It takes more than you think! The entrepreneur mindset. 

When I started my own business, over 20 years ago, I was involved on a conversation with a guy that tried to convince me to apply for what he regarded as a fantastic job on a company he admired. I could not believe my ears, frankly I was shocked to hear someone believing that working as an employee for a company is a better deal than having your own business. This guy was missing the entrepreneur mindset.

Similarly, often I heard from people that call them selves’ “entrepreneurs” how happy they would be if they could have a well-paid job as employees in a big organization.

Now, my standpoint on this is: THERE IS NO BUSINESS, LIKE YOUR OWN BUSINESS, period! I would never exchange having my own business, being a sales coach, by being an employee on a giant corporation, REGARDLESS of how good they pay, or how many benefits they provide you.

But first things first.

Regarding all guys above, all suppose “entrepreneurs” that would exchange their status as entrepreneurs for being a well-paid employees, let me tell you this:

You’ve never been entrepreneurs; you’ve never had an entrepreneur mindset, you somehow landed on having your own business.

For those ones now that are so thrilled being part of a giant organization, there is nothing wrong about it, however, let me tell you how I see things and why I would never change with you.

1. High paid salary. Yes, it is all said there. It is a salary, it is not the money that you earned directly from the free market, instead it is the money that someone else gives you for your services. If this other person(s) decides to stop giving you that money, you are out.
2. Benefits, again today you have them tomorrow not. You drive an expensive car? it’s the company’s car, not yours, you are having private health insurance, it’s the company that provides you that, once you are out all benefits are out. You depend completely to the company. There is an old saying: “Never have all eggs in one basket”, you have all eggs in one basket.
3. Politics, that means that you must know “who is who” in the company, be careful what to say and when you say it, be diplomatic, think about the feelings of other sensitive co-workers, never raise your voice, be good but do not make your superiors feel threatened from you, because that might work against you. FUCK THAT. If you are willing to “sell” so much from your identity to please other people and try to stay in the surface, how in the world are you going to make the difference in an organization??? I understand, you might be someone that wants to have a mediocre, easy life, someone that says (and worst believes) stereotype sentences such as “money does not bring happiness” and other bullshit, then that is fine. This job is for you. But if you claim to be an innovator, someone that is going to do whatever it takes to bring success to your partners, most importantly however to yourself, then how can you work as an employee???
4. How in the world can you bring out the full potential of yourself if it is constantly limited and monitored from a group, from an authority? How can you be a true leader if you must please everyone? I always love to work with entrepreneurs and owners of organizations and not with all the managers in between. The reason why is because the relationship with them is based on a sane basis. They look at their interest and the interest of their company. There are no politics involved and no games played. The problem now is that big corporations unfortunately are so big that you must deal only with employees, high level ones, but still employees. They do not really care about their organization; they care about their personal agenda.

There is no way that you are going to reach out to your full potential if you work as an employee. Entrepreneurs love what they do, they do it with passion and therefore they are better than the rest. While the rest of the people are “working” those guys have “fun”, that is why they are one step ahead. What is struggle for the others is the natural flow of things for them.

Follow your heart, follow your passion and be ready to lose. It takes more than you think to be an entrepreneur. Have the entrepreneur mindset.