#008: The Business of Self

I am not a businessman; I am a business, man.

Mar 21, 2021

Hi Friends,

Welcome to another issue of my newsletter.

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Companies today, unlike before, take lesser responsibilities for their workers’ careers and life. Before, companies were responsible for taking care of retired workers that have served the company throughout their career.

However, this has changed similarly to how workers have more options and decide to spend lesser durations in a company. Today workers have more career mobility, and in exchange, companies care less about their careers and life.

There might be a link between workers’ devotion to companies and companies’ compensation for their retired workers.

Today individuals take on more contract work or work as freelancers, relieving the companies of responsibilities they would have owed full staff. A case study is Uber. Until the case it lost against riders, uber doesn’t consider riders as staff; instead, it considers them contract workers. This meant that Uber doesn’t pay them salaries and is not subject to vacations or leave.

It is solely the worker’s responsibility to do what is in his best interest with such an arrangement. The burden is shifted from companies to individuals.

This means that every individual is responsible for his career and life.

With this in mind, for an individual to excel in such a setting- which is becoming more prevalent today, one must treat him/herself as a business.

I am not a businessman; I am a business, man- Jay Z.

One has the responsibility to manage a business, The business of self.

To manage yourself effectively, the first thing to do is to know yourself.

From my notes from HBR’s Managing oneself

What are my Strengths
How true is the statement that "people usually don't know what they are good at"?
Not even that they're pretty bad at knowing what they are bad at.
What are my Strengths??
To discover your strength, you need do feedback analysis.
Every 9-12 months, when you make a decision,check up what's working relative to your expectations and what's not.
Feedback Analysis
From your Feedback analysis, you should be able to:
1. Concentrate on your strength- put in work where your strengths can produce results.
2. Improve your strengths. Making it go from good to excellent.
3. Bad habits you do or don't that are inhibiting your growth, performance and effectiveness.
4. Manners, as they are what lubricate relationship between people.
How do I perform?
Am I a listener or a reader?
How do I learn?
A loner or work with people?
Where do i belong?
Based on my my strength,how i perform and my values, I should know:
Do I like/perform well in structure in a organization or otherwise?
What type of job(requirements like decision-making, advisory)
Knowing these would help in setting the structure/way and method you'd do the work
Knowing where one belongs helps transform a hard working competent but mediocre worker to an outstanding performer.
What should I contribute
My contribution should depend on:
1. What the situation requires;
2. What can I do about the situation given my strength.....and values;
3. What results(that make a difference) are expected to be achieved
These goals should be:
1. achieved within 12 -18 months.
2. require some stretching but within reach
3. be tangible aka visible if not measurable.
4. meaningful and make a difference