After Taylor Pearson self-published his book The End of Jobs in 2015, I kept hearing about it from owners of successful ultra-lean businesses, who told me how much it inspired them. Pearson graduated from college in 2011, as the nation recovered from the global financial collapse and gave voice to the skepticism many people developed—and still feel—about traditional jobs, making a case that self-employment could offer greater security and control over our opportunities than a conventional career path.
“Instead of choosing from a set of available options, we can create our own…” he wrote. “Instead of ordering from the menu, we are more empowered than any prior generation to be the cooks.”
Recently I had an opportunity to speak with Pearson about the experiences leading up to writing the book and how his ideas have evolved. He wrote and self-published The End of Jobs after studying history in college and a varied career that has included teaching English in Brazil, working for a digital marketing agency and blogging on the side.
As he read and listened to podcasts about people running internet businesses, he found himself fascinated by the opportunities the digital world was opening up. “It’s a great democratizing medium,” says Pearson. “Anyone anywhere can have access to information anyone else can have.”
Working in Thailand for a digital marketing agency at one point, he saw how the internet was empowering people first-hand. Attending an event at a university there and talking with the students made him realize how competition for work had opened up on a global basis, now that hiring was no longer restricted by geography and more people could learn skills that allowed them to compete in the global economy.
“I talked with a student who was maybe 19 or 21, sort of college age,” he recalls. “Her grandparents had grown up as rice farmers in a very small town in rural Vietnam. Her parents had moved to Ho Chi Minh City. She was a programmer. I met dozens of people like that all across the region. I helped me really understand how fast things had moved.”
Many readers got hooked on his ideas, too, and he sold more than 19,000 copies of his book and now runs an online course and does business coaching and consulting.
Here is an edited transcript of our conversation.
Elaine Pofeldt: How did you get started as a writer?
Taylor Pearson: I’ve always liked writing and reading to some extent. History and English were my best subjects in high school. I tried to write a fan fiction novel in 8th grade.
Elaine Pofeldt: How did graduating from college in the recession contribute to your view of jobs and entrepreneurship?
Taylor Pearson: When I graduated, I saw a lot of people that paid $100,000 to go to law school and were working as waiters trying to find entry level jobs. There weren’t any paths in front of me that made sense. I wasn’t technical. I wasn’t a “STEM” person. There wasn’t anything on the non-technical side that I saw as a very desirable career option.
The idea of being self-employed or starting my business wasn’t the idea. I wanted to find work I enjoy and where there was upward mobility. All of the existing boxes—going into a larger company, getting a law degree, most of the things I saw people doing—didn’t quite make sense to me.
Elaine Pofeldt: What has been the reaction to the book?
Taylor Pearson: I wrote the book mostly for millennial-ish career starters trying to figure things out. I got just as big a reaction—and maybe a bigger one—from people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. They see the writing on the wall. They got laid off or let go or they have friends that have been.
Elaine Pofeldt: How do you feel about self-employment now that we’re not in a recession?
Taylor Pearson: It’s very clear that small business formation is going down and has been going down for at least the last 10 years. At the same time, with sites like Upwork and Freelancer, there are lower transaction costs [for going into business] than in the past. You can sign up for Uber in 20 minutes. I see lots and lots of people starting small businesses every day.
