It should come as no secret that self-employed people can effectively, efficiently, consistently manage to FAR exceed the investment returns to the S&P index fund holders … although EVENTUALLY when they sell, they will be taxed. And if they have built something financially valuable as an asset for others to invest in, they will taxed HEAVILY when they cash out.

Death and taxes are certain EMBRACE both CHEERFULLY!

The reason that self-employed people can effectively, efficiently, consistently manage to FAR exceed the investment returns to the S&P index fund holders is that self-employed people can continually, through the disciplined course of every single day, INVEST soundly, wisely, internally in the business that they KNOW, while deducting REAL annual operational business expenses from annual gross incomes to keep their reported NET income down … this is BOTH tax avoidance and especially prudent, informed investment … of course, ALL of the resources in the business are AT RISK … enterprises within the business will fail; ventures are called ventures because they are about venturing into uncertain, risky new uncharted realms … but the business owner must have special, unique, inside knowledge about the environment of these ventures.

Self-employed people HAVE TO work like fiends growing their businesses AND expanding their networks of friends, colleagues, collaborators, customers, business associates and partners of every kind … if they have not found something that demands this kind of fiendish passion, they should settle for being just employees or contractors working for someone else.

People without the passion to work like fiends are better off being W-2 wage slaves … we’ve all been there – sometimes, one just needs a job to provide some cash OR maybe because we just have not figured better things to do with our time … when you don’t want to control and completely your time to your own BigWhy, you opt for a career as an employee or maybe as provider of for-hire professional services, going the contractor route to get a 1099 for billable hours from a client/customer instead of a W-2 from an employer.

Pieter Levels, Tulsi Soni and, not just Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Michael Dell, but plenty of others … have amply demonstrated this point through history, in all kinds of different ways WORLDWIDE … the same general principle that applies for US citizens is going to hold in the virtual realm, as e-residents of Estonia or South Korea or Singapore, for nomads, maybe backpacking or sailing around the world, etc, etc … keep your income way the eff down, do not showboat, refuse to invest in comfort and nice schtuff, instead grow your businesses while you build an asset that will allow you to cheerfully pay the taxes due, in order to further the broader business environment [to feed the employee/customer/401(k) investor/institutional geese laying the golden eggs that business golden-egg-eaters find nutritious]. In addition to the certainty of taxes, be sure to VOTE, lead the opinions of others who VOTE and that includes VOTING WITH YOUR FEET [or virtual e-feet] for a better business environment.

Death and taxes are CERTAINTIES. Business is about risk and UNCERTAINTY. Life is about figuring out how, in one way or another, to EMBRACE both death and taxes CHEERFULLY! It’s safe to say that most people struggle far more with these CERTAINTIES of taxes and death than they are ever ready to admit. Most doesn’t have to be all … the path that you choose is up to you.