Chase a job or chase your passion?
Before becoming and entrepreneur I started as a designer and a creative director. I remember when I was starting out, I loved the excitement to look for a new Job, and felt all the upcoming possibilities of my new career. I dreamt I would have my office, have my team and with time I would build a solid retirement plan, be promoted, earn company bonuses, and be happy in my career.
It didn’t happen that way.
First of all, as a designer we are not very appreciated, and this is before globalization. As a designer we are the ones to go to “make things pretty”, make a pretty powerpoint presentation, make pitch decks pretty, specially work for company directors that we can’t say no or roll our eyes to show our annoyance that we can’t do our actual work because of all the decks we have to make pretty, sadly we don’t get “pretty permanent” jobs, or stability. Not to mention we really do not get very challenging work either, and the designer hourly rate keeps dropping worse than how the bitcoin value dropped in 2018. Our self-esteem gets so beaten down as we don’t deserve to be part of a company. We are kind of like the ugly ducks in a company, AKA The contractors! — Many times I saw my team members go to company events, parties, and I was not invited cause I was a “contractor”. You know this feeling? Unfortunately and fortunately (being fair to designers) is happening to all industries in the United States. -Is like being rejected in junior high school, except I never had to deal with this rejection in school, or even the University until I started working as a professional. When I asked for a challenging project, my boss would throw me his expenses or other work that was not related to my responsibilities, and more often my contract would get cut without knowing the reason. Leaving me unemployed. Another aspect, is that the employer and employee relationship is based on an emotional connection and nothing more. If your boss likes you and while he/she likes you, he/she will keep you. And if for some reason this changes we are out. Specially if we are contractors. For 17 years of my career this was the story of my career.
But this is a beautiful thing, because through injustice, and not be willing to settle, a warrior arises. A warrior that embraces the heat to survive. This same heat is an awakening experience for many of us, as we convert from contractors to the AKA, The Entrepreneurs!. These negative job related experiences awaken our reality and what truly inspires us and what we are really made of. Because when we are looking for a job we are looking for stability and not pursuing big dreams. Why aren’t we trying to become actors, rock stars or something exciting like that, because we believed in the corporate system that offered us “stability”. But what if we chose to pursue something we love and our truth passion instead since corporate jobs don’t offer stability as old times?.
If we think about it, pursuing our passion require similar steps as when we pursue a job. When we look for a job we update our resume, we put our word out there, we contact recruiters, we apply at online jobs, and wait (wait a lot) to hear back, and sometimes people come to us or email us jobs we should apply just like someone may recommend us a client. I actually love this phase because I am a hunter by nature. But this is a rollercoaster for me because I love to pursue jobs but immediately would get bored with them once I found the job was not any different than the previous job I had, and even the people seem to be the same in all companies.
A shift happened when I got let go once from a job unfairly, I found I liked to pursue things more aggressively than the standard job hunting process, maybe I was desperate for money and probably a little mad at my boss that fired me. I remember showing up to a company I was interested to get an interview but they would not call me back and I refused to just sit and wait, I really wanted this job. When I insisted to only be given a few minutes to hand off my resume to the recruiter they force me to leave by sending me the security guard (yes this happened). I left with dignity but furious to the fact that I was being treated as a criminal but I went back at the risk to be thrown out, but this time I handed out my resume to the security guard. An hour later I had a call from the company, got an interview the next day, and got another “contractor” full time job the week after. It turns out they saw I had a very strong resume and portfolio and they had not seen my online application. On that day when they sent me the security guard, I realized a few things; one, I do not like people limiting me. Second, I have a little hard time when I am being told I can’t do something. Third, there is always a way if you ask with respect and sincerity. And last but not least, there will always be there someone to help us so being persistent is a good thing. In this case the security lady later told me she would not have forced me to leave me because I was doing something good for myself. And honestly looking for work is one of the most humble things someone can do.
As entrepreneurs, no one else is controlling our future, neither our financial stability. The world won’t collapse because there is no one there to fire us in the first place. I personally prefer pursuing entrepreneurship over jobs, because I am not as surprised by “unexpected events or people” I used to face in the corporate world. Now I meet more direct, honest and truly inspiring people that have achieved amazing things, people with similar stories, that took the higher road to become great by not looking back and taking a leap of faith. The relationships we make often turn into solid business partnerships. And because of our own need to survive, we know the value of solidarity and also sending out positive energy to the world. I see now my former bosses who did me wrong, as people that did not know how to handle their roles. They weren't leaders, and unfortunately many managers have not tapped into their own potential, not like entrepreneurs have. So I don’t seek to learn from corporations anymore, they are just a temporary paycheck. However entrepreneurs that succeed are the leaders and role models to truly learn from.
As the founder of Successfuly and business coach, my goal is to support people that have not tapped into their power they hold within themselves and utilize their skills to move forward and not look back. When someone is looking for a job but also dream about ‘one day’ having their own business, I share this:
If you are willing to apply at jobs online, and try to contact recruiters, you can send your business sales sheet and information to prospective clients and find what is it that they need and how can you help them.
Instead of going to happy hours and talk toxic corporate gossip you could go to network events and offer your services to people and learn something new from them as well, and perhaps team up on a project.
Instead of getting an internship, offer a trial project to a prospective client and pitch what would it be to work on a larger scope of work and get the deal with them while you build a new relationship.
Instead of collecting dead-end Linkedin connections that never turn into real conversations, why not focus on your current connections that already know you, if there is a project you could work together or they could hire you, they already know you after all. Also utilize all the connections to build a real business relationship, don’t just connect without introducing yourself.
Instead of asking for a job to a company, why not pitch to them as a vendor so you can set your own price, work on your space and get larger deals.
If you are willing to take chances, embrace bold moves, live and enjoy passionately about your career this will motivate the right people to want to work with us. We spark our own sparks, and we create our own fire, and with love, talent persistence does pay off. So I ask you, if you have these skills and personal capabilities to pursue a job than pursuing entrepreneurship, why pursue a job? A job will tame to control your potential with all the corporate games, budgets, politics and others, but with entrepreneurship the reward is much greater, financially, and personally. And once you realize you can do a business, you’ll realize you can do many other businesses.
And honestly, I personally prefer to have my own pitch decks of my businesses “pretty”, instead of the powerpoint presentations I had to do for the corporate directors I used to work for.
We can create our own success.