Over the last few months, friends and family members have lost their jobs and double-digit percentage points off their retirement funds. While the financial losses are devastating, it is the emotional losses that are having the deepest impact.

These wonderful, intelligent, people invested their money in and spent their days working for other people’s companies. They believed in the comforting and well-advertised idea that fund managers would increase their wealth and that companies would reward their loyalty.

A few years ago, I traded my savings and retirement funds for the opportunity to start a small business. With that decision, I gave up any comfort my investments may have supplied and, instead, invested in my own future.

While friends and loved ones shook their heads in private while giving their unwavering support, they all wanted to know: “How are you going to deal with the insecurity of not having a real job?”

Today, it is easier to answer that question. I cannot be “downsized”. My portfolio cannot be halved. Today, my risks, hard work and efforts are not a guarantee of security, but the results are more firmly in my grasp than those working for others. A venture-capitalized board of directors will never again have power over my future.

The sad truth is, no one has a “real job” anymore. Real jobs have not existed for decades.