I like your narration. Such life stories are the gold.
Running a business means dealing with all kinds of bureaucratic red tape, dealing with all kinds of insurance companies and so-called cooperatives that seem to think they are important for business. If you then have employees who can't think enterprisingly themselves, want a fully equipped workplace, good pay with as little responsibility as possible, then you have people fresh out of school or university who have never really worked and are completely unprepared for business. You can't blame anyone who has their own insights later in life, through their own experiences and also through failures. The education system does not provide for thinking for oneself. When I was a school kid and started working for our local photographer, I wasn't even fit to make coffee.
What is called "jobbing" for me was such casual work where I learnt the most, not because I gained any expertise, but just got to know different companies and fields that gave a broader view of life.
It's like you say: when you don't know exactly if you're going to get through the next month, when the food is not enough, when the cupboards are empty and you have to improvise: These are the teaching methods that make for liveliness. However, only if not everyone is at the same hunger pangs with you at the same time.
Such lean times caused me not to let myself be blackmailed at work. When bosses were too authoritarian towards me, I refused to obey and said: "Are you dissatisfied with me? Then give me notice. Otherwise, I'll do my work my way and not to please you."
Companies have demanded everything possible and impossible from me. I rarely gave a damn about making myself popular by giving in to everything. When I was younger, I allowed myself such impertinent behaviour. Now I am less rebellious, it would also be inappropriate for my age, but I still don't like to be given orders. I had a career then, but not for long.
Money is unimportant, basically. Of course, it's only important because everyone else thinks it's important. I prefer to work from hand to mouth. The more you have, the more you can lose.
I hope to die sooner than later. But of course, I do not have a death wish. Live can be full of wonders. Maybe even more so under the current circumstances. ....
Running a business means dealing with all kinds of bureaucratic red tape, dealing with all kinds of insurance companies and so-called cooperatives that seem to think they are important for business
Me, and regulations and red tape never got on too well. I found that the more I ignored them, the less we talked - which then made for a great relationship! lolol