Entrepreneur Walk: Pick a Side and Keep Moving

“Pick a side and keep moving” is what I recently told myself.  I have been straddling the Entrepreneur/Professional Career fence for too long now.  Granted the timing hasn’t always shown itself to be perfectly right to move over, but when is it ever?  All you can do is plan the best you can with what you have.  And by evaluating your current resources and determining how you can attack your dream, you can figure out how to proceed.

In my case, I began my career very successfully—I was promoted with a smile; I was a very young successor when looking at my peers; and I was headed for that gigantic corner office and big title.  But all along, I knew something wasn’t right.  I did not feel fulfilled and fully contented.  That coupled with the fact that I worked like a race horse (as I thought that is what was expected, as I was trained that way by past managers); so I burned the hell out.  Still, even before my burn out, I knew there was something more out there.

So I eventually tested the waters,
but still using my career skills by consulting.  While I felt a bit entrepreneurial by having my own company behind the work I did, it still felt very much like a job.  While my projects were initially a few months long, the clients would like my work and take me on longer—years sometimes.  Other than the fact that not all of the rules and policies at the clients’ applied fully to me, it still felt very much like a job.  I still longed for more autonomy and independence.

However, I had a kink in the road whenever I took significant time off between clients.  It still seemed that they needed me to still act like a normal employee (always working, and doing the same work over and over again), instead of as a consultant (with varied high skilled credentials with the ability to get up to speed very quickly—and down time being part of the equation).

I stand here again with the conundrum of getting back into working with another client, and I face the same obstacle over again.  Always the same thing—they are looking for someone who is doing the exact same thing right now at a JOB.  Never mind that I have varied experience in the field that your hiring for, and work better than your standard employee, for your short term project.  

So instead of my choosing to leave "career-dom", and I always thought I would eventually, it is leaving me as well.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been planning to work on my “real” entrepreneurial dream, but I was always thinking that I could have my career in the back pocket to fall back on.  However, that is proving to be an utter fallacy.  The more time goes by and the more senior my career gets, it seems the more like an employee I have to behave in order to maintain my stature in the market--and I don't want that for my life.  I want an entrepreneurial life because I want FREEDOM.  It’s that simple.

Therefore, I have made the decision that I am no longer a Career Professional.  I am now, and only am, an Entrepreneur.  That is my title.  That is my life.  I will no longer straddle the fence.  I have chosen.