The Mind of an Entrepreneur versus The Mind of a 9-5’er

I was talking to a girlfriend of mine a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been friends for over 17 years. We used to work at the same legal publishing firm in New York City (ahh, the good ole days).

Anyway, our conversation that day left me thinking how the mind of an entrepreneur is vastly different from that of somewhat who works in corporate America. Let me explain. And yes, this does have to do with blogging. I’m taking the scenic route in getting there though, so bear with me.

A Half-Million Dollar Home on a Corporate Salary

We were yakking away on the phone and she told me out of the blue that she’s selling her house so that she and her family can be closer to her job. She spends anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours each way, every day in traffic. And with two small children at home, she’s not getting to spend much time with them.

She works in Princeton, where the starting prices of the houses are more than double what she paid for her current home only five years ago. While she makes a very good salary, my very first thought was, “I’d be scared to death to depend on a job to pay a half-million-dollar-plus mortgage.”

As I said, we both worked at a legal publishing firm together years ago. I left in 1997. She stayed put until last year, when she was downsized after 15 years. She immediately bounced back with a very high-paying job, but I’ve been through enough downsizings in my career that the thought of relying on a high-powered salary to pay my bills would frighten the bejeezus out of me.

Then I thought . . . she’s probably thinking the same thing about me! She probably couldn’t stand the uncertain pay, long hours and solitary time I put in at the computer.

To explain where I’m coming from further — my company, Inkwell Editorial, started out as an editorial outsource agency in 1996. In 1997, we added editorial staffing to the mix, so I’ve been on the other side of the hiring desk. In my experience, it’s easy to replace a $30, $35K or $40K/year job. But, when you get beyond $50K, it can be pretty hard to just bounce back (she’s in the low six figures).

A mortgage is a 30-year commitment; there aren’t a lot of companies who make that kind of commitment to employees these days.

Like Blogging, the Uncertainty of Entrepreneurship Can Weigh on You

What got me thinking about all this is the New York Times article, In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop that a few bloggers here at BloggingTips have mentioned. Namely Susan Gunelius in her post, Is Blogging Killing You and Kelby Carr in her post, Set Blogging Limits.

While some think of entrepreneurship as risky, others see it as freedom. I’ve been freelancing for so long that I can’t even wrap my brain around the idea of depending on one employer for my financial well-being. And, I’m sure she would go equally bonkers in my position.

Bloggers are Entrepreneurs

Like entrepreneurship, when people start blogs, they start out with essentially an idea and a prayer. They put in untold hours, nursing their baby along, toiling away for free in the hopes that some day . . . .

Bloggers are entrepreneurs in the truest sense of the word. It’s the ones who recognize and embrace this concept early on who manage to get the payoff.