This is the second part of the three serial articles with the first take titled “Before You Leave that Job”. Based on personal experience, I advised those contemplating on leaving their job, to answer three important questions. The first question is based on the entrepreneur’s attitude; “do you want more responsibility and more restraint?” If the answer is yes (or uncertain), then the second question is more like first but focus is on the entrepreneur’s aptitude; “What is your net worth?”
If someone asked you today to state your net worth, what would your answer be? In what context would you be inclined to estimate your worth? Most people tend to equate their personal worth with whatever material assets they possess. You are NOT your net financial worth. Your financial worth, which most people regard as their true worth, is a by-product of all of your skills, education, experiences, and social contacts. It is imperative that you know that you are worth a great deal more than anything else you own.
Your real worth lies in your ability to create something out of nothing. I have personally witnessed some entrepreneurs create massive wealth by converting their social network to financial net worth. I am NOT talking about a network platform of influential and wealthy people, I am talking about a peer network. To substantiate this claim, in 2007, while working as an employee with a 5-figure monthly salary, I generated a 9-figure residual income from a network of similar employees.
Although this gave me a head start in my entrepreneurial journey, my decision to resign was NOT primarily based on the financial asset (I lost 90% of this in my first stint at entrepreneurship) but more on the process asset. The reason for placing more weight on the process asset was not that farfetched – I had earlier read somewhere that people who are truly secure know that if everything was taken away from them today, they will still have the means of getting it all back. Whatever they did once, they can always do again.
The entrepreneurship journey is a complex one; God’s grace and building altars like the aforementioned, motivates and gets me through the dry seasons. I remember a business seminar in Ibadan I was invited to speak at; and one of the participants asked me a question concerning capital for business. So, I asked if he was more interested in capital or the profit. He said he needed the capital to make the profit. So I quizzed him further; “can you see a way you could make the profit without the capital?”
If your answer is NO like the participant’s answer, then you are not ready to leave that job. I would not advise anybody that wants to leave his job to source for capital; I would advise the person to develop a third eye for the business through a minimum of two years internship in the intended business. During these periods, the person would understand “ebb and the flow” period of the business by witnessing firsthand what was done during the ebb period to survive it.
The person would begin to question his temperament to sustain such ebb periods and what could be done to make such periods worthwhile. Another vital advantage of internship is the opportunity to develop networks with your target audience; you would be able to gauge your level of influence to sink the product/service you are interested in. This is one of the most crucial aspects of slugging it out on your own; the ability to gauge your level of influence.
What is your net worth? This is the same thing as asking the level of influence you have on your colleagues. Just because you talk, laugh and play with someone does not mean you can influence the person. You do not need to find out your level of influence after you have left your job; it may be too late then. You must prove to yourself that you can assert some level of influence before you leave that job. Approximately 80% of start-up success relies on selling. Try your hands on residual income selling by joining a referral program like PMtutor Affiliate Program (PAP).
When you can ascertain this influence, it gives you a sense of security that you can survive whatever comes your way; the real illusion about money is that it creates security. Security does not come from accumulating wealth. I know many people who are extremely wealthy and still very insecure. In fact, if you feel insecure right now, having more money will only increase your feelings of insecurity, since you will have more to lose. This is why I do not support people who want capital to start-up, I prefer they gain entrepreneurial experience first through internship.
This is where I stop on the second question you must ask yourself before you leave your job; “What is your net worth?” And remember, if you work smart, you can then play hard! Have a lovely week.
