Entrepreneurship these days is all the rage.
There’s no question that entrepreneurship contributes a great deal to the US (and arguably global) economy, and although numbers have dipped slightly as the job market recovers, entrepreneurship is still a strong trend that I don’t see dying off anytime soon.
If you spend any time in internet land, however, entrepreneur-iness is next to godliness, or something along those lines.
It seems you can’t swing a cat video without hitting yet another blog focused on entrepreneurship or small business, or another startup conference, or another post on Medium about how working for yourself is the ultimate freedom.
But what about when it’s not?
Been there, done that…
I’ve owned a business twice now.
Once, I was pretty much a solopreneur, freelancing and doing communications consulting. I was successful, I had good clients and good projects, one of which led to the opportunity to lead community at Radian6 back in 2009ish. So it wasn’t a long-lived endeavor, it was more of a means of income than a “business” per se (though I did still have to worry about all kinds of operations things, but they were relatively straightforward).
This last time, I started SideraWorks with my partner, Matt Ridings. We were devoted to building a firm and a practice around social business consulting, and did so successfully for the most part, even with challenges and rapidly-shifting markets that led to a pivot or two.
But building and scaling a full-service firm was far different – and far more challenging – than what I’d done previously.
And it turned out that in the long run, I realized it wasn’t a good fit for me.
The new direction of the firm, the market, and the personal demands of running a small company just weren’t something I was in love with anymore. So I made a choice to move on and do something else (more on that officially soon).
But did that make me a failure?
Wasn’t entrepreneurship the pinnacle of success these days? If that’s all I heard about from some of the smartest and most ambitious minds out there, did my decision to walk away from business ownership mean that I was missing something?
The short answer is: no.
Running a business is hard. Anyone who has done it will tell you that, whether they crashed and burned or succeeded wildly.
Both of those outcomes come with stress, intense amounts of work, incredible financial investment and risk (especially if you’re bootstrapped, as we were, using your own funds to grow and operate the business in its early days), personal sacrifice and professional frustration.
It’s not a set of demands that is a good fit for everyone, and that fit can be dictated by a number of things like current life circumstances, personal preferences, career interests and ambitions…you name it.
Just like working in someone else’s company, there’s no such thing as the “right” gig for everyone.
I was prompted to write this post after a conversation with a friend yesterday when I told her about the new role I’m taking in an established (albeit still young and fast-growth) company in a couple of weeks.
She was shocked that I would walk away from all of the glamour (ha) and freedom (DOUBLE HA) that comes from working for myself to take a job with “the man”.
I think this is a bit of a common misperception among those who have never been out there and running a business. From the outside, it can look (and sound) like the ultimate situation. Be your own boss, call the shots, make the decisions.
But it also comes with huge risks: being your own boss, calling the shots, making the decisions.
Here’s just a few words about what led to my personal decision.
Making The Choice to Hit the Workforce Again
When I decided to resign my business ownership in favor of going back to work for someone else again, a few factors came into play for me.
The business itself was still going to have a future with Matt. It simply wasn’t a future that was really the strongest fit for my career aspirations, what I perceive to be my strengths, and the kind of work I was inspired to do right now. It’s valuable, important work they’ll be doing. It’s just not my best fit. And if I’m going to spend lots of money and hours of my own working my ass off on something, I figure it had better be something I really, really love.
While no job anymore is really “stable” (you can get fired as easily as your business can blow up), there’s definitely some security involved in a paycheck that can come from a well-funded, financially stable organization that at least gives you some peace of mind for a predictable bit of time into the future. Owning a business requires pounding the pavement constantly to drive revenue and keep the business operating in the black. And I was exhausted by being personally responsible for at least 50% of that. Makes for a lot of sleepless nights sometimes.
The options to me were simple: go back to some form of freelance consulting in my areas of specialization (digital and social marketing/communication), or find a role with a company that let me focus on those things.
