6 things being an entrepreneur teaches you
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Hyperconnectivity
Whether you have taken or planning to take the crazy plunge of entrepreneurship, here are some refreshing reasons on what being an entrepreneur teaches you.
1. You are more capable than what your boss or employer think of you.
“All that’s fine, but let us stick to the job at hand ” – perhaps a common retort to new ideas from you. It doesn’t matter even if you report to the CEO, remember you are still a part of a “balanced scorecard” and a KRA metrics that may make your boss look good. As an entrepreneur you will be forced to explore the “more of you” . You will realize your sense of accountability is way higher and it is because you have to keep surpassing your own standards and not that of your boss. When you work for yourself you may just not know where your energy and inspiration comes from.
2. You value network better and are more interested in building and nurturing the relationships.
You will hear from most entrepreneurs that starting up on your own is also a very humbling process. As an employee, you would have made your connections with the “right” people in the organization. The fact still remains you would tend to focus on folks who add more to your ladder progression process. As an entrepreneur you may view people differently – not on what they are but what potential they have. The way you connect with your team, your potential hires, your vendors & customers etc will be very different.
3. You realize there are better and easier ways to get things done.
As an entrepreneur you will not be constrained by lengthy and cruel organizational processes to get things done. No boring mandatory courses, no time sheets, no more spending 40% of your time in administrative work. Since you will also be handling so many more things than you ever did, you will figure out a way to make things simpler, smarter and easier.
4. You focus on customers better.
You no longer need to manage your clients like just another client code. You are not bothered if you exceed your billing time. You focus on better and more appropriate solutions rather than going by a ‘templatized’ way of serving the client. Encouragingly, most clients will prefer to work with you when you are your own boss than you being part of a larger company.
5. You may get to see a bigger picture.
Once you decide to work beyond your KRAs, there are greater chances for you to be creative about things and look beyond your obsolete job description. You will start viewing on how things connect. And perhaps an actual answer to ‘why you do what you do’.
6. You will explore life more meaningfully.
Now that you have a better control of life and your time, you will look at broadening your horizons to do a lot more in life – whether social contributions, travel, pursuing a hobby or even enrolling for studies. Your network through all these activities would bring in new and refreshing perspectives that may make your life a lot better.
Being an entrepreneur is not a very easy journey. It teaches you a lot of things – more about you than you will ever know. But, then – life is too short to not to be an entrepreneur!
Published in collaboration with LinkedIn
Author : Kaushik Srinivasan is an entrepreneur working on diverse but focused enterprises.
Image: A worker arrives at his office in the Canary Wharf business district in London February 26, 2014. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh
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