Trust Your Gut
Most teachers I’ve talked to about setting up a sideline venture to supplement their income believe that being successful in developing and running a business is all about having enough start-up and working capital, or the proper image that fits your market, or the right employees.
Yup, being successful in running your own show can require a significant dose of all of those things.
But, what I see missing most of all — and it just jumps out at me when I see people, either in their own businesses or as employees — is a willingness by that person to be themselves, and to trust their own instincts.
I fight with this constantly in my own businesses, and indirectly with my own employees.
They — and our company, by extension — want to be something else.
And, this just absolutely drives me nuts-o.
We have whatever success we do by being who we are, not by trying to be something or someone else.
I have one employee, Brad (real guy, name changed), who’s always trying to portray us as bigger — much bigger — than we are. “Well, Michael,” he’ll tell me, “I just want to make sure that the customer takes us seriously.”
Hey, Brads of the world. The customer already does take us seriously — they buy products and services from us. They do that because they like who we are, how we act, and how we look.
We are who we are and, if we’re any good — and in the case of the real-world Brad I’m talking about, we’re damned good; been in business over 23 years, lots of growth spurts, plenty of industry innovations along the way — we don’t need to make up anything about ourselves. They like us, they really do like us.
The corollary to this is a feeling by lots of people that “well, we better do it that way because that’s how Microsoft [substitute your favorite giant’s name here] does it.”
Well, poop. We’re not Microsoft, we don’t wanna be Microsoft (really), and if we were really trying to be more like Microsoft, they’d eat our lunch before we even got past breakfast.
So, if you’re a teacher thinking about supplementing your income, look inside yourself and see what’s there. Then, trust what you feel and act on it.
Be yourself, trust your gut. After all, what in the hell are you doing here if you can’t be yourself?
Michael Werner runs Dream Jobs Dialog and is also the CEO of InfoSource, Inc., a company trying hard not to be like Microsoft.
