Six years into my business, I could sell you either way on being an entrepreneur or a corporate employee. In fact, I have been working with several long-time entrepreneurs who for various reasons are trying to get corporate jobs.
(If this is you, you might want to check out the interview I did with Carol on how to successfully transition to employee.)
Carol’s recent post on entrepreneur.com describes a situation that can be the best of both worlds. In “When You Should Be an Intrapreneur Instead of an Entrepreneur,” she discusses why finding a situation as an “intrapreneur” can be a great decision for some professionals. She begins:
“Entrepreneurs have a desire to solve problems, to innovate and to create. They are willing to take on risk and think outside of the box. They lead and they inspire. And by standard definitions, the way that they do all of that is through starting businesses.
Now, this gets a bit into the realm of semantics, but there are plenty of business owners who are not truly entrepreneurial, creating job-businesses that aren’t innovative and likely won’t experience much growth. Likewise, there are plenty of individuals who don’t own businesses, yet are entrepreneurial within the confines of another organization.
For those who don’t want to venture out on their own for any variety of reasons, you can be entrepreneurial in becoming an intrapreneur — one who leverages the entrepreneurial spirit and tactics without the financial risk.
While the ideology of “working for the man” has been put down by many in recent years, I am personally quite off-put by these short-sighted individuals. While I think that there is great value in starting a business for some, there is also great value in doing great work in general, regardless of the venue. I think that it’s disrespectful and silly to put down corporate jobs, not to mention that we all have different definitions of success and so, different paths will make more sense for each one of us.
So, how can you start to think about embracing being entrepreneurial in different venues and becoming an intrapreneur? Here are some questions to help you find the right path.”
You can read the rest of the post here.
