“You’re not the boss of me.” – Every 4 year old ever.
This quote, this is the reason people become entrepreneurs, no? So they can be their own boss, be the captain of the ship, call all the shots, get all the monies. Live the dream…can I get an AMEN, ALLELUJAH…amirite?!
Well, yes, but there’s another side to this coin. No one is telling you what to do. You have to call all the shots, and sometimes you have no fucking clue as to what you’re doing. Like none, and you just want to turn to someone who’s the boss and ask, “Ok, now what do I do next?” or “Can you show me how?” No, there’s no one. If you wan the answers you have to find them yourself, or you have make them up as you go. There’s also no one telling you when to do things or how to do them. For me, autonomy is one of the greatest blessings and one of the greatest curses of entrepreneurship.
Let me digress deep into my history for a few minutes…
Academia vs. Entrepreneurship
Growing up my parents tried to impress this idea that if I wanted to be rich and to live the life I always wanted, all I had to do was work hard in school, and I would make the big bucks. For the most part their advice kept me enthused and excited about school. My entire academic career I was basically a 4.0 student (it might have dropped down to a 3.82… in Graduate School). Essentially I grew up thinking that if I just read and performed the way that everyone wanted me to, that equaled success. The first part that screwed me up as a working adult is that to me, unlike most normal children, school was not work or an activity I disliked, I actually loved school. I enjoyed the discipline of it and the thrill of going from ignorance to enlightenment. I started to know and understand things. Not only was learning fun and rewarding for me, it was EASY. Gasp!
A second problem with this, “work hard and get good grades, and you’ll be successful,” philosophy is that it is made to sound like graduation is the destination. As if once you’re handed a diploma, someone just starts paying you boatloads of money for having made A’s in school. Funny, right? But seriously, I had internalized this idea that being smart in school, somehow mattered in the real world. Newsflash — it actually doesn’t. Newsflash — all that studying, test taking, projects, and grades… All of that only matters if you use it to apply it to something new or to contribute to society in some way shape or form, and graduation, whether it’s elementary school, high school, college or graduate school, is literally just the beginning.
“…graduation, whether it’s elementary school, high school, college or graduate school, is literally just the beginning.” – Me realizing that I have a lifetime of real work ahead of me.
Please don’t misunderstand. I think school is very important. I think quality education is the true differentiator when it comes to being able to rise above circumstances. However, straight A’s and success don’t necessarily correlate. Chasing straight A’s did not prepare me for my life’s work and the entrepreneurial calling deep within. Doing well in school doesn’t mean you’ll do well in life. Academia is formulaic and prescriptive. Someone else is telling you what to do, when to do it, how to do it in order to succeed. However, this is diametrically opposed to the core of entrepreneurship: Autonomy.
Look how happy they are… throwing their caps in the air. Sorry, kids, this is just the beginning of all your hard work.
Autonomy = A Lot of Grinding (And not the kind like you do on the dance floor)
In entrepreneurship autonomy can be your greatest strength, or it will be your downfall. Personally, I waver. I feel like in my personal decisions, I’m quite autonomous. In a professional/career capacity, it’s a lesson I’m still learning and something I’m working on. Output and execution… These are the things that matter, and these are things directly determined by your level of autonomy. You need to be able to do what needs to get done to move the business forward. This is essential if you want to create wealth for yourself and your family and sustain the life that you want to live.
The truth is that as an entrepreneur you have to internalize that hard work is the destination, and no one is going to do it for you. To be successful entrepreneur and not a starving entrepreneur such as myself, you basically have to grind EVERY DAY of YOUR LIFE. When use mega rich and successful people as motivators and inspiration, it’s important to note they didn’t get rich out of nowhere. Although it might seem like that, they undoubtedly put in hundreds and thousands of hours of work at some point to arrive at that destination in life. People like Sir Richard Branson never stop working. Even though Bill Gates is mega rich, he worked really friggin’ hard to get there, and he still works very hard on other goals. The promising thing is that they both steer their own ships. Just remember, no one in this life or on this planet owes you anything, and your success is a direct result of how hard you are willing to work, and how much you use your autonomy to your advantage.