One of the main reasons that a lot of people give for why they become entrepreneurs is that they do not want to work for someone else. Sometimes this feeling arises early in life. I knew early on that the best person for me to work for was me.
For others of us, the realization that we want to be self employed comes later. Perhaps we got that first job out of college, worked hard for five or six years, and started to see what we perceived as the shortcomings of the corporate work environment. Perhaps we toiled away as wage slaves while we married and raised our kids, and now that our kids have flown the nest and are independent and on their own, it’s our time to follow our dreams. Or, you may be what I believe may be the next true wave of entrepreneurs, senior-preneurs. These are people approaching or at retirement age, but who do not want to retire, and instead decide to start a business as a solo entrepreneur.
What is it that galls most of us about having a boss anyway? It’s the suck up isn’t it? We have to make the boss happy, so that we keep our job, and maybe even get a nickel or two more as a raise from time to time.
And then we become entrepreneurs, and the sucking up ends right? We no longer have that boss to please. We are free to run our business as we choose, and we control how many nickels will be flowing into our bank accounts.
When you become an entrepreneur, it is true that you won’t have a boss, unless as a micro or solo a significant portion of your earnings comes from one source. But even if you spread your revenues among many clients, all this means is you will have many, many bosses. And you will have to interact with them in a respectful and authentic manner, much like you would with a boss in a paycheck-driven world. Instead of figuring out what the one boss at the warehouse which employs you wants from you, you will be continually challenged to understand what each of your numerous “bosses” want from you as an entrepreneur.