Why doing what you love isn’t the same as loving what you do.
A couple of years ago I took a month-long Seth Godin course called “The Bootstrapper’s Workshop.” If you’re a marketer you’ve probably heard of Seth Godin; even if you’re not a marketer you’ve likely experienced the impact of his teachings.
In the introductory class Seth talked about the difference between an entrepreneur and a freelancer, and it’s admittedly something I hadn’t thought much about until then. Today in my role as a career ownership coach, I talk about the distinction every day.
Most people have thought about starting a business of their own, but don’t know where to begin. According to Godin, as well as Michael Gerber, author of “The E-Myth,” most people who are thinking about starting their own business have it all wrong.
Most people who are thinking about starting their own business have it all wrong.
Spend a few hours on LinkedIn and you’ll see all sorts of encouraging memes about work, leadership, and most all about having passion for what you do. “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” What a crock. If you love watching TV and eating Lunchables – and can find someone to pay you to do so – well, Godspeed.
For the rest of us, whether self-employed or working as an employee, work is a necessary part of life. Many of us take great pleasure in what we do; I am lucky enough to say that I am in this category. Many more just want to get through the day or the week while looking ahead to the next day off. Work is a means to an end; if one of these people won the lottery she’d be out in a hot minute and never look back.
Entrepreneurship is the dream of those who feel stuck. Stuck in a job with no advancement potential; stuck working for a micro-manager (or worse); stuck taking orders from someone they don’t like or respect but who holds the power of the paycheck over them. Few realize the dream of self-sufficiency.
The reality is that most people don’t dream about being an entrepreneur; they dream about being a freelancer or what Seth Godin calls a bootstrapper. They have a skill, something they’ve developed in their years as an employee, or a passion they chase after work. They want to be designers or bakers or coders or to build furniture or work on cars. They see themselves in that role, happily working away – no boss, no stress, no worries.
The reality is that most people don’t dream about being an entrepreneur; they dream about being a freelancer
Except they aren’t entrepreneurs. They are technicians offering a service, filling a need, and getting paid. Nothing wrong with that. But few of them know how to run a business. Because when you are a bootstrapper, you aren’t just the technician. You’re the CEO, CFO, COO, and CMO. Being a sole proprietor means you not only do the job, you have to do the sales and marketing, keep the books, chase after payments (this is a big one), manage the legal stuff, and so on.
The typical bootstrapper is working more than ever – nights, weekends, holidays. The pundits all tell us that we should be passionate about our work and the rest will come. But if you are the technician, you can never separate from the business. In short, you are the business. You may be acting on your passion, but you’re not building anything sustainable.
So what’s the solution? How do all these people who start their own business make it work?
One word: systems. Bootstrappers are people-focused. If the founder gets sick or takes a vacation, the work stops and the business grinds to a halt. Everything depends on that one person.
Bootstrappers are people-focused. Entrepreneurs are systems-focused.
The goal is to create a system that will continue even without your involvement. This is the secret behind McDonalds and many other successful companies: find what works, systematize it, and find people to run the system. Do this and you can not only build your business, you can live the life you want while the business keeps going strong.
If you really want to do work that you love, start a business. But start a business that – like a child – will ultimately be able to function without your constant input. Suddenly you get to work on the business – helping it grow – instead of in the business, doing the work of the technician. Now that’s something to be passionate about.