Starting assignments before the teacher gives directions

Entrepreneurs start businesses so we can spend eighty hours a week avoiding having to work forty hours a week for someone else.

And that doesn’t even guarantee that our business will see any returns.

How absurd is that?

But this is our personality. We’re rebellious, individualistic and antiauthoritarian people. Independent souls who desire our own piece of ground.

Think of it this way. If you were the kind of student who couldn’t follow directions, or started your class assignments before the teachers even gave directions, you would probably make a good entrepreneur.

This is the perfect description of my personality, and it’s why starting my own publishing company was such a compelling career path for me.

Until it wasn’t. That’s one of those little facts entrepreneurs love to ignore. Labor statistics show that twenty percent of small businesses fail in their first year, thirty percent fail in their second year, fifty percent fail after five years, and seventy percent fail in their tenth.

Now, this doesn’t mean that your business is destined to fail, but it does mean that we should be ready to pivot if it does. Because in many instances, that pivot may require our entrepreneurial gifts to be reined in, or at least redistributed.

As my mentor always reminded me, anyone’s greatest strength can become their biggest weaknesses. Anyone’s cute coping mechanism as a child can become an infuriating character defect as an adult.

Manfred writes in a journal of entrepreneurship that there can be a dark side to this personality. Many entrepreneurs have traits and behaviors that allow them to succeed in their businesses, he says, however these same traits can often prove detrimental in their roles as managers or coworkers. The energy necessary to achieve a business dream may have origins in desires and needs that can be dysfunctional in the business setting.

As someone who made the rocky transition from entrepreneur to employee, let me tell you, this is no joke.

If you’re used to working in unstructured environments where you have complete control, collaboration might prove hard for you.

If you’re used to leaning into your obsessive concern over detail, you might be the one who derails productivity and annoy your colleagues.

If your overriding need for applause and recognition motivated you to overwork, the rest of the team might have a hard time keeping up with you.

Think about it. Entrepreneurship is a beautiful business model, when it works. And if it doesn’t, it’s critical to think about how your skills transfer into other arenas, and what potential disadvantages that might bring. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Has your cute coping mechanism as a child become an infuriating character defect as an adult?