“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
With this quote, I announce that I am officially going to transit from being an entrepreneur to being an employee.
In simpler words, I am trading in my shorts and flip flop days for shirt, pants and leather shoes.
The decision to make such a move started approximately 4 months ago. In all honesty, I was very happy being an entrepreneur, I felt that I had reached the promise land where I found a good trade off between freedom, profit, and value-add to myself and the community.
But it hit me one morning that perhaps I was destined for bigger things. I did yearn to do more than just sell nail polish for the rest of my life, not that there was anything wrong with that, but I just have so many more dreams and goals and aspirations that I wanted to achieve.
I wanted to work on Project A, B, C and D all at once. I wanted to form more business partnerships, write more business plans, pitch more business ideas; and I could have done it! Except that I decided that I was not ready for it and that I would like to learn more from others and develop myself further.
To all entrepreneurs, there is no shame in deciding to stop running your business to work for someone else. I have to admit I did have this sense of failure when I decided to find a job. There was this nagging feeling that everyone’s going to be thinking ‘oh his business failed and that’s why he has to find a job’.
Well, if we live our lives according to what we want people to think, then we wouldn’t be really living will we?
So I’m moving on to new pastures and like what one of my favourite entrepreneurs says – ‘there’s always another business opportunity coming’; and until then, I will be preparing myself for the promised land.
P.S. I will be embarking on an internship with NUS Enterprise – a company that provides mentorship, funding, and infrastructure to all aspiring and current entrepreneurs. I will be involved in a program called Lean Launchpad, which was adapated from Stanford University. I believe there will be plenty of knowledge, skills and experience to be gained and I will, to the best of my abilities, share my journey with you through this platform!
StartupCHEW 