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One of the disconcerting parts of working in a large company — where you may have a fancy title, steady pay cheque, and good benefits — is that you often get caught up in a frenzy of activity, doing things that do not have a direct bearing on the real world, observes Pamela Slim in Escape from Cubicle Nation: From corporate prisoner to thriving entrepreneur ( www.landmarkonthenet.com ).
To those who are, therefore, serious about starting a business, the work begins with detoxifying from corporate life. Step one, as Slim lays out, is to ‘clear your plate,' by trimming fat out of your schedule and freeing up time to plan your new venture.
The next step is to reset your mind to ‘beginner,' though your life experience and education would have given you a rich body of knowledge. For, if you go into entrepreneurship for the first time with an attitude that you know everything, you will miss all kinds of great information and opportunities, the author cautions. Beginner mind, she explains, is a state of being where you approach situations with no judgment, censoring, editing, or expectations.
The reality is that nothing substitutes for talking to real people in your target market, as Slim reminds. “Many entrepreneurs see the potential of a five-billion-dollar market in their area of interest. But how many can personally name those that are ready to buy the first 10 products?”
On the right path
A key stage in the shift from employee to entrepreneur is to ‘find the business needle in the idea haystack,' after you have thawed out your frozen soul, reawakened creativity, observed the kinds of things that interest and energise you, and created a snapshot of your ideal life!
Guides Slim that, after lots of brainstorming, sorting, musing, research, writing, and playing around, you will start to see specific business ideas emerge. “Clues that you are on the right path with your ideas at this stage are that you feel real excitement, joy, and energy when you work on your business ideas. And fear, of course — but once you see fear as a natural part of doing anything worthwhile, it will not be quite as ominous.”
Road to happiness
Foremost among the ‘branding' insights listed in the book is the need for respect for the customer. Even if you are fifth-degree black belt in Java programming and can slice electrons with your bare fists, save your techno-babble for someone who cares, the author chides. “When you see a clueless, pressed-for-time, and credit-card-bearing customer like me walk through the door, become a consultant and help me make an informed purchase without forcing me to listen to information I don't care about.”
A pithy and sobering message to wannabe entrepreneurs is that since your day-to-day happiness does not have much to do with your form of employment, working for yourself will not magically make all your problems go away and lift your mood. It is the exact same thing as believing that finding the perfect spouse will make you happy, the author analogises. “Being happy by yourself will make you happy, and make you more likely to attract a mate who is happy, healthy, and without the tendency to try to ‘fix' you.”
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