Let’s talk about change. And disruption. And uncertainty.
Fun topics, right?
We can’t hide or run from the fact that we live in a time of unprecedented professional disruption. And it’s not a new app or algorithm that’s going to help you or your career or your company succeed. It’s not a brilliant marketing plan, or some all night hack-a-thon that’s going to future proof your business.
It’s about culture and mindset.
It’s about creating an environment of entrepreneurs.
It’s about being a Nontrepreneur.
The Nontrepreneur thinks and acts like an entrepreneur while working for someone else. The benefits to you personally are significant and the impact this will have on your company and career are game changing.
To start, adopting the mindset of a Nontrepreneur will allow you to pivot your thinking from working FOR someone to working TOWARDS something. Whatever that thing might be; you want a promotion, a raise; you want to work from home.
Adopt the mindset and habits of today’s Nontrepreneur.
I’m talking about bettering your current situation by evolving your thinking and changing your actions. When I stopped thinking about myself as an employee and started thinking of myself as an employed Nontrepreneur I went from a data entry job in Tucson AZ making $12k a year to running Marketing and Creative teams for the biggest media companies and sports brands in the world.
The Nontrepreneur examines the most effective attributes of the entrepreneur – and there are so many: their openness to new ideas and experiences, willingness to take calculated risks, their passion, sociability, adaptability, assertiveness, optimism, creativity and ownership and applies them to their current situation.
To begin, lets agree on what an entrepreneur is – so we can talk about what a Nontrepreneur is:
Miriam Webster defines and entrepreneur as “someone who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise."
A Nontrepreneur does those exact same things, organizes, manages and assumes the risk of their current situation. The job they have now, the relationships they have now, the life they have now - just with less risk and considerably greater opportunity for upside.
YES!! Being an employed Nontrepreneur means less risk and greater opportunity for upside.
You might be thinking “Now wait a minute – you’re telling me there’s greater upside in working for the man the rest of my life instead of starting my own thing, being my own boss?”
The short answer is “absolutely”!
There is so much hype right now surrounding being an "entrepreneur" - your side hustle, your grind; in a time when everyone is looking for home-runs, if you’re not a founder, you’re a grounder…That’s total nonsense!
I appreciate the draw of being an entrepreneur, I really do, who doesn’t want to be the next Mark Cuban, Sara Blakely or Jeff Bezos.
But I also appreciate the fact the success rate is abysmal. CNBC sites a 90% fail rate among all entrepreneurs in the first five years. And the truth of the matter is you’re probably the middle of your life right now, school, work, wife, husband, kids, career and it’s just not the right time. Or maybe you just don’t have the next killer idea – so what? You’re done? You’re relegated to middle management mediocrity? C’mon! Absolutely not
It doesn’t have to be an either / or.
Act like an entrepreneur while being an employed Nontrepreneur and you can have a career you love, one that affords you freedom, fulfillment and financial security. But it’s up to YOU to craft that path – no one is going to do that for you! You’re going to have to take ownership and challenge the way you do things.
“The illiterate of the 21stcentury will not be those who can not read or write – but those who can not learn, unlearn and re-learn”.
- Alven Toffler
There are things in your life, personal and professional, that you are going to have to have the courage to unlearn!
Professionally speaking muscle memory can be very dangerous. Especially when there’s someone sitting in a WeWork cube right now, trying to figure out how to disrupt what you do for a living.
That’s real.
Why didn’t Blockbuster launch Netflix?
Why didn’t Kodak come out with instagram?
Why didn’t Gillette create the Dollar Shave Club.
The list goes on and on.
But if you can learn to think and act like that disruptor brand, like an entrepreneur – then you can be an internal Nontrepreneur and your seat at the table just got a lot more valuable.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
- Albert Einstein
The entrepreneur has the advantage because they are unencumbered by the rules that currently govern your thinking.
The Nontrepreneur understands how to challenge the status quo from the inside out. This type of thinking brings immense value to the organization you work for.
A few years ago, the media company I was working for decided to allocate ten thousand square feet of office space on the corner of 42nd and 2nd in New York City (not cheap real estate) – and $7.5 million dollars for me to re-imagine the entire structure of our existing marketing and creative teams across the company.
This was a move that surprised a lot of outsiders. But I wasn’t surprised and my team wasn’t surprised. We were excited and honored by the opportunity, but we weren’t surprised.
Why not?
Because we had been acting like a business owners for this company for the years leading up to this decision.
We showed up everyday and owned what we did for them. I had created a culture of Nontrepreneurs.
So when I suggested the potential efficiencies and opportunities of completely re-thinking our corporate structure, it wasn’t the first time I had raised my hand with a suggestion.
When was the last time you raised your hand?
To be clear – this was not a newly funded start-up, disrupter brand. This was a legacy, 165-year-old media company. This was all business.
I brought value. I brought solutions.
But in the true Nontrepreneurial fashion, I also brought playfulness and energy and passion.
It’s not about where you come from, it’s about the value you bring…everyday.
It’s not about your past. It’s about what you do, starting today.
“Attitude, not aptitude determines altitude.”
- Zig Ziglar
At The Nontrepreneur we have five pillars of success, we call it "Setting up CAMPP".
Creativity
Awareness
Mindfulness
People
Passion
In future posts, I'll dive into each of them, explain what I’m talking about, how they work together and how they are going to work for you!
But for now, if you take away one concept – take away the idea of “ownership” and “responsibility” – these are the biggest things the entrepreneur and The Nontrepreneur have in common.
They own their situation and take responsibility for their success..
So, own your situation, don’t be afraid to raise your hand, and don’t be afraid of change.
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