Monday, February 13, 2012

Raison d'être

I have been professional trained as an engineer and have a career that span from engineering to software developer to information technology.  During this span of career I saw the industry evolved in such a way that a lot of the engineering and IT positions were outsourced to other countries.  While I have never suffered the humiliation of a layoff, I have gone through the anguish of dozens or so rounds of layoff events and those experiences were demoralizing.  As I read the book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, I realize that I cannot stay a technician in the U.S. economy.  I need to develop more entrepreneurial spirit and thinking.  However, that transition to thinking entrepreneurially has been very difficult for me as I naturally fall back to what I have been good at most of my life.  This blog is created with the intention for me to break out of that old engineering mindset and think of how I can develop business ideas and how to become entrepreneurial and to spur myself into action.
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1 comment:

  1. Stephen JonesApril 25, 2012 at 9:53 PM

    I'm also a Software Engineer with (from what I can tell) similar experience in the industry. I agree that you can't expect to thrive any more by doing a 9-to-5 technical job requiring commodity skills. It makes you too much a target for outsourcing or "undersourcing" w/ cheaper labor.

    So, I think embracing an entrepreneurial mindset is the way to go. Not only might it allow you to set your own course, it will make you a more attractive hire if you choose to work for others. I recently landed a terrific position working with great people and I believe I got the offer primarily based on being able to talk with enthusiasm about innovating and thrilling customers, borrowing a lot of ideas gleaned from being a rabid startup junkie.

    Likewise, I've worked for both big and small companies, old and new companies, and companies in exciting fields or stodgy ones. The one thing that differentiated successful ones from the dying ones was this: Entrepreneurial Spirit.

    Bottom-line: Go for it. Cultivate your hunger to explore and exploit untapped needs while surfing (not following) trends.

    Here are a couple of resources I'd suggest for your regular reading list:

    Passive Panda: http://passivepanda.com/money-making-ideas - Good ideas about deriving recurring income from your ideas (but it sometimes has a sales/infomercial flavor at times).

    Paul Graham: http://paulgraham.com/ambitious.html - He's a renowned hacker and influential angel investor. Search for his "office hours" videos where he teaches baby entrepreneurs how to succeed.

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