I almost fell for it

A common challenge for entrepreneurs is being told by many, ‘you should get a real job’, something I recently nearly fell for.

I spent 2025 scaling an automation and AI agency where I had several conversations with leadership teams who shared without qualm that their primary incentive to adopt AI was to replace their staff. My naivety of expecting executives to want to leverage technology to empower staff, and in turn clients, quickly eroded. 

Upon an unplanned parting of ways with the agency, the fire in my gut to build PIVOT, a platform designed to help skilled professionals turn expertise into sustainable, independent businesses had been ignited.

In just three weeks, the business plan, branding kit, website, online platform, articles of incorporation and insurance were secured, while running the GTM in tandem - building the plane while flying it is one of many superpowers of an entrepreneur. 

Then, my e-mail blew up with recruiters representing prospective employers seeking to interview me. As a sole provider and single mother, I heard the echoes of many and figured I should pause on ramping PIVOT and instead seek to land a ‘real job’.    

I disqualified those seeking four roles in one, an immediate red flag that screams ‘we don’t know what we need nor the skills required to perform these roles’, not someone I want to work for. There were a top three that showed enough promise to explore. Here’s how that went:

Potential employer 1: Showed up 10 minutes late, did not read my CV nor the 30/60/90 I sent two days prior and was clearly answering messages on their second screen during our interview. 

Potential employer 2: Did not show up for the interview and sent an overwhelmed director in their place who had clearly not been briefed.

Potential employer 3: Interviewing 25 candidates, anticipated 6 rounds of interviews with the top 3 to present a 12-month growth strategy to their executives, unpaid…..obviously.

Total hours spent with research, customizing my CV, preparing for interviews and showing up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed: Too many. 

Income garnered from my effort: None. 

I have heard tales of a time when employees were valued for loyalty and enjoyed the mythical idea of job security. Mass layoffs ahead of Christmas have become the norm to ensure shareholders enjoy YoY increases to their stake. Burnout rates across industries set new records every quarter. Big corps boast record profits while employees’ wages stagnate.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives put numbers to the frustration regular Canadians are feeling while sitting with their budgets and they’re staggering. In their report released January 3rd, 2026, linked here, Canadian CEO pay reached 248x the average workers pay. There is absolutely no valid argument that any CEO can produce 248x the value of an average worker.

Hundreds of Ontarians who played the game by the book, went to post-secondary and landed a government job returned to the office today. Parents rushing their kids back to school after Christmas break, braving the winter roads and traffic delays, navigating paid parking to fight for desk space to jump on their video calls.  

Is this what is meant by a ‘real job’? Call me callous, but I don’t want it.

A few more recruiters have trickled into my inbox over the holidays and despite me respecting their hustle, I have firmly decided being an employee is not for me. There are many talented people working too hard to be undervalued and underpaid while expected to do more with less. They have skills worth bringing to market under their own banner and I am going to help them do exactly that. 

Entrepreneurship is not easy, but neither is being an employee for an employer that does not care about your values, goals or well-being.

A pick your hard opportunity and through PIVOT, I’ll provide everything I know and continue to learn about launching and scaling businesses to help make entrepreneurship a bit less hard.

For those with the itch to make a move or who have made the jump to entrepreneurship and want people in their corner who get it, visit here to stay in the loop of what PIVOT is doing to help folks take control of their future, strategically and confidently as they create their own ‘real job’.