If you had gone out on your own 25 years ago -- with 100% skin in the game as to whether you’d be successful and receiving enough money to pay your mortgage and your kids’ orthodontist bills -- I wonder what your current take would be.
I always got a kick out of listening to those guys who worked at the fancy agencies who would deliver their “takes” at SXSW and other venues, but who were sheltered from the basic realities of week-to-week financial survival because of their corporate employers.
Well Roger, not everyone is cut out to run their own business and the guys at the fancy agencies aren't that different from any employee at any company—you are there as long as the company wants you there. Many entrepreneurs can't stomach the notion of working for someone else.
Each has their own path and sometimes one ends up on another—a business owner can someday end up as an employee and an employee can someday end up as a business owner.
I think the spirit of my piece is that no form of your work should entirely define who you are, regardless if you're an employee or the boss (I just wrote it from the former perspective)
There seems to be a deeper issue here, in that being an ordinary worker is no longer respected as a way of life.
Everyone's expected to be either a tech mogul, a small business success story, or a high-powered, go-getting corporate climber.
There's actually nothing wrong with settling into a job, putting in your 8 hours, and centering your purpose and passion elsewhere. People who do that today are branded "losers" and "disengaged."
Love this perspective. That is what I have come to know from my work designing strategic narratives for companies and executives. Like you, I lived through my title and the borrowed equity of the brand name on my card for decades. Going solopreneur has definitely shifted the meaning of identity and pathway forward. I find that I am now creating mosaics (be it digital or physical) for companies and humans, each with a history, a present and vision for a future they have yet to accomplish.
If you had gone out on your own 25 years ago -- with 100% skin in the game as to whether you’d be successful and receiving enough money to pay your mortgage and your kids’ orthodontist bills -- I wonder what your current take would be.
I always got a kick out of listening to those guys who worked at the fancy agencies who would deliver their “takes” at SXSW and other venues, but who were sheltered from the basic realities of week-to-week financial survival because of their corporate employers.
Well Roger, not everyone is cut out to run their own business and the guys at the fancy agencies aren't that different from any employee at any company—you are there as long as the company wants you there. Many entrepreneurs can't stomach the notion of working for someone else.
Each has their own path and sometimes one ends up on another—a business owner can someday end up as an employee and an employee can someday end up as a business owner.
I think the spirit of my piece is that no form of your work should entirely define who you are, regardless if you're an employee or the boss (I just wrote it from the former perspective)
There seems to be a deeper issue here, in that being an ordinary worker is no longer respected as a way of life.
Everyone's expected to be either a tech mogul, a small business success story, or a high-powered, go-getting corporate climber.
There's actually nothing wrong with settling into a job, putting in your 8 hours, and centering your purpose and passion elsewhere. People who do that today are branded "losers" and "disengaged."
Love this perspective. That is what I have come to know from my work designing strategic narratives for companies and executives. Like you, I lived through my title and the borrowed equity of the brand name on my card for decades. Going solopreneur has definitely shifted the meaning of identity and pathway forward. I find that I am now creating mosaics (be it digital or physical) for companies and humans, each with a history, a present and vision for a future they have yet to accomplish.
Pro-personial mosaics! Love it