ARE YOU A JOB SEEKER OR A JOB CREATOR?

ARE YOU A JOB SEEKER OR A JOB CREATOR?

Many fresh graduates out there do not seem to understand what it means to be an entrepreneur or even understand the concept. While many people may view being an entrepreneur as taking unnecessary risks, it really actually comes down to a certain mentality and way of life which not everyone is built for. To make the best impact in society as a fresh Nigerian graduate, you need to clearly understand your place in the scheme of things. How can you determine if you were wired to be a job seeker or a job creator? This article is written to help fresh graduates going through this crisis to be able to clearly determine their career path, through highlighting certain factors that will serve as a marker to guide you substantially in deciding whether you truly are a job seeker or a job creator.

YOUR VISION. Your vision embodies your core values and your view for the future. To identify your career path in life, first begin by identifying your core values, your passion, what you believe to be your purpose, and how you envision your life. Your vision is an important aspect of determining what you want out of life. Visions are specific enough to help guide one’s career efforts. To put simply, your vision is something you see for your life and your future. Having a vision is the first major step to determining whether you want to be a job seeker or a job creator. Your visions will ultimately translate into achievements and the choice of our best to reach this achievements is based on your choice of either taking a career as a corporate employee or an entrepreneur.

YOUR MINDSET. The kind of mindset you’ve got is also another critical marker in determining of indeed you are a job seeker or a job creator. Are you risk tolerant? While doing things the safest way is good for an organization, it takes a risk-tolerant entrepreneur to believe in and build the organization in the first place. If you’re an entrepreneur at heart, you are more likely to embrace failure easily, and believe failure can lead to success. A typical employee would rather not fail at their jobs as it can lead to a fear of losing the steady employment they value. Entrepreneurs are task-delegates at heart and believe in maximizing their valuable time.
Let’s compare and contrast the differences between the entrepreneur mindset and an employee mindset.

√ Employees are threatened by people smarter than them; entrepreneurs try to get them on payroll. Steve Jobs was quoted saying that he would always be looking for people smarter than and convince them to come work for him

√ Entrepreneurs thrive on risks, whereas employees try to avoid it as much as possible. Employees cherish the security of their day jobs and have no interest in the uncertainty that comes with starting up their own business

√ another point to note is that entrepreneurs delegate where employees try to multitask. Entrepreneurs require focus and that is even more crucial if you are launching a startup. Employees are however wired to multitask.
√ Employees think without starting; whereas entrepreneurs start without thinking. While employees restrict their future growth and plans by waiting to perfect different skills, and then midway through the journey they begin to doubt their capabilities and strengths. Entrepreneurs tend to know a little about everything and so they start their businesses with a little input and do not waste their time by waiting to be perfect. They strongly believe in learning new things along their entrepreneurial journey.

√ Employees dream their plans. Entrepreneurs plan their dreams. No matter how awesome or big your dreams are; without action, they have no significance, employees tend to build castles in the air. They dream, but never get to actualize their lofty dreams. On the other hand, entrepreneurs have a solid plan in place for shaping their dreams. They move ahead with a proper strategy.
Your mindset is one of the best factors to use in guiding you to make the choice of where you belong, either as a job seeker, or a job creator.

ENTREPRENEURS VS. EMPLOYEES.

I have personally been both an entrepreneur and employee. And like many others that dare to take on the uncertainty of being an entrepreneur, let’s dive into what I feel are the differences between entrepreneurs and employees. But first, let me make it clear here that you don’t have to own your own business to be classified as an entrepreneur. In my own opinion, it is more if a function of mindset than your status in the workforce environment

1. Employees seek direction, while entrepreneurs create a path. Employees generally tend to seek help whenever difficult problems arise at work, while entrepreneurs are essentially creators and innovators who would readily create the solutions that keep the organisation moving forward

2.  Employees take fewer risks while entrepreneurs are hard core risk takers. Usually you will find that employees tend to play safe, on the other hand, risk taking appeals to the average entrepreneur

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3. Employees are often specialists while entrepreneurs are generalists. Entrepreneurs usually tend to know a little bit about a not of things, in part, so they can effectively empower the specialist employees who work for them. Specialists tend to be employers for life and in fact prefer that role

