Almost everybody wants to live in the centre where they are safe. There are strong walls around them and there is no necessity to panic. However, living on the edge is precarious because you never know what will happen to you the next moment.
Strangely, there are many people who opt to live on the edge either willingly or forced by circumstances. They are game for any eventuality. Who are these people who enjoy living on the edge?
The people who live on the edge include daily-paid workers, casual employees, those who work on contract, and even freelance journalists. If you are employed in a government department, you will get your salary at the end of the month.
You will also receive other benefits such as paid leave, overtime payment, and old-age pensions. In the private sector, employees get higher salaries, bonuses, incentive payments, and paid leave. In the government sector, you will get your salary whether you work or shirk. However, the situation in the private sector is different. If you shirk, you will get the sack!
Those who get a steady income at the end of the month have something to learn from those who are living on the edge. If they learn the harsh realities most people undergo as temporary workers, they will learn some life lessons.
If you are an employee in a state institute or a private company, you can sit at your desk and chat with your immediate boss and get paid. You can go on leave and get paid. The momentum of the organization takes up the slack of individuals.
Income is to a large extent severed from output. Certain state corporations are running at a loss, but they pay bonuses to their employees. If the workers are not paid their bonuses, they will resort to trade union action.
Produce something worthwhile
Unfortunately, those who are living on the edge do not get paid if they fail to produce something of value. They envy the monthly-paid employees who get paid even if they do not produce anything worthwhile. Temporary workers also have to maintain their families, pay utility bills, feed the kids, and pay their housing loan instalments.
If monthly-paid employees could know the temporary workers’ fear when they fail to pay their bills, they will feel the sharply-edged connection between output and being able to sleep at night.
Anyone with a paycheck coming in at the end of every month knows that their bank balance will remain steady. This strips away the incentive to save. When you get a steady income regularly, you tend to spend more and save less.
The freelancer or a temporary worker lives in a constant state of uncertainty. He may get a few thousand rupees in a certain month or none in other months. He can avoid emotional and financial chaos only by saving something for a rainy day. He knows that he has to suppress consumption and save during the fat years. This is because he should be able to face lean periods.
Most workers are awash in a cornucopia of free office supplies and equipment. All the stationery is supplied free and they are tempted to take home some of it. When a freelancer walks into an office and sees all the pens, paper, folders and pins available to the lowest clerk at no charge, he feels like a kid in a candy store. The freelancer knows that he must painfully account for every single one of these items.
Sensitive equipment
When a computer, fax machine or a copier breaks down in an office, you just call the mechanic. This does not exactly encourage careful handling of sensitive equipment such as computers.
Once I saw an employee pressing the keyboard of a computer so hard that others thought he was using a manual typewriter! One day a customer went to a post office to pay a utility bill. However, the officer at the counter did not know how to operate the computer. Such employees also get paid at the end of the month. On the other hand, a freelancer treats his equipment as would his own child because it is his lifeblood.
If you are paid at the end of the month, you do not have to innovate or think of new ways to improve the workplace. A freelancer must always think of new ideas and approaches. Except for a few, freelancers are constantly at war. Economic danger is a part of their daily routine. If you are a freelance journalist, your seniority can vanish with a mere change of editors or the demise of a single publication.
A freelance journalist used to get a steady income from a certain newspaper for a long time. When a new editor took over, the freelancer’s column was axed.
For a freelance journalist who does not get a regular income, the first essential is to have an ability to find new ideas. A first-class and original idea is always saleable. If a good idea is presented in the form of a well-written article of suitable length, its value is increased. It is equally obvious that clever writing and good style are valuable additions to any new idea.
Keep an idea book
If you are planning to become a freelance journalist after retirement or as a means of generating some income, keep an idea book. All new ideas have to be recorded before they fly away. What is more, an idea book will give you immense satisfaction since it is your property and its mining rights are exclusive.
A few lines from a poem, an extract from a speech, a witticism, a spoonerism, an odd expression, a funny newspaper headline (‘Three men found guilty in a cigarette case’) will find a place in your idea-book. If the fountain of your inspiration runs dry, glance at your idea book for solace.
You will remember that Aladdin’s wife made a bad bargain when she exchanged an old lamp for a new one. Similarly, the first duty of a freelance journalist is to exchange his old ideas for new ones. There are many ways in which the exchange can be carried out. As there are hardly any original ideas in the world, a freelancer should try to look at his subject from a fresh angle. No editor will reject a refreshingly written article.
Today there are many new events you can write about. People are waiting in long queues for fuel or gas and authorities ask them not to do so. On the other hand, parents are hunting for milk food which is not freely available. Young men and women are clamouring for a system change. Any freelance journalist worth his salt should have a mind trained to observe and to present a write-up on any such happening. If you do a good job, you will be rewarded.
Unexplored spots
Flaubert, the great French story teller, once told Maupassant, his equally gifted successor, “Everything which one desires to express must be looked at with sufficient attention, and during a significantly long time to discover in it some aspect which no one has as yet seen or described. In everything there is still some spot unexplored, because we are accustomed only to use our eyes with the recollection of what others before us have thought on the subject which we contemplate. The smallest object contains something unknown.”
Everybody needs money. We need money because life demands comforts, food, healthcare and shelter. In human history there have been money creators. Henry Ford was born poor but he became one of the richest men in the world. He had some talents and genius for creating money and wealth.
Creating money is far more difficult than creating a painting. If you were born poor, what would you do? You do not have to wallow in poverty. You should try to earn money and create wealth. It is easy to complain that you have no money to buy food, but with a little bit of creativity you should be able to earn a living.
Although a lot of people are living on the edge, they are not destined to do so. Whatever we do we should adopt an attitude of work centredness. Work-centred people’s fundamental identity comes from their work. They will say, “I am a clerk” or “I am a doctor.” Their identity and sense of self-worth are wrapped up in their work. Their wisdom and power come in the limited areas of their work.
Spark of motivation
Most people are good, but they can be better. Those who know that they are better than others do not try to improve themselves. What they are missing is the spark of motivation. The most powerful motivation comes from within.
When you accept responsibility for your behaviour, your life becomes positive. Those who are positive turn out to be productive. All of us should have a great desire to succeed in life. If you fail to succeed in life, simply blame yourself. When you are not motivated, life becomes a lopsided wheel giving you a bumpy ride.
If you are a creative person, living on the edge can be fun. This is because every day is full of surprises. On some days you will be able to earn a small amount of money. On other days you will have to wear your thinking cap. Anyway, you have to make an effort to get the best out of every moment.
In developed countries those who are living on the edge make more money than those who depend on their monthly income. This is because they are free to perform many different profitable activities. There is no one to give them orders and they are their own bosses.