Do employed people think about being their own boss? I meet many smart, young, energetic individuals who are always wishing to own a business. Many of them work for good organizations and many have even built a side gig from something they are passionate about.

This is no different to when we were young. The gigs may have been different but the passion to do something on our own always stayed on our minds. When I look back now, for me it was always about obtaining freedom from rules – the rules set by someone else 😊

The problem with this thinking, as I learned from my experience of leaving my first job to start a business, is that the moment you obtain this freedom you become someone who has no rules to follow, which is the worse thing that can happen to you.

I did not fail in my first business venture because the idea was bad or there was a lack of capital or human resource. In fact those things kept the business going for a few years.

I failed because I lacked focus and had vague goals (like making lots of money 🙄), no effort to learn and develop myself in the industry I had chosen to operate in, no feedback loops to ensure I measure my progress on a regular basis and most of all no rules which required me to have a disciplined routine.

In other words I had no self-imposed mental model that I could not be distracted from.

I am still a great fan of entrepreneurs and always encourage people to take risks to create value for themselves and society in general.

But if I was ever asked to give advice to someone thinking of breaking free from being employed, it would be to focus on setting clear goals for yourself, be aware of the stakes for you and your family, build knowedge and skill in your chosen domain and monitor your progress on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Most importantly – always have rules to apply to yourself! Remember what Nietzsche wrote, “he who cannot obey himself will be commanded.”

Worth thinking about 🤔