On being your own boss
So you want to be your own boss?
You want to be that founder /co-founder ,the CEO/CTO of your own company?
You don’t want to be working for and taking orders from other people?
What does “Being your own boss” actually mean?
These days “Being your own boss” is mostly associated with starting your own business and becoming an entrepreneur, essentially referring to ,not having a boss to answer to. but is it really true ?, When you are running a business you are obviously answerable to your customers and your investors at the minimum.
Another form of “Being your own boss” commonly heard of is ‘freelancing’, you get to set your own hours to work, ideally you could work from any place, and most of all get more time to spend for yourself and your family. Surely you have more freedom than a usual 9–5 job. does this mean you are your own boss?, maybe (remember that you are answerable to your client), which does not fit into the ‘not having a boss to answer to’ definition of being your own boss.
when you say you want to be your own boss , are you clear on what exactly is it that you will be the boss of? , because the you in your own boss is as I view it, a combination of different things.In my view, the you is mostly your time,knowledge,your connections, ideas , desires etc. And this can be further pinned down to just you being your time.This means that, to be your own boss , you must become the boss of your time.
To be your own boss is to be in control of your time, to decide and utilize the time you have for the things you really want to do. To be able to do the things you have to do and still have time left to do the things you want to do.The project you always wanted to try out , be it tech or writing or art , to be able to manage your time to do it is being your own boss. It does not matter if you have a 9–5 job (unless the opportunity cost of being at the job is greater than reward from being there),you can still be your own boss.
The very first step is to ask yourself, what are the things that you really want to do, the things which you really care about (make a list). Once this is done you have to manage your time be able to do those things left in the list ( the smaller and more meaningful the list is ,the better). Think of yourself as an employee who you have hired to do those things that are in the list. Now you are in fact your own boss, you must guide that employee to perform his task of completing the things in the list efficiently.