What Michael Gerber told me about leaving a corporate job

As surreal as it feels at times I am in the middle of a six-week telesummit of my own creation and am having fabulous, inspiring conversations with very successful “corporate fugitives” as part of the Entrepreneurs Unplugged Telesummit I am producing with my friend Marcia Hoeck.

Our friendship, and this joint venture, developed quickly – which is fitting, as they say the “universe likes speed.”

So – what began as a casual conversation when we met in November, grew to an idea in mid December, which led to lining up speakers for an event we launched the first week of February.

Last week, I had the great honour of interviewing Michael Gerber, the world’s foremost small business guru. This one fascinating man has worked directly providing advice to hundreds of thousands of business owners over the past 35 years. I asked him if he noticed if people who left the corporate world to start a business face unique challenges. Here’s a bit of what he said:

 …their expectations are so completely inconsistent with what it’s truly going to require for them to do this thing on their own. They have resources that they’ve grown to expect that simply don’t exist when you go out on your own. So understand when you go out on your own in the cruel, cruel world, you suddenly come face to face with a completely different reality than the reality you experienced in your corporate world, in your corporate cubicle, in your corporate office, in your corporate environment where there was finance, where there was HR, where there was this, where there were budgets, and on and on and on and on and where there’s a political reality that shaped the kind of decisions that you made. 

Once you go out on your own, all of that’s gone. Every bit of it is gone. None of it is true. None of it exists and all of it has got to come from you. So when they leave the job, the corporate environment, that strange world that is so unlike this world, they are suddenly a stranger waking up in a strange world. And they have no idea how to do what they’re actually called to do…and you suddenly have to learn a whole new set of skills, capabilities but more important, you have to begin to come to a relationship with yourself in a completely new way.

He said so much more than that… which left me speechless at times! The truth of it is, we are ill equipped by academic and corporate backgrounds, to deal with the sheer and awesome power of what being a true entrepreneur is.

The fact is, we don’t allow ourselves the permission or capacity to truly explore and dream. And what’s more, most of us simply create a job of our own making, when what we secretly desire is SO much bigger.

So I leave with a quote from a very special person who is inspiring me to look at things from an entirely new perspective:

Sometimes the amount of my personal power scares me and I dim my light so I don’t scare others around me…but I think it’s time for those people to put on their sunglasses! – Kelly O’Neil UpLevel Strategies

A cowgirl’s guide to business

I’ll let you in on a little secret love of mine – western movies - the more cowboys, tumbleweeds and horses, the better.

So the other night for some hard-earned R&R I finally watched the movie Appaloosa. In the opening scene, Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) tells the story of how he left a second-generation career as a solder and graduate of West Point to become a peacekeeper for-hire, shoot first, ask questions later style. In his words, “the thing about soldierin’ is that it didn’t allow for much expansion of the soul, so I rode away to see how much I could expand it”.

His simple statement sums up the essence of what makes many of us turn away from the so-called security of a corporate position to venture out into the vast expanse of self-employment.

However just like Everett Hitch, our journey is not without peril (even though we’re not getting shot at!). I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I prepare for our twice weekly calls with successful business owners for the Corporate Entrepreneurs Unplugged telesummit.

Last week my co-host and I Marcia Hoeck talked about the common mistakes ex-corporate people make when they start out, and how we will approach each of these mistakes throughout the next six weeks. If you want to hear the interview where we discussed this, you can listen to the preview call on the event home page.

Yesterday we spoke to Marie Forleo who shared her story about leaving the New York Stock Exchange for the world of fashion magazines, professional dance and fitness, and then self employment. Marie has a unique style of her own and she teaches other business owners how to live in the moment, expand their possibilities and be their own best support system.

Funnily enough, she talked about surefire ways you can make a decision that’s right for you, and also how you can simply not make a mistake in your life or business if you tune in to certain things that only you can know. Which leads me to my next quote, from my cowboy Everett:

“Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable, that which your life becomes.”

So for those of us who think we have to plan perfectly and know everything before we start (Mistake #7, by the way), listen to Everett and Marie, and look for that which expands your soul.

Taking leaps

Many entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs) think they have to know exactly what they’re doing, and how to do it, before they start. They also tend to think and dream on a much smaller scale, in part due to that reason.

In 2008 I made it a point to uplevel my thinking — and the results of that have taken me to places I didn’t even know existed.

I have met amazing people, been approached to partner in incredible opportunities, and while doing so, increase my income. In November I attended an online marketing conference – billed to be a life altering event. This lived up to the hype, and more! A tiny seed of an idea quickly grew, and before Christmas, I started a new membership community, the Corporate Fugitive Network — a “safe haven” for corporate fugitives and those who want to say goodbye to their corporate jobs.

Shortly after that,  Marcia Hoeck and I got together on putting on a telesummit series built around the Corporate Fugitive theme. Next thing you know, we were getting fabulous speakers like Michael Gerber of the E-Myth fame, Pamela Slim from Escape from Cubicle Nation, Michael Port of Book Yourself Solid — and more!

So what did I learn from 2008:

Baby steps won’t get you far – commit yourself 100% and then hold on for the ride.

Open yourself up to new experiences and people outside of your comfort zone – if we didn’t ask Michael Gerber to participate in Corporate Entrepreneurs Unplugged because we thought he would be “too big” to consider it, we would have missed out on the opportunity to interview him.

Be willing to fail, but do it fast – there are no guarantees that your business idea or new product will be a hit. For that reason, why take months and months to perfect it? Get it out there, give it your best shot, and either reap the rewards if it’s successful, or move on quickly if it isn’t. Often our biggest growth comes from our “negative” experiences. I spent months on my first ebook and teleseminar, and only got lukewarm response. But I learned some important lessons – like listening to your market before you develop a product or service, as well as more efficient ways to get projects like that done.

Compensate for your weaknesses – take a hard look at yourself and figure out what you’re simply not good at. ALSO look at what you may be very good at, but spend too much time at. This is delegation begging to happen. Find a virtual assistant, get a part-time employee, or pay a student or a friend who could do the work with direction from you. For example, I spend too much time writing and marketing – and I have realized that just because this is my professional expertise, does not mean that I have to do it for my own business marketing. So the next time I rewrite my website, I will be getting professional help.

Make yourself accountable – At least in the online entrepreneur community where I like to spend a lot of time, coaching and mastermind groups are the norm. When I started my business, I had no idea what this was or how to get either. Since then, I have hired a coach to help me with certain areas of my mindset and business. And I participate in a weekly mastermind session with other entrepreneurs where we each share our wins, challenges, goals for the week, and ask for support from the other members.  I look forward to these meetings and we get up at ungodly hours to talk to each other, because we all live in different time zones. You can also join mastermind groups offered through group coaching programs or form one of your own. (if you want to start one, participate in forums like the one on the Corporate Fugitive Network or several on Facebook and other social media sites).