Recently Mildred Culp, of WorkWise, interviewed me about entrepreneurs who decide to go back to traditional employment. WorkWise provides content about workplace issues to newspapers nationally. One of the papers in which Mildred's column appears is the Hartford Courant, which, for this Connecticut native, is exciting. I don't know when my interview will be published, but I've set up some Google alerts so I will know and I will provide links here.
I've been reading a lot lately about mid-lifers who pack it all up in the corporate world to pursue their creative, entrepreneurial or altruistic dreams, but rarely do I read about the opposite. (Hmmm...I should be writing articles about this!)
The interview was fun and by doing it, I forced myself to become very clear about WHY I went back to traditional employment at National Life Group, honing in on the knowledge that I cannot separate my personal values from my business values and that I will never work for a company in which all my values are not in sync, and taking stock of what I'm great at and what I don't want to do after 24 years in the adult work force (running your own business really forces you to face yourself in a way that no conventional company performance appraisal ever can because you are the executive AND the employee).
For me, it goes even deeper. After deciding to look for a conventional job, I felt like I had to apologize, like somehow I had failed at running Vermont Shortbread Company, that somehow going back to a "real" job meant that I was selling out on myself. And honestly, it's going to take a bit of time for me to get beyond that.
It helps that I love my new job and the people with whom I work. It helps that I now sleep at night knowing I can pay my mortgage, send my child to college, put gas in my car, and continue to support myself on my own dime. It helps that I'm not having panic attacks and my husband says, "Gee, Ann, you are so...different...since you started your new job." For me, all of this challenges the "work and life shouldn't be fun", "if work and life are fun, don't get used to it because someday it will all suck", and "if you're not miserable than somehow you're not living a worthy life" ethics that have been so deeply routed in my brain.
It helped to participate in this interview with Mildred. She asked me what I had learned as an entrepreneur that helped me land my new job. I could write 100 pages on that topic. Networking, internet marketing, public relations, customer service, assertiveness, exposure to new kinds of writing, speaking, teaching, coaching, a respected presence in the local community, leadership, creativity, courage, gratitude for little things, better understanding of the logistics of running any business, budgeting, costing, marketing...shall I stop now? I am sure I could think of at least twenty more things.
Whew, after I listed all of that, I had to laugh at myself. If I was really calling myself an entrepreneurial failure would I have been able to list all of those skills and experience? I was always simply doing what any entrepreneurial spirit does best. Trying new things, being open to new ideas, and always seeing the opportunities in problems. Entrepreneurs are born this way.
I didn't choose to be an entrepreneur. I was born this way. Where I choose to set my laptop is irrelevant as long as I can keep on writing and creating.
