Are you really ready to run your own business?

[David Randolph]

Here is a link to a test supposed to be about being an entreprenuer.
http://www.businessbrief.com/are-you-cut-out-to-run-things-take-this-test/

One of the questions: "I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am" is clearly the reason why I did not stay at one job.

[The Gorn]

You go into business for yourself in part because you believe that you really are special, better than, more entitled, and that you have better ideas.

I think at core, if you're going to succeed at self-employment, you have to come off to some others as a bit of a presumptuous a-hole.

I think the reality doesn't count for so much as the impulse that you think that you deserve to be special.

Every very successful person I've known has seemed that they feel entitled.

[Richardk]

I'll add to GB's notes that if you're also doing "sales" or face the public then you need to be "full of it", gushing with enthusiasm, know how, etc. even if you think the client's idea will never work.

I've noticed that showing any hesitation or caution towards the clients project has often negatively impacted the deal or even killed it altogether. Not always, but often it seems like you need to buy into the clients idea, hook line and sinker in order to capture the project. Though looking back, many of these projects could have been good money makers if well funded but running away was often the safer choice. 

[The Gorn]

I'll add to GB's notes that if you're also doing "sales" or face the public then you need to be "full of it", gushing with enthusiasm, know how, etc. even if you think the client's idea will never work.

You don't want to lie.

You also don't want to go down with the Lusitania and have your ass handed back to you on a platter because the project failed. (More appropriate a metaphor than the Titanic because on the Lusitania they didn't spare the women and children first, which matches common business "ethics".  )

I think quiet confidence and friendliness are just fine.

The client's personality is important, too. Your approach has to jibe with theirs. Acting like Tony Robbins with a very conservative, introverted manager will be a poor fit.

[Richardk]

Acting like Tony Robbins with a very conservative, introverted manager will be a poor fit.

And the opposite will make them wonder whether you're even alive. 

[David Randolph]

Though looking back, many of these projects could have been good money makers if well funded but running away was often the safer choice. 

Actually, it is good business to run away from many of these. Simply having a good idea is not enough to justify spending my time on them. The client has to be willing to spend the proper amounts of money to get the job done. I don't know how many times I have been approached by a "sales man with an idea" and they want me to donate my time and effort to their idea. Remember that VC's only fund less than 1% of the ideas they see. We can be just as selective.

Looking at the "darker" situations that we can get into, spending time and emotional energy on projects that don't pay enough to survive on will keep us from finding the projects that will be the correct fit and will pay us better. Settling for the "ok" means that we won't find the "great".

[Origisaurus]

I don't know how many times I have been approached by a "sales man with an idea" and they want me to donate my time and effort to their idea.

Most of us have had "fantastic offers" - underscore "fantasy".  And we may have passed up million dollar deals because we couldn't see our way to making the "investment". 

Once in a great while, an opportunity comes along, and we are in a position to pursue it - house payment covered, spouse on board, etc.  Or maybe never.

I just love the guys who want you to slave away for the "opportunity" to buy some stock at some later, fuzzy, date!  If it's really a great idea, they will be glad to share equity up front.  VCs hate those deals because they can't mess with guys who have a legitimate claim on the enterprise.

[vicorjh]

"Every very successful person I've known has seemed that they feel entitled."

They feel entitled possibly because they've taken on the risk. If their endeavor is successful, they feel entitled to take the reward. I don't see anything wrong with that.

On the other hand, there does seem to be plenty of "successful" individuals (read execs) that, in my view, never took on the risk and still feel entitled. They made it through the glass ceiling not by creating anything of value or risking their livelihoods but instead practiced scorched earth policies on the minions.

It's my view, talented individuals are held back from the next level of "success" simply because they are not willing to take on risk. Or, they do not understand how to manage risk.  Instead, they labor under "successful" leaders which are, of course, usually self-entitled types.

If we are self-proclaimed failures, what are we entitled to and should we have a sense of entitlement? 

[Richardk]

I just love the guys who want you to slave away for the "opportunity" to buy some stock at some later, fuzzy, date!  If it's really a great idea, they will be glad to share equity up front. 

That mindset is also alive and well in W2 jobs too, which probably makes me unemployable since if all that overtime is so valuable to the project and company then I should be compensated for my time. Somehow that 40 hours always translates into putting in much more and never less.

There's not much of a difference except that the guys with the "opportunity" are paying you next to nothing while your "boss" is demanding much more than the 40 hours he's paying for. It's 'potential' returns versus diminishing returns.

I once asked a person many years ago, 'how many hours do you put in per week?' Her reply was 'I stopped tracking it since I didn't want to know anymore'. Her effective hourly rate wasn't that great once she accounted for all the hours she worked.