4. Employees appreciate steady employment while entrepreneurs are comfortable without job security. Entrepreneurs know that it is risky to build a business, and that certain sacrifices must be made to successfully establish a good business venture, and hence they are ready to sacrifice employment in order to build and develop their business

5. Employees follow rules while entrepreneurs break them. Entrepreneurs are necessarily game-changers, and so to create a successful business, an entrepreneur gas to disrupt something, or even rules which have been in existent for some time, meanwhile in order to keep the entrepreneur’s company going, the employees need to be there to uphold the new rules and status quo

6. Employees are responsible for some decisions while entrepreneurs are responsible for them all. Whether good or bad, the business owner is ultimately burdened with the impacts of decision making at all levels of the organization, while the employee is only responsible for decisions that are directly involved with his/her job

7. Employees like structure while entrepreneurs like infrastructure. While employees generally prefer to have a defined set of responsibilities, entrepreneurs will consider how day person’s role contributes to the business and its growth and development as a whole.

8. Employees work with a schedule while entrepreneurs create their own schedule. A typical entrepreneur needs to develop strong time management skills, otherwise the likelihood of burning themselves out is strong. As for employees, they work according to a pre-planned schedule.

WHAT DRIVES YOU?

No matter who you are, you are going to need money. Money ranks up there with oxygen as far as necessity go, and not only that, it also makes s things easier. So, no matter who you are, you are going to have to find a way to make money. And there are two major ways of doing so: to either become a corporate employee or an entrepreneur. Now, once you’ve established the importance and inevitability of money, you’ve got to focus on discovering which way is the one that best fits you, the one which brings you more happiness, and which if them fits your dreams and goals. Are you an ambitious person? Are you a person that likes being comfortable? Maybe your dream is to walk for major multinational companies like Google or Shell, or maybe your dream is to start your own business. This write up is not made to tell you which one is the best option in general, but it’s instead made to help guide you to finding which one is the best fit for you, especially if you still don’t know what to do with your life. So let’s think about it for a second. Consider your passion. Write down your passions, dreams, and goals. Which method do you think is the best way to achieve them? Being a job seeker or a job creator? How big are your dreams and goals? And how far are you willing to go to achieve them? Answering these questions is what will drive you to do anything you do in your life.

HOW DO YOU DELIVER VALUE?

Whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, the core of your work regardless of its nature is to deliver value. So on both sides you are creating and delivering value. Without value, no one would be in business, people pay you for the value you deliver, and as such every transaction is an exchange of values. What is your own method of delivering value? The answer to this question will guide you on choosing the perfect career path to match with your method of delivering value. Value is created and delivered differently by employees and entrepreneurs. Employees make themselves valuable to their employers; while entrepreneurs make their business and themselves valuable for their customers.

EMPLOYMENT OR ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

OK. Picture that you’ve this great business idea that has got the potential to completely transform the world. You are ready to start planning how to execute your business idea and then as you prepare to launch the business, you go through all the things you need to figure out, you discover how much money you’ll need to start your business, you see how much time you need to out into it and you also see that it will involve some necessary sacrifices, and so you give up and decide not to go through with your fantastic business idea. Well, am here to tell you that entrepreneurship really means passion. So, one thing is for sure, if you are to become an entrepreneur, your passion for your idea must be greater than your fear of failing. And if the dear of failing is the one thing that stops you from laughing all your business idea, then entrepreneurship is certainly not for you! Entrepreneurs take risks that others will not and cannot bear. They will always find ways of solving problems and creating value for society. The entrepreneurial path is definitely not easy and definitely not for everyone. So if you are looking for a linear lifestyle, this path is not for you. Employment could more likely be your own thing.
So employment or entrepreneurship, which one is for you? Ponder on these

If you desire stability in life and you want to live peacefully, you do not want to risk your stability and comfort. You desire a comfortable predictable lifestyle and the your free time
You understand and can hear risks effectively, you find challenges exciting, you love to work and you want to keep growing and expanding, you are ambitious and can handle uncomfortable situations excellently.
If your lifestyle inclines towards the first statement, you are most definitely tending towards employment.
The second statement describes entrepreneurship, your schedule is all over the place and you find yourself thinking 100 different things at the same time. And you usually don’t know when the next time to relax will be, if this statement describes you, then you’re more inclined towards entrepreneurship.