RE: The Earth on sale! Wild West re-released. The story of a failed business idea that was actually quite charming.
What an impressive story. You must have experienced all the highs and lows that you could possibly experience during such an adventure.
To answer your questions; I have been a boss for roughly 8 years now. In the future, I would like to be the boss of myself and my time. I am growing tired of being a boss of people, the people you employ will never be as emotionally invested in your project as you are.
And, while I see everything that my employees do and can hold them accountable for their behaviour, they also see what I do. So if I am having a bad day, they see that, which means I am never allowed to have a bad day.
So I guess I've also answered your second question. In the future, I don't want to be a boss. I simply want to focus on my business, whatever business that may be, and only have myself to hold accountable.
I love your story, it sounds like such an intense time. :)
thank you, @mazzle, you're always inspiring to think deeper into a topic.
What you've said led me to the question:
What if nobody is a boss, neither an employee?
I compare it with being a king of an empire. As a king you cannot and will not fulfill the desires, needs and demands of the whole kingdom resp. the involved subordinates. If the king has headaches (thanx for this picture!:) too many care as the people only see him in his role as a leader. A king having headaches gives the impression that the empire is in danger. So people don't like that. They want to have the assurance that - no matter what - their space remains safe.
But if we turn the view and share the responsibilities and everyone becomes an entrepreneur (king): The whole picture rearranges itself. Leading an own "empire" means that we go in with what we are capable of, where our talents lie. Cooperation is a must and dealing with one another, too. Nobody can have a business without other busy ones. Everyone is being held accountable; because there is no boss, nor servant.
The whole thing with being an employee actually led to the impression of limited responsibility. Same with being a boss; reduced to functioning as one who always knows best what to do. Which is not the case.
I made the experience to having found other entrepreneurs in my professional life and I worked with them for a certain amount of time and then walked on. Not out of disappointment but because I felt it was time to move or I felt not satisfied any longer or other changes in my life made it necessary (like becoming a mom). One can choose to lead the pack for a while and then decide to let go of it for role changing had not taken place - besides many other unknown factors.
In fact, I believe that "leading" is often a temporarily chosen role. There are occasions I lack leading qualities for the simple fact that I do not have the knowledge and competence in a certain field and I must rely on a person who knows better. This can happen during a day several times. In our highly specialized world this flexibility is - I guess - required.
I hope, that makes sense to you.
P.S. yes, the times were intensive, you bet:-)
Your comment does make sense. I also feel that sometimes I just lack the ability to lead well. I actually deliberately hire people who know more about certain things than I do, for the simple fact that I don't want to be an expert in their field.
It can make leading these people challenging though since they know they are experts, and I have to direct them to do things in a certain way, since I know what the customers needs are better than they do. It can be an interesting environment to work in, which is why I sometimes have a bad day.
I agree that being a leader can, and should, be a temporary thing though. Leaders need to move out of the way for fresh blood to come in. If I stay in this role for too long, I feel that the business won't progress with the times as effectively as it should.
Oh and I did the 5 facts challenge, thanks for the nomination. It was actually a lot of run to write.