Weigh the Anchor
I started consulting to entrepreneurs this year. Before that I was working in a corporate job I really didn’t like, but isn’t that the lot of the entrepreneur – destined to pursue the visions we create within our souls by night while we sacrifice our souls to corporate monoliths by day to keep the cash trickling into the bank account.
As much as entrepreneurs gravitate to other entrepreneurs and resist the corporate work environment for reasons many of them cannot fathom, they still discover, as I did, that companies with entrepreneurial leaders are still companies, and life and work in the corporate world is soul destroying for the entrepreneur.
The fact remains that we do have to work to put bread on the table and keep the wolves from the door, but for an entrepreneur, this results in job dissatisfaction we can only describe as misery, and we don’t really understand why. Well most of us don’t anyway. Until we start learning about what makes us tick.
According to research published by Edgar Schein (not the homeless concert pianist, another Schein) a few years back, we are driven by one primary force at any stage of our lives. Schein calls it a Career Anchor. The theory behind this is that there’s always one non-negotiable value that we won’t happily compromise in our choice of career. Note two key words in that previous sentence – happily, and choice.
Some people are driven by the desire to be brilliant at what they do. They will only be happy in their choice of career when the job they choose gives them the ability to prove their mastery at their technical skill. Some people need to be in charge of others. They have a strong desire to manage people, and they won’t be happy in any job that doesn’t give them this opportunity. Some thrive on challenge. Tell them something can’t be done and they won’t rest until they’ve proved you wrong. They also won’t be happy in a job unless they get this level of challenge.
Then there’s the one most entrepreneurs don’t know about. It’s the need to create business opportunities, the need to pursue ideas, the need to realize the creations and visions of their minds. It’s called the Entrepreneurial career anchor, and it exists in every entrepreneur. It’s the strongest of the eight different career anchors. But for most entrepreneurs taking full time jobs to put money in the bank while they work late into the night on that idea that spells their financial freedom doesn’t come with a great deal of choice. The lack of choice results in entrepreneurs accepting any job that pays the rent. The job doesn’t offer them the ability to be creative and exercise their natural entrepreneurial ability. Pretty soon, after the excitement of the first paycheck has worn off, round about twenty four hours after the bills have been paid, and the bank account is empty once again, you’re working a daily job, stuck in routine and repetition, and you’re miserable and you just can’t put your finger on why.
The reason why you’re unhappy is that there is s disconnect within you. You didn’t choose that job because it was perfect for you, you accepted it because you needed the money. And you didn’t choose that job because it gave you the ability to set the creative genius within you free. Quite the opposite. You accepted that job, knowing that it would never allow you to exercise your entrepreneurial freedom, but at the time, you had your reasons for taking the job. And somewhere in the dark and lonely hours of the night, you tell yourself that you should be happy that you have a job, but somewhere deep inside, you’re still miserably unhappy.
Knowing why you’re unhappy is the first step to rekindling your happiness. Your job is a way station to your entrepreneurial freedom. Don’t wonder why you’re unhappy. Recognize that your job doesn’t give you the freedom to exercise your creative abilities, and work with that. Give your job your all, and create opportunities for yourself to exercise your entrepreneurial abilities in a way that won’t jeopardize your financial future, or your future with your employer. Don’t quit your job in a moment of anger because you can’t get on with your boss, or because they won’t listen to your ideas. Recognize that you need to be able to exercise your entrepreneurial abilities to make you happy, and create opportunities for yourself to do what your spirit needs.
And pretty soon, you’ll have created an opportunity for yourself to comfortably move into. It may take time, but you have to create it.
My experience has been that I never recognized this disconnect, nor understood why I was always unhappy at work. I kept believing that I was no good at my job, but that wasn’t the case at all. I was extremely good at my job, but my heart was never in it. Tell yourself you’re no good, and you’ll be just that. But tell yourself that you’re brilliant and you’ll shine.
So, weigh your anchor. It’s time to shine, entrepreneurs.
Till next time
The Imaginator™
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