Lessons For Gen Y Ex-Entrepreneurs

Gen Y’s are filling up the market place as entrepreneurs.  Most of them, at least the most public ones on Brazen Careerist, claim to be “industry experts“, “consultants on business and the web”.  Somewhere in college they missed the marketing lecture on what happens when a market is over saturated.  Maybe they overslept. I can’t imagine the world can handle many more 23 yr old business consultants.  I mean, how many managment positions COULD a 23yr old have held?  Eventually their bubble will burst, and many of them will head back to the world of employee-ville.  

For those whose corporations, sole-proprietors, and limited liabilities are starting to waiver, I have some hard advice to give when reentering the employee phase.  I recently went from being self-employed to working part time as an employee.  Let me debunk the idea that I “failed” as an entrepreneur.  I applied to one job simple because the skills required where ones I deeply desired to learn, but currently did not need them nor had the avenue to learn.  I got the job, and the skill base I desired quickly filled in.

Through my transition, I’ve learned some tough lessons along the way.  So here’s my advice for all the ex-entrepreneurs or soon to be…

1. Calm your inner control freak.  Against Cheryl Cran’s advice, being a control freak is not always good. Cran mentions that in times of a business transition or major project management, a control freak will take the wheel and push. Sometimes, your boss and the business doesn’t want “pushers” but a slow and steady guide. Be careful how much you push in a company.

2. This is NOT your company. Major heartache on my part over the last 7 months is fighting back the urge to act with deep entrepreneurial urgency. I have habitually taken every job since I was 16 and poured my guts into it. I received a sense of satisfaction to see positive growth and accomplishments rack up directly related to my employment. It increased 10 folds when I became an entrepreneur. I didn’t have to ask if I was headed in the right direction with a project or discuss client relations. I did it how I saw fit. This time around, it’s not what I think is best, it’s what the CEO wants. I’ve overstepped my span of control too many times. It hurts to get reminded. Like a slap in the face by a board when you thought it was the right decision. CEO’s have the final say so…even if they change their mind a zillion times.

3. Leave coworkers at work, don’t bring them home. Upon returning to employment I was pleasantly surprised to have actual humans to talk with about business and life. Being self-employed, sole employee, didn’t lead me to meet alot of “friends.” Clients where clients, and I never let them cross the boundary. That also left me needing some human interaction. I forgot one rule I always followed previously, to never make coworkers outside friends. No matter how close you get, at some point work will come in between and someone will take it personally. To top it off, I have a work persona and a personal persona. It’s very hard for someone to transition between the two..one being seen as cold, and the other being warm and fuzzy. So make separate identities. Leave them in their respective places.

4. Don’t live and breathe your employment. Even though I am currently employed, I still pursue my own business interests outside work. But it never fails, at the end of the day I always work on my employment work, and not developing my own company. As I pass self-imposed deadlines over and over again, the feelings of being a failure start to set in. Learn to not care so much about work. You are replaceable as an employee. You are not replaceable as your own CEO.

I have seen several posts on what it is like to go back to work from being self-employed. None of them talked about the physiological or entrepreneurial habitual aspects of it. Ex-entrepreneur’s can be an amazing asset to a company, but as employees listening is more valuable then talking . So for all the Gen Y’s who will head back to gain more experience..be careful as not to make the same mistakes I did. It’s not a good feeling when you realized you overstepped the boundary of “employee” in front of the CEO.