Читать книгу No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy - Dan S Kennedy - Страница 14

For many people, the decision to pursue the entrepreneurial lifestyle is the by-product of an evolving dislike for their jobs, frustration with their bosses, or a sudden loss of employment. They may be downsized, forced into early retirement, or just get fed up one day and tell the boss to “take this job and shove it.” The employees-turned-entrepreneurs out of default or disgust lug a lot of mental and emotional baggage with them. The habits, attitudes, and behaviors that work for the employee in the corporate bureaucratic environment do not work well at all in the entrepreneurial environment, and must be left behind. The reason why so many new businesses fail is that the owners were unable to leave their old attitudes behind.

There is no “doing enough to get by” in the entrepreneurial world.

Clinging to narrow and traditional definitions—the equivalent of corporate job descriptions—can get you killed.

And in The New Economy, there is no place to hide and a harsher, brighter spotlight is shining on your every decision and every move.

Personally, I’ve only held one job in my entire life, for one year, immediately out of high school. I secured a territory sales position with a national book publishing company, that was supposed to be for a college graduate with sales experience. I got it through a combination of bluster, white lies, and agreeing to work on “free trial” for three months, no pay, no company car. Although I excelled at the work itself, by year’s end my sales manager and I agreed I was fundamentally unemployable. Thus I became entrepreneurial. However, I’d always intended to be my own boss, and I was very fortunate to have some preparation for it in youth, as my parents had been self-employed my entire life. While other kids were still reading comic books and filching their fathers’ Playboys, I was, too, but I was also reading Think and Grow Rich, listening to Earl Nightingale tapes, working in the business, riding with my grandmother on job deliveries to clients, and writing up my list of life goals. This is not a mandatory prerequisite. I know plenty of wildly successful entrepreneurs who came from much less helpful backgrounds. But I did have the edge of clear intent from the start of my adult life, and little time to acquire the bad habits of thought and behavior that most long-time employees of other people have to shed when switching to entrepreneurship.

Anyway, I think, to succeed, you not only must make a firm and committed decision to do just that, you must also decide to give up long-held attitudes and behaviors that fit fine in your previous environment but do not work well in entrepreneurial life. Although I don’t swim, I imagine it’d be tough to swim across a good-sized lake insisting on clinging to a boat anchor. Letting go of anchors from your former life as you dive into entrepreneurial waters is essential.