Being on someone else's payroll isn't the ticket to security you might want it to be.

I used to live directly across the street from the Washington State Capitol building. I would look out my window and watch the state workers coming and going.

People loved working for the state for one reason and one reason only. They believed if you were lucky enough to get a state job, it would be a "forever job".

It did not matter if you enjoyed the work or not. They thought they would have job security until they retired or died.

Maybe that was true until the state had fiscal issues just like almost every other employer in the 2008 recession. The state implemented massive layoffs.

I remember how the scene out my window shifted. There were a lot fewer of them coming and going to and from their offices. Every Tuesday afternoon I would see lots of them treading down the sidewalk again, carrying casserole dishes and bags of chips. They were not going to work anymore.

They came weekly for a support group for state workers who had lost their "forever jobs". As I sat in my office, happily coaching clients, watching the former state workers comfort each other on the sidewalk outside my office, I was never more grateful to be self-employed.

I used to think some people are born to carve their niche in the world, self-employed, and others who were born to work for someone else. I used to believe you had to have a little more risk tolerance to decide you do not need a "regular" paycheck to feel secure.

In 2008, I realized it is quite the opposite. The truth is you have to have a certain amount of risk tolerance to depend on anyone or anything other than yourself for a paycheck.

Here we are, in 2020 and it has never been truer than it is now. When the unthinkable happened and all hell broke loose in the job market and the world, I did not have to worry about losing my job.

In case you are wondering, I did not lose any clients either. My client calendar is busier than it has ever been - and while I'd like to think it's because I'm super-special, truth is a lot of coaches have more business now than they did before the world started spinning sideways.

Why?

Because people will prioritize coaching when uncertainty hits.

Coaching works.

Coaches are important.

When you ask most coaches why they chose their profession they will say it's because they want to help people - and don't get me wrong, I deeply love knowing that my work positively impacts the lives of the people I work with and the people that surround them.

As for me?

I chose to coach because I wanted to work from home and raise my children on my terms. I also deeply craved income freedom and location independence in my life.

To be clear, coaching is not a get rich quick proposition. Anyone who thinks it is will be painfully disappointed. However, good coaches who are willing to show up consistently and be of service to their people can find a kind of freedom in this work that is rare and precious.