Think like an Entrepreneur
This is part 10 of a 14 part series describing my professional philosophy. Part 9 can be found here.
I spent most of my professional life supporting the US military beginning as an active-duty member in the navy and then a 12-year career as a government contractor. Between the ages of 18 and 40, all I knew was the federal government’s way of operating and working around my service member brothers and sisters.
While I was halfway through completing my master’s degree, I decided that I needed to expand my horizons and seek employment outside of the government space.
This was probably the riskiest career move I could make and most definitely, the scariest. I had sailed the Pacific a couple of times, swam the deepest parts of the ocean, went to Baghdad for almost a year, and faced so many challenges that would make normies wet their pants — but this was a terrifying move for me! I knew that I had to get out of my comfort zone and chart a new professional course.
At the spry age of 40, I was hired by a local tech company — I won’t go into who they were or what they did, just the general details — which led the charge in the Charleston, SC area that was innovatively referred to as ‘Silicon Harbor’. They so desperately wanted to be the next ‘big tech’ firm. And bless their hearts, they tried.
But what really stood out for me and has lasted since that role, was one of the values this organization promoted and was printed on the back of our ID cards:
Think like an entrepreneur.
It took a little while for this phrase to sink in and reveal its worth, but once it did — I was in a new mindset. And that’s EXACTLY the kind of thing I was looking for — 22 years of government service and now I’m told to THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR! Wow. I was in heaven.
But what exactly did that mean?
It boils down to OWNERSHIP. Having a sense of owning something may trigger different prioritizations in your mind. As project managers, we discuss the ownership pyramid — Accountability, Responsibility, and Authority. We joke that we are provided the first two by the organization, but we never get the last one to make things happen. Regardless, take ownership of what’s in front of you — focus on your responsibilities and demonstrate the accountability of your work and the authority will come.
Way back then, the organizational leadership instructed us to manage our work like it was our own startup — go above and beyond for the customer like your livelihood depended on it. Which it kind of did when I think back, not the best growth environment for a career, but a good steppingstone.
Yet that 4-word phrase carries a lot of weight with me even a decade later. I will treat my projects like they were my own business, and I coach others to do the same.
“What if this project was YOUR OWN SMALL BUSINESS?” I will ask a team. “How would you go about running things? What priorities would you identify and focus on?”
It’s all about taking ownership and empowering yourself.
It works most of the time — there are always limitations based on the environment, the project deliverables, resources, etcetera. But if you look for ways to own it and work like it’s YOUR business, I am willing to bet dollars to donuts that you will experience success.