Focus is a key word here; when you run a business, you immediately become a generalist. And I don’t mean a marketing generalist, I mean you better get smart about finance and operations and legal and sales and HR and all sorts of things, and fast. Sure, you hire help, but make no mistake that you must work operationally on the business as much as you end up working on project work, unless you’re richly funded from the start and can afford to go out and hire a massive team.
The idea of being able to focus my efforts and brain where I feel like I can make the biggest impact for a company (and by virtue of that, letting go of some of the things I wasn’t great at) was a big appeal to me. I like taking someone else’s vision and making it a reality. I’m really good at it.
I don’t mind that the Big Idea isn’t mine. In fact, I take great pride in going out there and creating a compelling story and position around a company or product that helps them thrive in a quickly shifting business landscape. I love the look on someone’s face when I take what they’re trying to create and make it crystal clear so they can rally people around an idea.
Which meant that I wasn’t going to take just any gig; I know myself and my work history well enough to know that I don’t thrive working in big, blue-chip organizations even as I’m a great consultant for them. I prefer smaller, more nimble companies with a great product where I can make a big, visible impact and have a certain degree of freedom in work mode and role, autonomy in decision-making, and be involved in lots of related aspects of the business.
It was a bit of kismet that my new role sort of found me; just about the time I was considering making this move, I was recruited for the role I’ll be announcing soon (is the suspense killing you?). And it happened to be a great fit for what I needed, and I know I can bring a ton of value to the business, too.
So I made the leap.
There’s More Than One Path
This slightly long-winded and self-reflective anecdote is all to express something to the legions of you that are out there, working corporate jobs, small or large. Whether you have entrepreneurial ambitions or not.
There is nothing wrong with working for someone else.
I may very well be in business for myself again someday. I may not. I’ve had great experiences in the trenches, and it’s also been some of the most difficult, humbling time I’ve ever spent in my life. My highest highs and lowest lows were both in my roles as an entrepreneur, I think.
Right now however, at this very point in my life and career, this is the right move for me. I know it down to my bone marrow.
You need to know what’s right for you, too. And that may or may not ever include being an entrepreneur.
Don’t be fooled by the hype and the hysteria around entrepreneurship, startups, and all the stuff that’s out there about both. You can have a perfectly challenging, rewarding, interesting and valuable career and never be in the ownership seat.
You can be important, significant, useful and make an impact on the world and still be on someone else’s payroll.
You can choose a mode of working that suits your personality, your values, your strengths and your interests and not have to own the shop to get there.
Besides, with all these crazy businesses cropping up all over the place, if they grow and succeed, someone has to help carry them forward beyond the founders. That may very well be you.
I’m all for encouraging entrepreneurship if it’s someone’s dream and the right fit for them.
But it ain’t all sunshine and roses and it’s far from guaranteed success. And it’s not for everyone.
Don’t forget that business and markets are driven by lots of brilliant minds, and taking your place in the workforce is something to be proud of. Celebrated. Relished, even.
It’s okay to not want to work for yourself, or to not want to do it forever.
What a boring world we’d have if there was only one way to get business done.
More on my new adventure soon. In the meantime, keep at it, whatever you’re doing. We need you out there.
A handful of years ago I was at the Do Lectures, surrounded by the smartest people I’d ever met, all of them entrepreneurs and ridiculously successful in their own ways. At the time I was working in a mid-level marketing job at an SF start-up, wondering what in the hell I was going to do next. I knew that I was not a generator of billion-dollar ideas, and sitting at that event with all those people made me feel terrible about myself. Until the last day. On the last day, I realized (like you did) that my superpower is helping other people realize their ideas. I was content to do that job, recommitted to it, and eventually accepted a job on the executive team at a different startup, helping a young team of entrepreneurs put on their big girl panties and become a real company.
Skip two years ahead and I moved to the Midwest for love. It was a huge mind-f**k for my career. There is no startup culture here yet, mostly mid-level management positions in giant companies or ad/marketing/digital agency jobs. And then a miracle happened. Someone asked me to run a startup, incubated inside an agency. It was a crazy few months, during which I learned all I could about (as you said) finance and HR and business insurance and all the things I had never considered before. I didn’t know I wanted that responsibility until it was offered to me, but as soon as it came it went – I helped make the decision to abandon the idea, due to timing and momentum and all sorts of other things.
