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10
Really Good Reasons to Quit Your Job and Start
Your Own Business
Copyright © 2005 Michael J. Katz
Blue Penguin Development, Inc.
http://www.bluepenguindevelopment.com/
It's been five years since I made the 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 the scariest thing I'd ever
done. And yet
looking back, it was the 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
the corporate world. Not
physical noise, but opinions,
rules, history and a whole lot of,
"that's the way we do
it around here," always just 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
courage to follow it, the 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 the 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, the
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 the game
is never over, since the 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 the 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 the perceived safety
of living within the
protected walls of a large
corporation. When I finally
jumped however, I was surprised 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
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 the 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 the
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 the 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.
6. You'll be free to walk away. - When you first
start out on
your own, you will probably be
grateful for whatever business
comes your way. The thought
of "walking away" from a client
may seem suicidal. It
isn't. As your reputation grows,
people will approach you, ready to
hand you their money and
have you begin work. That's
terrific. However, in some
cases, the fit won't be there -
something in your gut will
tell you it's a bad match. You
will learn that you can say
"no thank you" and walk
away. Nobody assigns projects or
clients or teammates to you
anymore. You and only you decide
who you work with and on what terms,
and if it doesn't feel
right you need only say so.
7. You'll make new friends. - If you've been with
the same
company 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 world of fellow
sole proprietors and entrepreneurs,
eager to have you along
for the ride. We hold meetings,
we have events, we meet for
lunch, we talk on the phone - we
share ideas, support each
other and hang out together.
Price of admission: a friendly
demeanor and a willingness to help
other people find their
way.
8. You'll pick the players. - Wherever you sit in
a company,
you've got people you interact with
every day. Your boss,
your direct reports, the head of the
legal department, the
desktop support guy, the
receptionist. Hopefully you like
and get along with most of these
people, but whether you do
or not, you're stuck with each
other. When you run your own
company on the other 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
decided to put them
there. You get to choose.
9. You'll have real problems, instead of imaginary
ones. - In a
corporate setting, your happiness and
success is dependent
upon dozens of intertwined
relationships and handed-down
decisions, any one of which can
change your world in ways
you may not anticipate or even
understand. With so much out
of your control, it's hard not to
spend time "What If-ing"
and worrying about the future:
"What's my boss really 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 might
happen can become worse than the
situation itself - imaginary
problems.
When you're building your own
business you're immersed in
reality. Sure, you may have
days where you worry 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 come
here to follow
somebody else's vision or sit on the
sidelines watching the
clock tick away until retirement. But
somehow, somewhere
along the way, you forgot. Now,
after so many years of
following the pack, you've come to
see work as a place you
go to earn enough money to do the
things you really 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 dreamed 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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of
Blue Penguin
Development, Inc., (http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com)
a
Boston area 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 the author of the book, E-Newsletters That
Work.
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