It’s been five years since I made
decision to leave my corporate job and start my own company. No question about it, leaving nice coworkers, a stable paycheck and 12 years of tenure with one company was scariest thing I’d ever done. And yet looking back, it was defining moment not only of my career, but of my personal development as well. The fact is, I am now so enamored of blazing my own trail that I could never go back – I am hopelessly, incurably, unemployable. As a result, I receive a steady stream of, “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” invitations – from old colleagues, new friends, complete strangers – anybody who is considering a change, and who wants to know, “Why should I start my own business?” This is what I say:
1.You’ll dance to your own music. There’s a lot of noise in corporate world. Not physical noise, but opinions, rules, history and a whole lot of, “that’s way we do it around here,” always just an inch or two below surface. In such a setting it’s hard to find your path, or as I like to say, “hear your own music.”
Once you’re on your own, you’ll suddenly begin to hear what’s there, and more you can hear it and have courage to follow it, more enjoyable and yes, profitable your life will be. The fact is, there is no right way to live, to act or to grow a business.
2.You’ll never have to retire. Retiring is a strange concept to satisfied, self-employed person. It implies that work is something you want to be done with, something you wish were over. When you truly find your passion however, concept becomes meaningless. Do painters stop painting? Do musicians stop playing music? Do comedians stop being funny just because they’ve reached a certain age? Not if they are doing what they truly want to be doing. Sure, you may slow down or change focus as you get older, but game is never over, since game and your life will be one.
3.You’ll put your money where your mouth is. I never planned to start my own business, and I always secretly believed that I didn’t have guts to be successful on my own. When I look back now, I’m not even sure how I managed to convince myself to leave perceived safety of living within protected walls of a large corporation. When I finally jumped however, I was surprised by number of friends, former co-workers and family who remarked on my “courage.” Frankly, I’m not any braver now than I was before, but I know with certainty that I don’t need a corporation to take care of me (and neither do you).
4.You’ll no longer live in two worlds. I used to be two people: “corporate Michael” and “home life Michael.” Corporate Michael was less friendly, less intuitive and a lot less interesting. I found it easy to switch back and forth between two Michaels, and for a long time it didn’t even strike me as odd that I would make decisions at work based on a completely different set of criteria regarding what was fair, what was smart or what was worth doing. That’s over – I’m now one person no matter what I do, and I have a more balanced, more humanistic approach to business.
5.You’ll know your own power. Swept up in turmoil of working as part of a corporation, there’s a tendency to blame others, wait for others, think that others are making things happen. Working alone you’ll realize how much control you actually have (and have always had). That realization will give you courage and drive to do more things than you ever dreamed of when you saw yourself as an insignificant part of a big machine. You’ll have nobody else to blame, and even more importantly, you will see how much credit you really do deserve for everything you’ve created.
