In a recent AMA video I recorded, someone asked how they can go from worker to owner. While I was recording my video, I kept thinking of all the people along the way who always complained about the fact that their boss (store owner) never understood them or that their boss is an idiot. The reality is that many business owners are indeed inexperienced and have many shortfalls but yet the biggest issue is something many workers don’t understand, which is their ability to navigate risk with growth. Here are how the two mindsets differ and why someone who works there can never say they get it or understand it.
The worker complains about the fact that other employees are ineffective and that they are incapable. While it may hold accurate and it may very well be the issue at hand, the owner on the other hand, has to deal with the legality of letting someone go, any possible issue that may arise from it, as well as the short staffing and the recruiting process afterwards. While the worker feels that its a bad decision to keep people who are ineffective there, the stress, mental strain, and amount of repercussions are not things they will have to deal with.
This leads me to an important point that many aspiring entrepreneurs and future business owners should consider today. The point of being entrepreneurial in nature, even if you have yet to become a real entrepreneur or have yet to take that leap, is not to complain about the lack of resources or things that are not perfect but rather find solutions to be able to bring out your resourcefulness to get things done.
In a perfect world, every job you get will have unlimited resources, amazing teams in place, and will pay you very well but in reality, none of these things are in place but yet an opportunity exists for you to show to yourself your very own ability to strive in an environment filled with problems to fix.
This is the core of being successful, it is your ability to execute based on what you have, not what you wish you had.
When you think of working for others, understand that you are not responsible for the well being of the team, their paycheck, the rent of the building, and the long term growth. The owner of the business is and it is likely that his monetary investment in his business (which in most cases is the bigger part of their savings) is also at stake. This is what most workers don’t seem to understand that causes all that mental stress on a new business owner or entrepreneur and causes them to manage risk daily in a fashion that doesn’t always make the most sense for growth.
It is almost a blend of fear and uncertainty that is not very well handled due to inexperience. This mental strain is what very little can prepare you for, its actually the reason why I wrote Third Circle Theory as too many books and programs focus on the evolution of the business itself, rather than the evolution of the entrepreneur or business owner him/herself.
That said, next time you feel like complaining about how the owner of the company runs his company or doesn’t do what you would do, then go out there and do better on your own or do your best to become an asset and support it in anyway you can.
It’s no different than the jackass who pulls next to my blue Audi R8 and says “You should have bought a white one, I don’t like that baby blue…” The natural response is well thank god you are still driving that white Civic then.
In life, you are either a liability or asset, part of the problem or the solution, or a nagger or a do’er. You just have to ask yourself if one day you did have to hire someone to do for you what you do for others, which type of person would you want to have by your side?
