As an ex 9-5 man I've been thinking a lot about the differences between being an employee and an entrepreneur. A year into my experience as a 'free agent' I've experienced a lot of advantages as well as disadvantages to both lifestyles. In today's post I'm going to look at getting things done in both environments.
As an employee, any new initiative seems to be doomed before it begins, office politics, bureaucracy, over-zealous legal departments, over-burdened IT departments. Only the most hardy of initiators, running with the most passionate of potential projects seem to make it through, and even this doesn't provide guaranteed immunity from a last lap disqualification from senior management.
Of course most of the time the concerns and considerations that arise with a new initiative are legitimate. How will this reflect on our brand? How much will this cost? How will this look to our clients? How will IT find the time to work on this?These questions all make sense. But they also slow momentum and err WAY too much on the side of caution. Is that new blog really going to destroy the brand if it doesn't work out? If we start a Facebook fan page is it really going to make our company look ridiculous? If some of our employees engage with people on Twitter will that make it seem like we've not got anything better to do with our time? Well the answer is MAYBE but probably not. Unless you try you never know. And as with most things in life, the worst scenarios, even in the RARE event they come true are never as terrible as we assume.
As an entrepreneur, you know you need to
try to thrive. You find the IT resources to get it done, you find a legal opinion that backs your initiative up, you find the time to get the first version up and running. As a small business owner or a Free Agent, you do have the luxury of being fast and nimble. But this doesn't mean that it's impossible for corporations or larger companies to adopt some of these behaviours. You can always outsource, get a second legal opinion, work overtime. All these are possible. I think the biggest difference is that in a corporate environment we ask ourselves 'WHY' whereas an entrepreneur asks 'WHY NOT'.
