As of Thursday, January 8, 2010, I am the boss of me! I’ve heard that expression a million times before but I never understood its true meaning. Beyond the basic idea of self-employment, there’s a hidden thought behind those three words. Let’s break it down grammatically – “I” is the subject and “Me” is the object – so if you think about it, I am the boss and I am the employee! Aside from this being a logical deduction, it is a FACT!
When you decide to work independently and have complete autonomy, you are actually taking on two roles (at least) – the role of the boss and the role of the employee. It sounds slightly schizophrenic but this is exactly how I feel. As a boss, you have to impose certain rules and regulations that need to be followed by the employee. So when you actually set out to finish a project, as a boss you’re assigning it to the employee, who in turn needs to deliver it on time to the boss. If the employee element did not inherently exist in the “I am my own boss” phrase, then failure is inevitable. As a boss of no one, you will feel like you have no responsibilities; you will find yourself wasting your time doing nothing!
I’m not sure whether the gravity of what I said is understood or not – but from my own short experience of being my own boss I think it is crucial for my success to take that to heart. The first thing my friends told me after they found out that I no longer want to be employed was “this is amazing, now you can wake up any time you want … you can decide to take a whole month of vacation, you have no one to report to …” All that is true, but this same formula could result in my failure. This is where I, as a boss, hired a new employee (me again). This employee wakes up a certain time, has a fixed and clear schedule, has clear objectives and targets, and has deadlines to meet and he report to the boss.
I would like to credit my mom, Dina Antonios, who has always pushed me to go out there and Crush It – she’s the perfect example of “I am the Boss of Me” – she has been working on her own since 2003 and she has not failed as an employee or a boss once – she has a very sacred routine that she has followed since the date of her initiation. As an employee in my previous jobs, I used to take sick leaves and find excuses for breaks, but as self-employed individual, mom never failed to show up once to her work – her passion is an inspiration and I hope I can one day have the commitment she has!
“With freedom comes responsibility” – Think About It!
John, my dearest brother, my confidant, my best friend, and so much more
They say motivation, ambition, and the will to thrive are traits that you genetically inherit just as you do aggression, nervousness and the like.
In short, the genes say it all…you and mom are the perfect examples and I could only wish and hope that I have also inherited the gene for success the one I will call the “crush it” gene after the both of you.
I have the utmost faith in your abilities and I am and always will be proud of you my big brother, and only aspire to be like mom, Dina Antonios, one day in the near future.
First of all, allow me to say, CONGRATS JOHN!! Finally, you got what you desired for such a long time. By the time I’m writing this comment, I remember the interview that I had with you regarding to Entrepreneurship. Right before then, I know you are entrepreneurial and would make a huge success in your own way. Your hands can never be tied John, because first of all, you will lose your passion and second of all, your intellectual brain will simply be tied as well…so with the autonomy that you have by being your own boss, i’m confident that you can really crush it. I can’t wait 🙂
Ok back to the topic…what you said above it’s extremely true and I couldn’t agree more. Self-discinpline determines your success and failure of your own business because as the word own business, you are on your own. No one is gonna remind you for deadlines, tell you what to do, take care of your mess…you are not necessarily the hands and legs anymore, but definitely the brain. Yes, you can now determine your time but trust me, out of my experience, you are even MORE inflexible when you are the boss. You have no time but for business. You will grab every single business opportunity and think of business when you are talking about whatever topics with friends/family/customers/some random guys you meet in a cafe. Your brain will never stop from now…be prepared 🙂 But then again, no pain no gain…the excitement before the project, the enjoyment during the process and the satisfaction of the results…ooooohhh…can’t even describe in words. I still remember what you said in ur interview to me. Your satisfaction doesn’t necessarily come from money, but recognition of your true self…you will get it by being your own boss..trust me
With all my respect, your mother, dina antonios, is one of most self-discinpline yet responsible self-employed woman I have ever seen. You are lucky to have her as your real model. Being your own boss, you would love the importance of rountine, which you might object when you were still an employee 🙂
All the best John, and keep crushing 🙂
First of all congratulations,
I got your salutes from Jad today and I thought I would check your blog 🙂
I would quote someone who is not Spider-man: “With great power comes great responsibility”.
It’s true that being your own boss is such a great thing, it has such a magic in it, where you can wake up every day and have the power to have anything on your mind come to reality. You don’t have to hear “It does not work”
Well being your own boss also gives you more space to experiment and make your own mistakes and not suffer from someone else’s 🙂
I wish you lots of fun on that path, despite all the responsibilities
Just a quick comment on Jessica’s post, I don’t like to think that motivation, ambition have a special gene, I would rather like to think that it can be passed from parents to children through love and understanding. This shows that unlike our looks, someone did an effort to build something 🙂
Congratulations. Im going to keep it short and sweet. What a fantastic role model and mentor you are and all credit to your mom (wonderful). Enjoy every challenge that comes with your position, thats what makes you grow. I love your passion,
energy and commitment. And thank you for sharing and always encouraging and inspiring others. 🙂
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