Do you want to become an entrepreneur? I’ve been wanting to post my journey so far and here it finally is. In fact, this will be a 5 part series, with posts 4 and 5 being delayed until later this year when I reach those points:).

Back in late high school, whilst doing a couple of electronics classes, I decided to do engineering. So, after high school, I entered into a Bachelor of Electronic Engineering which soon turned into a Masters of Engineering in IT&T. The course actually had a 25% business component but I pretty much ignored those as they weren’t in my mind part of Engineering. I soon got a job at a large defence company in Australia and then moved into a job with a large US based tech company. Many of my friends had gone straight to this company after graduation.

I then pretty much tried to and succeeded in many respects climbing the corporate ladder. I worked at times very long hours and at other times, things were slow based on the state of the company I was working for. So far I have been working for around 13 years (I think!) which seems a very long time. It’s really been in the last 3 years or so that I have really felt I need to do something else. Despite moving around every few years within the company to different roles, I still found myself dissatisfied, bored, stressed and generally unmotivated. It was then I realized that no matter where I move within the company, I would not be happy and would not live the lifestyle I wanted.

What I learned during my career so far:

  • The early part of a corporate career, say the first 5 years can really be a good grounding and learning ground for anyone. I would I think be challenging going directly from school into your own business and the lessons learned, skills learned and relationships formed during the early part of a corporate career should come in handy later on.
  • Within large companies, it does not take much to ’stand out’ from the crowd and be considered an above average, even excellent performer. As such, you do have the opportunity to say what you want to do. So, build yourself up as a great performer and you will have the opportunity to take the better roles within your group and the company.
  • It’s Who You Know! Any company, big or small is still a set of relationships. I often found that as long as I had a good boss, got along with them very well and built relationships with other key (and senior) managers within the group, I was able to again get in favorable positions that involved things like travel that I wanted.
  • There are a couple of Glass Ceilings along the way. You have to decide if you are willing to do what it takes to break through that ceiling or if the corporate career is not really for you. For example, right now I am at such a ceiling. To break through to the next level, I would really need to up my effort to average 60 hrs/wk (I have done it before), build up strong business and political relationships with certain senior managers and colleagues and basically tow the company line. Five years ago, I might have done this. Not now though. So, again, you’ll find these points in your career and you’ll have to figure out what you want to do.
  • Lastly, it’s interesting but I have found now that there are a lot of executive managers who have a lot of experience (over 20 years) who for some reason don’t seem to have much more knowledge/skills than some of the better performers at my level do. After a while, these people just gravitate into high positions because they have been there for ages, not because they are particularly suited for the position. Then you realise that at these levels, much of the game is politics rather than building/growing the company.

If you want to become an entrepreneur, depending on what you’ve done in your life so far, there may be some mindsets, habits and preconceptions to overcome. Realize and understand that and simply be aware of it. That will help you consciously change on your path to entrepreneurship and success.

I’ll write soon with Part 2.