Employee to Entrepreneur
You wake up to the same ringing alarm clock. You stumble down the same stairs and make the same coffee. Everything seems the same. On the face of it, it is. But, behind it all, it’s not. If life were a computer game the developers have kept the same graphics but changed the game engine. The first day you become an entrepreneur is probably the biggest turning point in your life. It’s probably more important than graduation, than that job promotion you got five years ago, and if you’re married, it might be even be more important than your marriage (don’t tell your spouse I said that, or they will not allow you to read this blog anymore).
It’s a whole different world when you step over the threshold and into the realm of the entrepreneur. Everything changes. You’re not in the zoo anymore you’re in the jungle. There are no zoo keepers to help you now. You have to hunt for yourself, find shelter on your own, find water. And on top of that, you must avoid being eaten by other wild animals. Yeah life is more interesting this way but it’s also more perilous. You can’t get away with just showing up. You need to be active and work smart.
You are about to embark on the most rewarding and fulfilling learning experiences life has to offer. It’s important to enjoy it. Just remember to admit when you’re wrong. Being wrong is a virtue if you can admit to it. Then you can move on and do the right thing. You don’t have a boss that will criticize your mistakes. Making mistakes is a key process in entrepreneurship. It’s how winning strategies evolve.
As an entrepreneur, you don’t have a social ladder to climb. Internal company politics is out the window. This is replaced by cold hard fact. I think that this is really good for creativity. Because, you don’t waste time running social scenarios through your head on top of trying to innovate. If what you do works, then great. If it doesn’t, then back to the drawing board.
As I have mentioned many times before. It boils down to the “Right First Time” versus the “Incremental Improvement” mindset. That’s the underlying game engine that changes when you become an entrepreneur. When you get to grip with this. Believe me, the sky is the limit.
