Companies are composed of different personalities and traits from their own people. However, the culture is only sometimes the best one for an entrepreneur and could not be the most flexible or even the most appropriate for a company at all. It is my perspective that entrepreneurs looking for the stability of a daytime job must adapt to any business, but not to the point of affecting the creativity, the spirit, or the will to improve. No company is worth the exchange of the entrepreneurial spirit.
Firstly, an entrepreneur may find themselves in a challenging organizational culture. For instance, the focus in the company might be more on your appearance, schedule, and customs, rather than your work. When such harsh conditions surround your workplace, it can lead to a defensive and dependent mindset, which is detrimental to a creative mind.
Secondly, even if an entrepreneur manages to bring creativity to their daily work, the question remains: will this creativity be embraced by the existing culture? For instance, as a new recruit in a company, entrepreneurs may be excited about the potential for improvement. However, it’s crucial to assess whether the organization is open to these changes and how recommendations from established workers are received.
Thirdly, the organization could be a disaster, even for older employees. For example, there are family companies that just grew due to a particular event. This doesn’t mean the company was ready to grow. So, the structure develops, processes are implemented, and new regulations are established. Most family companies suffer from those headaches in their adolescence. Is this the right place to try to implement any creativity? Hardly, since the company is focused on how to do things, not how to make them right. The company exists to struggle with every new operational day.
To summarise, not all organizational cultures are the correct ones for an entrepreneur, as those could be either difficult to deal with, inflexible, or not the correct one for the company itself. The entrepreneur must be willing to find a daytime job to help stabilize the personal business, although not at the cost of developing abilities. An entrepreneur must keep an open mind and study the environment to determine two specific factors: will the company help the entrepreneur grow? But also, will the entrepreneur be allowed to exercise knowledge, creativity, and experience to help the company grow?
Originally posted in june 20th, 2017, in LightHouse Consulting