Does being good at your job have anything to do with being good at entrepreneurship?

[marcof_23]

Hey,

Right now, I work a menial, entry-level accounting job. Although I do the work very quickly, I make probably the highest amount of mistakes of anyone on my team. This makes me feel hopeless about my chances at Fastlane entrepreneurship because I remember my parents laughing at me when I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur straight out of high school and telling me, “you have to have a job first before you become an entrepreneur,” and also telling me “you have to master the bottom before you can get to the top,” and “you can’t just be a CEO tomorrow.” This still happens today when I tell them what I really want to do with my life.

Would it really make you a worse entrepreneur if you suck at your job? Does it really matter?

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Kid]

I'm not sure why but your parents fed you with bullshit.

The thing you can do is not to listen to what they say or said and do your own thing.

 

[G-Man]

Hey,

Right now, I work a menial, entry-level accounting job. Although I do the work very quickly, I make probably the highest amount of mistakes of anyone on my team. This makes me feel hopeless about my chances at Fastlane entrepreneurship because I remember my parents laughing at me when I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur straight out of high school and telling me, “you have to have a job first before you become an entrepreneur,” and also telling me “you have to master the bottom before you can get to the top,” and “you can’t just be a CEO tomorrow.” This still happens today when I tell them what I really want to do with my life.

Would it really make you a worse entrepreneur if you suck at your job? Does it really matter?

Ultimately you have to follow your own compass, and I don't think its necessarily true that you need to master the bottom of anything. That said, I think many parents intuit, probably often correctly, that young people are drawn to entrepreneurship because they think it will be less work, or they have authority problems.

While you shouldnt go into crippling self criticism, honest self assessment is very important.

As someone who did corporate accounting for a long time, I know how soul crushing it can be.

Good luck.

 

[Madame Peccato]

I think there's also a massive misconception about entrepreneurship, at least where I live. If I tell people I want to be an entrepreneur they think I'm trying to become the next Bill Gates, which isn't exactly my goal, or nobody else's at the start really. It'd be ludicrous to even expect that degree of success right off the bat.

That said, your parents are just like any other parent, they lived in an age where having a job = having security, but it doesn't really work like that anymore. I know for a fact my country's pension system is going to collapse before I even become old enough to start thinking about retiring if I went down the typical life path of getting a job and then swamping myself with obligations and debts I might not ever be able to repay. And I expect a lot other countries to have the same problem, since one of the main causes (the average age of the population going up) is a widespread problem in first world countries. Maybe it will take more somewhere else, but relying on something that is so out of my control such as my government's already disastrous economy does not sound like a good idea.

And to answer your question no, being exceptionally good at executing a given task is great, but I really don't think it has any relation with being a good entrepreneur. Being a good entrepreneur requires a skillset that is completely different from job related skillsets.

Also mentality can make day and night difference in how you execute your job. If you are building something up yourself, and nurturing it, it's a lot easier to remain focused in it, something I find difficult to achieve at a menial job, unless that is your greatest joy in life, but it doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[JAJT]

Would it really make you a worse entrepreneur if you suck at your job?

Depends what "being bad" at your job means.

A lazy worker who procrastinates, get's nothing done, blames others, never finishes anything, talks big and delivers small will almost certainly be a bad entrepreneur because they have bad work ethics and habits that will translate directly into their own endeavors.

A hard worker who simply makes simple mistakes often, doesn't have the aptitude for that line of work, or is simply "out matched" by other employees in the field though may very well still kick a$$ on their own because the work ethics and habits are on a good foundation.

 

[Guest61362]

Depends what "being bad" at your job means.

A lazy worker who procrastinates, get's nothing done, blames others, never finishes anything, talks big and delivers small will almost certainly be a bad entrepreneur because they have bad work ethics and habits that will translate directly into their own endeavors.

A hard worker who simply makes simple mistakes often, doesn't have the aptitude for that line of work, or is simply "out matched" by other employees in the field though may very well still kick a$$ on their own because the work ethics and habits are on a good foundation.

