That Crystallizing Moment: Should You Become An Entrepreneur?

By Ed McLaughlin and Wyn Lydecker

In our previous blog, we gave you a checklist to determine your “Pull” toward starting your own business. We promised you this follow-up checklist to help you identify that crystallizing moment when it’s time to take the entrepreneurial leap!

“The Push”

1.) Are you tired of working for someone else, being told what to do, and precisely how to do it?

If you show ingenuity at work, your inventiveness runs counter to obeying the chain of command and doing only what you are told to do. The good news is that you stand with good company! Here are some other rule-breakers like yourself.

Steve Jobs was considered a renegade for the way he changed how we use technology.

Walmart founder, Sam Walton, said the most important rule is to break all the rules. He said, “I always prided myself on breaking everybody else’s rules, and I always favored the mavericks who challenged my rules.”

Jim Buckmaster broke the rules of traditional classified ads and survived the dot.com boom with his enormously popular Craigslist.

2.) Do you feel like a replaceable part?

Do you feel like your approach at work imperils the status quo, making you unappreciated by the corporate hierarchy? Instead of feeling excited about the future, do you have to watch your step? When I felt this way, it helped push me toward my entrepreneurial journey.

3.) Have you lost your trust in “the system?”

Do you feel confined? Does your company keep your recognition and growth reined in? You can create your own company where integrity, hard work, and creating value are rewarded more than playing politics.

I found huge satisfaction and boundless opportunity by starting my own business.

4.) Are you looking over your shoulder in fear at work?

When you have to watch everything you say and feel the need to kowtow to people above you, it’s hard to put your heart into your work. If your creative flair is discouraged and your productivity goes unrewarded, then your work may represent a dispirited you and no longer a true reflection of you.

5.) Have you been crafting the perfect résumé, answering ads, and attending interviews but never landing an actual job?

The best job for you may be the one you create. The essence of who you are and the measure of your potential cannot be defined with keywords on a résumé that is reviewed by electronic robots. If your qualifications do land in front of human eyes and you gain an interview, you may still feel like a round peg trying to fit into a square hole.

Your Next Step

If you feel “The Push,” then you have realized that no matter how hard you work, how much you produce, and how much value you create, you cannot change the hierarchy, the politics, and the motivations of those who control your fate.

Ready to get started? I invite you to sign up for blog updates by joining our mailing list, and we will alert you when our book,”The Purpose is Profit,” is released.

I also invite your questions in the COMMENT section below!

Download our free chapter, “The Ten Commandments of Startup Profit!” here.

You’re on your way!

Ed McLaughlin is currently co-writing the book “The Purpose Is Profit: Secrets of a Successful Entrepreneur from Startup to Exit” with Wyn Lydecker and Paul McLaughlin.