Dreaming of Being an Entrepreneur? 5 Compelling Reasons to Keep Your Job

Have you heard this message? The message says that if you have a JOB, you have somehow failed your calling or your path to true happiness. That if you truly had grit and creativity, you'd be an entrepreneur.

Here's a story to illustrate the point. A few years ago, I was coaching and doing team workshops in a big, financial company. My coaching partner and I were out to dinner with the HR Director when he announced that he was thinking of quitting his job to start his own business. My partner and I practically flew across the table screaming, "Nooooooo!" As the sole breadwinner for his family of 5, printing a new business card was not going to send his 3 children to college. He had a good thing going at his job and quickly saw from our stricken faces that staying was a good choice.

Now don't get me wrong. Being an entrepreneur is great - the flexibility, freedom, and creativity can't be beat. For some people, becoming an entrepreneur is a great option. If you have a financial safety net, the ability to work on your venture on the side, or a robust network of people ready to hire your new business, you have a great place to start.

As the HR Director discovered, there are many fabulous benefits to corporate life. Here 5 compelling reasons to ignore the call of entrepreneurship and stay in your job. (These just happen to be the things I miss most about corporate life):

1. Your salary. You get paid when you are sick. You get paid when you are on vacation. They pay you if you work on a big project or if you spend your day cleaning out your email. You get raises, and many companies give bonuses or other financial awards. Pay for entrepreneurs is uncertain and constantly fluctuates. When an entrepreneur isn't working, they don't get paid.
    
2. Your colleagues. This is probably the one I miss the most. Lunches out with your office mates. Daily conversations, shared experiences, and energetic collaborators. Entrepreneurs work alone much of the time.
    
3. Free food! Corporations have coffee areas and do things like bring in sandwiches and bagels. There are amazing holiday potlucks (delicious jello cake! artichoke dip!), retirement parties, snack boxes from consultants, and celebrations for major milestones. All I can say is there is no free food in my kitchen and no one is providing it but me.
    
4. Paid professional development. Corporations send employees to conferences. (You get to stay in a hotel and expense your meals! I still remember the sushi dinner in NYC.) Companies host classes on everything from courageous conversations to productivity to Six Sigma.  Entrepreneurs pay for their own professional development and eat at Subway.
    
5. Other people do the stuff you don't like. Not into managing finances? No worries. Someone else manages the company's finances. Your computer doesn't work? Call the IT department. Have an insurance question? Benefits is just a phone call away. As an entrepreneur, you are all the departments unless you have a long suffering partner or generous friends with IT and marketing skills.

Organizations offer different sorts of benefits so your company may have a different menu of great things. I'd love to hear what they are. What is a compelling reason to stay in your corporate job? 

Email me at christina@boydsmithcoaching.com and tell me all about it. I promise not to get too jealous of your free food.

With rebel love,
Christina

Is anxiety running you? There is a way out.

Estimated read time: just under one minute

You can be free! And keep your job. At the same time.

I hear from many people that their anxiety about work runs high. The economy is bad. They've lost their mojo. They feel stuck, pigeon-holed. They don't know the way out of the rut. Does this sound familiar?

My client, Todd, was run by anxiety. He was short-tempered in meetings, and his team's performance was suffering. He believed that only a buttoned up, carefully controlled version of himself was welcome at the office. That belief was stifling his creativity and happiness, and the stress of stuffing important parts of himself was coming out sideways. The anxiety was killing him and his team.

Working everyday from anxiety is never going to get you what you want. Certainly, it affects things like your sleep and fun, but it also affects your performance and engagement and therefore your opportunities, promotions and at the end of the day, your money. Todd turned his anxiety around, and you can, too.

In coaching, Todd created practices to manage his anxiety and took risks to bring the creative, funky parts of himself to work. He got familiar with his own unique processes and strengths. As a result, Todd's anxiety was gone. He became physically active again. His team got happy and productive. He became a vital, positive contributor in meetings, and his director couldn't believe the fast turnaround.

You can learn to manage your anxiety to take charge of your life and choices again. You can find meaning and bring joy and creativity back to your day.

If you feel ready to lose the anxiety and claim your success, let's hop on the phone. In 30 minutes, we'll create an anxiety-busting, creativity building strategy that will send you back to the office transformed. Email me at christina@boydsmithcoaching.com to schedule a time with me.

I can't wait to connect.

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.

You are not fooling anyone!

Estimated read time: 1:16.27 minutes

No cubes, real or imagined, were harmed for the creation of this newsletter.

Meet Carole.*

*Carole's story is told with permission. In Carole's words, "Sure! I’m flattered."

When Carole walked into the conference room for the women's leadership program I was facilitating, she wore a tight bun, a polo shirt and what can only be described in 1950s terms as "slacks."

She was buttoned up.

As we spent time talking about the program topics like navigating politics and developing a business persona, I started to notice subtle things about Carole, like a pair of Saturn earrings or the cape she quickly removed when she walked in from the cold.

In our third session, we did a feedback exercise where the group shared what they wanted to see more of in each other. The other women wrote things on Carole's board like, "I wonder what it would be like if you wore your hair down and let your creativity fly?" After reading the feedback, Carole told the group in a stricken voice, "It's clear that I'm not fooling anyone."

In our next session, Carole said she realized how much she had sacrificed to fit some made-up image of a successful corporate professional. She decided to embrace her creative, rebelicious self, and let her masses of curly hair down, literally and figuratively. She started wearing the loose, creative clothes she loves and donned her giant jewelry, too. And she was right, her gorgeous hair looks just like Hermione from Harry Potter.

Carole liberated herself from the sense that she had to be a certain way to be successful in corporate environment.

Here's what she wrote in an email a few weeks later:

"I also decorated my cube with some colored fabric and art to express my personality, and have gotten a lot of positive feedback on being more authentic in both my décor and my appearance. I’m definitely getting a more positive vibe from people, and I’m more relaxed and open myself, too."

You are not fooling anyone, either.

Here's a challenge for you: Where will you let your hair down, literally or metaphorically, to be who you truly are - at the office and at home?

I hope Carole's story inspires you as much as it did me.

Love to all of you!

Christina

P.S. If you know someone who would like to receive this newsletter, they can sign-up for The Corporate Rebel Video Podcast and Newsletter HERE.