 

[JM35]

Hey,

Right now, I work a menial, entry-level accounting job. Although I do the work very quickly, I make probably the highest amount of mistakes of anyone on my team. This makes me feel hopeless about my chances at Fastlane entrepreneurship because I remember my parents laughing at me when I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur straight out of high school and telling me, “you have to have a job first before you become an entrepreneur,” and also telling me “you have to master the bottom before you can get to the top,” and “you can’t just be a CEO tomorrow.” This still happens today when I tell them what I really want to do with my life.

Would it really make you a worse entrepreneur if you suck at your job? Does it really matter?

I think the most important thing is learning from your mistakes, and making sure they don't happen twice. Being the first one to finish isn't good if it then takes your superior an hour to check over your work since they don't trust your end product.

An entrepreneur is almost never great at 100% of the process, and that's why outsourcing is a huge industry. Determine what your strengths are and focus on those. Determine what your weaknesses are and outsource those. At the end of the day you need to create value to build a business, so as long as your mistakes don't diminish that value you are creating then don't get tripped up about it. Just try to consistently improve.

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Formless]

Don't let people put shit in your head. You will act on the belief you instill. There is no ultimate truth with stuff like this.

So ask yourself which belief serves you best - and act on that.

 

[ProcessPro]

Not sure I understand how to multi quote yet so forgive me if I get it wrong.

Although I do the work very quickly...

That sounds like a good thing, so you have to at least have a fair assessment of yourself rather than fixate on your 'mistakes'.

I make probably the highest amount of mistakes of anyone on my team...

Mistakes are learning opportunities in disguise. The best entrepreneurs are probably not that ones that makes no mistakes but the ones that learn best. I challenge you to aim to not make the same mistake twice. If it's the sort of job where you might forget a little thing because there are so many little things to do, make a checklist to run through to ensure that you're not forgetting things.

MJ spoke about SCRIPTspeak and Socratic questioning to counter cliches, and bull****.
Here is how I might respond, and I encourage you to develop this mindset...

“you have to have a job first before you become an entrepreneur,” [/QUOTE]

Can you think of situations where you can become an entrepreneur without having a job first? I certainly can. You can also do both simultaneously. Some entrepreneurs find themselves in a catch 22 in which they want to be entrepreneurs to make money, but their ideas require money, but not all business ideas are like that. I'm unemployed and I'm working on my idea while my mate helps me, and I am trying to start small businesses to supplement our income while I work on my grand idea.

“you have to master the bottom before you can get to the top,” [/QUOTE]

Bottom/top of what? The script? That's what we're trying to avoid anyway. We don't want to climb the ladder, but we may build ladders for others in the process of becoming unscripted .

“you can’t just be a CEO tomorrow.” [/QUOTE]

Again, we're not aiming to be CEO's in other people's companies. In the process of building your own fastlane business as we act, assess and adjust, we'll pick up the skills we need and thus become great CEO's of our own companies if that's what we choose to do.

Would it really make you a worse entrepreneur if you suck at your job? Does it really matter?[/QUOTE]

You seem to be implying that sucking/excelling in some area is as a result of fixed/inherent skills. Refer to MJ's discussion in UNSCRIPTED about the special scam and the fixed mindset. Our skills in anything are not fixed, but can be assessed, and adjusted (improved).

This makes me feel hopeless about my chances at Fastlane entrepreneurship because I remember my parents laughing at me when I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur [/QUOTE]

Cut them some slack. It's hard for them to think outside of what they know and have lived themselves. Once you start taking action and you start making progress, progress becomes the fuel of hope. You can build hope by making progress, and as you progress as well, they will be the first ones to claim you as their own and celebrate your success. So to reiterate, your skills/abilities are not fixed. Take action, assess yourself, and make adjustments until you get things right. Replace the words problems, failures and mistakes with the phrase 'learning opportunity'. Learn from as many opportunities as you can and you'll be successful.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Competition Drives Excellence, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO29

 

Don't like ads? Remove them while supporting the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[G-Man]

@marcof_23 don't be a drive-by