Being Your Own Boss

One of the side effects of being an entrepreneur is that you are your own boss. Unlike some other side effects you might have come across, it is a good one to have. You get to do things your own way - own tasks, own deadlines, own work. You are your own manager. Basically, you have lot of flexibility.

This is vastly different from the corporate way of doing things, where you are assigned a project and you have to deliver tasks as per the project plan. For any project, there is a set pattern of things to be done. There is an order.

Not so in a startup. Things are more adhoc, sometimes haphazard. You can drive things as crazy as you want. Things change on a daily basis. You are playing god in your own startup.

As Spiderman was told by Uncle Ben - With great power comes great responsibility. By doing things your own way, you are entrusting yourself with great responsibility. Now your success or failure depend a whole lot on you. In a corporate world, you might have got seniors and managers above you who would point out your mistakes, who mentor you. You do not enjoy such luxury in a startup.

But then, isn't that one of the main reasons why startups are fun? In a big company, you have set rules and you play according to that. There is not a whole lot of deviation you are expected to make. In contrast, startups are all about breaking the rules. That is in the definition of a startup.

If the startup way of doing things would have only the fun in it, everybody would be following it. The reason not everybody follows it is that it has its own risks. Risks that can jeopardize the success of the initiative.

One of the potential pitfalls of nobody being above you is missing deadlines. Because you are your own boss, there's scope of you taking the deadlines lightly and thereby missing a few. This is probably the biggest misuse of such power.

You miss deadlines primarily because either at some level you do not want to work on the task at hand, or are distracted by other things despite wanting to work on it. The distraction is even more of an issue in a startup because there are a thousand things crying out for your attention. And this is something that you need to be careful of. Prioritization is one which would help you from distractions.

The second part of not wanting to work on the task probably doesn't apply in a startup. By definition, in a startup, you love what you do. Even if there's a task which you are not expert at, you'd do it happily. So, there is really no reason to believe that you'll falter on deadlines.

In fact, it's the other way round. Because you love what you do, there is a fear of you overworking, which may lead to burnout over long period of time. So, you might want to introduce deadlines to slow you down! I think that is a bigger risk than skipping deadlines, and probably more common observed phenomenon.

When working in a startup, it's easy for people to underestimate the importance of break. People work long hours continuously to get the product out as soon as possible. This can be dangerous over longer duration.

One has to realize that while shifting from corporate world to startup world, psychologically you are in a different zone, but physically, it's the same world. You body still needs rest. Your mind can understand your enthusiasm to work more, your body doesn't.

So, take breaks regularly. If not a full weekend, take at least a day off every week. That'll help you recharge your cells and keep you fresh for the following week. Remember, a tired mind can't come up with innovative ideas. Creativity too suffers in the process. You won't be able to focus properly. And you need all of these to get your startup going. You need to be at your best as many days of your startup life as possible for it to succeed.

Two of the biggest things that you learn while being your own boss is time management and prioritization. Both of these things are crucial for success of any individual in professional life, and a startup being highly dependent of a few individuals, it directly affects the success of a startup.

Being in a startup, you'll likely be handling a multitude of tasks, not just programming. You are the admin guy figuring out whether the servers are up or not. You are the customer support answering all the questions. You are the marketing manager making sure your startup is being covered at the startup events. You are the SEO specialist worrying about rank in Google. You are the chief evangelist making people excited about your startup.

How efficiently you handle all these tasks is important. For your startup to be successful, you have to be good at this juggling, switching context in matter of seconds. Worse, you might not be particularly good at some of these tasks. You'd invariably end up spending considerable amount of time learning the ropes. Sometimes, you'd make mistakes and loose valuable time.

And that's fine. You've got to be comfortable with the fact that making mistakes is fine. That is how you learn. If you'd never try, you are never going to find out if you can do it or not.

And because there are just so many things to do at any given time, and you are just one soul, and you do not want to burn out either, you would have to prioritize the tasks.

One funny thing when you are in love with what you do is that every small thing seems important. Even the color and font of that small little footer. How can it be not important?

In a startup, everything is important. However, you need to classify items into more important and less important ones. And then let go of the less important ones. Not because less important ones are not crucial for your startup, but because you are not Superman. You can do only that much. It better be more important ones that find your immediate attention. It's hard, but it's got to be done.

With effective time management, you'd realize that with time you are more satisfied and happier. Satisfied because you would know that you have given it your best shot. Happier because you would see results sooner than later.

Being at the helm of things is tough. Some people do it better than others. Good news is that this is something that can be learnt with time and experience. What is important is that you do not loose sight. That you last to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And that is what matters.