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Start something
11/1/2006-11/30/2006
Rundles Wrap-up

By Jeff Rundles

My sister, a prosecuting attorney in New Hampshire, told me a story the other day that got me thinking about timing in life, and about goals.

She has been talking for years about joining a private law firm because she believes she might make more money than she does as an elected official, and she was discussing a new job with a local firm when her contact there told her she was overqualified for the attorney openings they had at the moment. They told her: Check back later.

...

Where once I would have offered resume advice or given up a few names of connected people I know or even just talked up the relative virtues of one company or another, I am now adamant: Don’t go to work for a company.

Start a company. Partner with a friend and launch a venture. Hire on as an arms’-length consultant, or anything else, but don’t go to work for anybody else.

Companies don’t care about people, in spite of plenty of rhetoric to the contrary; they care about money, period.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but any employee has to remember that, to a company — you might as well be so much aluminum, advertising space or computer spare parts.

And this attitude, quite prevalent in the smallest of organizations, just magnifies exponentially in direct proportion to the size of the organization. One blip on the financial radar, and 10 percent of the workforce (re: the people) are gone in an effort to "strengthen" the organization. People — real living, breathing human beings — have become corporate liabilities.

I have quite recently learned a valuable lesson: Come what may — failure, success or muddling through — if you work for yourself you’ll never be too inexperienced, never overqualified for a position, and always appreciated. Win, lose or draw, the most important asset in your own business will always be you.

Jeff Rundles is a former editor of ColoradoBiz and a regular columnist.
Read this and Rundles’ web exclusive column, executive wheels, at cobizmag.com or e-mail him at jrundles@cobizmag.com