I was extremely lucky, in that the agency also values me as a strategist, and that’s what I’m doing today. I still struggle with the fact that I’m not running the show, that my job is to help my clients be smarter about their business and their actions – it is especially hard when I talk about this evolution with friends who still live/work in Silicon Valley. I feel like I’ve failed somehow.
I’m trying to re-root myself in that years-ago learning, that I’m better when I’m helping other people be their best. Yes, I could run a company, and I would have risen to the occasion and been awesome at it. I’m confident this is true. Giving that up shouldn’t define my self-worth, though. I’m putting in the work to carve out my own niche. Man, some days it’s so hard, like when friends get rounds of funding or coverage in Fast Company or whatever. That should be me! Maybe it will be. But it’s not all I should/can/will be.
Bravo to you for putting in the work to understand what you need, and not shying away from the hard decisions.
I couldn’t agree more. I started my solopreneur consulting business in 2009 and took it full-time in 2012 and 2013. Then just as I was getting a little burned out, and like you, wishing there was a way I could work only on the things I was good at and bring pure value to a team, I got a call out of the blue with an opportunity that wound up being the absolute perfect fit. I’ve been an employee since February and I still love coming to work every day. Maybe I’ll be an entrepreneur again one of these days. Maybe I’ll partner with someone. Maybe I’ll stay here forever. But it’s been a great move for me; I wish you all the best on your new venture, too!
I think there are two pertinent parts to this issue. The first, the personal, is getting clear on what one actually wants. “Be an entrepreneur” can vaguely encompass every goal from “make more money” to “work from home” to “realize a creative idea.” The second, the political, is looking at why it is that people need to (or perceive that they need to) be entrepreneurs to get those things.
Entrepreneurship has certainly been glamorized on the personal side. It has also been used as a pressure valve to dismiss demands and complaints about the workplace such as unequal pay , discrimination in promotions, and rigid workplace policies that are incompatible with modern lives (e.g., working an inflexible schedule while raising a child alone.
There are a lot of reasons to start your own business. Money and free time are not two of them. Using the Kauffman curriculum for entrepreneurial training. we spend the first four weeks trying to talk them out of going into business and the next eight weeks teaching the survivors how to run one. I suck at being an employee and I break out in a rash thinking about working in “Corporate America” but I envy those who can manage it. Regular paychecks, actual vacations, retirement. And if you work for the right company, support and resources to fulfill your ideas. Those are good things.
Amber –
I’ve been self-employed most my life, except when I wasn’t. Every time I went to work for someone else, it was the exact right thing to do for me, and it helped me grow personally and professionally and I had the privilege of working with some amazing people and clients. I did it the reverse of you, my first two businesses had investors, partners and employees. The last 7 years have been solopreneurship because I burned out on the shenanigans of investors, partners and employees. Everyone’s path is unique. Just as you don’t regret taking the paths of soloprenuership and entreprenuership, I doubt you’ll regret returning to the workforce.
I wish you all the best in this next phase of your journey! Enjoy!!
For me Creating Time provides cornerstone/foundational tech for running several businesses.
Creating Time relates to managing my fluid + food + aromatic input to…
1) Reduce my required sleep hours.
2) Hacking my Wetware (Body/Brain/Being) so my energy runs at methamphetamine levels, eating Vegan with Super Food Brews for primary nutrition.
#2 also supports #1.
Been doing this experiment since March 2004 + my productivity keeps soaring.
For those having challenges, especially Solopreneurs, track all your daily influences, with particular attention to what you eat/drink/breath + media you ingest.
Any substance/experience producing Food Coma, dip in energy or short circuit in cognitive function… well… take it out back + shoot it in the head.
Solopreneurs must guard their time + cultivate many of the principles Keller talks about in “The One Thing”.
Most Solopreneurs will do well meditating on the old Chinese proverb…
“Chase many rabbits, catch none.”
The pick one rabbit + stick with it.