Why I’m not an entrepreneur, but I love working for one
Posted by Cassandra | Filed under Career
I am not an innovative mind. During university, I excelled at producing pieces of journalism but was mediocre, at best, at thinking up story ideas. And I’ve never really had an idea for a business. Ever.
If someone points me in a direction, I will go at it full throttle without much assistance. What I’ve accomplished happened mostly by me seizing chances and opportunities. The truth is, I probably could have ended up in any number of fields and done fairly well at each of them. Journalism was just one of many possibilities for me, including psychology, graphic design, advertising, web development, photography and more. I considered all those options before I took a leap of faith into journalism.
I don’t believe any of this makes me dumb, unambitious or unsuccessful. I think it just means there are different types of brains which face the world in different ways.
Today, I’m employed by an entrepreneur.
She’s young (but still older than me), she’s smart and she has about a million ideas each day. Since she runs a small business, she wears a lot of hats. She’s not just the president, she’s also the accountant, the public relations rep, the company spokesperson, the manager and a hundred other things. She’s being pulled in every direction at once and, especially as the company grows, has very little time to sit down and perform every small task which allows the business to run from day to day.
And that’s where I come in because I’m more of a do-er and a problem solver. Although by nature Gen Yers like me are multi-taskers and procrastinators, I typically attack tasks in a certain order without really planning to do so and then “wing it” if/when it comes down to crunch time. Everything I do happens in a sort of organized chaotic way that probably only makes sense to me.
I’m also not a Yes (wo)man. I’m not afraid to tell my boss I don’t like one of her ideas, or that I think it needs to be tweaked, or that it doesn’t mesh with our brand, or that it will take way more work than she thinks it will, or whatever. We have a good rapport so I can voice my opinions (respectfully) without fear of retribution.
If or when I ever do stop working for TalentEgg, and if I have to get a job at a big corporation … I think it’s going to be a very hard adjustment. Instead of saying, “Yes, good idea, I didn’t think of that,” my manager would probably say, “Who do you think you are?”
Or, hopefully the TalentEgg Way will be widespread by then and collaborative, laterally structured, Gen Y-friendly workplaces will be more common. A girl can dream.
Tags: "real" jobs, career path, entrepreneur, newspaper industry, TalentEgg
I'm a writer and editor just starting my career at 
August 7th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] Speaking from personal experience as an employee of a small company started by a young entrepreneur, I can say my work here has been infinitely more rewarding than the work I’ve done for giant corporations. My peers who work desk jobs pushing paper in traditional environments are more often than not bored out of their skulls, numbed by the monotony of their jobs. They are surprised at and envious of my experiences. [...]