Ode to Entrepreneurship
Why ever be an entrepreneur fighting for your and your small firm well-being instead of enjoying the security of a big-company employee and knowing that when the work day ends, you can go out and enjoy your personal life?
I am sure many people wonder (including my mother) why I ever became involved in the management of a small private company when in the big companies they have higher salaries and more comfortable life than I do currently. In my country the security is the obvious choice. Those who are not job-centered think that I am just a workaholic and this is something that is incomprehensible when it doesn’t give me obvious benefits but only ruins my personal comfort. I also think that many people who knew me from before either accept that I did it because I am an active and ambitious person or just blindly accept yes, bravo, you are doing a great thing. The impossibility to explain and be understood how your perception of life is deeply different now although you try hard not to even confess it to yourself, makes you a bit lonely. Maybe you don’t want your friends really to know how different you are in your daily work life from what they see or used to see. Maybe sticking to old personal habits gives you stability.
You know that people tend to think that their situation is always the worst, their problems are unique and really heavy (or at least people in my country). They overreact to problems they have with colleagues, bosses, transport, work tasks they are given, payment, you name it. Since I tried both worlds, even in my darkest times I know I am on the right path and this is priceless.
I couldn’t bear to be part of a big system where I cannot see my own meaning and the result of my efforts. What I got instead was a kind of disrespect towards those typical, overly-satisfied, “knowing-their-rights” corporate folks with emotionally empty and distanced faces (of course I am talking about the majority, there are decent people everywhere, unfortunately I have seen quite some friends losing soul to thе corporate world). Yes, I did have a few carefree and well-paid young years, but I suffered heavily from not finding bigger sense in my life but only consuming it. I cannot live knowing that all my days will be alike and that I don’t have some exciting perspective waiting for me at the horizon.
I knew deep inside me back then that I am a born entrepreneur. Maybe not the leading one, but part of a team being reliable support.
So it did happen, although partly by chance!
As it often has happened to me, the unshaped internal sensations at one point start taking form. 7 years ago I became part of such team in a completely new professional area (furniture manufacturing) where they have been already for some time. After some period of going deeper into it, I started feeling at my right place. The stress was much higher than anything, but the possibility to implement my own thinking, strengths and attitudes was and still is priceless to me. To directly inspire people to try to do their best because they also need to see the result of their efforts. To work with people who have the strength and attitude to fight creating order and meaning in their piece of the world. All this gave me emotional stability and self-assurance that was unbelievable for me before despite the big resposibility for dealing with so many people which sometimes exhausts me to death.
It may sound arrogant but I think the world needs its modern warriors.
linawings 