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Career, Job, Employment Information10 Actually Nice Reasons to Quit Your Job and Start Your Own B
by:
Michael Katz
It’s been five years since I ready-made the decision to leave my corporate job and start my own company. No question simply about it, effort good coworkers, a stable paycheck and 12 years of tenure with one institution was the scariest thing I’d ever done. And yet looking back, it was the shaping moment not only of my career, but of my personal development as well. The fact is, I am now so gaga of blazing my own trail that I could ne'er
go back – I am hopelessly, incurably, unemployable.
As a result, I obtain 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 the corporate world. Not physical noise, but opinions, rules, history and a whole lot of, “that’s the way we do it about here,” always simply an inch or two below the 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 the more you can hear it and have the spirit
to follow it, the more pleasurable
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 ne'er
have to retire. Retiring is a strange idea to the satisfied, self-employed person. It implies that activity is thing
you want to be done with, thing
you will were over. Once
you truly find your passion however, the idea becomes meaningless. Do painters finish painting? Do musicians finish playing music? Do comedians finish being funny simply 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 the game is ne'er
over, since the game and your life will be one.
3.You’ll put your money wherever
your mouth is. I ne'er
planned to start my own business, and I always on the qt
believed that I didn’t have the guts to be flourishing on my own. Once
I look back now, I’m not even as sure how I managed to win over
myself to leave the perceived security of living inside
the protected walls of a large corporation. Once
I finally jumped however, I was astonished by the 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 cognize 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 Archangel
was less friendly, less intuitive and a lot less interesting. I found it easy to switch back and forth between the two Michaels, and for a long time it didn’t even as strike me as odd that I would-be do decisions at activity based on a altogether several 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 cognize your own power. Sweptback up in the turmoil of working as part of a corporation, there’s a tendency to blame others, wait for others, think that others are production
things happen. Working alone you’ll realize how more control you actually have (and have always had). That realization will give you the spirit
and driving to do more things than you ever unreal
of once
you saw yourself as an insignificant part of a big machine. You’ll have common person else to blame, and even as more importantly, you will see how more credit you actually do merit for everything you’ve created.
6.You’ll be free to walk away. Once
you 1st start out on your own, you will probably be grateful for whatsoever
business comes your way. The thought of “walking away” from a client may seem suicidal. It isn’t. As your reputation grows, folk will approach you, available to hand you their money and have you begin work. That’s terrific. However, in several cases, the fit won’t be there – thing
in your gut will tell you it’s a bad match. You will discover that you can say “no impart
you” and walk away. Common person assigns projects or clients or teammates to you anymore. You and only you decide who you activity with and on what terms, and if it doesn’t feel right you need only say so.
7.You’ll do new friends. If you’ve been with the same institution for a long time, you’ve probably developed several close relationships. You may be afraid that you’ll be lonely and isolated out here in the “cold cruel world.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Starting your own business gains you immediate entrance into a collegial earth of fellow sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, eager to have you on
for the ride. We hold meetings, we have events, we meet for lunch, we talk on the phone – we share ideas, keep each else and hang out together. Cost of admission: a friendly conduct and a disposition to help else folk find their way.
8.You’ll pick the players. Where
you sit in a company, you’ve got folk you act with every day. Your boss, your direct reports, the head of the legal department, the desktop keep guy, the receptionist. Hopefully you like and get on
with most of these people, but whether you do or not, you’re stuck with each other. Once
you run your own institution on the else hand, you pick who’s on the team. You get to choose your attorney, your accountant, your landlord, your printer, your partners, your clients – everybody in your daily life is there because you distinct to put them there. You get to choose.
9.You’ll have real problems, instead of notional ones. In a corporate setting, your happiness and success is dependent upon dozens of tangled
relationships and handed-down decisions, any one of which can change your earth in route you may not anticipate or even as understand. With so more out of your control, it’s hard not to spend time “What If-ing” and worrying simply about the future: “What’s my boss actually think of me? What if I don’t get put in charge of that new project? What if they cut my budget next year?” Fear of what strength
happen can become worse than the situation itself – notional problems.
When you’re building your own business you’re immersed in reality. Sure, you may have days wherever
you worry simply about paying the mortgage, but you’ll be in the game, fighting the good fight, and no longer obsessed with the possibility of being blindsided by an unforeseen shift in the corporate winds.
10.You’ll find your purpose. You didn’t move here to follow causal agency else’s vision or sit on the sidelines looking the clock tick away until retirement. But somehow, somewhere on
the way, you forgot. Now, after so many an years of following the pack, you’ve move to see activity as a place you go to earn enough money to do the things you actually want to do. It doesn’t have to be that way. Working on your own will give you the freedom and focus to find the exhilarating, balanced, self-directed career you’ve always unreal
of.
One of my favorite quotes is from the book, The Artist's Way, and I've had it taped to the top of my computer monitor for the last five years: "Leap, and the net will appear.” Go ahead, I’ll be waiting for you.
Just simply about the Author
Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Sphenisciform seabird
of Blue Sphenisciform seabird
Development, Inc., (www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com) a Capital of massachusetts consulting firm that helps clients increase sales by showing
them how to nurture their existing relationships, and that specializes in the development of electronic newsletters. He is author of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.
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