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.