I’m growing my business as fast as I’m able. I’m doing what I can to grow flat rate into something massive and cool. This week was another crap week because I am still spread thin doing moneywork on some projects that I took as far back as June. That’s a whole couple business iterations ago, and yesterday I renegotiated all of the arrangements with people that are impolite, or have an employee-employer mindset. I’m the employee and they are waiting on me to finish so that they can make money, deferring decisions to me because hey, I’m the expert. Screw that. That stinks, for both the employer and employee.
The employer gets resentful because his little monkey isn’t working as hard as he could.
The employee hates being someone’s little bitch, but feels stuck and trapped.
It’s a lose lose situation, and the employee mindset is an aging meme that is going away fast. No more sucking on the teats of big corporations, no more doing exactly what you were told (and nothing more).
An employee–generally–is someone who:
- Must be told exactly what to do.
- Has an entitlementality
- Defensively justifies value (in lieu of declaring and increasing value).
- Takes forever to do it.
- Gets bitter and resentful
- Shirks responsibility, passing the buck to others.
- Doesn’t make process-improving suggestions
- Is always looking for a better deal for themselves all the time.
- Must be praised excessively for doing baseline work.
- Must have external direction.
- Focus on steps, process & not results.
- Does the minimum.
You can be self employed and still be an employee. Loads of freelancers are in this boat. I myself have been in this boat. I myself have done this a lot. It’s a mindset that everyone has in different degrees and at different times. And, like other things, I know it when I see it. Some of this is caused by a high D boss type. Some people (myself included) have a strong force of will and create employee relationships unintentionally. Happens, cycle must be broken.
Johnny B Truant talked about partnerships in Copyblogger. He’s one of a set of growing and successful collaborations that I’m doing now. My partners–and I–have different responsibilities. Johnny is like an ad agency traffic manager, helping people with WordPress issues that came into my company. He fixes problems that inevitably come up. He’s paid to support my people, and he does a good job. I don’t have to be wary that he’s going to stir up any rancor, he just handles his business and keeps me out of it.
Why? Because he views himself as a partner. Because he had, before he met me, standards of conduct with his customers. Because he was, before he came my way, established as what is and what should be with regard to customer service. He has his own esprit de corps. Do I agree with all of his decisions? No. Would I do it his way? No. But I give him the latitude because he’s fully formed and doesn’t need direction. He handles the customer service, makes suggestions for improvement, and I don’t have to sweat it with him. When I try to micromanage or act in my normal capricious way, he pushes back and rightly so. Because he’s a partner, he’s got that right.http://genuinechris.com/wp-admin/post-new.php
There’s No Future In The Bitch Business
Here’s the bottom line: there’s a future in collaboration that is as bright and sunny as it’s always been. Crick and Watson (hell, Holmes and Watson), Pippen and Jordan, Eric and Serge. Collaboration works.
But, there’s no future in the bitch business.
There’s no future for people that want to suck at the teets of successful people and bask in the glow, not creating their own energy. There’s no future for people that want a life of functionary indecision. The future belongs not to people that want to be bossed around, but to the people that want to help others, and learn how to do it. The difference is in intent: people that are “bitches” want do tasks a paycheck. People that aren’t (let’s call them the “meek”) want to help other people however they can.
There’s no future in the bitch business. If your mindset requires that you, as an entrepreneur, have to rely on a bunch of functionary employees (not people that work at startups, but people that work for paychecks) to win, then you’ve got nothing. If you can’t make a living for yourself without having a massive supporting cast, then you’re screwed. Why? Because when business dries up, overhead doesn’t. Overhead kills people that require insulation from the actual work that their business performs.
Anything that requires workerbees can be knocked off with near-future technology, sans workerbees. Any business that requires a buncha grunts that you skim the top off of is a bitch business. And you have to beat it down and make a better business.
You’re in the bitch business when you must micromanage. You’re in the bitch business when you rely on control, and not innovation to protect your assets and customer relationships. You’re in the bitch business when you think scarcity and think small pie, big slice (instead of BIG ASS PIE, small slice). We all gravitate to that because it’s easy. But it’s easy to beat. And it deprives you of the best contributions that other people can make.
Where the E-myth failed was here: you can’t rely on people that can’t be relied on. And by definition someone that has not swallowed the red pill is not reliable. They are still plugged in to the old world, unaware of the brutal change that will befall them. You have to use them as little as possible to be successful, and you have to set a good example.
Take responsibility, take charge, be accountable. Are you in the bitch business? How do you plan on getting out?
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And of course, there’s a bonus reason to enter into these types of relationships: They’re just plain interesting. Solving “How to Work With Chris” is like a puzzle, and it’s a fuck of a lot more interesting than just doing monkey work. You allow your collaborators to act as partners without going through the rigamarole of creating a formal partnership and it starts to get fun.
Really well said Chris. And Johnny. I feel a strong pull toward collaboration – tried it once with a site (wikidstory.com – no longer active) but just couldn’t pull it off. I think clarity is the necessary ingredient to that sort of relationship. And that’s my challenge.
Thanks for the great post/perspective.