Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
by Daniel H. Pink
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Book Summary Information
Author: Daniel H. PinkEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-05-01
ISBN: 0446678791
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Business Plus
Book Reviews of Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
Book Review: Free Agents Are Changing Economic Reality
Summary: 5 Stars
In Baltimore, 700 low-income people have completed a 108- hour course in how to start a small business. The course is offered by a non-profit, Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore. WEB says that 80% of those who started the program have begun their own enterprise, and that after 10 years, 80% of those are still in business. These new business owners are part of a national trend affecting rich and poor alike. They are "free agents", the people who will eventually change all we think we know about work life. According to the latest census figures, more than half of American companies have less than five employees, and 70% of all businesses in the United States have NO paid employees. Today the 33 million free agents in the US outnumber manufacturing employees and all federal, state, local and county government employees, including teachers and police officers.
These little companies typically re-circulate 60% of revenues into their local economies through wages, using local vendors, and consuming local products and services. In contrast, chain stores only re-circulate 20% locally and warehouse type stores only 6% locally.
Author Daniel Pink calls this growth of the productively unattached "Free Agent Nation", and it may signal a new capitalism that will go far beyond "getting a good job", and "the organization man".
In his essential book Free Agent Nation: How America's New Independent Workers Are Transforming the Way We Live (Warner Business Books, 2001), Pink notes that the growth of free agents are enabled by four economic trends. The old social contract in which a company traded lifetime job security for employee loyalty no longer exists. Second, new inexpensive and portable technology means that anyone can buy a computer and own the means of production, no longer being dependent on a corporation to provide what's needed to make a business work. Third, long term prosperity has enabled people to search for meaning in their work, not just a paycheck. Fourth, corporations continue to form and dissolve at faster rates, so most workers will outlive their companies.
The new social contract is more challenging than the old. Pink describes it: "The free agent provides talent (products, services, advice) in exchange for opportunity (money, learning, connections)." Many large corporations now outsource as much as possible to free agents, a good deal on both sides.
Free agents are growing in spite of outdated employment, tax, and zoning laws that restrict small businesses. Free agents pay more taxes than employees because they are both employers and employees, they pay more for health insurance because of laws encouraging corporations to provide coverage, and they find themselves breaking outmoded zoning laws to run home businesses. But while the political landscape doesn't yet support their freedom, they have already changed the cultural and economic landscape. Free agents put up with the downside for freedom and because they actually earn more than their employed counterparts for doing the same work. A recent study of one thousand new millionaires found that two thirds were self-employed.
In many ways, being a free agent is the ultimate step in personal responsibility, ethics and self-actualization. The free agent definition of success is entirely personal and may have little to do with income or prestige. Free agents survive through positive relations with others. If a free agent acts in an unethical manner nothing will soften the landing. Whether they make it or not, there is no one to pity them, and no one else to blame.
Summary of Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself
Widely acclaimed for its engaging style and provocative perspective, this book has helped thousands transform their working lives. Now the paperback edition features a comprehensive 30-page resource guide that explains the basics of working for oneself.Economics Books
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