When You Work For Yourself, You Work For Everyone

The people who control what you work on are your bosses, even if that’s not what you call them.

Once a week I have a student tell me he wants to be an entrepreneur in order to: “Be my own boss.” Students who tell me this don’t realize it, but they’re buying into one of the most popular myths of entrepreneurship: the myth of freedom to control your own actions, your own schedule, and perhaps even your own destiny.

I totally understand the appeal. In fact, when I was building companies, I often justified my 16-hour-days by arguing that at least I was working according to my own schedule.

Surely you see the paradox. When you’re working a 16 hour day, it doesn’t really matter who’s schedule you’re following since you’re filling every waking minute with work.

In retrospect, I’m not sure how I fooled myself into believing I had freedom. Regardless, I genuinely believed I was in charge of my own destiny until, finally, I took a job at a big company (well… a university… close enough).

Yes, I have a boss now. I no longer “work for myself.” However, the biggest difference isn’t that someone else can control what I work on. The biggest difference is that only one other person directs my work. In contrast, when I was working for myself and running my own companies, I had thousands of bosses… I just never recognized them for what they were.