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Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

blog.matthewgoldman.com

11–20 of 47 posts

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#15
I found the order of the bosses in the post to be interesting: Investors -> Employees -> Customers.

Not sure if that was on purpose, but I would have put it in the opposite order if the subtext of the article was how to successfully be your own boss...

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#16
I had a franchise that I got in 1990. I remember when I called a mentor/friend in the business the first time that I got the flu. I asked him "How do I or who do I call in sick to?" . My mentor's response was - "just contact everyone you were going to do business with today", which was about 60 people. An impossible task. I went to work sick.

Not the best job situation, but the reality if you are a sole operator.

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#17
post #4

The key difference is choice. If any of the things the author mentioned control me, it's because I allow them to. Whereas it might even be partly accurate to say that the definition of having a boss is that don't have that choice.

That's adorable that you think that you have more choices if you're a business owner.

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#18
There is only one legitimate reason to start a company: you have identified a business opportunity that you believe is worth pursuing.

If your primary interest is control (over your schedule, your work environment, the type of work you take on, etc.), consider freelancing.

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#19
What people don't always remember is that having a single boss means having a single person in charge of your fate.

Having 10,000 bosses/direct customers dilutes that power greatly. Individually, none of them have any power over you. Only as a unified movement can they amass the power of that single boss.

There is every type of boss out there in world and I don't mean to say they are all to be feared, hated. But the power dynamic mentioned above IS there, and your boss knows it.

Re: Don't Start a Company to Be Your Own Boss

#20

The word boss has a pretty specific connotation and your clients and customers aren't that. Yes, if you work for yourself you're responsible for delivering work to your customers and they have some control over you due to that but it's incredibly different from the relationship between a salaried employee and his singular supervisor.

Agreed. I started a successful company becoz i don't want to have a boss, and i'm really glad i did it!
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