Vivid Views is my series of articles, blog posts and press releases show-casing my work as an author and reflecting my many years in business and self-employment. They are a blend of my real life experiences, professional insights, personal views and fun stories. My hope is that in them you find enlightenment and inspiration. 'Be Your Own Boss' is the 3rd in the series.
When you first strike out on your own to be your own boss you will, in all likelihood, already know a bit about bosses from previous work as an employee. And, even though you are starting off with no employees under you, you still need to manage yourself. So what you've learned from previous bosses is going to come in handy either way.
From a self-employed perspective it really doesn't matter if your former bosses were good, bad or indifferent. You should have learned from them all. You'll have found it more difficult to work well under a bad boss of course and yet such a boss should have taught you a lot. I see the bad boss experience kind of like an athlete training on sand dunes. It's an energy sapping grind but it toughens you up for the real event. Once you transfer on to a dedicated running surface you can go like the wind. In life all pursuits should be like that - the hard work in the preparation, the performance itself pure fun.
One benefit of a bad boss experience is that it can incentivise you to strike out on your own; the 'I must get out of here' syndrome! Working with a good boss can also encourage you to go it alone, but in a quite different way. He will have created a dynamic and fun working environment, thus demonstrating what is achievable.
You will never see eye to eye all the time with any boss but, while a bad boss will demoralise you, a good boss will inspire and motivate you, make you feel valued and welcome your views and input to the business. Your ideas may sometimes be at odds with his but disagreeing with a good boss is a quite different proposition to working under a bad one!
As your own boss you must be able to take direction - from yourself! Be open to what 'the boss' says. Start from the position of trusting that you know what you're doing. You are duty bound to work things out for yourself and take responsibility for what you do, therefore listen to your inner promptings, be flexible and take criticism on board. Have total belief in yourself.
It may not always be clear to others why you are doing things in a particular way, but outsiders can only see things from a limited or ignorant point of view. They cannot see the bigger picture. You as an entrepreneur will often be looking for some things others have not thought of, you may be intent on actions that would never occur to anyone else. You will see your affairs globally, as if looking at a map from above. No, you won't always be God (only sometimes) but you'll generally know best how you want to achieve things.
So, be your own boss, shut out external interference. Trust your instinct and judgement to know what's right. Then most often you will be!
I am Tom Riach. I live and write in the sunny south of Portugal.
My latest novel is 'Too Early For A Glass Of Wine?' Claim your copy by clicking on the image below.
BE YOUR OWN BOSS is an original copyright Tom Riach feature.
I hope you enjoyed this Vivid View and found it to be of value.
To learn more please visit me on my Author Page.
See you there! Regards, Tom.
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