improve self-esteem are:
Forgive yourself for whatever stuff you've done or think you've done.
Forgive others who've done all kinds of rotten things to you.
Let go of all pre-programmed bad thoughts (from our world view of everything).
Dr. Branden writes, in “The Power of Positive Self Esteem,” “When self-esteem is low, negatives have much more power over us than positives. We are motivated more by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. If we do not believe in ourselves, however—in our efficacy (efficacy = Power or capacity to produce a desired effect; effectiveness) or in our goodness and lovability—the universe is a frightening place.”
He further says the characteristics of high self-esteem include being:

• Ambitious
  
• Goal-oriented
  
• Communicative
  
• Loving
  
• Attractive to others with high self-esteem

Attributes of low self-esteem include being fearful of change, non-communicative, evasive, afraid of the response, insecure, drawn to others who are insecure and apt to form destructive relationships.
He further says we must accept responsibility for our actions. Don’t forget that self-esteem is what you think and feel about yourself—it has nothing to do with what others think about you.
The idea that self-employment equals self-worth comes from the fact that many people derive their self-worth from their employment. If that goes away through termination or retirement, people must begin to find other ways to replace their lost feelings of importance derived from their job. Self-employment is a very good way to accomplish this.
The UK has some welfare/benefit programs that are much more restrictive than the United States about how much money one can make. This has been recognized by several groups, one founded by the Prince of Wales in “A Study of Obstacles to Self-employment Among Over 50s.”
The study discusses problems of older people in the UK rejected by the labor market and possible ways to fix these problems. These include:

1. Awareness
2. Finance
3. Confidence
4. Risk of losing benefits and not being able to regain them
5. Fear of failure and inability to reenter benefits system
6. Ability to earn without reporting income (really a form of self-employment available everywhere; called the Black Economy in the UK)
7. Experience of always working with people in a real job
8. Shorter time to recoup any investment
9. Real or imagined health concerns
10. Perception of lack of skills
11. Poor perception of their view of the self-employment option
12. Perception of low self-worth
13. Low confidence

Many look forward to retirement but find there are real emotional challenges. The loss of interaction with other people can cause a sense of loss. Some people begin to wonder about their self-worth. This would be an ideal opportunity to use skills and experience as the basis for a home-based business. Retirement offers the opportunity to choose what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. A retiree can certainly choose to do nothing, but this leaves one with the problem of how to derive satisfaction from doing nothing. A retiree has the wonderful option of having a part time business, perhaps based on a hobby. The extra income is nice but even when they do not have to depend on it for income, successful self-employment can go a long way toward enhancing feelings of self-esteem.
For many employees, self-worth comes from their employment. This means planning for what you will do in retirement should begin long before your become 65 (or earlier in many cases). Without self-worth no one can ever be happy no matter how comfortable they are or how much money they may have. Developing a home based business would go a long way toward nurturing the characteristics of high self-worth, the main ones being ambitious, goal-oriented, and communicative. A person must emphasize all of these to make self-employment succeed and when they do their self-worth is preserved.
Participation in retirement planning, if done well in advance of quitting work, prepares a retiree to use the newfound time to maintain their feelings of self-worth and usefulness. Issues like health and financial planning must also be addressed. These findings are the result of a survey by Oklahoma State University. This was not part of the study, but advanced planning might include the possibility and feasibility of self-employment after retirement. After all, this is a new part of your life and should never be wasted; you only live once unless you believe in reincarnation. Even then, you only have this one experience in this lifetime. Make the most of it!
In this article the author says the biggest thing baby boom retirees can get out of working for themselves with a new home-based business is not necessarily the monetary rewards they receive. The greatest reward from starting a successful retirement business is the sense of accomplishment when one creates a successful new business and does positive good things for society. To do this, retirees must have faith in themselves and use their business experience to bolster their sense of self-worth.
Baby boomers are changing the definition of retirement as discussed in this article about the Merrill Lynch "New Retirement" survey. Boomers see a more balanced life of work and leisure that allows people to continue to work while also giving them more time off. Only 17% said they would never work for pay again. Most of the respondents wanted to continue working to keep mentally sharp, keep connected with others, and for a sense of self-worth. Boomers believe that even later in life there is still time to begin new things.
SELF-EMPLOYMENT may indeed equal SELF-WORTH.