Anyone with an entrepreneurial outlook on life and who has been spending some time working in a corporate organisation will have experienced being the round peg not fitting the square hole (or was it the square peg not fitting the round hole). As an intrapreneur you don’t just feel different, you are different. You’re the 1 in 10 working in a 9 in 10 environment. 

Quite a few of these entrepreneurial minds I talk to these days seem to have used 2020 to reflect on their out-of-the-boxness and many seem to be saying farewell to their corporate life converting to full time entrepreneurship to try so start a business.

For many this would be a mistake.

As an entrepreneur you’ll still have to answer to a boss (but then several: customers, suppliers, partners, potentially investors, …), but now starting from scratch, on a limited shoestring budget, without a team to support you, without the cloud of scale to make deals, with no existing customers to fall back on. Entrepreneurship is not the romantic profession it looks to be from the outside, especially not if you like the perks and whistles of the corporate life. 

SPARK OF THE DAY

It is true: as an entrepreneur working in a corporate setting you’re the odd one out… but that doesn’t mean you’re the only odd one out. Just like entrepreneurship is not the only path to independence and happiness. There is nothing wrong with being an intrapreneur enjoying the corporate life!

So stop focussing on the 9 in 10 who don’t get it, instead focus on the other 1 in 10 who are just like you, with the same ambitions and energy to drive change and create progress. Create an environment where graduate intrapreneurs can come in and thrive, so they’re not pressured to start businesses that lead to nothing much but another statistic that can be counted as an “entrepreneur” instead of “unemployed”.

The world will be a happier place for it, and so will you!

I just had to get this off my chest…