But he’s not claiming that people can be happy in either position. You can filter it into that message, but his actual message is very-one sided and the tone of it are what people are having issue with.

Sure, as you can see by the comments, other people have made the point that a person should do what works for them, that a person must decide for themselves whether working for “others” of for “themself” can be rich, rewarding, and secure. But in actual article, he takes the stand that only the self-employed are free and happy: everyone else are “cubical-citizens” who don’t know that they’re on leashes, do not have job security, and can’t be happy.

Reread the article before you comment, it helps:

“If you want to wake up happy on a daily basis, you have to own your own time. You have to be the one that dictates what you do and when you do it. Otherwise, you’re at the mercy of your owner boss.

You may think that you should be grateful for your job, and you should. But when it comes down to it, you’re not going to hit a ceiling of happiness and purpose if you’re not working for yourself. (I know there may be a few exceptions, but let’s be honest, they are exceptions.)”

His tone is a condecending “oh you poor people trapped in the matrix” grabage, and oh yeah, check out my line of awesome line of blue pills.

“Do you really think you have job security? You have no control over whether your company goes under. That is not job security.”

Working for yourself is no job security either. Just because you have the reins doesn’t mean the horse will cooperate. Just look at the survival rate for new businesses:

http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html

I’m sure lots of people really love their jobs in corporations, and if that works for you and you’re challenged by it, that’s fantastic, being happy in your work is really the most important thing.

The people that I see this article being aimed at, I think can all agree that the last bit of it is what makes people who decided to start their own business happy in their work:

“Working for yourself forces you to grow
[...]
But most of all, it makes you feel proud of yourself at the end of the day.”

It’s about challenging yourself in a way you were missing in a previous work environment.

Jonathan isn’t saying that self-employment is better for EVERYONE, he’s merely presenting it as an option for those of us who feel trapped doing work for someone else; he’s showing us that you don’t have to feel trapped– that there are other options.

Personally, I have been working at my current “regular” job for almost two years. The company has frequently made empty promises regarding my salary and benefits, and engages in unscrupulous tactics to get what they want from employees. My personal values are not in line with the company’s, and I personally have very little interest in the industry. I am a full-time graduate student living with my boyfriend, and I have stayed in the job in order to make ends meet.

But what have I had to sacrifice? Happiness, energy, passion, to name a few. I fully agree that many people can be happy and excited about their 9-to-5 jobs– my dad has worked for a huge corporation for over 20 years, and they have treated him well. He’s also passionate about the work he does, so for him, he doesn’t feel like he’s giving anything up to work for the company.

Jonathan’s advice is certainly not for everyone, but for me, he has helped me accept the fact that I will never be content in an office job, and you know what? That’s OK. A co-worker of mine always says, “Whenever I feel stressed out about work, I always think to myself ‘At least I have a job!’” Being thankful just to have a job isn’t enough for me anymore. If I’m going to spend 50+ hours a week doing something, why shouldn’t I be able to enjoy it? It saddens me that so many people are willing to accept a job that makes them miserable just because “well, at least I have a job.”

Why are we so willing to trade happiness for for a false sense of job security? Why are we so willing to exchange our freedom for a paycheck? Is it so selfish to want both happiness and financial stability?

Reading this post, that little guy in the back of my brain started screaming, “THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE SETUP FOR A GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEME.” So eventually I got around to reading the manifesto, and then I clicked through to “Project Mojave.” Sure enough, it was a lead-in to a get-rich-quick scheme, complete with the standard long-form sales letter filled with bizarrely formatted text.

WTF, man? I always thought Zen Habits was legit.