When we hear of the term, “Entrepreneurial”, our imaginations take flight. We visualise all manner of job freedoms, unlimited budgets, happy co-workers, …you name it. If it’s positive, we associate it to working at a company newly arriving on the innovation scene in which the practice of entrepreneurship is flourishing.
It’ll be no surprise that I tell you, life, and jobs, too, are not like that. Almost nothing is what it seems.
Having nurtured a number of entrepreneurial teams of the most excellent type–the metanoic team– [search this website to learn more], I can attest to the reality threaded through entrepreneurial and innovative companies and teams of that nature. At first, all things are exciting. The team’s challenge is even fun. After a while, constant failure will chip away at the team spirit and especially the budget. Pressures mount to produce results. Time becomes an ugly burden. The team, and especially the team’s leader and sponsors, come under heavy pressures to make better use of budgets and talent by folding and freeing resources for other projects which everyone else thinks ought to be better investments. It takes a brave leader to stick to the team’s entrepreneurial vision in the face of corporate pressure to produce results when very little result is forthcoming. As for team members, it takes a unique person to stick with the team when all around, in other jobs in the company, life appears to be a lot more pleasant and filled with much less pressure.
A promising, fun-filled entrepreneurial venture almost always turns from adventure into near-disaster before a breakthrough emerges. Life within can become chaotic, pressured, and downright ugly. Excitement will be replaced with fatigue; adventure, with frustration. But if the team and the company sponsorship can remain resilient enough until a breakthrough does occur, exhilaration will wipe out all past suffering. Even when great fortunes are not forthcoming, seldom will you find anyone who emerges from such a team to say that the experience was not worth it.
If you are able to join an entrepreneurial team, even on a small scale, especially a metanoic, entrepreneurial team, I heartily encourage you to do so. The extra effort and extra commitment demanded of you by the metanoic team itself will give you fond memories and be a great experience like no other that you can enjoy while working within a small or big company.
And, yes. There is always risk. Not all teams produce great, or even acceptable results. The downside to being committed to an entrepreneurial team is all too real. So choose wisely. But if you do have a chance to consider joining a metanoic team, lean a bit more in that direction than you otherwise would. Good luck with your on-the-job adventures.
