When Business Development = Self-Development

When I became an entrepreneur, I had no idea what it would take. I didn’t realize it would be all that different from salary, except that I would find my own clients, make my own schedule, earn a varying income without benefits, and do most of my work at home with a cat in my lap.

At the moment, the cat is adorable, gray and white Sparrow, radiating happiness even while napping… but the real differences between salary and freelance are much more profound. I’ve discovered that entrepreneurship requires far greater depth and utilization of self-knowledge. My own psychology has become my primary piece of office equipment; to succeed, I must understand and use it to its best advantage. Adapting to the structure of a salaried job never required this. The process is deeply challenging, exhilaratingly creative, and profoundly rewarding. I must unabashedly own up to all of my strengths, weaknesses, and foibles, and use them in creative tinkering to figure out what really makes me tick or jam up and how to graft a business onto my own natural patterns. Thus, business development = self-development.

Working with my psychology is vital because my motivation has to come from within, and strongly enough to launch me into work day after day, week after week, and year after year. I have no external structure to set expectations for me and support me; even my clients’ expectations of me are my responsibility to delineate. I also spend a good deal of time on networking and marketing for which I am answerable only to myself. I am entirely self-driven, in a leadership role at every working moment, and can never just relax and follow, doing what is expected of me without needing to think about it. Add to this that I currently live alone and have neither children nor romantic partner, so my life must be entirely self-driven not only every working moment, but every waking moment.

To accomplish this, I’ve been learning what really drives me (for instance, I don’t think I could do this if my work wasn’t creative and directly improving the world). I’ve been learning exactly what my needs are on every level and how to fulfill them so that I will have the energy to achieve and thrive. Even seemingly unrelated needs, such as social interaction, are part of my business plan, for if I do not take care to meet them, my productivity will lower. The result is that I cannot afford to compromise my happiness, as so many people do every day, and as I’ve done in the past. As an entrepreneur, my business success depends on my ability to fulfill my own needs and craft a life that is truly patterned to fit me in all the details and nourish me with abundant energy and inspiration. It’s a beautiful and empowering thing to have to do.

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