A couple of days ago I had a talk with a good friend of mine, also an aspiring entrepreneur, regarding entrepreneurship. Though we shared many similar thoughts regarding this subject, it was when we differed that I learned the most. At one point of our conversation, the reasons why we were so driven toward becoming an entrepreneur came up.
“To get out of the corporate life,” he said, looking at me for evidence of agreement. But I didn’t (couldn’t) say anything; instead, I returned him a look that said, “Really? Well, I’d like to know why, please go on.”
He paused for a while before asking me, “don’t you dislike the corporate life?”
I smiled and replied, “no.”
“You mean you like your job?” he asked incredulously.
“Yes,” I said. “I pretty much like my job. I don’t know if I’ll like it a few years down the road, but right now I’m really enjoying it.”
“Still,” I added, “I’d like to start my own business.”
His remark on escaping corporate life surprised me; but perhaps even more so, was my reaction to it. In a way, the surprise may come from hearing how terrible “corporate life” was one too many times, that I just assumed that I hated my job when I didn’t.
I really do enjoy my (day) job, and it never occurred to me that starting my own business would be a way to get away from it. For me, it was never a case of “either/or”; there was never a question about my leaving my job — or at least not for the first few years.
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