Lessons Learned Lately
So I like to do this lessons learned update from time to time…
Lessons learned lately (about long-term consulting):
- Never say you will exclusively work for anyone or stay long term. It’s a 2-way agreement. We’ll both work together as long as it makes sense for both of us (unless you work at Speaking Roses apparently, see this post, ).
I tried to be loyal when the situation didn’t warrant it which didn’t work. My favorite post that helped me accept this concept came from Penelope Trunk (
nother real name) blogged about embracing instability or I would say uncertainty.Amazingly enough I have learned to do that and simply look forward to the next adventure. I know my worth now and I’m willing to take time to find the situation that best suits me. As Guy Kawasaki said, slavery was outlawed in this country a long time ago.
- It’s probably a good idea to be a contractor for a while regardless to see if you are mutually happy with how things work.
- Working from home full-time isn’t that great to me. I know everyone dreams about it. I need to be out and about at least part of the time. I need to regularly meet people in real life.
- If you find yourself having to make yourself stay motivated, you’re not in the right place. When I’m in the right place I cannot stop myself. My work has a life of its own, not like it’s done at 5pm, even if I stopped actively working on something, I think about it. I love what I do and want to continually improve and deliver value.
- I hated doing my own taxes, payroll, and finding my own health insurance. That’s still something I haven’t gotten completely worked out. It took me a while.
- I can really crank out content when I want to. As if you can’t tell from my blog. The more inspired I am, the more I write.
- Be clear on who pays for what expenses, up front. For example, conferences are important to me and keep me sharp in my field. I couldn’t bill those hours. My ultimate response is to start creating some products so I make money no matter where I am.
- I hated “working in my pjs”. In the end creative work days didn’t work for me. I had to get a routine. It’s not that I couldn’t deviate from it, but having a base routine including getting dressed every morning made me feel normal. I didn’t want to turn into an anti-social recluse and at first I was in danger of that.
- I don’t work well in environments that require a high level of confidentiality. Blogging and what I’ve done in my career has always utilized my innate talent as a connector. I had personality disorders trying to keep things straight. I need to be me. I am transparent. Yes there are things that need to be confidential but I know where I stand with that. I will never work for the CIA.
- Never stop building your business. You have to do it because if something ends, you have to have cash flow. Cash flow to business is like air is to humans. I’ve made this mistake and I am determined that it will not keep happening.
There you go, my manifesto for today.
7 Responses to “Lessons Learned Lately”
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March 5th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Janet. Great to see that you enjoyed the exercise… and I must say you are pretty brave to make this post.
You might want to check out my new blog, it may have some useful information for you or your readers http://www.recruiting-usa.com because it is al about blogs, blog development, websites, SEO, and organic Internet marketing. - Carl “the restaurant recruiter”
March 5th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Nice post on embracing instability. Matching the commitment levels of employers and employees is a difficult task.
I believe that there are many careers that really do require a multi-year commitment to a group. For example, education involves a strong commitment to the school. A great deal of research and engineering requires multiyear commitments. Primary health care requires long term commitments to patients. So many things in our culture, like reliable utilities, are a direct result of long term commitments that individuals made to the groups that provide the service.
The challenge is to find good balances that allow different people to pursue different dreams. The commitment level of the employee and employer should match. What seems to keep happening is that our bureaucracies try to force everyone into long term “organization man” style careers, while we have an overactive investment community that keeps ripping apart companies that had made long term commitments for short term profits.
The challenge is to match people’s desires in a mutually beneficial way.
BTW, your post made me think of local blogger Sarah Bellum who was dooced … reprimanded for blogging. My guess is that she was working for a group that is seeking long term security, while she wants to be in a free form blogging world.
Her desires to free form blogging fell outside that of her group. I really am not sure if her employer is wrong for noting that her personal actions and career choice were a mismatch.
I am happy to read your lessons learned. I wonder if it is really wrong when employers point out that the commitment level of the employee isn’t matching that demanded by a particular career? Or do we need to leave it to the employee to discover the mismatch on their own?
March 5th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Wow, that is really weird… I commented on the Mozilla post and it showed up as awaiting moderation on the Lessons Learned post… -Carl
March 5th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for the insightful comments! In the book “Good to Great” there was this part that struck me so hard when I heard it last month:
“For every minute you allow a person to continue holding a seat when you know that person will not make it in the end, you’re stealing a portion of his life, time that (s)he could spend finding a better place where he could flourish.”
I could’ve gotten fired over blogging. It didn’t slow me down from blogging at all. I’m still going strong. In fact, my blog was getting me further in my career than that job was. I was there a few years and it was right for that time of my life.
Sometimes fear keeps us in the wrong place for too long. In this case, the timing was just right. In the past I tried to hold on too long.
Janet
March 5th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Hi. Great points about working as a consultant. I wish I had this information when I first started.
But… “Not her real name.” What’s up with that?!? It’s my name! I just wrote a whole post on it!
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/03/05/my-name-is-not-really-penelope/
March 5th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Great post and thanks for the call today.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Penelope, I rushed through that one…I just put a strikethrough on “not”. I apologize, I was going to get that other post when I saw the one about your name. I skimmed it and thought it said it wasn’t your actual name.
Oops.
Janet