It was my last official day at work today. After 10 years as Samurai in the Army, and now 10 years as Salaryman, working for others in offices, now its time to see if I can make my way as Ronin, masterless, my own boss. If all goes well I'll never work for anyone but myself (and maybe the odd VC) again.
Whilst the circumstances at work hastened the move, its something I've talked about for ages, and came very close to acheiving during the dot com boom. Finally I have the chance to meld all my different interests, technology, marketing, strategy, AI, media, games into a single force.
In the last year or so there have been two additional influences which have really clarified my thinking.
I'm not a great one for US self-help books, but Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is excellent at capturing some key ideas in two diagrams - the main one is above. It says that there are four types of "work": being employed by someone else, being self-employed, owning a business or process, and owning investments. Robert sees living off investments as the ultimate goal - and its what many serial entrepreneurs/investors/angels do. He also precisesly defines the "B" as being where if you go on holiday for a year your business is in better shape when you return. Many business owners think they are Bs but are actually Ss as they need to be there to work and make things work. As I go forward I have this diagram etched in my mind. I've made the move now out of E, hopefully into S. Now to make sure that the S I build lets me move to B, and ultimately to I.
The second influence is Tom Peters. I got bored stiff by In Search of Excellence many years ago doing my DipEM, but seeing him live last year in London was quite an experience. The best thing he did were his Top 50s, short, snappy, wacky ideas to implement, in particular the Renewal 50 and the Brand You 50. A central message was the "professional service firm of one". Doesn't matter if you're an employee, still think you Brand You. It's a real pity they weren't in his recent Imagine! book as they are the best things he did.
So let's see where things go from here.....
And hey, this is my 200th posting to the blog.
***Imported from old blog***
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