The truth is that people do work independently of our actions just like any other process. Independent action comes in many forms. For instance, you may be the only one aware that your house has flooded. If you are alone, you may be able to save your home. However, you have to act before the water recedes completely and you cannot wait for help to arrive.
When we talk about how people work, we should not leave the passive conclusion that all work is independent. We must emphasize that our actions have meaning independent of our will. In other words, work is a process that gives meaning to our life. It is not an independent entity. We work for a reason.
Now, if someone may say: "You mean to say that you work because you like what you do. And, therefore, you are an independent person." This may sound reasonable at first glance. But it is not true. If the individual works for someone else, this qualification may be acceptable, but if she is self-employed or runs her own business, she may be considered not an independent person.
This qualification may not seem important, but it is crucial for our understanding of independent action. What does this mean? To clarify, when someone is working, she is doing an action for a reason. She may be saving money, building up assets, getting a better deal on an auto insurance policy or getting herself through a tough financial crisis. She has an end goal. She is not working for someone else.
Furthermore, when we think of our financial situation, we are only in it for ourselves. We are not using our time to go out and have fun as a couple or as a family. We may go out and have a good time, but most of the time, we are busy making a living and paying the bills. So, we are not truly living our life - rather, we are only operating within our financial life.
Therefore, when someone says: "I have my own business," he or she is saying, "I work for myself." It may be true. But in the long run, he or she is only working for himself. It is very sad to see individuals like this.
As to why people feel the need to describe themselves as self-employed, it could be because they have worked for so many years with employers that now, even their bosses will treat them as part of the team. They may also be self-employed because they want to express their creativity, love for children and to make something of their own without having to rely on someone else. They may have gone through experiences that made them want to start their own business. It is all really up to the individual. We may like to think that people work independently of our actions, but that really isn't the case most of the time.
Most of the time, what happens is we look to others to complete things for us. Instead of doing things for ourselves, we may decide to do it for someone else. This is not a bad thing; we may just be creating more dependency in our lives. We may think that we can control ourselves, but if we really think about it, most of the time, our lives are already working for us. So, if we are going to believe that we can control our lives, then we may need to give ourselves some responsibilities as well!
If you look at it closely enough, all of us have some degree of independence even if we don't like to think about it. For example, if you are a doctor, you probably think about who to call when something goes wrong. In the same way, if you are an independent teacher, then you probably think about how to motivate your students, or how to deal with parents and other social situations. You may think about planning an event or party to help you to get together with your friends, and you will consider your friends and the social setting as being independent of you.
Even within our professional lives, we will sometimes find ourselves working alone. We may do this for an organizational purpose. For example, if you run a construction company, you may have an administrative assistant, who is your assistant to other employees. The administrative assistant will act as a liaison between you and the general public.
Regardless of whether you think that people work independently of our control, it is true that we all function in some manner that is independent of ourselves. Regardless of whether we realize this or not, we will all live our lives based on the decisions we make and the consequences of those decisions. Even when we feel the stress of trying to plan a social event, we will still rely on people to organize one for us. When we are trying to build a house, we may hire a contractor, who may also be our architect. All of these decisions, no matter how small they seem, have important consequences that we must live with.
